"Starcraft 2 pirated 2.3 million times" -GI - Page 18

Krigwin

1130 Posts

November 20 2010 19:01 GMT

#341

On November 21 2010 03:51 megagoten wrote:
wow, your internet is faster than your dvd rom??

Whoops, I meant digital copy. Dunno what the hell I was talking about there. Though, plenty of people pirated the game before it came out so they could then activate it with boxed cd keys on launch days, so there ya go.

hmunkey

United Kingdom1973 Posts

November 20 2010 19:05 GMT

#342

This data is completely meaningless. People may have pirated after buying the game. Plus, the majority of software pirates aren't people who would normally purchase it -- they download it to try it out and see what the fuss is.

1 million pirated downloads doesn't even mean Blizzard lost 100 sales.

Slayth

United States325 Posts

November 20 2010 19:06 GMT

#343

Atleast they can't play multiplayer.

Genzo

Denmark207 Posts

November 20 2010 19:07 GMT

#344

I downloaded the game illegal but i went and bought it after having played 1-2 missions

Cpadolf

Sweden1199 Posts

November 20 2010 19:22 GMT

#345

On November 21 2010 03:30 Krigwin wrote:

Show nested quote +

It is wrong, but there is such a thing as a victimless crime. Piracy is blown out of proportion by corporations to get more corporatist laws passed to enhance their profits, it has much less to do with the lost profits than you would be led to think.

Thing is though that it's not just super rich companies that make games, Indie developers are the ones who can really suffer. I remember reading that World of Goo (amazing game developed by two EA "dropouts") was only bought about 10% of the time for the PC version. And sure not everyone of those 90% would have bought the game otherwise, but I think it is pretty ignorant to say, as some have, that only a few percent of them would have done so.

And of course it's not "right" when it happens to big companies either. Just because they made a 100 million on a game doesn't mean they are not entitled to the other millions they would have made without piracy. Because It's their game.

I'm not saying piracy is the most despicable thing in the world or anything, I'm just saying that while it may not be morally reprehensible to pirate a game 100% of the time, you don't really have any moral grounds to justify it either, and it can't be considered to be "right" by any means.

Krigwin

1130 Posts

November 20 2010 19:36 GMT

#346

On November 21 2010 04:22 Cpadolf wrote:
Thing is though that it's not just super rich companies that make games, Indie developers are the ones who can really suffer. I remember reading that World of Goo (amazing game developed by two EA "dropouts") was only bought about 10% of the time for the PC version. And sure not everyone of those 90% would have bought the game otherwise, but I think it is pretty ignorant to say, as some have, that only a few percent of them would have done so.

And of course it's not "right" when it happens to big companies either. Just because they made a 100 million on a game doesn't mean they are not entitled to the other millions they would have made without piracy. Because It's their game.

I'm not saying piracy is the most despicable thing in the world or anything, I'm just saying that while it may not be morally reprehensible to pirate a game 100% of the time, you don't really have any moral grounds to justify it either, and it can't be considered to be "right" by any means.

No I agree with you, it's certainly a stretch to try to pretend it's "right" or morally justifiable, but it's a small, almost insignificant evil. The majority of people who pirate, ie poor teenagers and college age people, are not hurting anyone with these activities. And certainly their crimes are not appropriate for this massive backlash of litigation and sweeping laws.

I would certainly agree it's reasonable to believe that out of a huge number of pirates, some portion of them would have legitimately bought the game if they could not pirate, but not only is that not a valid enough legal reason to prosecute anyone much less justify massive trade agreement laws, but using this kind of hypothetical argument opens the door to too many other problems.

My whole point, and this is not directed at you, is that piracy is a much smaller problem than people are led to believe by the corporations. Whether you think it's morally reprehensible or just a small thing not worth dealing with, your bigger concern should be the laws these corporations are trying to get passed via scapegoating piracy.

Ecto

Denmark54 Posts

November 20 2010 20:28 GMT

#347

Can't help but feel that perhaps people need to be a bit more utilitarian when considering the morals of piracy. In a situation where a person doesn't have the money or interest in a game to actually pay for it, downloading it to try it out carries only a net positive. The developer/publisher in this case has not lost out on any money. On the contrary, he's gotten a potential fan, who could turn into a customer.

The morals of piracy are quite different from the legality of it. In my opinion, if you don't have the money to buy a video-game, pirate the shit out of it! And if you like it, try to scrape together some money to buy it.

I'll continue to purchase as many good games as can fit in my budget, but I'll also likely pirate many of them first, to see if they're worth getting.

spancho

United States161 Posts

November 20 2010 21:59 GMT

#348

I kind of feel like an illegal DL of starcraft is just free advertising for blizzard. Anyone who cares enough to torrent a 7BG file will probably buy the game once they play it a little.

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