Why I Won't Torrent Skyrim

Pixels or Death writer Andrew Wyzan discusses the controversial topic of videogame torrenting and poses the question - is Skyrim an important enough game that everyone *should* play it - even if it means torrenting it? Short answer - no.

"Answering no creates a divided culture between those that have the means to experience the piece and those that do not. This is effectively censorship, which inhibits the spread of knowlege and ultimately slows the progress of civilization."

[NYC_Gamer]

always support the studio that produce games you enjoy.there is no reason to torrent/download someone else hard work for free.

[Yi-Long]

... for some games, I absolutely want to try them out to see if I'll like them. Also, for certain games where I expect lots of DLC-expensions and a GOTY within 1-2 years, I want to hold of from buying it. Plus these huge games often have bugs and need patches in the first couple of months.

All good reasons to torrent first, and then buy the game later on when the bugs are gone and the DLC is included in the retail version.

[tubers]

A little interesting perspective. Hmm.

[bozebo]

A game that launches so broken doesn't deserve to make any money tbh.

Wish I hadn't bought it now. I wouldn't have pirated it either, last game I torrented was black and white because my disk is super scratched. If we pay for games as buggy as Skyrim, then devs (and publishers) will keep releasing them unfinished - you wouldn't pay for an unseasoned meal at a restauraunt, why pay for an un polished game? Would you want the chef continually returning to the table with a few grains of salt every 5 minutes? You would be finished eating before it was seasoned properly, I'm done with skyrim and it's still buggy as hell.

[Grip]

i have to admit in first 50 hours of my play the game play smooth as hell but after that the game is bug as hell. so 50 hours of play is it worth a 60 bucks?? hmmmm.. almost all the game this gen doesn't have 20 hours of gameplay!

[dark-hollow]

so... gets a sneak peak on the game for free without paying any money for it???
thats called piracy and theft no matter how you wanted to justify it!!!

if they didnt release a demo then you have no right to pirate the game!

fear that it may be buggy?? rent it.
demand a refund that your game is too buggy but dont pirate it and justify those acts!!!

yeah. prices are high. DRM is stupid,but dont fight fire with fire!

[Grip]

@dark-hollow
yah fight fire with a pillow.

[Messatsu290]

@ dark-hollow

Whats the difference between pirating and renting? Either way the developers gain nothing, borrowing from a friend is even worse.. Is having to spend money what makes things right? Is renting ok just because you use money?

I bought skyrim like a fool and batman:AC, and both games were unplayable on pc an untill this day batman still unplayable. 2 games i should of pirated like i planned to. The good people always get screwed and Im already tired of it.

[PersonMan]

You think renting doesn't give the developers any money? Are you serious? The company you're renting the game from has to pay money to be able to have that game for rent. They don't just buy a few copies of the game and have people renting it all the time. They pay mad royalties to be able to do that. Don't worry about renting, the developers are still getting paid.

[STONEY4]

"so... gets a sneak peak on the game for free without paying any money for it???
thats called piracy and theft no matter how you wanted to justify it!!!

if they didnt release a demo then you have no right to pirate the game!

fear that it may be buggy?? rent it.
demand a refund that your game is too buggy but dont pirate it and justify those acts!!!

yeah. prices are high. DRM is stupid,but dont fight fire with fire!"

There's no renting on PC. Pirating for a sneak peak if you intend to buy it later is fine, it's not like the developers are losing money there.

There are people with lower end hardware who can't tell if they can run games like this when there's no demo (especially unoptimized ones like Skyrim), so they don't want to waste $60 on a game that won't even run.

Then, there's companies like Activision who still have Black Ops at a full $60 on Steam over a year after release. Even EA had Dead Space 2 at $5 on Steam sale, which came out this year. $60 is just being greedy.

And DRM only hurts the people who buy the game legit, sadly. Because the pirated versions always have the DRM removed. Then Ubisoft starts whining about PC sales and pirating. Well no S**t. As Gabe Newell said, the best way to prevent piracy is by making it as easy as possible for the legit people to access and play it, not through DRM. Most people I know don't even pirate DRM'd games, they just flat out avoid it.

I don't pirate games, at least not anymore, but I do see why people would do it. I've gotten the point where I've gotten OCD about having everything on Steam, and when I did torrent a game, I would never play it past the first hour. Then I'd just buy it on a Steam sale anyways.

"I bought skyrim like a fool and batman:AC, and both games were unplayable on pc an untill this day batman still unplayable"

Batman AC is perfectly playable, but you have to turn off DX11. I think the patch to fix it was already released though. I played through the whole thing on PC, only issues I had were a few crashes due to SecuROM (General Protection Fault, grrrr).

[Baka-akaB]

I expected Skyrim to be fully bugged , so yeah i torrented it (well not really , torrents are outdated) .

I had no moral qualms about it , as i also need to test how it runs on my specs (sue me where is a demo ? and publishers posts about required specs are kinda vague and worthless).

After a few patches and satisfied with it , i bought a steam version happily .

Let's not be hypocrites , it was either that or borrowing someone else's copy , and by then some might not even feel like buying it anymore

[Blackdeath_663]

agreed i dont want to buy a game that might not run on my pc. im not a pc master so the required spec info they release is hard to follow. but the issue is with me is that once i pirated it i have no reason to go buy it.

[Moragami]

@Blackdeath_663. That's what makes you a piece of shit.

[Krew_92]

The only reason people are against it is, because they're scared, or they don't know how to do it. Either way I agree with everything you say. I bought Skyrim on my PS3, It's total shit for me. So I tried Skyrim on my computer via a torrent. My computer isn't really good that's why I got it from a torrent.

Just from torrenting the game I set out to buy a new computer that runs Skyrim perfectly, and I bought Skyrim off Steam.

What's bad about that?

[mynameisEvil]

I find the people who are against piracy to be terribly misinformed.

Statistically, pirates don't pirate because the game is free, they pirate (1) to make sure that the game isn't ass and (2)because they try to avoid DRM.

With reason number one, I recently torrented Croteam's excellent Serious Sam 3. After the DNF incident, I had to be cautious. I then played it and realized that it was pretty much the same as Serious Sam always was and bought it. You know what the chances of me buying it before playing it would be? Nothing, there wouldn't friggin' be a chance. As a result of me getting this taste and buying it, I also was able to say that it was worth the money for the campaign as well as for the multiplayer components. I've gotten 6 friends to buy it with me.

For reason number two, you have to understand that DRM is a growing problem. Publishers are essentially telling the consumer what they can and can't do with a product that a consumer has BOUGHT and owns, just for the sake of "lost sales", (Also, I'd like to state that a "lost sale" only occurs if someone originally had the money or intention of buying it) which are actually a small amount. Pirated copies does not mean a lost sale. As a solution to this, consumers turn to piracy to avoid this constricting DRM just so they can use the product freely.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending those "OOH, LET ME GRAB IT ALL BECAUSE I'M A DICKBAG" kind of pirates. If you torrent Skyrim when you have the money, you're a dick. Aside from being on Steam, there's not much to hold you back from buying it. Besides, most gamers have Steam on their PC anyway, so what's the problem?

[ATi_Elite]

Cause i will come to your house and stuff you inside your PC case, overclock and overvolt your CPU/GPU then run Furmark along with Super Pi and seal off all your cases vents. Oh and I wont forget to solder your thermal switches shut! Muh ha hhaah ha!

Skyrim is awesome.....GO BUY IT you cheap Bas-turd!

We all know Bug-thesda makes buggy games but that's no reason to TO. it.

The system requirements are low and if you can run Fallout you can run Skyrim so that's no reason to TO. it

Skyrim has easy DRM and even if the DRM was a beast still buy the retail copy and Crack it so again that's no reason to TO. it

Skyrim is a great game and the Devs deserve your cash and if you can't afford Skyrim then just wait for The Skyrim GOTY edition or a Steam sale again that's no reason to TO. it

Now if you live in Australia or Brazil and Skyrim cost like $110 USD then that's a tough one. TO. it but mail Bug-thesda $50.

[BubloZX]

I did the same thing for skyrim I did for skyward sword.... I torrented and I'm never gonna pay for those games ever!!!

[RedDead]

I wish I torrented Skyrim before I bought it. Wasted money to me.

[Moragami]

Why was the money wasted? Don't like it? I find it hard to believe that Skyrim somehow didn't meet your expectations.

It's a phenomenal game.

[bobrea]

Why did you write this article? And saying that someone can't use a product if they don't have money to buy it isn't censorship.

[aaronobst]

Why I will: The kick in the nuts I recieved purchasing the PS3 version

[JellyJelly]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice (Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas) shame on me.

Bethesda games on the PS3 unfortunately isn't a match made in heaven.

[MacTingz]

Though I agree, the previous Fallout titles have run terribly on PS3, I've actually have very few problems with Skyrim so far.

[Dojan123]

I am not a fan of getting a game illegally. However you make a good point. You bough it on PS3 for full price and it does not work. Getting a version that works should not been seen as a pirate since the Dev did not hold thier end of the deal.

[kevnb]

torrenting is too much hassle most the time for me. Throttling isps, malware, having to hunt down updates, and running into issues not present in the real version.

[mynameisEvil]

IT actually isn't hard at all. In most cases, you download a game from a torrent scene (SKIDROW, RELOADED, etc.), mount it, install it, then crack it.

It the game downloads quickly, you can get an entire game working in about 4-12 hours, depending on how many seeders and leecher there are, the size, etc.

But just make sure you torrent when you have a legitimate reason to. I hate pirate dickbags who pirate just because they can.

[bozebo]

This^
Except I chose my ISP carefully.

Yeah, most viruses/malware etc. that people end up with is from pirated software.

[kevnb]

Im in eastern canada, so only two choices. I would still rather just get my games off steam, if I dont wont to pay full price I wait for a good sale.

[admiralthrawn87]

torrent it because bethesda screwed PC gamers by charging console price of 60 dollars. 60 dollars is the price on console due to licensing fees, distribution, etc. To charge more than the standard 50 dollars on pc is a ripoff. Bethesda games and Call of Duty games are the primary ones that do it, and its a scam.

[NYC_Gamer]

well,i brought the game for like 40 bucks few days ago from that steam sale.wait for for sites like amazon/digital services to have deals.all of the 60 dollar games be on sale just have to look around.

[Blackdeath_663]

the pc version was cheap and better than other version i dont know why your complaining.

[Captain Qwark 9]

id actually have to agree with "blake". if he wasnt planning to buy it, its not really a lost sale. in fact if he enjoys it a lot, when the inevitable sequel hits, it may actually turn into a sale.

but then theres the other side of the argument. if he enjoys it then shouldn't he have to pay for that enjoyment like the rest of us? after all, if all you had to do was claim not to be a fan in order to get something for free, then i dont like skyrim or batman. give me a copy of the game (skyrim) and "if" i enjoy ill buy the next one. oh and ill need a ticket to the dark knight rises, and if i like it, ill see the next batman ( even though nolan will be goen :( ).

could go either way really, this is a very interesting topic becuase sometimes, but not often i say it is justified, 9/10 times though its not. and i know downloading songs is wrong but i wont stop, i buy my fav bamds and download the rest. on the upside though, if i steal your music the first time around and really like it, i usually do buy your music later, which goes back to point 1 lol.

idk very touchy subject ( on that note, i dont steal music anymore becuase zune pass and windows phone 7 rules all )

[Baka-akaB]

They could very well have it free for a day of so , for that kind of people .

Remember the era of sharewares ?

[Pikajew]

I will torrent it, to see if I like it. I didnt like Oblivion or Fallout 3. I dont want to pay 60$ on a game and regret it

[hazardman]

Did you beat those games or just tried and was like nah not my kind of game?

[Pikajew]

I got 10 hours into them. But I liked Fallout 3 more because the combat and level system.

[hazardman]

10 hrs. man/girl, you missed out on 2 of the best games this gen.

[m-s-8-2]

I love when people use the excuse of pirating just to try a game out for 2 reasons.

As you seed the torrent you're contributing to other people who have no intention purchase it at all. The other is that I'd bet 99% of you are full of shit. Research a game, watch videos or read user reviews of other people. Pirating is stealing and you're just making excuses.

[Baka-akaB]

Your argument is flawed based on a rather simple matter .

Most torrent leechers dont even seed . When they do it is only for private forums and sites requiring so .
And that's assuming they even use torrent and not other forms of piracy ...

Besides truthfully there is no videogame journalism that would be so informative and useful . Not with the hundreds of IGN of the world telling you that the game is just Dur so awesome .
All you will gather from serious forums is that the game got bugs that randomly affect people or not .
And there are so many different pc specs that specs posts are filling pages endlessly with varying results .

Anyway like i said , i have no moral qualm with this and follow my own set of principles . I tried a potentially broken game and bought it , that's all there is to me . Others wont have issue just stealing , that's on them and their conscience

[maniacmayhem]

I agree with ms82

A lot, if not all the reasons above are bullsh*t. Just come clean and say you wanted a free game.

[QuodEratDemonstrandm]

"I'll torrent the game to see if I like it, then maybe I'll buy it"
1. Do you own a console?
2. Can you spare $10/month
Then go sign up for Blockbuster's Total Access program. Rent them before you buy them.

Before you go on about PC exclusives or you don't own a console, I know that idea won't work.

But I just sent back Portal 2. I wouldn't have played it if I couldn't rent it.

[Gohadouken]

Obviously your solution only works for countries with a proper video game rental system . You'll find that those countries are the minority

[Motorola]

If there were more PC game demos or benchmarks, then piracy would be slightly lower because some gamers wanna make sure they can run it. System requirements aren't always right.

[DwightOwen]

Agreed. It would have been nice to have had a dungeon to troll around in trying out the the combat and gameplay features since an open-world demo isn't really practical.

[admiralthrawn87]

i torrent and buy. i think the video game industry needs a crash. I hope it dies just to be reborn in a better way. I'm sorry but i dont want to support an industry who doesn't support me. COD title after COD title. No creativity in gaming, only money. When you start making games worth buying, i'll buy. For the record I do purchase indie games that i feel deserve my money.

[GraveLord]

Skyrim is the one game you should torrent. Its yet another buggy/glitchy game from Bethesda. Call me crazy but I don't like to support developers who keep putting out unfinished products.

[TXIDarkAvenger]

I see both the good and bad reasons of pirating but seriously if one of your reasons for pirating Skyrim because it is buggy is just beyond me. These bugs and glitches haven't bothered me enough to ruin the experience.

[patrickwlindsey]

I don't understand the logic that it's ok to torrent a game if it's bad. a) that's a subjective term to begin with and b) ownership isn't dependent upon quality. You can't walk on to a car lot and say "I'm going to drive this car out of here without paying because it's bad." If you think something suffers from diminished quality, don't buy it. The price of a game is the cost of admission to play it, whether you "like" it or not.

[Captain Qwark 9]

are you f*cking kidding me??????

jk jk thats actually extremely well put sir

*edit*

on that note i hate you becuase i always justified my lack of purchasing cds with that argument lol, id always say their are too many filler songs and if they had nothing but quality songs on a cd i would buy it ( also itunes and digital downloads made my reasonings useless a whiel back too ). clearly im just a damn thief lol now i have no justification, thanks.....

[Gohadouken]

You can actually test drive a car at a retailer's shop , and then decide upon it .

WHere was a demo of skyrim again ? I understand that it wasnt possible , but even for those games , there are now benchmarks , where is it ?

We've gone even backward when it comes to demos .

Even books , mangas and comics based industries are ok with previews , wich could be far more damageing to them than to games .

I'll only agree that playing it that way for such reasons , then still refusing to buying it and keeping at it , is done in very bad faith and the utmost hypocrisy .

[GamerPS360]

I wish that I have torrented Dead Island. What f*king mess that game is.

[Scenarist]

I have the right to pirate whatever I want as long as I can...

they also have the right to prosecute me if i get caught

[Spazz]

Instead of heavier DRM there needs to be stricter laws against pirating. People need to be held accountable for their actions.

All I hear are excuses why it's okay to pirate. No reason is okay to STEAL. I get sick of hearing excuses like "I have the right to try it first before I buy it". Bullshit! You want to try it? Get the demo. If there isn't a demo then just fork up the cash to buy it or move on. There is no justification for theft!

[GamerPS360]

And there is justification to sell us crap product?

They advertise it as if it was the best game ever made only to find all the bugs after forking out $64. If they can't give my money back for deceiving me, I can pirate as well.

I have not pirated any games to the date but after getting ripped off by these game developers and publishers, I am begging to think that it is very well justified to pirate game.

ME1, RE4, Dead Island, Fallout (ALL PCS) are few examples.

Give me my over 2k back that I have spent on bugged games that were unplayable and I won't pirate.

[blackhammer]

Skyrim is worth the purchase.

I just wish more games were as enjoyable and well designed as it is. Any Call of Duty game is pretty much a turd in a dumpster compared to this even any Elder Scrolls game (from Morrowind on).

I don't torrent, but I don't hold any hate or disappoint to those who torrent games from Ubisoft. They shit all over their products. Last game I played from them that was truly enjoyable and had good quality on the PC was probably the first Rainbow Six Raven Shield. Man. 2003? Shit, they gotta get their act together.

If ye give us a piece of shit, and we buy that piece of shit, we should have the right to return that shit. Torrenting still a "crime" though, so I don't plan on fuckin' up my family for a video game.

[skyblue14213]

To the people that are against torrenting a game I will tell you a true story that happened to me a year or 2 ago. I torrented a few games to try them out, they were called left 4 dead 1 and 2. I liked them enough of what I played of both of them(they both operated smoothly on my pc) to go out and buy a copy of each game.

Both games required me to download the steam client and so I did. Then I proceed to continue where I left off in the first left 4 dead game and within 10-15 minutes the frame rate started to drop considerably to the point where the game was unplayable. Thinking that it was just an issue with the game itself I proceeded to play left 4 dead 2 and the same issue occurred concerning that game also. I sought help from valve and while they offered me a few things to try to remedy the situation none of them worked, eventually I got sick and tired of the situation and I did not feel like waiting 3 or more weeks for an answer from them that I already knew.

I finally got fed up and used the torrented versions of the games again and wouldn't you know that the same issue occurred with both of those pirated versions of those games now when they did not have any problems operating before on my pc. So I tried some other pc games that I know run smoothly and the same issue occurred concerning every game that I tried.

I came to the conclusion that the steam client screwed up my computer. I tried just about everything to remedy the situation and nothing worked. Having no means to back up my data I was forced to reset my computer back to it's original factory settings thus wiping out all of my data and I was not happy about it! After wiping my pc it fixed the problem and my pc was operating normally again.

I still buy games if I think that they are worth the money, but I also try some of them out first through free means like torrents or direct downloads if I either don't have the cash atm or I am still not sure about "said" game. I also do research my potential purchases by reading or watching reviews concerning a game(s).

I encourage people to show support for games by eventually buying them if they like them, but I am not going to foolishly throw my money away at a game(s) that I am unsure about.

[Spazz]

Then don't buy it. They have this thing called reviews that many sites including this one has. If it gets a bad review don't waste your money but don't pirate it either.

Steam didn't fuck up your computer, the viruses from pirating shit did. And if it wasn't that then your computer just sucks. I have over 250 games on Steam without any issues.

BTW if you get caught pirating games wouldn't you foolishly have to pay some hefty fines?

Like I said before there is no reason to pirate games. To broke? To bad, get a job that pays more. Game might have bugs? Then don't fucking play it! I swear you degenerates will use any excuse to steal then try to justify it.

[skyblue14213]

The pirated versions worked fine BEFORE I installed the steam client, also every other game that I had screwed up the same way AFTER I installed the steam client so what is your point.

It was only after I wiped my pc and started over is when everything worked including the pirated versions of l4d 1 and 2 in which I later bought after I tried the pirated versions out. In case you have not noticed in the usa the economy is in shambles, and a decent job is hard to come by. I am in the process of shifting careers so I am working on getting a good job, but things don't happen in the blink of an eye like your post implies. And it is easier said than done!

You might have the money to waste, but I don't. I am cautious in the purchases I make, and I don't want to have games I play for 5 minutes and that is it, then I have to go through the trouble selling them and I am certainly not going to sell them to gamestop or waste my time selling them in general. There has been games that have gotten good reviews that I did not like and vice versa.

Your ignorance astounds me on how you can diagnose my computer from behind your keyboard from months ago, yet you were never there when the incident happened and you disregarded the part in my post where I described what happened, and yet you shoot your mouth off aimlessly in a typical ignorant fashion.

And you say that there is no reason to pirate a game but what about watching a movie or show from a blank tape, or reading story or info from a copy of a page of something. I am not saying it is right, but you act like you have never done it when we all have done it at one point or another in our lives whether we realize it or not.

How am I suppose to know if a game is going to screw up my computer? Also when did I justify anything for that matter? I buy games, but I am not going to throw my money away like an idiot as some people do. I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on the hobby of video games so whatever point you had is irrelevant.

[Spazz]

Reply to skyblue14213 since it didn't give me the option to reply to his post.

Let's see here, Steam doesn't virus computers. From what you said, all your games were effected. That tells me that it's an issue with your computer and not Steam. As for why? You are right, I don't know for sure but it can be a number of things. Virus would be my number one guess. Your hard drive was full causing a slow down of your PC. Your video card could have shit the bed. But I can almost positively say Steam was not the cause. And if it was a virus then I'm willing to bet it was from your pirating use or your porn usage. That is assuming you watch porn because if I go with your theory everyone does since in your mind you think everyone steals.

And since you are ignorant enough to think everyone does, I'd like to be the first one to tell you that everyone doesn't. Not everyone is a shitbag like you. Some people actually hate thieves. I do realize the difference between right and wrong even if you don't or don't give a shit.

Another thing, I work very hard for the money I have, and so do many of the other readers. It's not my fault you decided on a life of crime (theft)over a good trade skill or a college education to help you find a decent job that pays money. Maybe if you get off your ass and leave your mother's basement from time to time you could find a job to support your habits/hobbies.

If you cannot afford your habits/hobbies that does not mean you can just take other peoples hard work without paying for it. If you can't afford it then you shouldn't have it. I want a Nascar but I can't afford one. So according to your way of thinking, I can just go out and steal one. No, you dumb shit, it's not ok. No matter what I say though you will always try to justify it. I really hope some day it bites you in the ass. Karma

And just for your information, the things I record on blank tapes/dvds/hds are shit like weddings, funny shit the guys do on deployment, or my child doing something for the first time. I either rent or buy all the movies I watch and believe it or not I either by my music CDs or purchase my music online. I don't steal it like you just admitted you do.

Also I serve our military and I do believe in the values they have taught me. One of those values is, Integrity: Do what is right, legally and morally.Be willing to do what is right even when no one is looking.

[Spazz]

Moved. Put a comment in the wrong place.