Cracked version

[slicknick]

Does anyone else feel bothered when your playing a game you bought and someone comes up and asks if they can get the cracked version of it from you? I used to download games from torrents and stuff but once Steam and other providers like that came up I started just buying the games. They work online, the patches work, and no risk of viruses. I've started reading a lot more video game news and listening to podcasts and after you hear from the developers you really start to loathe pirates. I've gone to play games friends like l4d and I have they game yet they want me to install some ghetto cracked version over my working copy. /rant

[virt]

This is a sensitive topic.  It really depends on the game and how you feel about playing it once it's released.

To me, I find pirating to be a necessary evil.  The reason people pirate games in the first place is mostly because in normal circumstances, they would not normally purchase the game to begin with so its hard to say that the developers are actually losing money in these cases.  This opens doors that were not once available to that person.  Later on, they may be able to make a more informed purchase towards a game in the same genre or by the same developer they pirated from once they're of age or in a position to purchase said game.

It also pushes developers to make the best product they can make.  If a game is good, it will still sell.

[slicknick]

It's hard to have sympathy for anyone who steals games anymore. I've seen people with CD wallets that hold hundreds of discs full of burnt copies of games. I can't imagine people that hardcore into piracy would every buy a game unless they were forced to by a game like World of Warcraft. I've seen just about every excuse from they don't wanna pay for a game thats only 4 hours long (Call of Duty single player) to people saying they are protesting some company's DRM so they are gonna not pay for it. About opening doors to new games: they make demos, you can read reviews, you can ask how games are on forums or as friends, you can buy a game from the same genre thats an older title to see if you like that type of game.

I've seen the computers people have the lans. They have money, PC gaming is not a cheap hobby. I'm not saying people need to go out and pay 50-60 bucks for new games but just bookmark a few sites like slickdeals.net, gogamer, cheapassgamer, d2d, and of course steam. My biggest grip is piracy is one the the things that is killing PC gaming. I have a lot of time and money vested into my computer and when I see publishers like Epic people much leaving the PC I get pretty angry. Sure they had other reasons but every game sold counts. I'll be damned if I have to settle playing an FPS with a gamepad.

The game the pimply faced kid asked me for was Starcraft 2. I mean if you cant justify buying a game from Blizzard which every single game they make is solid gold then you don't deserve to play the games. Go find another hobby like breaking into cars or something. If your on a budget and you can only afford older titles I can respect that or ask me if I have any extra guest passes.

I respect you for trying to legitimize downloading games, my main concern is the quite people who don't even bother defending it they just see something they want that they can get for free and they don't care who they screw to get them.

[Action]

I definitely agree with slicknick on this. Support the developers and buy the games. If the game is not worth it, then simply do not buy it. With the deals that pop up on Steam these days there really is little excuse.

[Infamousd]

dude especially after all of the latest deals on Steam, they are making all my games legit over time. and saving me hard drive space LOL

i wait for the big game packs and buy em up wholesale