[INTERESTING ARTICLE; See Page 8] Discussion: Thoughts on Piracy

[Statyk]

Some good points YC. Me personally, not only does piracy make me feel poorly for not supporting a company/person, but I often feel its hassle is not worth the effort.

I have only pirated a few select things and that's mainly because it does not have a trial version or demo. Some people, like myself, would use piracy to TEST something before I bought it, you know? See if it will be worth the price tag. If there is a demo, I will go for that first as piracy is my last resort considering I was a teen with no income. Thankfully I have a job now so I plan to purchase the things I used piracy to demo with.

As for games, I have a problem with piracy, and it's for these reasons...
1) Indies should never be pirated. They are working solely off purchases as their game designing does not necessary involve a steady income. Buying a game could feed them for a week, you know? It means a lot. Now, I'm not saying pirating company games is okay, I'm just saying it doesn't have such a personal impact on their life as it does for indies.
2) Online. Multiplayer simply doesn't work without some 3rd party server software of some sort. And honestly... I like to keep my laptop as free of memory space as possible. The less things that are on this, the happier I am and the faster it loads. If installing a pirated multiplayer game involves having to download MORE software, I'm just simply going to buy the game. Steam always has sales, and so far, being patient has gotten me a deal for every game I own.
3) Buggy torrented software. Many of the things I torrent, games OR programs, often have something missing or they are bugged uncontrollably. Buying it seems to fix the issue. Fair enough.

I don't pirate much, only when I want to demo something that does not have a demo. I have only one pirated game (by EA, so honestly... I'm not bothered by THAT ONE) and intend on uninstalling it soon. I haven't played it in a month and I'll probably just buy it on sale on Steam if it goes on sale again. And now that I actually have a decent income, I can purchase some of the things I "demoed". Don't kill me.