Discussion Game Piracy

[ceriumin]

This is not directly linked to anything to do with piracy, and is rather a negative point towards it. This is due to my friend being ridiculous and decided to start a quick discussion for it. First of all, I do not pirate games (I did when I was small but everyone pirated a game at one time) and I never have a problem with money, if I want a game I work a bit for the money towards the game and buy it. However my friend is the complete opposite and I don't know what to say to him.

Whenever he wants a game, he pirates it off a torrent site and it annoys me, especially that I buy a game that he wants to play and pirates it and says that he got the game. This includes AAA titles such as GTA, The Witcher 3 etc. He has over 15 games which are all pirated and recently he had pirated Forza Horizon 4 and Jedi the fallen order. Firstly it got me thinking, what are the actual cons of pirating a game? My friend literally has a laptop with a 2060 and has to pirate every. single. game. And it really pains me a lot that I buy the games and he just goes and downloads it. I don't know what tk say to him, because everytime I do then he says that he can get it for free and he doesn't need to spend a cent, so what's the point of buying a game? Also had there ever actually been a time when someone suffered from consequences due to pirating a game? I would never pirate due to moral reasons, because It simply doesn't feel the same as buying a game. I'll leave this up to discussion, and the simple question is "why buy games when you can pirate them?"

This isn't to criticise my friend and this isn't supporting piracy, I am against it and I do not like it when people pirate a game so please don't remove this

 

[Asez23]

I totally get it. I have to do hard work(and yard work) around the house just to save up to buy new games. A close friend of mine has a brother who literally has pirated every single game, and my friend brags about having all these games when im actually doing frickin work to earn money to get them. It gets on my nerves, and its actually frustrating. Ive even tried to actually pirate games, but it never worked. My solution was to wait for free game events to try and grab free games. I copped rocket league, WD2, Subnautica, super meat boy, Tacoma and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint all from these events. As far as i know, the money from people buying the games just goes straight to the company that made the game, and i tiny amount to whichever company made the platform the game is played on. If you pirate a game, there is no money paid so the companies dont get the money they would have recieved. You could call that a negative effect.

 

[ceriumin]

I totally get it. I have to do hard work(and yard work) around the house just to save up to buy new games. A close friend of mine has a brother who literally has pirated every single game, and my friend brags about having all these games when im actually doing frickin work to earn money to get them. It gets on my nerves, and its actually frustrating. Ive even tried to actually pirate games, but it never worked. My solution was to wait for free game events to try and grab free games. I copped rocket league, WD2, Subnautica, super meat boy, Tacoma and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint all from these events. As far as i know, the money from people buying the games just goes straight to the company that made the game, and i tiny amount to whichever company made the platform the game is played on. If you pirate a game, there is no money paid so the companies dont get the money they would have recieved. You could call that a negative effect.

Yeah it really isn't a moral thing to do as people don't get any money from that person, but the thing is, is there really a negative point to the person who is pirating the game, the issue is, I don't know if there is anything bad except some performance loss in some circumstances. I also pick up free games but pirating really isn't the same

 

[TerryLaze]

Yeah it really isn't a moral thing to do as people don't get any money from that person, but the thing is, is there really a negative point to the person who is pirating the game, the issue is, I don't know if there is anything bad except some performance loss in some circumstances. I also pick up free games but pirating really isn't the same

The negatives are viruseses, virii malware.
There is ransom malware that encodes your whole hard drive(s) so you have to send money to a shady person in hopes that he will send you a code to decode it again.
Or bitcoin mining malware that makes your system run at 100% at random times,which can heavily affect the performance of your games and system in general.
And a bunch of other types but those two are the most common in the recent past.

pros:
If you get a clean pirated game it could actually even be faster since some anti piracy methods (denuvo) is doing multiple checks very often.

A pirated game doesn't need any kind of internet connection while all the other methods except for gog need you to connect to the company.

Yeah it really isn't a moral thing to do as people don't get any money from that person,

Well I only buy games that are old or get a ginormous discount in bundles like from humble bundle, the people that made the game are only getting cents since the whole bundle is only a few dollars.
Is that any more moral?!?I guess a few cents is better than nothing.

And it really pains me a lot that I buy the games

Buying a brand new game at $60 is luxury, If it pains you why are you doing it?

 

[USAFRet]

Just as a general notice to all...
Any discussion of how and where WILL be summarily deleted.

 

[thepersonwithaface45]

One of my friends does this for single player games only. I don't really see the downside of doing it besides the sometimes convoluted process of getting them to run.
Morally, sure it's not good.
Personally, I am in a situation where I can buy games without worrying about my finances. To an extent, obviously.
So I haven't pirated anything since... Let's see..
I think it was one of the assassin's creeds? I don't recall, it was a long time ago but I definitely now own whatever it was on steam. Idk, as long as it's single player games I don't really see the issue since multiplayer games don't work. The ones who are pirating are the ones breaking the law and putting their hardware into risky territory.

 

[Asez23]

The negatives are viruseses, virii malware.

Viruseses is incorrect. Virii is discouraged but can be used

 

[hotaru.hino]

"Why buy games when you can pirate them?" Because the industry would collapse if enough people subscribed to this. Or the industry would resort to things that would make the game less fun like being always-online or loot box paywalls. Like it or not, a lot of software developers work for a living and aren't willing to do what they do for free. And even if you could twist the whole "software should be free" ideas around, developers could twist it right back and say "you're paying me for my skills"

Though, my mindset with pirates is they're not willing to do things for nothing either. Just because they're giving it away doesn't mean they're also willing to do something nefarious in return. How do I know the pirate didn't slip a crypto miner in the executable? How do I know there isn't a botnet lurking somewhere? Am I really led to believe a game that has no need for admin privileges is still okay when it wants them? I mean sure, some of them are probably doing it for the thrill of it, but if they're willing to screw someone over, I've no reason to believe they won't screw everyone else down the line.

 

[Math Geek]

another issue with pirated games is that they often can't be connected to the game servers. this prevents updates, dlc downloads and of course access to online features, which is almost every game now with all the pvp action going on.

so you can download fortnight but if you can't play multi-player or get any of the updates/dlc, what exactly have you accomplished? does the game have a fun single player mode to make it worth it?

it's true some have figured out how to connect to the game serves on certain games but often this is only until they push the next update which detects the crack and bans you. then you have to start all over after waiting for the new crack to overcome the last update and so on and so on.

if you enjoy the game, then why would you want to play this cat and mouse game over and over always worrying about the next time you get banned?

this is of course once you've gotten past the MASSIVE threat of malware and so on from the downloads from unknown sources.

 

[TerryLaze]

"Why buy games when you can pirate them?" Because the industry would collapse if enough people subscribed to this. Or the industry would resort to things that would make the game less fun like being always-online or loot box paywalls. Like it or not, a lot of software developers work for a living and aren't willing to do what they do for free. And even if you could twist the whole "software should be free" ideas around, developers could twist it right back and say "you're paying me for my skills"

This has been talked to death but, here we go again.
People that pirate games would not buy them, that's the whole reason they pirate them.
If they came out tomorrow with a 100% safe way to protect from piracy, the gaming industry would still keep making the same amount of money and not more.

Also most games that are always-online or loot box paywalls are the multiplayer games that can't be pirated, nba2k and battlefront 2's "surprise mechanics" have made headlines.

A larger problem are people that preorder games causing devs to barf out semi working games that need day one patches as big as the whole game and larger.

 

[Phaaze88]

All the games I've pirated were either ones I couldn't get through the normal means anymore - buying official copy - or old games that would cost a crap ton of money to get and play otherwise.
Chrono Trigger - before it released on Steam
Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario World
Star Fox
Super Metroid
the English-translated version of Seiken Densetsu 3
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
Streets of Rage 2
... and more; lots of single player favs. I recently acquired F-Zero GX and Skies of Arcadia Legends.
Basically stuff from my childhood - nostalgia rush. All are playable on my PC without having to try and acquire every console for them and switch them in/out within my room.

They just don't make games like they used to. The replay value is an important factor to me.
Much of today's content I'll play through once, be done with it, and probably have no motivation to play anymore - or I may not even finish at all.

Before I drag on: IMO, piracy can be practical, but it is easily abused.
@ceriumin
Your buddy is a great example of the latter.

 

[Wolfshadw]

The negative for pirating games is that when you die, you go to PC Gaming Hell. 24/7/365.24 of PC Gaming and when you're about to defeat the Big Boss, your PC controls freeze and you have to sit and watch, helpless as your character dies. Then you HAVE to start all over. On and on and on for eternity.

j/k

-Wolf sends

 

[Math Geek]

The negative for pirating games is that when you die, you go to PC Gaming Hell. 24/7/365.24 of PC Gaming and when you're about to defeat the Big Boss, your PC controls freeze and you have to sit and watch, helpless as your character dies. Then you HAVE to start all over. On and on and on for eternity.

j/k

-Wolf sends

lol. except for a more modern multiplayer version of it, "when ever you're just about to win, the opponent will rage quit every time and deny you the win stat for your profile." apparently that stat box is the basis for living for many many gamers out there, so it would be a totally torturous eternity to spend.

 

[Phoenix33]

Ever since I found God I stopped pirating. The devil continuously tempts me though

 

[TerryLaze]

lol. except for a more modern multiplayer version of it, "when ever you're just about to win, the opponent will rage quit every time and deny you the win stat for your profile." apparently that stat box is the basis for living for many many gamers out there, so it would be a totally torturous eternity to spend.

LEEEEROOOOY JEEEENKINSSSSS!!!!!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLyOj_QD4a4

 

[Math Geek]

still a classic

i wish everyone had webcams on so we could see all the literal crying as he stormed in and "ruined" the gameplan lol

 

[thepersonwithaface45]

still a classic

i wish everyone had webcams on so we could see all the literal crying as he stormed in and "ruined" the gameplan lol

https://www.ladbible.com/technology...-the-leeroy-jenkins-video-was-staged-20171227


in advance, I'm sorry to do this to you

 

[Math Geek]

and now i'm sad

😪 😭

 

[2plash6]

Pirated games might actually run slower than paid games, because pirated games often have malware.

Malware slows down your PC, and your game will become ruined.😛

 

[USAFRet]

Pirated games might actually run slower than paid games, because pirated games often have malware.

Malware slows down your PC, and your game will become ruined.😛

hehe...malware can do MUCH more than simply slow down your game.

 

[2plash6]

hehe...malware can do MUCH more than simply slow down your game.

Malware can encrypt your game(s), and your other files, and then ask for bitcoin to get them back.

 

[USAFRet]

Malware can encrypt your game(s), and your other files, and then ask for bitcoin to get them back.

And keyloggers, trojans, BC miners, etc, etc, etc.

 

[2plash6]

And keyloggers, trojans, BC miners, etc, etc, etc.

Getting pirated games might actually more money then the game itself, because in the end you will probably need to pay for an anti-virus.

 

[thepersonwithaface45]

Getting pirated games might actually more money then the game itself, because in the end you will probably need to pay for an anti-virus.

why pay for anti virus when you can pirate it! 🆒

 

[2plash6]

why pay for anti virus when you can pirate it! 🆒

Good point. Never thought of that.