Neobr10 to what RPGOracle said. All that talk about how virtually no pirate goes legit is just so meaningless after that.

Hi there!
I live in argentina, am not proud to say that the price for a game, as it is in dollars, is by far really expensive. Not a piracy supporter, but many times it is the only way for us to get hands on a game.-
By the way, gog is not the 'developer', but a site that sells the games. Many companies, say, Bullfrog for instance, do not even exist, and therefore, if paying some bucks for 'syndicate', you are not indeed giving your money to the developer itself.-
I understand, nevertheless, that gog must give something to someone, otherwise they would not be selling games =P
No disrespect to anyone, just my opinion. Believe that if I could, if I lived in the states for example, I would definetly buy the game. No thinking at all, for as many of you point out, it is not hard times for a dollar currency.-

Regards!

So you are bumping a 3 year old thread to come to this site for some reason and tell random people that you don't support piracy but do it anyway?

wth

Hey robergto,

you know, 25 years I was pirating like hell. Amiga games. Until I had amassed a collection that was too large to ever complete. I did it, because I couldn't afford the games (or so I thought) and because... I could and everybody did it. One day I started up my brand new cracked copy of Pinball Fantasies and what did the cracker intro say? "A game worth playing is a game worth buying". After seeing that I formatted all my 800+ floppy disks with pirated games and sold them for half the price of what they were new to my still pirating friends. That was quite some money. From that I bought my first stack of legal games. They were Turrican 1+2, Battle Isle, Populous 2 and PowerMonger. Populous 2 came with a T-Shirt. I still have it ;-)

So I'm the least probable person to throw the first stone. I think I understand what you mean. You simply can't afford the games.
I frankly don't know how the situation is in Argentina, don't know the prices and exchange rates and average monthly incomes. As a gamer I can understand people wanting to play games and maybe resorting to "desperate measures" to be able to. Hell, I could understand a 14yo youth from (supposedly) wealthy Germany trying to get by with a monthly 50€ allowance that goes to spending time with friends (clubs, cinema), smartphone bills, impressing girls... and all their friends playing GTA5 and Witcher 3 already. There's a lot of peer pressure involved. I've never frowned upon some friend going "pirate" when they lost their job and fought to survive - I was glad they had at least this distraction from their worldly troubles. I see a loss for the companies and devs, and a moral failure only if people pirate stuff while they're perfectly able to afford them and only can't decide on their priorities.
There are poor people in the world, even in the first world. Being able to buy Witcher 3 means maybe 3 hours of work for me (half the time if I were to move to another city), for another it's half a month's salary and simply out of reach if they have to support a family. Would I say they can't have it? No, I wouldn't. On the other hand I would like to reformat the face of people in my position who play the game without having paid for it.

That said you are really wrong in one thing. Sure, GOG isn't the developer of Syndicate. But GOG people have spend a lot of time making the games available, getting them to run on modern machines complete with a convenient installer, creating a website where you can get it, maintaining support if you run into trouble. There are a lot of people involved who did great work bringing these oldies here. They need to get paid, too.

As I said, no stones thrown by me if you say "Sorry I pirated this, but there is no way I can buy it". Most here will understand the love for the games, and there's no measurable harm done. But please don't disregard the people who actually made it possible that you are able to play games like Syndicate today without trouble. And I expect that as soon as you have the money, you fucking buy the game.

Instead a long moralizing essay I just want to add another short snippet:

1) I've pirated a lot of games in the past ...mostly old.
2) Every once in a blue moon I've also pirated some new games.

...a lot of my legit purchases were of titles I had the chance to discover through piracy.
Most of my "expensive" purchases were new titles where I was so impressed with the (pirated) product I felt a need to give the creators some well deserved compensation.

In the past we had demos for this very same reason... anyone still remember them? Nowadays the practice seems to have fallen to the wayside. Not only that, but nowadays some creators (can't say where the fault lies with this, I think we could isolate problems in both the publishing / development worlds) "front load" their games with intentionally misleading introductory / initial parts that are not indicative of the full product.

Back on topic... piracy is bad? IMHO it's not an issue as long as it's not toxic and exclusive. As it has been pointed it out, pirates are sometimes among the best customers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXxzWgl3nHs

GOG is right to focus on service, service and good user experience first and foremost... I think a lot of us are here because the effort has convinced us and buying on GOG is more convenient (...and maybe morally appealing? torrenting is no rocket science) than the alternatives.

The (blatantly false) vilification and hostile approach of other publishers / platforms to their user base by contrast has only served to make piracy a better choice. (Insert horror stories about DRM gone off the rails or yet another in(s)ane DRM scheme of your choice here).

PS.: What the hell am I doing writing this before Christmas? I was looking for pirate (as in pirate *theme*) games in my GOG collection and happened on this topic.

I have never pirated games.

Do I regret not pirating games to check them out first ? somewhat yes

I have got quite a lot of old games here on gog like Aquanox, Bloodrayne, Red Faction 2, Deus Ex: Invisible War etc and guess what...they don't work on modern computers. Waste of money.

When it comes to strictly old games, if someone pirates them to see whether they are compatible with modern pc and then buy then I am fine with it.

Why not with new games too?

You should check out zeffyr's GOGmix. No pirating required. :)

http://www.gog.com/mix/pirate_games_ftw

OOOhhh!! Another good channel I've faved! :)

I find I do not need to pirate games to check them out. I can watch a game play video on youtube and tell from the game play video if I would like to play it or not. I would like to think that many others can do the same.

Pirating is generally how I've decided in the past if I wanted to buy a game. Sometimes companies will offer demos, but not always. More times than I wanted I handed over hard earned money on a game I regret buying. This is what led me to pirating.

Once I'd played enough to decide whether I can handle a full play through or not, I would either simply delete and forget or start looking for the best bargain for it. It should also be noted that doing this, I came across many viruses and Trojans and is not recommended to novice users.

These days thanks to you tube and fellow gamers, I can watch LP videos before purchasing, I highly recommend this.

Not going to lie, I do the same thing with movies for the same reason. Many times I've bought a movie only to find out that the previews shown on TV were the only good parts and the rest of the movie was total garbage. If I like the movie, I add it to my list and purchase it when I'm able.

While I know pirating is technically illegal, I feel my actions are justified by actually going out and buying what I liked. I don't know what to say about the things I didn't like. Chances are, if I didn't like it, I played no more than what a demo would offer anyways. If you've ever regret purchasing a game, you know where I'm coming from. Especially if the retailer refuses to give a refund. Trade in values are so low balled, I'd rather keep the game I didn't like and give it to a friend rather than let the retailer make a second profit on it.

With all said and done... There's never going to be a way to stop pirating, it's like drugs anymore. However, if you do pirate a game or movie and you enjoyed it, PLEASE do support the makers by purchasing a copy so that they can continue to produce more of the games or movies you like. If you continue to pirate and show no support, they will all go bankrupt and then there will be nobody left to make games for us. Also, if you download a freeware game and you really enjoy it, please donate money to the cause if you are able to so these people know their hard work is appreciated.

I've been pirating games since I've stopped buying CDs in 2006. I've discovered GOG thanks to piratebay and I've noticed GOG has quality working builds of old games which I love the most, so eventually I started to buy myself. I think you can't make the person to start buying something just by asking.
Dunno why am I telling you this.. maybe I just want to tell that sometimes piracy is actually good no?

This.

Or justice. I mean, like DLCs that are in game files, but developers lock them out and monetize them, charging them all anew and at a hefty price, even. Which person in their right state of mind wouldn't pirate a complete version? Or as some propose, buy the main game and down load the complete, pirated edition...

Even though i am not a pirate NOW, i have to repeat this: "The real pirates are CEOs, office suits and marketing directors of modern games in gaming industry and not the other way round, the people who simply want the complete experience without being treated as stooges-with-wallet".

Still, no one noticed that which i said before: THERE ARE GOG USERS WHO UPLOAD GOG GAMES AND EVEN ASK FOR DONATIONS, SO THEY CAN BUY GAMES AND UPLOAD THEM, TOO! NO ONE NOTICED THAT BEFORE, SO I REPEAT IT JUST IN CASE! ONE CERTAIN GIRL AND ANOTHER USER WHO ALSO EVEN HAS THE VERY SAME AVATAR HE USES HERE IN THE FORUMS (HE IS FROM GERMANY). THOSE TWO ARE THE TOP PEDDLERS ON BAY. Bradley always tries to warn people of calamities, yet no one listens. Well, not MY shop or company, lol... At least i bought each and every game i own the legit way.

I assume you've asked for help here and/or know about GOG's refund policy?