Comments - Exon

Again, Cracked is pretty good at explaining my point of view:

"Forget about the debate over the morality of file sharing. It's not that; it's just simple cause-effect. We're smashing out the windows because it's fun, and then crying because the rain is coming in. It makes us all look like spoiled, entitled brats with no concept of how the adult world works. Don't tell me this is because gamers are mostly kids, either--the average age of video game players is 35.

We help ourselves to free game after free game, and then scream bloody murder when Ubisoft goes overboard with anti-piracy measures."

Downloading a non-freeware game without paying is WRONG. Notice I am avoiding using words like "theft" or "piracy". It is just wrong.

I understand downloading games that are no longer available, or games you already own but can't access(bad CD, etc.). Buying before trying... I guess I can understand that. But saying that a game is over-priced and torrenting it is just stupid. I haven't bought any games on the release date. I wait till the price drops. I get a good game, at an acceptable price. Steam is great in this regard.

Final note: Saying that it isn't stealing because you're just copying it is idiotic. There is such a thing as intellectual property. Distributing without consent, even without profiting or claiming credit for it, is illegal and wrong.

Down vote me all you want, I don't care.

Part 2 of 2.

I like how so many people say that high prices and bad DRM are causing high piracy rates. And yet, let us look at the Humble Indie Bundle:

"If ever there was a measure of the gaming community's sense of entitlement, this was it. All of the rationale for piracy--high prices, hatred of corporations, annoying DRM--was stripped away. Here we would find what we gamers think game creators owe us, and what we think we owe in return. The results:
The average downloader offered to pay $9.18, giving themselves a nice 87 percent discount off the retail price. More than a quarter of the downloaders stole it outright. (...) And that's not including the people who traded the Bundle off torrents and file trading services--this is just the people who pirated the games directly off of the game maker's server. In other words, they intentionally used the game developers' resources so, in addition to paying nothing, they would actually cost them additional money on bandwidth. It's like if you not only refused to drop a nickel into the street musician's guitar case, but waited for him to finish the song before taking a handful of change out."

That, my fellow gamers, is just SAD. Let's not behave like children, making petty excuses and screaming bloody murder about over-priced games.

Part 1 of 2.