I used to pirate games when I was in highschool and for most part of college. Had 3 reasons:
1. I had no or little money.
2. My main gaming platform was PC. PC gaming here in Mexico is a niche market, most people play console or arcade games. The few original games you could find ,most of the time were pretty expensive. Some times I had luck and find cheap games on sale or bargain bins. Once I found a copy of Valve's Orange Box for 9 dollars. Or a boxed copy of Maniac Mansion.
3.When Internet connections became more common and faster, it was easier to search and download games.
But then I started to work, to earn my own money. GOG, Steam and other digital distribution sites appeared and I had no more excuses. Now I pay a fair price for the games, specially the games I've pirated. Last time I checked I have 400 games in my collection.
This said, I have no remorse searching for DRM Free or cracked copies of the games I bought or to try out games I´m interested in.
Now instead of pirating games, I pirate movies. Specially because here in Mexico, new movies arrive months or sometimes years after. "REC", for example, arrived 2 years after the premiere on Spain. Saw the DVD Rip of "V/H/S"months ago, but arrived here last week to some cinemas only. "Django Unchained" arrived to cinemas last week, found the DVD Screener one week before. http://www.cinemark.com.mx/Cartelera
Same story with "Les Miserables" here it's going to arrive to cinemas on Febraury 14th and I found the DVD Screener two weeks ago on a torrent site.
So now the problem is not the money. The problem is that the distribution channels aren' t fast enough. They still prefer the old and slow ways bceause they can win "more" money that way.

Well you don't precisely, but within your income limit you should be able to make educated guesses on some games with the provided marketing and previews and stuff. I only find about 1 in 5 duds in my pre-orders, 2 in 5 in a bad streak, but that's rare enough.

Those pre-orders and week 1 sales numbers mean a fuck of a lot to game devs because the people who float them money make a lot of decisions based on exactly that data, I'm not saying this needs to be all your purchasing power, but you should slowly move up some of your game buying to this window.

Game companies do do a pretty good job letting us know what the game is like. You can read between the lines and spot the good ones from the stinkers, every so often one slips through that I didn't notice and turns out stellar, nothing you can do about that other than pick it up when you can.
Yep, precisely that;)

The problem with DLC and micotransactions is people would just pirate those. Online passes and Subscriptions get closer, but those can still be pirated (plenty of private servers for MMOs) granted then you most likely have less people to play with, however that is not always something people dislike, but even then the problem with that is most likely they would require you to have bought the game to begin with, making them rather pointless as people who pirated either don't want to buy the game and thus wont ever buy the passes or subs, or they are willing to buy the game, but then they would have done that without the passes or subs. Merchandise is a bit better.

I'm kinda surprised no one (to my knowledge) has tried to host some auction where the winner gets to play a game with one of the devs. People are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to kickstart a game, I think there are people that would be willing to spend that in order to play a game with one of the devs. 4 player game, 3 top bidders each paying over $100, play with them for a hour or so? Sounds like some good money. May not work so well for bigger companies though.

On topic, I love piracy.

I own Moral Orel season 1 on DVD, but 2 and 3 never came out , thanks to piracy I was able to download them and can watch them whenever I want. Oh, and I didn't bother buying the DVD for season one until after I pirated the episodes. So piracy led to a sale there.

Plus I get to try out games I never would. Tried out Evochron Mercenary recently which I would never have bought as I wasn't sure I'd like space sims. Turns out I like them, though not that specific one (mainly due to not being able to figure out where the hell to go as the navigation is horrible). In the future if one I like comes out they will end up making a sale from me.

Same thing for Euro Truck Simulator 2, no way would I buy something like that as I've never played anything like it. Not sure when I will get around to actually trying it though.

Plus emulators are great. Played the Metroid games for GBA, planning on playing Super Metroid after Prime. Too bad the Prime Trilogy is expensive as hell though, $78 used, $229 new on Amazon, otherwise I might have bought it.

I don't pirate (much) music or books though. Not really a music person and most of the people I do listen to release their stuff for free anyway (though I end up buying some of it anyway, since it is good). As for books, I opt for physical.


Edit: Oh yeah, piracy is also good to get translated versions of shit. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd requires a PSP with CFW for the english patch and doesn't work with a legit copy (so I hear). And there mangas that get fan translations, but never anything official.

Similarly Doctor Who is edited in the US for time and commercials and I refuse to support that, so I "pirate" the BBC versions and then buy the discs when they come out to support the show.

Piracy is good in the sense it gives consumers power, which we need because corporations are assholes, but it's bad in the sense that people are assholes too and they abuse it.

Humans are flawed, thus so is anything connected to them.

Ohh a thread to confess some of my bad habits.. Now that i'm clear of it!

Current status.. I spent loads on my stuff to be legit again, now i have ONLY legal backups (some homemade, some downloaded.. => DS rip seems a bitch to just setup and do, Wii disk rip takes too much time, PSP UMD just lazy to redo them all by myself etc) of the exact same versions with region localisation and all.
Leaving : A bunch of translation patches and language packs for my PC games.. Legal or not? I can't even tell!

Well.. That's all off my pirate chest, not hiding anything else, promise!

I'm glad I'm not the only driven absolutely insane by this. I am not a Doctor Who fan but I have been annoyed to see many very good BBC shows hacked to bits before arriving here, it's pathetic.

I pirate stuff too! I also buy stuff. So I guess that makes me some kind of devil angel?

Sounds pretty badass to me!

If you feel like supporting the Morel Orel crew and Cartoon Network, the other two seasons are up on iTunes. :)
[url=]https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/moral-orel-season-2/id205864568[/url]
[url=]https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/moral-orel-season-3/id205616239[/url]

Wouldn't it still be good to support the mangaka and game developers by importing, though? I mean, yeah, stuff eventually goes out of print even in Japan, but for stuff released over the last 5 years or so, it seems very plausible that the import shops will eventually buy new stock from the publisher to meet demand, thus supporting the creators.

I didn't know Moral Orel was available on iTunes. Might have to look into that, I have no idea how iTunes works or what not as I've never used it.

Anyway as for translated stuff, I can't really justify paying for something in a language I can't understand, even if I've read/played it in another language. Luckily it doesn't happen much. The only game I've ever translated and played was Monster Hunter P3 (I do own Freedom and Freedom Unite though, so I supported the series that way at least). Well no, there was another one, but I think I'd rather not name it. And I think I've only ever read one translated manga (I'm not really into manga to begin with, and it's only available in Japanese, I was a little disappointed).

I would buy a ton of shit on iTunes were it not for generally poor video quality (even in so-called "HD") and DRM.

First off thanks for organizing your thoughts in your latest post in such a manner. It is much appreciated. Now for some replies to your replies to my replies:

I never said he was playing a friend's games, but merely pointing out that if it's wrong(in your opinion) to pirate a game to demo it then it should also be wrong to play a friend's copy(In both cases you are playing a game you didn't pay for.) I'm sorry, but I find it insane that you/others can say that/act like one route(Playing or borrowing/playing a friend's games)is much different than another(playing a pirated copy). The methods in which one obtained the game they eventually played(or the media they consumed) may differ, but the outcome is the same(i.e. someone plays a game for nothing).
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There's respect for the law and there's following the law blindly. One is a good thing to do while the other isn't.
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It's better than arguing something is wrong just because it's illegal, imo.
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We all know what they say about assuming........but joking aside I have to ask why we(as a species) dislike stereotyping/people using unfair generalizations in their words/beliefs yet we continue to do so in various ways(Consciously or sub-consciously) against those we deem "lesser/less moral" than us.

Yes, not all pirates buy games they test & enjoy, but this doesn't then mean that most/all pirates do the same thing.
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I think the difference is differing(Note I said differing, not looser/worse/lesser) moral sets. Some think some things are okay that others might not think are okay and vice versa.

The movies you have seen on DVD screeners are copies for Oscar consideration. Its not like the movies are going to be on dvd in other countries. They are made to make people judging and deciding what will get Oscar to watch them. It has nothing to do with distribution.

Yes, it does. It's all about distribution. Because all those movies were premiered in cinemas in other countries (USA most of the time) months before and aren't available on cinema here in my country. Even if I wanted to pay and see them I would have to wait to see those movies. Another example: Red Dawn the 2012 remake. Was premiered in USA on November of 2012. Here in Mexico is scheduled for March 2013. 4 months after! Instead of waiting, right now I could go to a torrent site and get the crappy cam version if i wanted to, for FREE. If I'm lucky maybe they'll release the USA Retail DVD or the Bluray Rip of this movie even before the premiere here in Mexico.
Instead of making a digital distribution system, and inmediately distribute new movies worldwide for a fair price to watch at home, they insist in shipping out limited quantities of physicial copies to movie theaters, critics and the media.

This justification is just stupid. Just because you have to wait like everyone else in your country (ouside US or whatever else place the movie was made/premiered). There is certain cycle before movie gets released on dvd/digitaly and you want it skipped just because. It doesn't make sense.
Plus I love that you could download it for FREE. I could go to the shop and grab food for FREE if I run fast enough. Its not an argument for Mountain Dew Red being available in China right now.
Do what you do but blaming system that is the same for everyone else around the world since movie distribution is not that easy is a bad argument for what you are doing.