Why do you pirate your Games? How you justify?

How you justify?

  • Just don't want to pay!

    Votes: 53 51.0%
  • want to try out game!

    Votes: 48 46.2%
  • don't support enemy team!

    Votes: 34 32.7%
  • hate nerds!

    Votes: 28 26.9%

  • Total voters
    104
The reason demos were stopped is that EA and Acti conducted a poll that showed that customers were 80% more likely to buy a game based on a flashy trailer at a show like E3, than they were if they played a demo of that same game.
That was done on the 360/PS3 iirc and the study was very flawed because it could only look at certain games to draw conclusions from. I'm only going to talk about games with pre-release demos from here on out.

Mass Effect 2* sold better than Mass Effect 3, ME3 had a pre-release demo but at the same time while still in the release window EVERYONE was shitting on Mass Effect 3 so maybe it wasn't the demo that lowered the sales. Same with Dragon Age 2(the demo actually made the game seem promising). Spec Ops: The Line didn't get particularly good reviews at launch, it also had a demo. Mirrors Edge got mediocre reviews and it had a demo, just like Spec Ops it was yet another game that people dissed at launch but it become popular when it was too late. Too Human also had a demo but that games biggest flaw was that it was Too Human. Rookie mistake, Dyack, everyone knows you should never make Too Human.

*ME2 had a demo but it came out six months after the game was released.

Conclusion: Crummy games were more likely to get a demo in addition to bad reviews and internet shit-talking. A demo for a good game built hype and got people excited.

On XBLA a demo was mandatory and those games sold very well, I don't think they even looked at that storefront in their study. It's not even possible, there were no XBLA games without demos to compare them to.
 
That was done on the 360/PS3 iirc and the study was very flawed because it could only look at certain games to draw conclusions from. I'm only going to talk about games with pre-release demos from here on out.

Mass Effect 2* sold better than Mass Effect 3, ME3 had a pre-release demo but at the same time while still in the release window EVERYONE was shitting on Mass Effect 3 so maybe it wasn't the demo that lowered the sales. Same with Dragon Age 2(the demo actually made the game seem promising). Spec Ops: The Line didn't get particularly good reviews at launch, it also had a demo. Mirrors Edge got mediocre reviews and it had a demo, just like Spec Ops it was yet another game that people dissed at launch but it become popular when it was too late. Too Human also had a demo but that games biggest flaw was that it was Too Human. Rookie mistake, Dyack, everyone knows you should never make Too Human.

*ME2 had a demo but it came out six months after the game was released.

Conclusion: Crummy games were more likely to get a demo in addition to bad reviews and internet shit-talking. A demo for a good game built hype and got people excited.

On XBLA a demo was mandatory and those games sold very well, I don't think they even looked at that storefront in their study. It's not even possible, there were no XBLA games without demos to compare them to.
Too Human was one of my favourite games on 360. So much potential wasted because of internet retards.

I agree with your breakdown though. It's probably an excuse to cut demos because they cost more resources
 
  • Feels
Reactions: Smaug's Smokey Hole
The last game I pirated was Prey (2006).
Why did I not buy it?
You can't anymore since the publishing rights are now at a different company and Noone is allowed to sell it anymore to this day.

Other than that in general pirating the last thing I remember was the first fear-shooter. Making virtual isos with daemon tools into a. Virtual DVD drive just to play it made me feel like a somewhat-hacker. ( which is totally not what I was fyi FBI.)
The reason: no money.
Once I had a. Job where I could easily spend money on a game without thinking about it, my pirating days were over.

The cracking and getting the release from a group that didn't worm your whole fucking pc was a pain in the ass.
I don't hate on people who pirate.
Like gaben said:
It's not a piracy problem, it's a service problem.
 
Conclusion: Crummy games were more likely to get a demo in addition to bad reviews and internet shit-talking. A demo for a good game built hype and got people excited.
I don't know the definitive truth on the matter, but just anecdotally the only AAA game I've played a demo for in... 10 years(?) was Dragon Quest 11.

A game I knew nothing about except that it's a popular brand with long roots so I figured I'd give it a shot. I opened Steam to just outright buy it and saw that there was a demo. I still figured I'd just buy it but until I noticed the demo advertised some type of in-game item as a reward for beating the demo, while specifying that you can continue your savefile into the full game. It was literally better to download the demo than to buy the game, even if you had already decided to buy it.

Well I played the demo, it was 10 hours long (very commendable I have to admit) and at the end of it I was extremely let down. So that demo literally convinced me not to buy something I had already made the decision to buy and was practically typing my PayPal password in to pay for.

Maybe that's just a very specific example, but I couldn't help but think of the "demos don't actually increase sales" myth as it happened.

On the other hand I really liked the Steam indie festival where they had like hundreds of demos and dozens of upcoming indies showcased. Downloading 20 of them and playing a bunch back-to-back reminded me of the time of demo discs.
 
Half my collection was stolen so my sister and her boyfriend could get high. This was back in 2018. I strongly suspect that the same thing happened to the 8 and 16 bit stuff I lost about 15 years ago. It wasn't in any of the places she said it was. That was back when she had a different boyfriend. She really has great taste doesn't she? 😒

Fuck buying all that stuff again. I have more pressing matters.

I also like the opportunity to play games that have been translated by fans. Plus anything really old I never got a chance to play. I don't pirate new stuff. I couldn't anyway. This laptop isn't powerful enough for new games.
 
I pirate, because I don't want to pay.
I pirate, because often too bored to finish game. It's like playing Demo in times, when Demos were still thing. One time Game Dev says he like Pirates, because it's like playing Demo and give free advertisement!
I pirate, because nerdy game developers are spineless omega-males, who don't stand up to bi-gendered women in their companies, who set the poltiical tone.
Why support team of ideological enemy? Would make me bad teammate of my ideological team. Therefore never support modern game companies. Have to puke, when I see rainbow logo last month!
Publishers often refer to copying they don't approve of as “piracy.” In this way, they imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them. Based on such propaganda, they have procured laws in most of the world to forbid copying in most (or sometimes all) circumstances. (They are still pressuring to make these prohibitions more complete.)


If you don't believe that copying not approved by the publisher is just like kidnapping and murder, you might prefer not to use the word “piracy” to describe it. Neutral terms such as “unauthorized copying” (or “prohibited copying” for the situation where it is illegal) are available for use instead. Some of us might even prefer to use a positive term such as “sharing information with your neighbor.”


A US judge, presiding over a trial for copyright infringement, recognized that “piracy” and “theft” are smear words.
 
Publishers often refer to copying they don't approve of as “piracy.” In this way, they imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them. Based on such propaganda, they have procured laws in most of the world to forbid copying in most (or sometimes all) circumstances. (They are still pressuring to make these prohibitions more complete.)


If you don't believe that copying not approved by the publisher is just like kidnapping and murder, you might prefer not to use the word “piracy” to describe it. Neutral terms such as “unauthorized copying” (or “prohibited copying” for the situation where it is illegal) are available for use instead. Some of us might even prefer to use a positive term such as “sharing information with your neighbor.”


A US judge, presiding over a trial for copyright infringement, recognized that “piracy” and “theft” are smear words.
I don't say this often, but: cope.
 
Sometimes it just ain't worth the price. For instance, The Sims 3. Game is over a decade old at this point and they want you to pay $20 for it, and $20 for every single DLC. There are 19 DLCs. Total price of $400.
Yeah, no, fuck that shit Mr. EA Exec. That $400 better come with a double blowjob from both your wife and freshly matured 18 year old daughter while you watch and cry, you greedy faggot.
 
I typically only "pirate" obscure out-of-print games. The alternative is paying some eBay scalper.
Isn't most abandonware technically in the public domain after a certain amount of time?
or is that only after the creator dies?
 
Isn't most abandonware technically in the public domain after a certain amount of time?
or is that only after the creator dies?
I'm not a 100% on whether this applies to software unchanged, but the "age cut-off" for public domain has been regularly bumped by the lobbying of the rights owners to Beatles and Disney movies for the past two decades whenever certain products come close to expiring. I think it's something ridiculous like 75 years now.
 
Last edited:
  • Informative
Reactions: Moths
In an ideal world, I wouldn't feel the need to pirate.

But due to a lot of older games just being outright ignored by most companies, their shitty and anti-consumer practices, and the generally low quality and craftsmanship of modern games, I emulate most older games unless I can find a physical copy of a game that isn't expensive. (Which is a rarity nowadays. Thanks, Corona-Chan.)
 
Back