Many here would either drop dead at the shock that a fellow gogger would do/admit to such a thing, wish they could nail you to a wall irl, kick your lousy pirating arse, or a mix of the three.

Most would also say things like "You're making excuses to pirate.....games aren't necessary to live......you're robbing the companies blind......you're a horrible person...etc"

Be prepared to at the very least get any post where you admit such low rated and shunned.

There is good file-sharing... free apps, abandonware, independent music, what-have-you... and then there is file-sharing to get around current copyrights and paying for things. It's not hard to see which is wrong and which is right.

The existence of positives does not abolish negatives in any technology.

As I said above....if you haven't seen the anti-piracy light yet prepare for the shunning.
What about those that can't get a game in their country through any means or a game which isn't available for sale anywhere anymore?

Download the fuck out of that shit!

and there is torrents, their sites and the groups (redump.org) designed to preserve
games. torrents mean kinda automatically sharing too and with the big amounts you cant avoid it

I did with System Shock 1 last month. The portable version works on a flash drive and is dosbox ready so win win. :)

I so wish Gog would get it though, so we could see some possible extras.

Cracking DRM preserves games, yes, and I appreciate groups that do so. However, if you download and crack a brand new game and don't support those who created it and invested in it, then you're a douchbag. That has nothing to do with preservation, that's called selfish entitlement.

ah well wouldnt be the first time i have been downrated. in my really good intention i asked what happened to thewhisingwell and i was being accused that i was out there for his codes. and as with god i will never gonna see the light. most of the games i have is for preserving (which just cost me only horribly on external hard disks :p)

Everyone is selfish about something. Not condoning it or justifying just putting in my two cents.

well redump is more for creating 1 on 1 dumps of (old) games but yeah well thats also kinda double whether to crack newer games or not. most still make billions (and yes some go bankrupt) same goes for downloading/copying new music , do you see a lady gaga or rihanna stop making money and cds cause she couldnt earn her living with it anymore?

did they stop making new zeldas, marios, need for speeds , elder scroll games to name a few because the previous ones got pirated? and yes i dont condone it either . but it happens just as people copied music on cassette tapes in the eighties and it will always happen.

I have used the games cost too much for some excuse before.....and still people were upset. Some understandably(those saying games are a luxury and that one can save for them) and some not so much(those saying that we're depriving the companies each and every time we pirate of a sale...which isn't true if you don't have the money to buy the bloody things.).

Sure. And everyone can be a douchebag at times. If you're someone who downloads everything for free on a continuous basis though, that's systemic behavior indicative of a complete lack of caring for others over a long period of time. It's a little different.

And it would heavily depend on circumstance whether even that made you a "bad person." Income, country, what you do with the stuff... all that would factor in. Still, it's a selfish entitlement issue at the core of it, and doing it consistently says something about a person.

It goes back to something I have said in a lot of these threads... just put something in. Contribute. As long as you do that, I have no issue with you. Support however you can the things you like and the people who create them or invest the money needed to create them.

I do. I spend most of my free money on gaming. (Steam/Gog/etc)

Typical entitlement bullshit. Just because they make a lot of money you don't have to pay for stuff. It's a boring argument honestly and I won't involve myself in it further.

P.S. Most games from big publishers have trouble breaking even, let alone making "billions."

if people download games which they wont pay for anyway (regardless if they cant or wont)
they cant lose on that ever.

and about the earnings and such its just a matter of which stories you read and believe.
just as with the global warming stuff. one says it exists, the other says it doesnt.
how long does the gaming industry exist? 40 years? so in worse case if everyone breaks even or dont eventually then we dont get games anymore. simple. well do you really think that will happen?