There is casual pirating, like making burns at home or on a friends computer. That is relitivly harmless. Then there are mass-market pirates, such as places you buy burned games for online. These places takes million and millions away from the industry, by taking work that OTHER people did, copying it, and selling as if they did anything to do with the product. If you are ordering from these places, then you are keeping them in business. I usually don't get involved in these discussions, but I just don't understand how people don't consider it STEALING. If you are going to do it, fine, but at least admit it is fukking thievery.
Want me to explain it more personally? Ok. It takes a long time to make a game. To make a good game, it takes a very long time. It takes a ton of effort. It took a lot of schooling. I put in 60 to 70 hours a week during crunch time (which often last months at a time). The reason I do this is so the game will turn out great, so people will buy it, so a)I will receive the royalties I have earned to make up for giving up my life for months at a time, and b)so the publisher of the game will be pleased with the sales and continue to offer us projects.
Every time one of the hundreds of thousands of pirated games is sold, those royalties and sales numbers go to some piece of sh!t sitting in an off-shore warehouse selling some HE DIDN'T MAKE. Oh, but thank god you got your game! Thank god!
I know you think you'r just taking from huge corperations, but your not. You are taking from guys like me who bust thier ass to make fat games, and who count on the best sales humanly possible. Anyone think I am being greedy?! Fine, YOU come down hear and fix my fukking car, pay my school loans, pay my rent, etc. I have a life to live too, and game sales is part of the living I make. I know the game industry makes "a ton of money". But guess what, there are a lot of people in that industry. The "food" industry is pretty good too, why not stop paying for food at the grocery market? Because you know that is stealing. If you are hungry and broke, fine, understood. But if you are full and can live without another snack, to steal food makes you a common, petty thief.
What I am trying to say is this: If you want to pirate games, fine. But don't think even for a SECOND that what you are doing is not stealing. Don't sugar coat it saying you don't have to money, the industry makes a ton, etc. Just have the face to come out and admit that you are, quite literally, taking money out of the pockets of people like me who bust thier asses to make good games. Think if all of a sudden, YOUR income was slashed, and you knew the 'product' went to some dude living who-knows-where, and the profit, that should have been yours, when to some piece of sh!t in Thailand. I can tell you from everyday expirience, it sucks. It's a horrible feeling.
[ January 04, 2002: Message edited by: KneeToTheDome ]
