first. and i agree with every point made in this article, but i enjoyed diablo II because i mainly ignored the number crunching and just focussed on kicking demon ass. which cant really ever be a bad thing :) so i look forward to III, but im not overly excited.
i pirate music, but also buy albums. if i genuinely enjoy an artists work than i will purchase an album to support that artist. (and because, more often than not, there is a limited availability of certain songs on limewire). i havent made a habit of pirating games, but i often borrow an install disk off a friend and download a no cd crack. i realise this has the same effect as piracy, but again, if there is a title i really want, for example, if i hear of a game that is pushing the industry in new directions or is simply a really great game then i feel like i can part with money for it (for example, i plan to buy the orange box as soon as i get of my lazy ass.) but one thing all pirates can take solace in : no matter how much the industry bitches and moans, they are usually making money. if you pirate a game, and hear later that the company who produced it was sunk by piracy, then you should feel pretty guilty. but the games that are widely pirated ( crysis? spore?) are the industry dominators who reap huge profits no matter what.
also, developers should take, and are taking, advantage of new technology such as steam. i think digital distribution is the biggest weapon against piracy. for example if you pirate an multiplayer game that is only good for online play, then it should be fairly easy to implement a system to detect and make checks for illegitimate software. this will mean that if you want to play a game to its full potential, with online multiplayer becoming more and more common, you will have to purchase the game. i think its only a matter of time before the first wholly digital distribution of a video game, and all the better, for all that disks and packaging do are act as a vessel for digital information, and with digital distribution making more and more industry impact it is really the way of the future
(sorry if i went a bit off topic, i just find most of the things are interrellated. you dont even have to look that hard.)
btw pirates if ur really hard up just wait until prices go down. i know it can be hard to wait and avoid spoilers for a year or two, but if it means up to $80 marked off then whos complaining