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"Piracy. Is it worth it?"

Let me tell you a story. It all began a few years ago when I told a friend I was going to buy Half-Life. He suggested to me that he would be able to get it pirated, from a friend who downloaded them from the Internet. Intrigued, I brought Half-Life from my friend for a fiver. I installed it. It worked. I was happy. I got away with it for £25 quid less than I would have normally paid. I was happy. I asked my friend what other games I could get. As years went by he offered me Blood 2, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Quake II and III. I was happy. Of course one of the cons of purchase from my friend was that he demanded the CDs back after I had installed it. Recently, I acquired free Internet access. I thought to myself, maybe now I’ll be able to download the games myself. Overjoyed with myself I started to look for a game suitable. I thought of The Sims. Right, I said, lets download it. It downloaded safely. I installed it. It worked. I was happy. I had now paid nothing for a game that would have cost me £30. I was happy. I played The Sims and I enjoyed it. But a while later, I needed a new game. My urge had started again. My craving for a new game. I looked on the web again, eager to calm my senses. I found a new web site. One with many games. I looked for a game suitable. I found Deux-Ex. It looked quite good, a new game for me. For nothing. I started the download of the first batch of files. After it finished, I quickly started the other batch. But soon, after realising it was late, stopped it. I opened the first batch of files and unzipped them to a folder. I turned off the computer. The next day I tried to turn it on. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. My whole hard drive had been erased. All my work, my files, my songs, and my games. Nothing. I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream at the computer or at myself for my foolishness. No. I smiled. I felt like a cloud over me had been scattered. All my games had gone, all of them! No more piracy, I told myself easily. I was cured of my addiction. I really did feel like a new man. I began the slow process of bringing my hard drive back to standard, and decided, to celebrate, to go out and, for the first time in a long time, buy a game. Do you know what game that was? Half-Life.

Do you play them at all?

> Did you buy all of them, or did you leave some?

Bought them all!

They are all very good.

"RollerCoaster Tycoon, C&C Tiberian Sun, C&C Red Alert 2, Soldier of Fortune, Ground Control and Deus Ex"

Did you buy all of them, or did you leave some?

> Piracy is a double edged sword, arent they all?

No. Understanding is a three-edged sword. :-) (Wonder if anyone will know where that's from...)

I've had pirate games, but only on my PC. I tended to use them as 'try before you buy', as I don't like limited demos.

Recently I've had RollerCoaster Tycoon, C&C Tiberian Sun, C&C Red Alert 2, Soldier of Fortune, Ground Control and Deus Ex. I play them for a couple of days, and if I like them, I buy them; if I don't, I get rid of them.

So, why would I buy something I've already got for free?

Updates.

You only have to look at the web sites for PC games these days to realise that most of them are released with more bugs than MI5's R&D division.

And the software updates to fix these bugs rarely, if ever, work with hacked copies of the games.

Recently of course, many specialist games shops are offering unconditional returns, so you can return a game simply because you don't like it. So unless you *really* object to paying for a game, there's no real reason to go for pirate versions.

Ah, the days before I discovered the "enter" key...
*Shudder*

Piracy is a double edged sword, arent they all?
At the start of a machines life Piracy helps sell them, no doubt this is one reason The Playstation2 will take off. However Piracy will also kill off a machine, this is will probably how the Playstation 1 will die, just as the Amiga was killed off by Piracy in the end.
So is it worth it?, in the short term yes, in the long term no...as you can see with Grixs example of his PC being wiped. Personally I believe games should be cheaper, equivalent to say the price of a DVD video...gamers wouldnt pirate then theyd just by more games. Aslong as companies charge £40 per game Piracy will exsist. Personally if I cant afford a game, Ill try and win www.gameaday.co.uk or Ill buy the game second hand. The advantage of a second hand game is you can sell it on, or part exchange it once youve finished it (Cant do that with a Pirated game).

Grix' first topic under the Grix Thraves name

Piracy is never worth it. True, games are overpriced, but do you know where this extra money goes? To the suppliers- that's who. The people who make a game, and often take year doing so, don't get a very big cut at all. That's why the small prfit they do make is very important. Sure piracy may not harm shops that earn millions a year, but have you thought about the other consequences? Lets take a look...

A developer "XYZ" makes a great game. It gets great reviews and enters shops at £35. Some people copy this game onto a CD, and then sell it. What's the outcome? Well, company XYZ make very low profits from the game. They cannot justify making a sequal for the game, and the industry loses what could have been a great game.

That's a bit OTT you might say? Well, I don't think so. Developers are on a strict bugdet, and if they miss target by only a small amount they are dropped by their publishers. That's life for them, so think before you buy pirated software. In the end you're only depriving millions of gamers of another quality game.

Rav

Let that be a lesson to you. Virus check the file you downloaded before opening it. Also, you may want to consider console piracy, as there are no hard drives involved.

But seriously, if games companies weren't blantantly ripping me off, I wouldn't need to buy pirated games. At the end of the day, it's your own choice. I know what mine is...