RE: Videogames piracy - Why so much hate?
November 9, 2014 at 8:55 am
(This post was last modified: November 9, 2014 at 8:55 am by bennyboy.)
I've been on both sides of this. My first experience was when I bought a Playstation 2 in Korea and tried to play American-region Grant Turismo on it. FUCK! Hundreds of dollars spent, and the game didn't work because Sony wanted to impose limitations on my use of the product I'd paid good money for. I spent another $50 to get a chip to break the region code detection, bought a DVD-burner for my PC, downloaded the game, and proceeded to enjoy the game I payed for, totally guilt-free. After that, I downloaded "backups" for disks that I'd damaged and no longer functioned. Fuck it-- I payed for it, and I'm playing it.
I've downloaded games for many other reasons-- I wasn't sure if my hardware could run it, so I wanted a test run. The game was too old, and while it wasn't public domain, I couldn't buy it even if I wanted to. Sometimes, I was just being cheap, and I wanted game that I wouldn't otherwise pay for. Sometimes I got a Steam or other online version that sucked, and I downloaded the original non-fucked-up version just because.
I've also paid thousands of dollars for games. Ownership feels good. It's nice to hold a disk in my hand, read the little blurb inside the DVD case, etc. But now, with most games being exclusively downloaded, I'm basically choosing: do I click button "A" and pay $100 for my download, or click button "B" and get it for free (and almost for sure a lot faster). I often click "B." The seller is offering me nothing unique for my direct purchase except for my right to ride a moral high-horse. And I'm too imperfect to care about that.
I've downloaded games for many other reasons-- I wasn't sure if my hardware could run it, so I wanted a test run. The game was too old, and while it wasn't public domain, I couldn't buy it even if I wanted to. Sometimes, I was just being cheap, and I wanted game that I wouldn't otherwise pay for. Sometimes I got a Steam or other online version that sucked, and I downloaded the original non-fucked-up version just because.
I've also paid thousands of dollars for games. Ownership feels good. It's nice to hold a disk in my hand, read the little blurb inside the DVD case, etc. But now, with most games being exclusively downloaded, I'm basically choosing: do I click button "A" and pay $100 for my download, or click button "B" and get it for free (and almost for sure a lot faster). I often click "B." The seller is offering me nothing unique for my direct purchase except for my right to ride a moral high-horse. And I'm too imperfect to care about that.
