Videogames piracy - Why so much hate?

[Violet]

It's called intellectual property law. You need to read a fucking book.

Sure. I'll start with this one



Oh wait... I already read that one. And several others.

Perhaps instead of telling me to read a book, you might want to try giving me an argument. Otherwise, there's not much to refute. Law does not by state make 'right', as morality and law are not one and the same.

And other nonsense... ugh *stretches*.

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1. Read reviews before you buy.

Reviews are like gossip... they're everywhere, they entertain... and they exaggerate.

Take the Mona Lisa, yeah? You've *never* seen it, not even a picture of it... but you read a review of it and then: you still aren't seeing it, only what other people saw of it. Of course... you are not they, and thus what they say is for you hearsay.

Here, buy these apples, they're the freshest apples in the world... oh, but you'll have to do it without seeing them, or getting to taste one. But they're the best apples! BUY BUY BUY NOW! They won't last (because they're... already rotting).

2. If all the people who pirated started paying, maybe they wouldn't need to charge $50 per game.

The consumers have decided that they're willing to pay such an amount for their games. They've voted with their wallets... and thus it would be stupid of companies to lower their prices to net the very few pirates who've decided that 50 is too high a price to pay. Piracy doesn't bother big business, as it's big: its marketing will net sales, and those sales will be highly enough priced that they will meet their opportunity costs at the end of the quarter (unless their product is shite and poorly marketed, then... well: nobody was pirating it anyway).

It's business, and it's good business for big companies. Pirates don't grossly affect such business... until they start trying to crack down on it. I've been so frustrated by DRM in games I have bought (Spore...) that I've then had to pirate in the future, lest I (a paying user) be forced to buy the product *again*. Infact, this is one of the primary causes of the prevalence of online piracy:

Little companies, though? They can't charge huge amounts... because they won't survive people passing up their title. They need their title out there, by any means possible... and they need to be lowly enough priced that people will purchase them, instead of passing them by. Piracy, even were it extensive, doesn't hamper a small company, as what they need is users... and they're getting users. And most of those users would be willing to drop 5-25 bucks on a game they like.

Of course... microtransactions in free games are... the best. It's very very hard to effectively pirate a free game.