Piracy Poll

[Roxianna]

I saw this thread on a Gamespot forum. The results shocked me. So I thought I duplicate here and see what this community has to say. I phrased the answers the same as the original.

The poll answers will be anonymous.

[Sensational]

I'm a pirate. Piracy allows me to listen to music, watch movies and play games that I couldn't afford otherwise. I don't spend less on CDs, movies or games than I would if piracy did not exist. I still have more than one shelf of games in my room for example. However if I couldn't pirate I would've missed out on something like 50% (And probably closer to 70% if we're talking PC only, never pirated console games) of all the games that I've enjoyed over the years, and even more of the movies and music since I spend most of my money on gaming.

Is piracy hurting the musicians, film makers and games industry? Perhaps. As far as I can tell most successfull buisnesses seem to be doing pretty well for themselves though, and enforcing horribly designed anti-piracy software (SecuROM for example) only seems to hurt them more than help them.

A new band gains alot more from being pirated than not existing at all on these people's radar, no one goes out and buys some no name band's CD unless they listen to it first. The same probably applies to indie movies and games.

[Hagan]

I've owned pirate software, years ago. However, since the internet got better, and your no longer paying extortionate prices from one of three vendors that stocked them (been some time since then I can assure you), then its been legit software all the way.

[Dem]

The following excerpt is entirely fictional. The following characters are entirely fictional and any resemblance to actual persons, living (like myself) or dead, is entirely coincidental. Some of the characters may have certain traits and/or mannerisms that may seem to suggest actual persons (like myself) but we make no claim that these traits exist at all or in this combination in any person, living (like me) or dead.

Meh. I'm a pirate. Not the worst kind, but a pirate nonetheless. Music, movies, games...

Why? Cause it's faster and saves me a lot of trouble. And I'm not even talking about the fact that's it's faster for me to dl a game, than to physically go to the store... Because there's that as well, but hey, at least then I get to leave the house I guess.

Say, I want to buy Spore. Being a die hard Will Wright fan, I'll of course have the game pre-ordered at my local mediastore. And am eager to play. Now it's 7 days before actual release, and the game is available through the net... What? Ok, so I'll have to wait 7 days... 7 days later, actual release, you go to the store and you ask if they got it. Oh you didn't get what game I wanted. Spore. What? How to spell it? S-P-O-R-E. No, one O. No, One. No not 'Spone', Spore. Oh it's not actually in your database? Competent aren't we? Shall I write it down? Yes, that's what I said, "SPORE". Oh what's that, the store hasn't actually received any Galactic Editions? Ah, so when will those arrive? Next shipment hopefully? When's that? Oh you don't know... Ok thanks... I guess I'll just have to take the normal edition than. Thank you. And you go home, and try to install the game. What's that? Scratches on the disc? Oh ok. Well let's say that for a change the disc is actually handled properly and I install the game. But besides installing the game, it also installs the latest version of securom and other bullshit that I didn't want into my registry... Oh yes. Thank you for that. Oh what's that? I only get 3 installs and then I have to phone customer service? Because the average computer user never performs a format / fresh install? Oh ok. Yeah that sounds like something I'm willing to pay 45euros for (63 dollars) for. Does that include the trouble it cost me?

And then you actually play the game and it turns out to be a piece of shit sandbox game designed for utter retards.

Yeah I don't think so. The time I waste with those retards at the local village, the time I spent trying to clean up my registry manually. I'd rather be playing the game tyvm.

Luckily most new games are now available through a download you pay for (?????????????????????). But again, usually you have to wait till the actual release date (actually a bit longer) before you can play it. And if there's one thing I hate. It's waiting for a release date while the game is out there. And if there's one thing I hate more, it's security stuff that messes around in my registry. It's like having a nice wooden wooden cabin in a Japanese forest overlooking a cliff. And suddenly an army of ninjas invade your small cabin, and start putting everything out of place. It's like having just cleaned a window for 2 hours, and then a schoolbus stops and all the little children start smudging over it with their icecream fingers. It's like eating a fillet Grouper, and finding annoying fishbones in it, and then choking on one, falling to the ground all blue and dead. And everybody around you gathers and goes like 'what's his problem'.

Of course there are the exceptions. Games with a decent multiplayer experience I'll buy. Which is about 90% of the games I play on the PC. PC gaming has been dead for years. So any game that releases and that doesn't at least have a decent multi I'm just gonna pirate, finish in 3 hours, and uninstall. Indy games excluded cuz I love those.

Consoles on the other hand are a different story. All of my console games are legit. Not one illegal copy, although at times I regret having bought the game. Resulting in me buying less and less games cuz generally they tend to suck. But there's a lot of good titles for the consoles I'm happy to pay 60euros for. No pirating there. "Yeah you don't pirate the console cuz its easier for PC". That's partly true yes. But I consider my console more of a gaming platform than my PC. Basically only play subscription games on the PC, so when I decide to download ehhh, RCT + expansions*, it doesn't feel like cheating. So yeah, I have 'some' pirated games. But not a lot. The reason for this is that the games I tend to download, usually tend to suck, but I wanted to try 'm anyway. Play for 2 hours, uninstall and never bother with again.

I'm guessing this thread is about games, but i'll quickly address music and movies as well...

Music: I listen to way too much, and am not prepared to pay 15e per CD when I don't even know the artist is OK. There are some artists I do buy the CDs from, but not a lot. I do visit a lot of concerts tho, and ocassionally might buy a CD there.

Movies: It's quick, cheap and dirty. I watch my movies HD or I tend to not watch m. There's no HD download service for my country yet (like XBL USA offers). Don't have a Bluray player yet, and refuse to buy one. Maybe one day when my hate towards Sony lessens. I buy all my Asian movies (I collect 'm), unless I can't find 'm anywhere, then I download 'm.

-.meD

*I actually bought RCT once a long time ago... Awesome game.

Wauw! Couldn't have said it any better myself! O_O

Furthermore, I agree with Sensational. If I was gonna buy it, I would've.

[Mia]

I have a, um....friend who doesn't have any pirated games, but she does have another type of software that, she, um didn't pay for because she couldn't afford it otherwise.

[DODswe4]

I dont have any pirated games on my computer at all
(might have to do that its only 3-4 installed on it but hey)
I get my games cheap from a friend who works at a store anyway. I buy cds as well ^^ have about 100 now I think. But I lisen to alot of music on youtube or those kind of sites.

[Bishop]

Hey, Mia, has your friend ever thought about using The GIMP instead of that other program that you're almost certainly talking about? It's actually gotten really good.

As far as piracy, game security and related issues, I used to have a blog where I talked about that at length. I seem to remember it was one of, if not the, most read blog items on the entire site where it was hosted. But they decided it wasn't interesting enough to keep around, so I'm certainly not going to put any effort into reiterating.

[Skyles]

The massive extent of online piracy is a result of two things - convenience (in the old days, before mp3 players were common and downloads were so easily available, it was just nicer to be able to sort through or queue up a 150 song list than to swap out CDs) and feeling like you're being robbed. No one is ever sorry about robbing the thief who already ripped you off for everything he could take. And most people, at some level, view the massive movie and music corporates (and many, these days, the corporate game entities who've been churning out steaming pile after pile, hyping us up and charging us massive prices for something that'll keep us occupied for all of three hours) as thieves, extortionists or profiteers. It's no different than oil - if you are dependant on someone who you know is raking in millions or billions in pure profit and charging you prices waaaay out of sync with costs and reasonable profit margins, you get a little bitter and eventually take any alternate source of oil you discover, purely ethical or not - if your supplier is behaving in so obviously an unethical manner and regularly profiting off of you because of it, you really don't feel the need treat them all that well or worry about their well being.

That said, the advent of services like Pandora and netflix have made an honest man of me as far as movies and music - no pirated material on any of my machines anymore, I just haven't felt the need. I still have an extremely low opinion of the industries in question, but the material is made so conveniently available that I have no real motivation to circumvent them. As far as gaming is concerned, I've become an MMO player - I've largely given up on seeing quality material produced by game designers, stopped looking at most single-player releases (much less "sampling" them before buying - yes, I really did try out a pirated Black & White first then buy it and all its expansions later) - I just pay my $15 a month to hang with friends and fight some head to head engagements online. Not that I think MMO game content is actually worth what I'm being asked to pay, but the presence of other players and the ability to share activities makes them more enjoyable despite the shoddy design work and/or piratical pricing.

[TheHedgeWizard]

Down with ninjas.

I'll pirate just about anything over BitTorrent.

[EvilAerosolCan]

I don't advocate any kind of piracy, but I have a friend here who does. He would like to put his opinion out there.

Originally Posted by One of EAC's many anonymous friends

I'd like to remain anonymous.

I have some pirated stuff, somewhere between 150-200gb worth. And if a friend asks, I'll burn any of it onto a CD/DVD for them.

I have a lot of music. If I like the music, there are other things I can buy that contribute to the artist (clothes, etc.).

I've got quite a few pirated movies. I guess I sometimes go see them at the theater, but usually I just download them. Well, sometimes I spend money renting them, and then I rip them. I can't stand most Hollywood types, so I'm doing my self a service by not paying.

I've got a couple of programs. Rosetta Stone, Office, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and Photoshop(lol, which I don't even know how to use, btw). I have those because they are f***in' expensive. Those people make plenty of money from other people buying legit copies.

The main thing being discussed here is games. I've only had two pirated games. Age of Empires III (which I quickly uninstalled), and Oblivion. I like to play mostly multiplayer games, of which I've never had a pirated copy. I would imagine it's more difficult to play a pirated multiplayer game (is it possible?). If I played more single player games, I would probably download more pirated games.

Anyways, Southpark sums it up pretty nicely:

And that's all he has to say about that. Like I said, this was not me, this was a friend.