LogFAQs > #930657482

Lets talk more about piracy in general. It is a shallow argument to say that piracy = bad. There are more contexts.

Much piracy came from Russians. Why are the Russians hacking? Are these Russians evil? No. They simply want to play the game. Game companies wouldnt release the game to Russia or have it on a huge delay. When game companies included Russia in their world wide release, they discovered the piracy rate from Russia almost virtually disappeared!

What if someone wants to try out a game but there is no way to rent it and there is no demo. Well, they pirate it to see if it is worth buying. In many cases, piracy can lead to increased sales. Many, many years ago, I pirated the original Unreal Tournament because I thought I hated first person shooters, but I loved the demo. But would I love the full game? Ehh.. But the shitty warez version I got was very entertaining, so I went ahead and bought the full game. Epic Megagames was so happy that everyone was buying their game that they gave out free DLC like new maps and stuff. It was wonderful.

What if a game isnt available to be bought anymore? It is more common now since digital versions go away and cannot be bought. So is it wrong to pirate it? There used to be many abandonware sites putting up games that were abandoned. Was it wrong to download them? However, this form of piracy revealed market interest in good old games which led to the creation of the website/company GOG. GOG would never exist if abandonware wasnt a thing because there would be no idea that the market existed.

What about hacks? Pac-Man is a great game, but it can be made better. One hack of Pac-Man is called Ms. Pac-Man. It was so good, it became its own game. The same holds true for Warcraft 3s tower defense maps or Defense of the Ancients.

If games were available in all regions, and all games were awesome, piracy would never be needed. However, since games become unavailable to be bought, and so many shitty games hide underneath slick marketing and corrupt bought-out reviewers, piracy is necessary part of the market landscape.

Gamers do not pirate good games (unless they cannot purchase them). However, gamers intentionally pirate bad games. This is how the gamer discovers the game is bad and knows not to purchase it. Piracy doesnt destroy the market so much as it protects it. Despite all the piracy of other entertainment today, you still see music and movies selling. However, it is much harder to sell bad shit.

Games going digital will rampantly create more piracy. Gamers will pirate games before they buy them. Without a physical version to sell back, gamers will seek that line of defense from fraud of bad games.

If games wish to sell, they need to be quality games. They also need quality packaging. They need to be physical copies. There is a tangible element here. Since no one will want to believe this paragraph, let me just ask this: what sold more? Nintendos Virtual Console or the Classic Mini consoles? Which created excitement in the marketplace? They are the same exact games. Yet, people go crazy for the classic minis.

I see piracy as not an attack on the market but as an antibody. Dont like piracy? Stop putting out shit. Gamers have shown themselves to be more than willing to buy great games even multiple times.