its a lava lamp

Honestly, I have downloaded games in the past, but only a couple, and those were ones that as a European gamer, I never had any access to, and were 15 year old (or more) games that I wouldn't be able to import. And as soon as I was done with them, I deleted them.

I'd say DRM and Lack of access to it (especially for us frequently-shafted European gamers) would be big reasons for other people. I can accept the fact that companies want to make sure it doesn't get illegally copied, but I think the ridiculous measures only serve to exacerbate the issue.

I've never downloaded any software illegally (that I can remember at least) and I hate DRM! It feels like I'm being punished for someone else's fault. But I do understand why developers and publishers would want to put DRM and whatnot in their games.

Yes, at some point I've downloaded games, and I thought it was unethical, but I felt justified in knowing that I'd go broke If'n I bought the game, I suppose the cost of games is what drives us to 'piracy'. For me theirs no difference if you downland games Braid or games like Spore, its still theft. Behind the corporation there is an idividual dev. team

I am unsure about the facts on this issue. Does anyone have any idea how much revenue is lost to piracy? If so then please let me know. Sofar, i am yet to download a game ilegally.

Filthy Thief!!! Now that that's out of the way..

...I've downloaded lots a games for my PSP. Most of which being old SNES or NES games that I already owned, but now I could play them wherever I want. So if I already own it for another system, how is that piracy?

Now I have downloaded PSP ISOs, and my conclusion is that I'm not gonna pay $40 bucks for a very low quality game, when I can pay 10 bucks more for a newly released PC game that's 75x better than any PSP game could be. Hope that helps a little Tyler.

I can honestly say that I've never pirated a game. That said, I've pirated a fair bit of other stuff.

The stealing vs piracy debate is of course totally semantic but the fact that comes out of it is key: When you steal a physical item the previous owner loses that item. When you pirate (or steal if you wish to call it that) a game, you are gaining a copy of that game. It's not like with a physical item. If I steal an apple, the seller no longer has that apple to sell. I have cost him. A game company however is still free to go out there and sell the same number of games as ever regardless of whether I pirate their game or not. For that reason I do not see piracy as inherently bad.

However, IP is a tricky thing. There is little to no production cost for individual units but rather a huge initial cost to create the IP. The hope is that once they have created the IP, they will be able to sell enough copies to make up for their cost. That is where the problem arises. What you may cost companies is not a lost item but a lost sale and that can be just as damaging. I have not put them back a step by taking a physical item but really, they have already put them selves back many steps with initial production costs and now are counting on the people who want to play their game to put them forward.

However (again), you have really only cost them a sale if you would have bought the game if you were unable to pirate it. If you did not want something enough or could not afford to go out and buy it, then there was never really any chance of you paying for it so ultimately, whether you pirate it or just do without has no impact on the company. I think that if you can and would buy a game if you couldn't pirate it, then you really should buy it. If not, it's probably harmless to pirate it.

There are a few conditions though:

-Don't delude yourself. This only really works if you're honest with yourself. As soon as people start convincing themselves they can't afford to buy or wouldn't even though they would, this all falls apart.

-Don't let IP be the only thing to suffer. It's not really fair to piss away all your money on stuff you can't pirate and then turn around and go "sorry games, but it looks like I'm broke now. Piracy here I come."

-Recognize that the industry needs your support and you ought to do at least what you can. The one thing I simply cannot stand is people who think someone who buys something they could just pirate is some kind of sucker. No, they are somebody who is willing to spend their hard earned money even though they don't have to because they want to support the people who make the games they love and for that these people deserve our respect.

-At least buy something. It doesn't have to be a lot but something. If you're so poor you can't buy even the odd game here or there, then you probably should stop sitting on your ass playing games and go out looking for a job or something. If games aren't worth enough to you to justify buying even the odd game here or there then you probably ought to go do something you actually give a tiny damn about with your time.

If we maintain a little balance and be aware of what we're doing I think piracy can be beneficial and relatively harmless. Where it becomes a problem is when it spirals out of control. When people pirate anything and everything without even a thought. I do fear that piracy may be becoming like this or already be like this. It is especially concerning since unlike other things such as music, video, etc. I don't really see what the gaming industry can do to adapt.

Personally, the only pirated games ive played were from 15 years ago. But if i were to pirate Spore, or pirate Braid, well im making one less copy the developer wont get money for. So then, if enough people do this, then the dev. wont get enough money to pay back the costs of development. Then they may be dissolved into a larger company and the developer who made the awesome game will no longer make such games. Theyll be stuck making Spongebob (Probably). And if you cant afford these games, get a job, and wait for the price to go down. Or maybe if you dont care enough about the games, then find something cheaper and more interesting to you.

Buying used software and pirating software both make jack shit nothing profits wise for publishers.

A used game can be played by 100 people before it eventually gets lost and broken, that's only 1 sale per 100 people who should have paid full price for it netted by the maker of the product.

Yes, Piracy is a crime and should be illegal, but it's the exact same crime Gamestop legally makes a majority of it's profits off of.

Close down used game stores, and then talk to me about piracy. I think both industries need to die, but obviously the one that is making profit needs to die first.

That would make Gamestop a criminal organization.

DRM technology that makes legally purchased videogames unplayable is also theft, so publishers are stealing from honest consumers.

The cost of PC hardware is ridiculous. If you couldn't pirate content, there'd be no way to justify the purchase of new pc hardware, which means those gamers would merely transition to consoles where they would buy used games, which is also stealing from publishers and developers.

The government needs to bring the hammer to gamestop, then it needs to bring the hammer to peer to peer, in that order.

god,people are posting some big ass comments

i've never pirated a game because if i liked it enough to do that i rather buy it and support the developer. Music might be a different story :x

but i dont feel as bad about music for some reason, and if i like the bad enough i do buy the music

i view it from an economic stand point
when you put games out at 50$ or more and all these new cool games are coming out not everyone who wants them can afford them

take spore for example i just bought Facebreaker for my 360
and now even thought i want spore i cant afford to get it so no what im on my favorite torrent site and im looking for a good version of it to get
lets face it to get three brand new off the shelf games would cost anywere from 150-200$ depending on taxes and what not so
when it comes to pirating i say
maybe if everything wasnt so expensive i wouldnt do it but now i got a day of torrenting because of it (you know what wish i could just buy and install but i cant

I've never Download a free Game before - though I regularly download Free Music, and once in a while, a free movie

(Q. 1)- Music I feel nothing at all - it's just so wide spread, it doesn't seem that bad

- Movies I'm more hesitant to download because they have all the disclaimers and things that SAY it's illegal, when your listening to songs, at the start of each song it doesn't give you this minute long thing about the legal issues of it.

(Q. 2) That would be like justifying that people with lots of money, are more important than people with not a lot of money - to me

There, your English class questions have been answered... just don't grade it

i've got to say that i've never downloaded a game before, but i have downloaded my share of music. i cant say that there is a difference b/w stealing music, and stealing games, but it does feel different for some reason. but if i hear about a game that i really cant wait for, and i dont have enough money when it comes out, stealing the game really never even crosses my mind. i either do some extra work or something, either way, i find a way to get the money for the game, because if i wanted it that bad, i'd much rather have to wait to get the game, than just steal it, and end up having another okami where nobody bought an excellent game for one reason or another. but i will say that i've probably legally bought one song in the last couple of years off of itunes, and that's because i couldnt find it on limewire first. it's just so convinient to load up limewire and have it in a few minutes, than to go out to a store and buy it. thank god gamesradar's podcast is free (bestest podcast ever)...lol. but i love this idea of you guys having free discussions on the website like this. hope you have more in the future.

Is it me, or does it seem strange that every single person on this board says "I don't know about that, I've never downloaded any games before." Maybe it's just me. Maybe the fact that I have downloaded a few games before, makes me think that pretty much everyone has done it just once. It's probably just me being presumptuous I guess and I will appreciate any flaming. This is my first post, and I actually registered just so I could say something. Yes, I have done it. Everybody has done it. My mom downloads music for ****'s sake. A lot of the stuff out there is crap, cd's with one good song are crap, just like games with one good feature are crap. I admit I have not given back in every sense, but when something crosses my path that makes me want to play, I do buy the factory copy, cd, movie, whatever, and have paid a good deal for merch. I think that the dollars these companies are worried about losing are all hypotheticals. I think if there was no type of piracy out there, and people had a chance to play these games prior to purchase, there would be a lot of "no thank you's." Me in particular, the amount of games that I have played for free that I would actually pay for (or even play again) is probably about 40-50%. And thats generous.

@N8ture

Pretty much in agreement. I admit that I've illegally downloaded many games and you summed up my reasoning behind it.

Any game that I've played and got something out of it, I've bought it in support of the developer's work and dedication to the product. Any game that wasn't an enjoyable experience, I don't buy it! Considering not every game comes with a demo, I think it's fair to test out the game before spending hard earned cash on it.

I think the thing that concerns me about IP infringement is it seems to have created an unwarranted sense of entitlement. A lot of people are saying that because they can't afford all of the games they want, that justifies them violating someone else's copyright. Also, they might not have bought the game for $50 even if they did have the money because it was not worth it. It seems to me that things such as games and other entertainment are luxuries and if you cannot afford them or don't want to pay, then you are not entitled to them, regardless of whether they are tangible or intangible.
As for other problems that people have with the current system, such as Digital Right Management or just copyright in general, that does not entitle you to pirate either. If you have ideological problems with the way things are, you try to get the business or government to change their policies and you choose not to buy things from companies you have problems with.

Although I have pirated my share of music and (occasionally) a movie (which I don't usually even end up watching X_X), games are different. If I enjoy the game, I buy it. If I don't enjoy it, I usually will delete it (to save space on my 260gb hard drive). Most games have online features that only work if you buy it anyways. It's really more of a demo-kinda thing for me rather than "HA I pirated your game and you get no money now."
The only reason this argument comes up is because the big companies will complain and in the end the little guy will get scared. Sure, Piracy isn't the most ethical thing but it might actually HELP the economy. It'll push developers to make their games have better online features AND to keep the cost down so that the average person can afford it.

As long as Piracy doesn't become overly rampant, I don't see it as a problem. Also, With probaly atleast a million people downloading RIGHT NOW I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. Don't be drastic, just be calm and think of the gamers. Is the spore DRM really right? EA is doing the right thing but in the wrong way. Don't harm the gamers or make a great game worse. Find creative ways to solve the problem. (Don't sue me EA!)

I have never pirated a game. There was a time when I downloaded some songs, years ago, but that was before I became a musician and realized the huge amount of effort that it takes and when I put forth that effort, I want to reap the benefits.

I think that there is a difference between copying the property of an individual and copying the property of a large company, but it think that the difference is small. It's property, and we need to obey the law when it comes to property.

The long-term implications are as numerous as they are potentially terrible. Each time you pirate a game, funds are diverted from the companies that make games (an infinitesimal amount, but a funds nonetheless) and a portion of these funds go towards making new games. Without good funding, we don't get good games. It's as simple as that.

I think there is a line of ethics that we all run into. I guess that comes down to wether you think that art should be free or if it should have to be paid for. I personally think that art should be free, as long as the original artist is given credit.