Top Ten People Most Dangerous To Videogames

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Forget griefers. Here's who can really destroy video games as we know them

5) Electronic Pirates

These guys are not the cool type of pirate, the kind that sailed the seas stealing from ships, hoarding treasure, guzzling ale with wenches and singing.Nope, these jerks are an annoyance. They surf the waves of the internet stealing perfectly good games, or they crack game code and create mods that cause the opportunistic politicansto be up in arms. Anyone remember the "Hot Coffee" scandal? It was all started by a guy who hacked the embedded code to the PC version of GTA and found something that wasn't meant to be played, or even seen.

We get it: games are expensive. Believe it or not, we buy most of our gameswith money, just as you do. But do you want to know one of the big reasons games cost so much? Because pirates steal billions of dollars worth of them each year. So, whether you're rocking the BitTorret to download a quick trick here or there or running a third shift in China cranking out counterfeit GBA carts to sell on eBay, you're taking money out of the pockets of publishers, devleopers, and retailers. Which directly results in higher game prices - they're trying togain back their losses.

Now, we'll admithackers and pirateshave given us some good times too, because many of them are also modders. Think of all the great Half-life and Quake mods that have come out. These guys often have some real talent, and when directed toward a good goal they can deliver moments just as powerful as "legit" devlelopers do.PC mods are often actually encouraged by the game creators, who often supply tools and places for the mods to be played.

How do we fight him?
This is a simple one people:don't buy, sell, or download stolen or counterfeit games. We understand this temptation, but if you think that $600 is expensive for a PS3 and $60 is expensive for a game, imagine how much worse it could get if everyonewas a pirate- the whole industry would collapse and we'd all be left playinghomebrew flashgames on our PCs.