You could simply ignore them. And who exactly decides, if a game is crappy or not? There are several games that I really liked that got trashed by a lot of other people and several game that I really dislike, but a lot of other people love them. It's called different tastes and there will never be a right or wrong on that matter.

Who said you have to support them? You can simply decide not to play their games. No need to pirate them.

Oh, huge disappointment! This was not about pirate games like Sea Dogs.

I personally love LootHunter's example of playing a game for a 100 hours, hate the ending and thinking he deserves a refund...what an ass.

Why do people like you allow yourselves to get sucked into the delusion that it's the "little fish" that are the pirates, not the "big fish"?

The "big fish" love to say that "democracy is two pigs and a wolf deciding who gets to be dinner", when it's patently obvious to anyone who values truth that they are deciding who *isn't* going to be for dinner.

The rights are either sold off, or they die with them. Poof. Thank you. A company doesn't go out of business because 'piracy.' That's the big bucks' excuse and what they want you to believe. A company goes out of business because they ended up being incompetent, pure and simple. For that to happen, the company must have failed to sell enough copies to break even the costs of business. If the company is unable to break even, it has failed. You can blame it on pirates all day long, but in fact there's no such a thing as 100% piracy rates. Unless of course you're talking about abandonware games.

And you're comparing even that to 'picking their bones.' If you truly believe that abandonware games are just that, then DON'T PULL OFF YOUR GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE. Or don't even release it to the public. Eventually people will want to preserve your items if they do go out of sale regardless of whether you want to or not. It's how our history lives on with us. If you don't want that to happen, don't release your game in the first place. Thank you again! It's not excuses, it's the damned reality. They're no longer here, they see none of our sales because they no longer exist. What's the point of supporting something that doesn't exist? Stealing the bike is different than 'pirating' an abandoned game, dummy. That guy down the street gets denied the bike, the game from that creator who doesn't exist is copied. How many times are we going to explain the exact difference between stealing an item and pirating a game? Happy to be a thief, cheapstake, jerk and asshole simply because I pirated a 1990 game that ceased sales from a company that doesn't exist. Look, I'll show you my true colors here.

Your definitions of what is legal and what is not matters nil to everyone. Your definitions of what is moral or not doesn't matter either. Legality =/= Morality. It's simple as that. Morally, nobody is going to care about whether you pirated an abandoned game. That's what you will never understand. It's not a crime deserving of being called a thief, cheapstake, jerk and asshole. If being called these names is the price of preserving a game, I'll gladly pay the price. Maybe GOG will eventually use the abandoned assets that you're condemning all day to deliver a legal release. You on the other hand, call me names all you want. That doesn't change the fact that legality is not morality. The end.

But thats exactly the problem. How can I decide to play their games or not without experiencing them?

But what about people that haven't their tastes formed? They will look for reviews and comments on the forums to learn about which games are best. Why my (or your) opinion should be rejected, because you don't want to support the game that is not to your taste?

There was a prominent example in Fallout subforum recently. The guy accused all people, who said that Bethesda derailed Fallout franchise from proper path, they they judge F3,F4 games without playing them. And stated that noone is qualified to tell anything bad about Bethesda unless played new titles. How can I make an argument to sway new people to old Fallouts, unless my opinion about new Fallouts counts?

Let's play videos on youtube or Twitch and reviews from people that have a similar taste than yourself? Or demos (which are still around for many games)?

People that haven't their tases formed? Does that translate to "People that have a differnent taste than me"?. And when you know that the game isn't for your taste, why don't you ignore it right away? People don't need your oppinion when it is biased right from the beginning.

As I've said videos don't allow you to feel some aspects of the game. And I also said about Blackwell Epiphany - it was recommended to me by a 'friend with similar taste'.

For many, but not for all. Also demos are no good for story-driven games.

No.

Every opinion is biased, so again - why to be able to critisize something, I have to buy it?

I wonder how many fucks the universe gives about anything.

42.

Again, you have no clue what you are talking about at all. There is no such thing as "Poof". Someone gets the rights. You just continue to display your ignorance.

Furthermore, if you can't see how piracy can impact a game's bottom line, I can't help you. The whole reason so many companies are now using Denuvo is that it is protecting the most profitable period of sales for a game, release. And even if some pirates choose top later actually buy the game, I'd be willing to bet they are playing the games day one and then buying it at deep discount months later.

As to abandonware, you seem to give it a lot of credit. I think that's bullshit. Old games have value from the people who remember them from the past. The popularity of Dragon's Lair videotape and DVD games; mini 2600 attach to your TV consoles; Blizzard Battlechests; Command and Conquer compilations including the old games; MM6 the Millennium edition all showed the popularity of old games.

The fact a bunch of pirates were trading files for free proved nothing to developers. As to preserving these games? Do you really believe the live copies of any popular game disappeared. My closet and those of most users on GoG would prove that to be untrue.

The fact you seem to want to be declared some kind of saint of preservation for downloading games you have no right to own for free is rather idiotic.

You have no rights to the games. You copy them for free. Fact is what you are doing IS morally and legally wrong. These are not your games. You were not given permission to have the games. Morally wrong. Everyone else is doing it is no excuse. Some ridiculous claim you are helping preserve them for posterity by playing them for free, same sort of bullshit. All I see are a bunch of thieves trying to justify it...and failing miserably.
I used to think most abandonware sites were okay too, then I saw Warcraft and Warcraft II. Oblivion, Civ III, Starcraft and many other games that clearly are not abandoned. Oh yeah, and how some sites now link to GoG...while there is still a download link to the pirated game on the same page...

I defy anyone to look through the lists of available games and tell me these sites are really trying to be legitimate...

But it's okay, they claim they will take them down if only the companies submit a valid claim to them in writing...

It technically is. It just won't have much in the way of repercussions, because enforcing the copyright costs money, and if the companies were making money off it, it wouldn't be abandonware. Whether or not an individual morally cares is another debate.

Usually in cases where something is considered abandonware, a person may be willing to part with say GOG's typical price-point for it, but maybe not for the cost of the physical media, many of which are commanding collector's prices these days). Also quite a few people aren't or don't care to be tech-savvy enough to set up a lot of the older games.

Personally, I have a huge physical game collection, so I have no issue parting with money for games I want (the most expensive of which was Castevania : Rondo of Blood for Turbo Duo which I paid a whopping $180 for), so if I can't get a game in a legitimate means and its available as abandonware, I'll happily download and play it and lose no sleep over it, especially if the game is over 10 years old.

StarCraft IS abandoned. Have you seen "let's plays" of the campain? Blizzard totally abandoned the story, the world and, most importantly 'spirit' of the first StarCraft in favor to make StarCraft II appeal to lager audience.

You can make all the claims you want, but I'll never have any remorse for pirating Brood War. Nor, I'll ever buy something from Blizzard, period.

What if nobody wants the rights then? I'm sure you'll next answer would be that someone else will be forced to hold the rights. Oh well. The whole reason is the illusion that piracy hurts sales. Do you really believe there are pirates who will buy the game just because it isn't cracked yet? They'll play their already pirated games UNTIL this one is cracked. They can wait. I'd even argue that the sales number of a game would be more lucrative by itself than the very same number but with piracy rates beside it. Do the people who buy games simply vanish and it's all just pirates, by the way? Eventually these copies might die. Not in your lifetime, but if they do, I hate to be on the receiving end of it just because 'hurr durr abandonware is worst thing ever.' Are you even aware of yourself by now? I never wanted any of that which you said. All you do is insult and insult and insult and now you're making up assumptions about my motives. Morally, nobody freaking cares. If they do cared, why is nobody using the copyright system against you? That's right. Once a game stops selling, they don't keep around lawyers to handle the legality of games which are no longer for sale. They don't come out and say these games should not be pirated. By your logic, the games wouldn't even last until the copyright laws deem said games to be public domain. They'll die off, they'll cease to exist all because "what, free games used to be on sale? You're a thief and a scum of the earth!"

Again, how do I 'steal' something that isn't even sold? Right. You don't care if the laws were broken if a game is pirated with the rights holder saying it's okay. You also don't mind used copies even if they give no payment to the rights holder. Whose side are you on? I'll reword this better.

If I don't pay money for an abandoned game, I'm a thief and scum of the earth.
If I don't pay money for a game whose rights holder doesn't mind piracy, I'm not a thief and scum of the earth.
If I do pay money for an abandoned game, but the developers don't see it, I'm fine.

Seems all that you care about is the payment. Doesn't matter where it goes. If I pay it, I am 'legally and morally' allowed the abandoned game. So if each time I download an abandoned game off the internet, and throw cash equivalent to what used to be its selling price out of the window, does that mean I also legally and morally are allowed the abandoned game?


Seriously, stop wasting your breath. Your legal and morality policing is obviously not working. All you're doing is insulting everyone who disagrees with you and then making a lecture about 'morality.' You're only enticing people to not listen to you in the first place.

Which is precisely what I'll do from now on.