Why do High-End PC owners get pirated games?

[ccampy]

Pirating software isn't theft as if you have stolen something the original owner no longer has it this is not the case

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Pirating software isn't theft as if you have stolen something the original owner no longer has it this is not the case

However, most people don't report the second half of this, which is that it is still copyright infringement and still a crime.

 

[FALC0N]

So is stealing a 25 cent bubblegum ball.

The fact remains that it is a more nuanced situation than most examples of "theft". So much so that there are scenarios where the publisher actually benefits from it. Any balanced view of the topic does need to take those angles seriously.

 

[FALC0N]

I'm not sure that's a valid example. I can't think of any real world situation where that would occur. To be useful, an analogy need to demonstrate a real world principle. Not just a made up scenario designed to is illustrate a preconceived conclusion.

 

[USAFRet]

From the original topic question:
Why do High-End PC owners get pirated games?

We have this answer early on:
"I have been downloading pirated games lately mainly because of financial reasons, I am currently dependent on my parents' income and have not even an allowance, all I have is a shared broadband connection and a mid-range PC so all I can do is download and play pirated games."


"All I can do is download and play pirated games"
??
Because you have no allowance? How about a j.o.b, and buy them.
Lack of funds does not equal an entitlement to download pirated games and play them.

This is the mindset I see far too often. "I don't have money, and I have to play these games, therefore I must pirate them."

My lack of funds does not entitle me to stroll down to the car dealer, and take a $40,000 truck off the lot.

 

[king3pj]

So is stealing a 25 cent bubblegum ball.

The fact remains that it is a more nuanced situation than most examples of "theft". So much so that there are scenarios where the publisher actually benefits from it. Any balanced view of the topic does need to take those angles seriously.

Please explain how publishers benefit from people pirating their games. The bottom line is that if you want to play a game you have to pay for it. Not having disposable income isn't a valid excuse for pirating games. Neither is saying you want to see how it will run on your hardware. There are benchmarks all over the internet for checking framerates with your GPU or CPU. I am usually even able to find youtube videos showing the performance of a game on my GPU.

If you are lacking funds wait for sales. I have a decent computer with a GTX 970 and a good enough job to buy whatever games I want to play. Even with that I still don't buy games at full price. If people realize they don't have to play these games on day one they can get ridiculous prices on their games. That's one of the best parts of being a PC gamer. I rarely buy games before they are discounted 50% or more and that usually only takes a couple months. A side benefit to waiting for sales is that you don't have to deal with all the day one bugs. Games are usually fixed by the time I start playing them and if there is a disaster like Assassin's Creed Unity I know about it well before I even think about given them my money. Between all the sales around the internet I have way more games than time to play them.

If people want to fight back against buggy games they need to stop pre-ordering and buying them on day one. Let other people be the guinea pigs. You'll get your games cheaper and you will know whether they are crappy ports or not before you buy them.

 

[FALC0N]

Dirtyferete, I'm not defending action in those cases, but there is an assumption that those all represent lost sales. In most cases, there never would have been a sale, regardless. So it's not exactly the same as a guy who goes into his local store and takes an item. In that case the store actually loses money on inventory. There is no question an actual loss occurs.

 

[FALC0N]

King3pj, awareness of the game. The people play it, and like it, the more people know about it, which can result in more legit sales. Again, not defending it, just pointing out that it's more complex issue than other examples of theft.

Another thing I see a lot of where I am is people using before buying. Someone who can't afford to buy a game obtains a pirate copy, plays it for a while, then buys at a later date, when finances permit. Again, something you don't see in most other fields.

And yes, there are pretty of people who are pirating just to steal. There isn't any excuse for that.

 

[FALC0N]

USAAFRet, I missed your post the first time through, but I think that's a big chunk too. There really are people who genuinely CANT afford games.

 

[USAFRet]

USAAFRet, I missed your post the first time through, but I think that's a big chunk too. There really are people who genuinely CANT afford games.

Breathe
Eat
Pee

Those are "have to" things. Games do not fall into that hierarchy. If you 'can't afford'...'playing a game' is not critical enough to just 'take'.
The person could just....go do something else. Like shovel my driveway. Which may gather enough funds to buy the game in question.
No piracy needed.

 

[FALC0N]

USAFRet, that good life advice, not just software advice. People focus too much on "things" instead of what's important.

 

[Rafael Mestdag]

To me the answer to why people get pirated games(in most cases) is simple: It's easy. In the past you had to go to a lot more trouble to get pirated software, back in the days where broadband connection was still too expensive or even wasn't available to most people. We're talking about virtual stuff here, not physical objects in a physical store where most people won't steal because they could get caught. When things get as easy as they are nowadays for getting/stealing stuff(software, pictures, movies, etc) then people will do it rather than spend a penny on it. Why not? They know they won't get caught anyway. If stealing online was as hard as stealing in the real physical world then there would be practically no piracy.
Lift the real world laws that keep people from killing/hurting each other and see what happens...

 

[USAFRet]

So....because it is easy, it's OK?
Nonsense.

 

[Rafael Mestdag]

So....because it is easy, it's OK?
Nonsense.

I'm not saying it's ok, I'm just saying it's human nature(there are exceptions of course). Or do you really believe that we could live in a law-free society, putting our lives in the hands of the pure good in people? If a supermarket decided for some reason to get rid of all security cameras and security personnel, what do you think would happen? Would you really like to live in a world without cops and laws? Do you think you could rely on the good people to feel really safe in such a world? Currently the internet is mostly a lawless world/society.

 

[USAFRet]

"Human nature" seems to be the problem.

Boss: "Well, we're not going to pay you for this weeks work, just because we don't have to. Next week, probably."
You: 'um, OK'

 

[USAFRet]

And early on in this thread, you did say it was OK, for you, in your current situation.

 

[Rafael Mestdag]

"Human nature" seems to be the problem.

Boss: "Well, we're not going to pay you for this weeks work, just because we don't have to. Next week, probably."
You: 'um, OK'

And early on in this thread, you did say it was OK, for you, in your current situation.

By reading other people's opinions on this thread, I've learnt somethings I wasn't really aware of.
Besides, I was referring to people who don't really have a choice AND in the virtual(practically lawless) world that is the internet. It's easier to follow the rules and be righteous about things when money isn't an issue, this is and will probably always be a world ruled by money ultimately, I'm not trying to justify the wrongs of this world because of that, but if you make a simple comparison between any rich country vs any poor country you'll see a pattern, the rich countries have a lot less violence and crimes than the poor ones. I'm not saying that's definitive, I've seen poor countries become richer through education mainly and have their violent crimes numbers tumble. Look at Germany now, one the biggest economies in the world. Back in WWII devastated Germany though, people would resort to violence as a means to survive. That's human nature.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

A game producer that sells 1,000 games and has 500 pirated copies will make as much profit as if they had sold 1,000 copies. A shop that sells 1,000 bananas will not make the same amount of money as one that sold 1,000 and had 500 stolen, because they have to spend money to replace the stolen inventory.

That is over simplification of the issue. Photographer A and photographer B each take photos of the exact same object. Both photographers have IP rights on the photos. Photographer A sells his photo 1,000 x with no piracy while B sells his 1,000 x with 500 stolen. Both make the same money and hey B has "no stolen inventory". Here is what people never care about, Photographer B obviously has the better photo and yet he receives nothing for his better work. He fails to receive the extra revenue that may have helped expand his business (and compete against other photographers) and retain the people he needs to help him. He also lacks the money to hire better people to work with him. This happens every day to photographers, models, game developers, people in the music industry, etc., but hey it's a "victim" less crime.

The issue is that people ripping off your content doesn't necessarily mean you would get more money if they didn't. It also doesn't necessarily mean that your product was higher quality - one would expect that to be reflected in the number of actual customers. It may just have been easier to pirate #2.

An interesting example of free distribution increasing paid sales, by 160x: http://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2009/feb/26/monty-python-dvd-sales-soar

Lower returns expected for new content, of course, but still relevant.

 

[USAFRet]

Besides, I was referring to people who don't really have a choice AND in the virtual(practically lawless) world that is the internet. It's easier to follow the rules and be righteous about things when money isn't an issue, this is and will probably always be a world ruled by money ultimately,

In the world of software, and especially games...there is always a choice.
Wanting to play BF4, and not being able to afford BF4, does not equal "I should pirate BF4"
It simply means....'go play something else that I can afford'.

 

[raul1794]

Piracy is wrong and all, whatever, we get it but here is the thing, this is my opinion. If a company releases a product that does not work properly or as intended like for example prototype 2 which was unplayable when it came out on pc due to the mouse and keyboard problems. The company dint care to actually make a good product, then why should we the consumers care to support such company, If we just go and buy their game then other companies would do the same. Now there are plenty of games i have pirated and about $80 of them i have bought, the rest dint deserve my hard earn money.

 

[king3pj]

Piracy is wrong and all, whatever, we get it but here is the thing, this is my opinion. If a company releases a product that does not work properly or as intended like for example prototype 2 which was unplayable when it came out on pc due to the mouse and keyboard problems. The company dint care to actually make a good product, then why should we the consumers care to support such company, If we just go and buy their game then other companies would do the same. Now there are plenty of games i have pirated and about $80 of them i have bought, the rest dint deserve my hard earn money.

If you are using their product they deserved your money. This is why developers and publishers often don't care about the PC market. People complain about crappy PC ports they are just going to steal anyways. You aren't just entitled to this stuff. If you're worried about it being bad than wait for reviews and twitch streams. I'm not saying go out and buy bad products. By all means, vote with your wallet. If it's a bad product just don't play it. however, you don't get to vote with your wallet and then go out and steal the game anyways.

 

[USAFRet]

Piracy is wrong and all, whatever, we get it but here is the thing, this is my opinion. If a company releases a product that does not work properly or as intended like for example prototype 2 which was unplayable when it came out on pc due to the mouse and keyboard problems. The company dint care to actually make a good product, then why should we the consumers care to support such company, If we just go and buy their game then other companies would do the same. Now there are plenty of games i have pirated and about $80 of them i have bought, the rest dint deserve my hard earn money.

If the game doesn't work properly, why bother with it?
Paid or pirated?

 

[Justdwyer]

Piracy is wrong and all, whatever, we get it but here is the thing, this is my opinion. If a company releases a product that does not work properly or as intended like for example prototype 2 which was unplayable when it came out on pc due to the mouse and keyboard problems. The company dint care to actually make a good product, then why should we the consumers care to support such company, If we just go and buy their game then other companies would do the same. Now there are plenty of games i have pirated and about $80 of them i have bought, the rest dint deserve my hard earn money.

If the game doesn't work properly, why bother with it?
Paid or pirated?

This. The bad port/day one gameplay excuse is just a poor justification for pirating games. If the game isn't worth your money, why is it worth the time to even play it? I never pay full price for games, because knowing that they will always be 50-75% off with extra DLC in a year makes it worth the wait IMO. My library is full of games that are 2-4 years old that I still haven't got around to, so I'm in no rush to play the newest games and shell out $60 for them. If you want to pirate games, go for it, but there is no legitimate excuse to justify doing it.

 

[Fallen Ghost]

Piracy is wrong and all, whatever, we get it but here is the thing, this is my opinion. If a company releases a product that does not work properly or as intended like for example prototype 2 which was unplayable when it came out on pc due to the mouse and keyboard problems. The company dint care to actually make a good product, then why should we the consumers care to support such company, If we just go and buy their game then other companies would do the same. Now there are plenty of games i have pirated and about $80 of them i have bought, the rest dint deserve my hard earn money.

If the game doesn't work properly, why bother with it?
Paid or pirated?

This. The bad port/day one gameplay excuse is just a poor justification for pirating games. If the game isn't worth your money, why is it worth the time to even play it? I never pay full price for games, because knowing that they will always be 50-75% off with extra DLC in a year makes it worth the wait IMO. My library is full of games that are 2-4 years old that I still haven't got around to, so I'm in no rush to play the newest games and shell out $60 for them. If you want to pirate games, go for it, but there is no legitimate excuse to justify doing it.

If the game doesn't work properly, why bother with it? Well because you want to play it.

If you go at your local hardware store, buy a hammer in a box, you expect the hammer to be working even if you can`t open the box. If you go home and you find out it is broken/missing its head, or you find out it does nothing of what is advertised, hitting nails let`s say. What do you do? You go back to the store and return it as defective, you'll get one that works, or a refund.

Unfortunately, if the game you bought doesn`t work, well good luck returning it or asking for a refund. So instead of putting the pressure on the company to put out a good product, the pressure is on the customer not to get a crap product inside a sealed box. So then you try out the game before buying, no demo, so torrent it is. Now people don`t follow their act and don't go buy it, it's way easier to just keep playing, and that is morally wrong, sure.

How does that relate to high-end pc gamers? Well because it doesn't make sense to expect that only people who bought nice rigs pay for their game. And likewise, they don't want to be the only ones buying it and be the chumps. So nobody buys anything unless they really want to play online. Who knows, maybe those who buy big rigs look more at the single-player side of games? Which is why they got money for their mad rigs?

And not only that, if you have your fancy rig, you typically have less than well-supported products because they are new/incompatible/etc; it hasn't been 3 years since the hardware came out. Just look at all the problems all those AMD Eyefinity and NVIDIA Surround (?) users are having despite paying the high price. And now all the others ALSO expect them to pay the high price for unfinished games? Which also don't work well on their multi-monitor displays since they are not common - even AAA-class games like Skyrim don't support multi-screen from the box.

And finally, of course if you played the game fully, regardless of whether you enjoyed it or not, you should buy it. You can't return the sandwich you ate entirely. But for each of those "last gen i7 owners with high end graphics cards", how many people also pirate the same thing? Why should they get a free pass? It is entertainment, no one is entitled to it...

 

[USAFRet]

A hammer is a WHOLE lot different than a game.