Why do High-End PC owners get pirated games?

[Justdwyer]

Funny story, I work at a hardware store... I agree, you should expect a game to work and I think developers are really failing in this department as of late. Still not a good excuse. How many days after release did people realize all the issues a game like ACU had? It takes all of two minutes to figure out all the possible problems the game you are purchasing might have and as a consumer it is your responsibility to know about them (unless you pre-order, but then obviously you aren't considering pirating it). If everyone that pirated games played more than an hour of the game and purchased it after, I would have no problem with this logic. But come on, what percentage of users do this, 1, 1.5? I'm willing to bet it is a very small number. I'm all for the refund analogy, but that assumes you paid for it to begin with. Maybe that's what we need, if you play less than two hours of your new game and aren't happy you can return it for a refund

 

[wolffex]

I very rarely pirate games. 99% of the games I play I have bought on steam during their mega winter and summer sales. Also you can buy steam games for $1 from humble bundle and that is super cheap. If I really want to play a game and I can't afford it I will pirate it but I have so many games already on steam and also steam has so many free games that I have enough of library with so much content I don't need to pirate. I also won't ever buy a game without watching atleast 2-4 reviews about it to know whether it's worth the money and if its buggy and stuff

 

[USAFRet]

I very rarely pirate games.

If I really want to play a game and I can't afford it I will pirate it

'Nuff said.

 

[caj]

lots of reasons for piracy. no attacking but i shall inform sum of them. lack of availability or service to buy the game(steam,gog or uplay,origin). people prefer physical copies, but with most games going digital & with certain countries isp capping their download bandwidth forces ppl. then there is income. some games are costly in other countries(australia,europe certain regions, india 4 ex) whereas in certain countries steam sales are definetly a steal. then there is the point no demo is available to test the games jus incase your system cannot run the game which leaves the game copy unplayable.i retain the idea that pc are not expensive neither cheap(not ever1 are bothered to dig deep who to maintain their pc for maintenance, updates, upgrades etc).
lastly some people wont ever buy no matter how much you convince them even if the game is 1$.as Gaben newell(MD of steam) said"piracy is always a service problem not mostly a pricing problem"

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114391-Valves-Gabe-Newell-Says-Piracy-Is-a-Service-Problem

 

[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.

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

Do i really have to go find out if a games is good before i buy it, If im spending money on something do you expect it to not work or not work as intended. We can go on and on about this topic and everyone is gonna have a different opinion about it. Is it bad? yes it is. Are we gonna stop? no we are not unless there are meaningful laws.

 

[eno1986]

I personally don't mind if people pirate games if it's just for testing, but I believe if you like a game you should buy it the only game I have ever pirated was Need for speed most wanted 2 and I am glad I did because I hated it I didn't even play it for half and hour before I uninstalled the game nothing like the original game.

 

[Fallen Ghost]

A hammer is a WHOLE lot different than a game.

Well sure, pick whatever, say a decorative lava lamp instead or something, but the issue remains. Yes as a customer you should have an idea if the thing is going to work well according to your needs and abilities (ie will this lamp fit nice in my living room, once I've cleaned it - aka - will this run nicely on my pc, once I have done proper updating of drivers/OS/etc). But if the lamp comes broken in half, inside the sealed box, that shouldn't be your problem, should it?

I would be all for either demos (yeah I used them way back when, last I've seen was CNC 3, that is starting to be old), or some " if you didn`t get further than X or play longer than Y you can get a refund", where X could be the initial tutorial, and Y could be 10/30 min depending on the game. Just enough that you can see if it works and performs as advertised. I mean, they let you test drive a car before you buy it...

That would at least get rid of that excuse, and would make torrenting less "legitimate" to gamers, fancy computer rigs or not.

 

[johnbl]

I think people steal based on perceived risk/reward and rationalization.
The more you know about computers (or think you know), the risk of using bootleg software gets reduced and you can always rationalize that it does not cost anything. Also, in certain countries it is not unlawful to steal software and even resell it.

I mean, I can understand a guy who owns an old dual core with an old graphics card due to financial reasons downloading pirated games. But I see a lot of last gen i7 owners with high end graphics cards complaining on pirate sites about how the game is not working properly or something. If you are able to buy a 2000+ dollar rig, why would you not spend like 80 bucks on a legitimate game which would not only work perfectly but also allow you to play online? I kinda feel sorry for the developers who spend sometimes years working on a great game that then will get pirated versions downloaded onto such High-End PC owners. Why?

 

[bystander]

I believe it comes down to one simple answer: "They can".

There is no righteous answer. The dev's and publishers can ask what ever they want. If the asking price is too much, there is no reason to purchase or pirate the game. You do not require a video game for life. It is entertainment. And with a high end system, you clearly have enough money to purchase games, but choose not too most likely due to simple greed. Even if they claim it is due to X, it is greed that motivates people.

 

[Fallen Ghost]

1. there is a thing called the internet and it is full of reviews of games. there is even a web site called metacritic that aggregates all those reviews so no one should be blind purchasing a "broken"game

2. i believe origin allows returns on games for 48 hours after purchase (or X number of hours played) at least on certain games

3. it would be great if every PC game had a demo, in fact I support any and every game developer to do so. The fact is the games, movies, songs, etc., that are stolen by thieves have no correlation between demo and non-demo (in fact every music service provides free song samples). The only correlation between games, songs, movies., etc that are stolen is popularity. Go look at the top ten list for any form of paid for digital entertainment and then look at the same top ten list for stolen digital entertainment and its the exact same list. Yes every thief uses the excuse "if there was a demo i would not steal the game" but the fact is that line is almost always BS.

here is the most popular list for one of these stealing sites
far cry 4 - it plays like far cry 3, shocking!
titanfall - the only game listed that is not a series
DAI - it's the third game of the series, did people expect zombies in the game?
GAIV - ...fourth game in the series, is it about shooting people or creating a farming sim?
sim3 - plays just like sims 2
sniper elite 3 - another series
max payne 3- yet another
LFD2 - i think valve gives you this game for free if you make any other purchase on their site
FF XIII - its 13 games in the series...maybe the game play went FP?

1. Agreed. But what about the people who bought the game at first to discover that it doesn't work, what about them? The customer should have no recourse against false advertisement? Really?

2. Which is great for them, but the majority of platforms (steam, gamespot, any retailer) doesn't have that, that's if they don't specifically prohibit it due to the cd-key reuse value.

3. Yes of course some people just use it as an excuse and wouldn't care if there was one. But if they don't have that excuse, they can't use it as an excuse. It's like that "Caution HOT beverage" on coffee cups, shouldn't be needed, but if it is written clearly, you can't use it as an excuse.

Now of course people know what the game will play like roughly, but "will it run nicely on my pc?", this entire forum is filled with/dedicated to posts like that, specifically because once you buy the game you can't return it.

And of course some people are jerks and will always pirate, but if you can give all the legit people means to try it before buying, then the pool of people pirating may go down. And even if it doesn't, it de-legitimizes people who pirate. It will then be way easier to justify sanctions on these people.

 

[Kilmannan]

I pirate games because:

A - I cannot guarantee they will work on my system and you cannot return a game once you've opened it / ran it
B - I refuse to pay over £40 for something which might only give me a few hours of entertainment
C - I want a demo before I buy something, like you used to get in the old days. I pirate, I try, and if I truly like it, I -will- buy it

 

[bystander]

You realize that you don't have to pay £40. Just buy a game that has been out a year, an indie game, or when it is on sale, or simply don't buy it. You also don't have to worry about a game playing on your system if you wait long enough to see reviews and feedback.

You do it because you don't want to pay for it, and want it now. In other words, you feel entitled and are greedy.

 

[LucoTF]

I think anyone who pays £40 for a PC game isn't shopping hard enough, I got watch dogs very shortly after release for like £9

I've read through all of the arguments defending piracy in this thread and I don't think any of them come close to justifying it.

 

[eno1986]

So you believe in paying for crap games man EA will love you then if everyone thought that way PC gaming would go down the toilet "Dragon Age" 2 was the last EA title game I will ever buy I paid full price for that bad game just thinking about it makes me mad.

 

[renz496]

Lack of playable demo

because publisher/game dev was afraid with loss of sale associated with releasing demo. with demo consumer can try the games and if the game does not suit their liking they can just ignore it. so it is in their interest to turn people from not want to want to buy the game. so they will hype the game and will only release trailers to show the good side of the game. for dev/publisher that have confidence with their game will show real gameplay footage. BUT they will not going to let consumer to try the game first hand without buying it first.

 

[bystander]

So you believe in paying for crap games man EA will love you then if everyone thought that way PC gaming would go down the toilet "Dragon Age" 2 was the last EA title game I will ever buy I paid full price for that bad game just thinking about it makes me mad.

Yes, you should purchase any game you wish to play. If you don't want to risk buying a poor game, or one you don't like, then do not buy it on launch day. Wait for reviews. If you don't want to pay launch day prices, wait until there is a sale, or the games retail price falls.

There is no requirement to play games at launch. And as much as you claim the reason you pirate is because of risk, we all know that the odds of you ever buying a game, even if it is good, is quite low if you pirated it to "demo", or for any other reason.

You are not required to play on launch day and you are not entitled to play all games that release, unless you plan to buy them.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

I've read through all of the arguments defending piracy in this thread and I don't think any of them come close to justifying it.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

There's a wealth of information available about specific games, assuming you take the time to look. A game is not a basic human need, like food or water. It's an entertainment medium, and your life will carry on regardless of whether or not you have it. Pirating a game, even for "testing" purposes, is inexcusable, and all you do is give other PC gamers a bad name and force publishers to enroach extra DRM on us.

Thanks for that.

 

[Ladybug2535]

The argument that most pirates don't turn around and buy the game/movie/show/book they've downloaded isn't supported. It's truly is the other way around. I could give you many examples of artists--singers, bands, developers, fine artists, etc. and authors who seeded their creation online. In several cases they deliberately put them on torrent sites like Pirate Bay, then made a fortune because people liked their work enough to turn around and buy it. The benefits of this kind of exposure can't be stressed enough. The mega-corporations are being idiots and ignoring the unintended consequences that they are courting with their ridiculous witch hunt; consequences that are turning around and biting their whole business model in the butt. (Like thousands of angry consumers). And the early comment is right; it really ISN'T theft in any true sense.

Not every producer of content is convinced that so-called "piracy" is a losing proposition. HBOs "Game of Thrones" directors and producers for example, are openly thrilled to be amongst the top pirated programs (as is the author) and have said so many times publicly. Yet "gasp" they continue to rake in millions through video sales. To top it all off, it isn't the artists/writers/etc. who complain (mostly) it's the mega-corporations--like Hollywood. Worse, the artists and content producers aren't the ones who benefit from these draconian so-called piracy laws. If anything, numerous studies prove that these laws have a negative effect on creativity and innovation Yes, I'm including games and software in this ....Think about how stifling it is if you are constantly afraid that you might be doing something that is vaguely similar to something someone else has done. These mega-corporations use the threat of lawsuits against even legitimate content.such as "Open Culture", a site devoted to media that is no longer copyrighted at all. They send take down notices for noncopyrighted works, for public domain works, for creative commons works, for....They send take down notices for content that has nothing to do with them at all and that is not the way the law is supposed to work. Hollywood is also famous for deliberately leaking content and stealing from everyone else. Worse, the artists and developers don't benefit from these restrictions and neither does the consumer. It's an imaginary problem. For more information and a well-balanced look at this whole issue check out techdirt.com. They explain things very well--including why this whole idea of electronic piracy is essentially nonsense and a losing-sum game.

Why would someone with an expensive machine pirate software or games? Trying it out is likely the most realistic explanation. Statistically people DO try and buy.

 

[king3pj]

The argument that most pirates don't turn around and buy the game/movie/show/book they've downloaded isn't supported. It's truly is the other way around. I could give you many examples of artists--singers, bands, developers, fine artists, etc. and authors who seeded their creation online. In several cases they deliberately put them on torrent sites like Pirate Bay, then made a fortune because people liked their work enough to turn around and buy it. The benefits of this kind of exposure can't be stressed enough. The mega-corporations are being idiots and ignoring the unintended consequences that they are courting with their ridiculous witch hunt; consequences that are turning around and biting their whole business model in the butt. (Like thousands of angry consumers). And the early comment is right; it really ISN'T theft in any true sense.

Not every producer of content is convinced that so-called "piracy" is a losing proposition. HBOs "Game of Thrones" directors and producers for example, are openly thrilled to be amongst the top pirated programs (as is the author) and have said so many times publicly. Yet "gasp" they continue to rake in millions through video sales. To top it all off, it isn't the artists/writers/etc. who complain (mostly) it's the mega-corporations--like Hollywood. Worse, the artists and content producers aren't the ones who benefit from these draconian so-called piracy laws. If anything, numerous studies prove that these laws have a negative effect on creativity and innovation Yes, I'm including games and software in this ....Think about how stifling it is if you are constantly afraid that you might be doing something that is vaguely similar to something someone else has done. These mega-corporations use the threat of lawsuits against even legitimate content.such as "Open Culture", a site devoted to media that is no longer copyrighted at all. They send take down notices for noncopyrighted works, for public domain works, for creative commons works, for....They send take down notices for content that has nothing to do with them at all and that is not the way the law is supposed to work. Hollywood is also famous for deliberately leaking content and stealing from everyone else. Worse, the artists and developers don't benefit from these restrictions and neither does the consumer. It's an imaginary problem. For more information and a well-balanced look at this whole issue check out techdirt.com. They explain things very well--including why this whole idea of electronic piracy is essentially nonsense and a losing-sum game.

Why would someone with an expensive machine pirate software or games? Trying it out is likely the most realistic explanation. Statistically people DO try and buy.

fine prove it, post the business article that states stealing actually helps a business and most people who steal digital goods actually turn around and buy them...otherwise you are full of BS.

Not only that but it's not your decision to make. If some content creators are fine with people pirating their work that's great. It doesn't mean that all content creators are fine with it though.

People deserve to be paid for the work they do. If they aren't they have no incentive to keep doing it and they will move onto something better. You can say it's not stealing since there is no physical product but you are still taking something people worked on for years and using it without payment.

All these excuses are just people trying to justify their actions so they don't feel bad about it. In the end they are leeches on the video game industry. They take whatever they want for free and expect the rest of us to keep the developers funded so they can steal more games in the future.

 

[Neur0nauT]

Breathe
Eat
Pee

There's one missing there. 😛

 

[James Mason]

Well, to answer the thread title:
"I spent all my money building the computer."

Like, how long did it take Tom's to factor in OS purchase for it's system builds. Not including the OS essentially meant they expected everyone to pirate Windows.

You can't run any of the games or benchmarking software without it, and it's not free.

 

[bystander]

Well, to answer the thread title:
"I spent all my money building the computer."

Like, how long did it take Tom's to factor in OS purchase for it's system builds. Not including the OS essentially meant they expected everyone to pirate Windows.

You can't run any of the games or benchmarking software without it, and it's not free.

Most people building a system have an existing system that is going to be retired. You simply transfer your copy of Windows to the new system, and this is part of the Windows agreement. You might have to call them to activate it for the new system, and I have done this multiple times.

They also figure you are going to use your old peripherals.

 

[USAFRet]

Well, to answer the thread title:
"I spent all my money building the computer."

Like, how long did it take Tom's to factor in OS purchase for it's system builds. Not including the OS essentially meant they expected everyone to pirate Windows.

You can't run any of the games or benchmarking software without it, and it's not free.

There are multiple ways for a free or discounted OS.

Linux - free
Academic or employer discount
A previous retail OS you had.

Tom's builds also do not include mouse/keyboard/monitor/etc/etc.

 

[A_Goat]

How did this become a 'piracy is bad mkay' thread?
The question at hand had NOTHING to do with the morality of piracy.

The question was, put simply, "why do people pirate games?"


I think the question to that is simply because it's easy to do so. Compared to you know, paying money for the game... you can instead download it free of charge. If someone doesn't care about 'morality' or the risk involved with breaking the law, there is very little in place of physically stopping said person from downloading it.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Relatively few people completely don't care about the morality of their actions.

They just find an easy way to explain to themselves that it's not actually bad.