What Do YOU Think Of Piracy?

Well, When you all think about it, there are some of you that think it's cool, and some of you think it ISN'T....
in this world, there are many of us who play 'burnt' games, as the new generation calls it, for the sheer fact that you're backing up the actual original version of it that you own.... while some of us just buy these 'burnt' and pirated games, simply to save money.... i fit into the second category.. i'm just one of those people....
i think without piracy, some companies wouldn't be making so much money....how!? well, alot of people take pirated copies as a chance to play games before the rest do, or as a "try and buy" thing, so in the end, people end up wanting to buy the original, but not MANY people are like this...
anywho, i think piracy is GOOD (for me), to you new generation, piracy PWNZ.
what do YOU think of it? ;)

I think it depends on how you look at it. software houses don't get money from retail sales, they get thier money from sales to distributors(even tho piracy has the same knock on effect as if the software was purchased directly from the developer).

Personally, I honest believe in 'try before you buy'. everygame i honestly like, I buy. If i download it, play it and don't like it, I don't even bother to put the name the CD. the only 'burns' I play are backups of what i already have (learnt my lesson when someone decided to throw a sports bag across the room and it landed on my open spch10000 while playing tekken tag)

bottom line...

to save money...

Not that I want to rip a company off by not buying there game...I completely understand that they have to make money to, and by selling for games they make more money. BUT every1 would agree that games are WAy to expensive!!!
I've heard sites, and people say (*cough* sony *cough) that the reason games are so much, and getting more expensive is cuz of Piracy LOL!!!! What bastards using piracy as a backbone to charge people more! I don't care if there wasn't any piracy Sony would still keep overcharging yoU!!!!
Take GC for example..Umm, no piracy...What's the prices on there games ;).
So, I don't give a shit to rip Sony, or a gaming company off by not buying there damn games cuz they've already ripped people off so many millions of dollars already! 2 wrongs don't make a right, but I also beleive that if you rip people off...You should be ripped off yourself.
PLUS, Think about something else...

Sony makes money on every console sold....If it wasn't for piracy they wouldn't have sold half of the consoles they have now! Just look how many sites are buying ps2's in bulk, and then selling premods from them...
So, beleive me...Sony isn't losing money between overcharging for games, and making some money on consoles.
Most of the time the people that say "Buy the original!" Are people who can't afford a damn chip, and play video games once a month....

lol, sony is selling more units too due to underqualified peeps installing mods, and breaking their shit

Quote:

---

Originally posted by seven o two
lol, sony is selling more units too due to underqualified peeps installing mods, and breaking their shit

---

LOL...That's one reason, but that still has to do with piracy...If it wasn't for piracy there'd be no need for dumbass people breaking there console trying to install a mod....Cuz thered be no mod ;).

Quote:

---

Originally posted by fooniman
...or as a "try and buy" thing...

---

I fall into that category... I try the games, and other prople buy them from me if they like it too :)
OR Someone buys the game, and I try it. (Like Blockbuster)
-Me

save money

to **** the corporation

...save my ass from getting off the couch.. and saving money

While I'm a hipocrit when it comes to this, and I think selfishly I think Piracy hurts the Gamers and society.

I think for one, that people to put hard work in these games, companies pore endless money and effort into making a new game. And when we steal it it comes back around the next time, when they dont make another game cuz its not profitable, hence less jobs in the industry, hence bad for the economy, and even many of us gamers who are interested in this line of work.

Then the moral part, its stealing. While I dont think its the same as taking a physical copy from them, as u are merely replicating it, its still stealing because you are using their hard work without paying for it.

But then there is the other side. Games are marketed to Kids and young adults. And for kids who have no jobs, or for college students who have all their funds tied up in education, food, and housing, they have no money to spare. And for games to be $50 a peice, after paying $200+ for the machine to play them, keeping up with all the newwest games is very very expensive and for most of us, not possible. The companies should honor this and slice the prices down to a rate that would be easier for most of us to handle.

But on the other hand, these games to get more and more expensive to produce, up to the cost of movies to make, and to need more money tobe made to keep them going. But also, games then should be priced accourdingly. Because there is no reason for Bust a move or Puzzle Bubble, or some classic ported game that has already paid for itself and took minimum if any work to put onto the machine, to cost $50, the same amount it would cost you to pay for Final Fantasy, a game that takes years of work, thousands of people, and hundred of millions of dollars. Granted more people will buy the final fantasy game over puzzle bubble, but the price should still be reflective of the work the game took to create.

But, the game companies do have the right to charge what ever they want, they can make each game $2382370 each if they please, and it still doenst give us the right to steal. But they should still fix this problem and make them more afourdable. The bopttom line is even if they were cheaper, people prefer free to cheap, so this would only fix part of the problem, but its a start.

I think a small amount of piracy keeps the industry on its toes. It keeps the protection companies in business, and even has helped the success of some consoles, but its bad effects usualy out weigh the good. I think the problem for games and movies is much less than say music. Games and Movies people like to have the real copy, or its better when its real, and it takes alot of work to get a copy. But music is simple and just as good if not better than what you buy. Plus music is way over priced. Really for music, theres no turning back, the industry will be killed. While that is both good and bad, cuz u have these people getting way to rich of their shitty music, but its still theirs to sell, not for us to steal. But like I said, its too late to even fix that.

Piracy in the west I dont think is the main problem. In the 3rd world its an epidemic. People in China, The middle East, South East asia, are completely on pirated media. If anything at all, it is condoned there as a normal practice and people wouldnt think otherwise. This is a huge problem, cuz places like that basicaly steal 100% of their media. Which hurts them cuz now most companies wont sell products in places like China, and will not make their products in Chinese, as theres no money to be made, as they will all just steal it.

All in all, piracy in trace amounts can be a good counter balance to the industry, but in the amounts its at, and especially in the 3rd world, its out of hand, and hurts the companies, and in the end, hurts the people who steal it.

But, like I said Im a selfish hipocrit who will continue to copy alll my shit. I know what Im dooing is wrong, and I wont pretend its anything else, bottom line, i like my money in my pockets rather than in the pockets of the people who deserve it. But thats the first step I geuss.