I would say that there are enough people who buy the game, some of them more than once. I have GOG download and Premium retail. I might even get the CE eventually.

Dear Friends

For me is the main rule, if I cannot afford in something, I must honestly say in my mind: "Man, you must work harder and back, when you will be able to afford".

There are many beautiful things in the whole world, which I would like to have, but I cannot.

Look how many pretty women are out there, which you would like to "wychendożyć" :) ...but you don't ;) This is also stealing :P

Best regards.

Sincerely

IMO there's three basic types of pirating players:

The lion share is the people who just can't be arsed. They know they can get it free, why should they not? They download things for the hell of it, these are often those who have the entirety of TPB on auto-add, and just download and try a handful of them, often for minutes.

Then there's people who download out of moral conviction. Games should have demos, most don't, they'll make their demo dammit! This is a type of piracy I - if done strictly - actually don't personally mind too much (and it cuts into my income :P ), as I do think we as an industry would be better off if games had demos again which came out slightly before the game. Try before you buy.

Then there's also people who download out of a lack of availability. Try getting non-censored games in Germany, or most games in Australia. Piracy it is. Can't really argue here because it's not like they're stealing something they could even buy in any way, so they're not causing the industry a loss. They're rebelling against their government, not the industry.

Of course I have you arse; but to paint everyone the same, because a few choose to download everything they can get their hands on is naive and extremely ignorant, the world is not black and white, there are many shades of grey in between. That was my point, not everyone downloading pirate versions will never pay for their software, as you would claim, that is just complete nonsense.

Dear KnThrak

We are neighbours, hello, I always want to ask someone from German, why you have game and movies censored? If something is for 18+, why is it censored? Why your Country don't treat you seriously as a mature person, but like a child. I never understand this way in German and Australia.

Best regards.

Sincerely

I won't go into deep detail about piracy, I don't feel like getting into an in-depth discussion at the moment. I'll just say how it looks from my perspective.

I sometimes download games when there's no demo and I'm not 100% sure of their quality. I proceed to test them a bit, and if I like them, I buy them. If I don't - I wouldn't have bought them anyway.

I have to say, if I wasn't gifted a copy of Witcher 2 I would be in quite a pickle at this point, seeing as there's bafflingly no support for 4:3 resolutions, the performance is quite disappointing, and there is a number of bugs running rampant at the moment. They'll fix it, probably, but how long would it take? I'm not the richest person in the world and would use the money elsewhere at that time. I also don't have the most powerful PC in the world, and the "minimum / recommended" listed specs aren't always right.

tl;dr: I'd probably have downloaded The Witcher 2 before buying if I wasn't gog-gifted by a generous chap. The game's pretty much unplayable for me in the current state.

So there we go - I treat downloaded versions as demos the developers never felt eager to release.

Dear Pemptus

You were gifted by GOG.com? :) Who did you "kill"? :P ;)
Best regards.

Sincerely

From a technical point of view it isn't, but morally it's the same thing.
Some say that there is no harm done because you don't steal anything physical, just the data.

My wife is a professional musician, she plays the violin. Let's say she's doing a gig and afterwards she doesn't get paid. Nobody stole anything, right? No harm done.

Bullshit. It is the same thing as stealing and any person justifying pirating software in this manner is a douchebag and a hypocrite.

Dear Summit

I agree, that is all what I tried to say for few posts above :)
Stealing is stealing no matter how you name it ;)

Best regards.

Sincerely

Even if a product is great and high rated - "for some" that doesn't mean it's the same for all....Beyond that, the high rated part is usually "pure marketing" - you rarely see a "honest review" this days since top gaming sites are known to be crooked, by approving some compensations for their reviews on a game (especially those from major devs).

RageGT gived some valid scenarios for your dilemma... which are probably well-known by now by most gamers.

The melodrama you added on 2'n part of your post is unrealistic - game developers are payed to do their job when doing it, not after is done and only if it's successful. Programing is one of the top payed jobs and "real good programers" have nothing to worry about "financially speaking". If games fail the company could get ruined (happened before) but that has nothing to do with Piracy - more like "those responsible for that project".


Furthermore - software is lacking a "legal quality control" like with any other physical product... if you get a piece of meat and it's rotten, a video card that turns up to be faulty or any other physical product - you can appeal to Consumer Protection and get your money back, the ones selling even getting fined for that.... but if you a buy a game (or others kind of software) that tuns to be bugged and not working as advertised - all you can do is "sue that company" which is usually a last resort for similar problems with physical products.

Simply put it - they have no return policy, if you buy a game that's bugged, not working as expected - you're forced to keep it.

I don't approve with piracy, same as i don't approve with costumer rights when it comes to software... if they want software be treated as any other physical products, same rules should apply to them - not just the ones where they can have a gain, even if selling something broken.

I have three douchebags like that at work. We make almost the same money so it's not like they're poor and can't afford games. They never bought a single piece of software in their lives and of course downloaded TW2 from torrents as well. I'm pretty vocal about what i think of them. It doeasn't make me very popular but damn i feel good!

Dear 7thGuardian

Yes, but you know that before buying, that there is no return policy, if you don't like to, you don't need to buy it, right? It's your choice, CDR don't force you to buy it. And if you don't know, if the game is as good as they told earlier, just wait for few weeks and lots of people will review it honestly for you, because every user will in 90% always and faster say negatives about game, then positives. So if there will be 40% of positives, just buy it, because it's a great chance, that you will like it like those 40% of users. Also after a few weeks later, you will know, how game is supported by the crew, if they treat seriously their customers and give them patches.

You don't need to buy the game and you don't need to buy the game on the first day.
Best regards.

Sincerely

I'd say a more accurate analogy would be her doing a gig with a tip jar (not very professional, but just for the sake of the analogy). After the end of the night, there's money in that jar, but absolutely no way of finding out how many people listened and paid. Was it one person who put all the money in? Did everyone add a little?

But seriously, the last thing we need is to rehash all these arguments all over again. If one thing's clear, everyone has their opinions and no post on an internet forum will persuade them otherwise.

That's probably half the problem right there. Especially since most people don't trust reviewers, and you have employees of companies inflating their reviews on poor products. That comes off as pretty unethical in my book. Of course most gaming sites that do reviews have been on the take for review money/items/good/promos for the last 10 years. So the review system for the computer industry is fundamentally broken as it stands.

Regardless, I don't begrudge people who pirate something to see how it is. Especially in some countries where there is a 0 refund policy. And in others where resellers refuse to accept opened software. And not knowing(if the EULA applies in your case), whether you have a conditional 30 days to send the software back to the creator for a full refund(minus shipping in most cases). The problem is further compounded that we're currently in the age of 'no demos', or 'demo's that don't accurately reflect the product'. And that's pushed even more when you live somewhere that caps how much you can download. That 1-2gb demo might be pretty awesome to download...but not at an extra $2-8 on your bill for the month.