Is game piracy ethical.

[TripleTen]

So the legendary piracy group 3DM announced that they will quit cracking games and said that cracked games have NO future whatsoever it got me thinking.
90 percent of the games that i ever played are pirated (i feel horrible for it) but i had an excuse since i live in a country (Tunisia) where there is NO paypal and NO other ways for online payment let alone a videogame retailer, it's nearly impossible to find genuine copies of games, and even if you found one it would be extremely overpriced, here's an example most AAA games cost 60$ at launch to put it in perspective it would cost me around 300$ relative to the average monthly income here.
So tell me what do you guys think should i just quit gaming or should i stick to cracked games until they are gone and do you think pirating games is ethical or not in my case.
FUN FACT: Linus himself used to pirate games way back in his teenage years.

[PCgamer324]

1 minute ago, TripleTen said:

So the legendary piracy group 3DM announced that they will quit cracking games and said that cracked games have NO future whatsoever it got me thinking.
90 percent of the games that i ever played are pirated (i feel horrible for it) but i had an excuse since i live in a country (Tunisia) where there is NO paypal and NO other ways for online payment let alone a videogame retailer, it's nearly impossible to find genuine copies of games, and even if you found one it would be extremely overpriced, here's an example most AAA games cost 60$ at launch to put it in perspective it would cost me around 300$ relative to the average monthly income here.
So tell me what do you guys think should i just quit gaming or should i stick to cracked games until they are gone and do you think pirating games is ethical or not in my case.
FUN FACT: Linus himself used to pirate games way back in his teenage years.

in extreme cases such as yours, I would understand and I think many devs would too. If its impossible to pay they aren't losing money.  Just stay safe

[Guest]

i think piracy isn't a huge problem right now in North America. For games like Fallout 4 with no multiplayer yes it a problem. 

[Guest]

I don't think it's unethical in a situation like yours. I often don't think it's worth it to pay full price for a game so I'll wait for it to go on sale.

[Atmos]

most of the time, yes it is unethical. 

but when there is no real other alternative to getting the game suxh as your case, it becomes understandable. They most likely wouldnt get your money anyway, and at least if its a good gamr theres a chance to tell others about it who can pruchase it. 

[Rune]

Understandable, yes. Ethical? No. It is only allowing the problem to get worse by making things "okay" for a while. As a junior developer it would upset me knowing anyone had stolen my work, regardless of the circumstances. Send emails to paypal or other companies saying you have no choice. Get angry about it. Make things change.

[PlayStation 2]

Honestly, I'd say it depends entirely on your intentions. You obviously have good intentions, so I'm not really gonna condemn you for doing so. Same with me, a good amount of the games I've pirated I've also bought. The ones I didn't are mostly because you can't purchase them anymore (looks at Blur and Midtown Madness).

[KE2012]

Let me ask another question: Is selling us games that are not fit for purpose  (Ubisoft I'm looking at you here) Ethical? 

[TripleTen]

12 minutes ago, KE2012 said:

Let me ask another question: Is selling us games that are not fit for purpose  (Ubisoft I'm looking at you here) Ethical? 

No, probably not.

[sgloux3470]

Ethical?  No.

 

Do I care what you do?  No.

 

Pirates always try and justify it.  I did it when I was a kid and couldn't afford games too, I understand why.  I hate when people try to justify it though.  

 

[Bhav]

One time people told me it was piracy to download abandonware with dosbox capability, even if I had the original boxed game, and it wasn't available on GoG or anywhere else for purchase.

 

For new games I just get to use steam sales.

 

In the OPs case, if it isn't possible to purchase the game then I see no issue with it.

[Joshe343]

As a game and software developer, I wouldn't be upset with your for pirating my software. I've always thought that at the very least, if you're capable of cracking any software on your own you should be allowed to use it seeing as that actually takes some skill. However for downloading cracks I would only allow it if you're not capable of comfortably purchasing the game.

[ccaian]

If you can't afford it then don't buy it, piracy IS stealing why is that concept hard to grasp? Just because digital media didn't exist back then doesn't mean the context has changed. Downloading something illegally is still theft.

 

Also, you don't have to have every game in the world. Until now I still have not played witcher 3 because it doesn't look like my type of game, but I do want to try it just because its so critically acclaimed. When I was like 12 I had to always choose which pokemon game to get, firered or leafgreen, heartgold or soulsilver and I didn't have a problem with it.

[A/C]

No.

 

The question here isn't wehter Ubisoft, EA or other evil company is selling as a cat in a bag, that's a whooooole different topic. It's wether stealing is ethical.

 

In no case is piracy ethcal. Period.

 

It wasn't ethical when people used modchips to mod their PS1s to play copied games, and it isn't ethical today.

 

We don't have to play all of the games, there are a lot of free to play games that are rather great.

[Bl00dgod]

43 minutes ago, A/C said:

No.

 

The question here isn't wehter Ubisoft, EA or other evil company is selling as a cat in a bag, that's a whooooole different topic. It's wether stealing is ethical.

 

In no case is piracy ethcal. Period.

 

It wasn't ethical when people used modchips to mod their PS1s to play copied games, and it isn't ethical today.

 

We don't have to play all of the games, there are a lot of free to play games that are rather great.

good point               a pirate is still a pirate thats not good for the people that efford in it and dont receive something

many years ago i made cd images of games i owned -> the cds didnt wear of that much and "die", and used them instead of spinning the loud cd in my slow drive

linus does this with his movie collection too, instead of killing the discs or having to swap them alot, and its comfortable

 

back in the day and now i'm used to buy and play console games with my mates, and then we devide the costs by <number> of people that meet to play it "together"...  LAN WILL NEVER DIE

we still use ancient methods... if you die you swap the controller with another person worked fine in the early days of video games with sonic etc

and for pc games you could use steam family share, dont know if ubisoft or EA offer something similar

[Nineshadow]

13 hours ago, Bobby_Joe_90 said:

i think piracy isn't a huge problem right now in North America. For games like Fallout 4 with no multiplayer yes it a problem. 

But online-only games with obnoxious DRM schemes are even a bigger issue than piracy.

[manikyath]

piracy is theft, and theft isnt ethical.

 

that said, i would consider disallowing certain regions from accessing content (either trough region locks or a distribution pronlem) not very ethical either.

 

if you cannot legally get the game either way, they're not losing money, so i can somewhat deal with the idea. although, something that makes me absolutely crings are those "try before you buy, and probably forget to ever buy" pirates. if you have the money, means to give the dev your money, and like to play the game, the dev deserves every penny of your money.

 

unless, one case... if the dev just tosses his game out in a "playable" state, and then just ignores any reports of bugs or issues with the game while they count their money on the way to the bank... they dont deserve my money, and neither deserve yours. but that comes back to ethics: if the dev doesnt bother maintaining the experience you pay for, do you have to pay for that experience (you'll most likely not end up enjoying because of issues)?

[A/C]

20 minutes ago, Bl00dgod said:

good point               a pirate is still a pirate thats not good for the people that efford in it and dont receive something

many years ago i made cd images of games i owned -> the cds didnt wear of that much and "die", and used them instead of spinning the loud cd in my slow drive

linus does this with his movie collection too, instead of killing the discs or having to swap them alot, and its comfortable

 

back in the day and now i'm used to buy and play console games with my mates, and then we devide the costs by <number> of people that meet to play it "together"...  LAN WILL NEVER DIE

we still use ancient methods... if you die you swap the controller with another person worked fine in the early days of video games with sonic etc

and for pc games you could use steam family share, dont know if ubisoft or EA offer something similar

 

IMHO that's not piracy, None of it.

[Bl00dgod]

13 minutes ago, A/C said:

 

IMHO that's not piracy, None of it.

i know, i just wanted to show another perspective, if you dont have the <$amount> money there are enough possibilities to get what you want without piracy

almost 20 years and never had problems with this method, and if some friends split there will be no "bad blood" and the person gets a fair share

 

sad that game demo's dont exist anymore, so you dont get the experience of the game, and watching someone playing it on youtube to get your "demo" isnt fun

[Paralectic]

21 minutes ago, manikyath said:

piracy is theft, and theft isnt ethical.

 

that said, i would consider disallowing certain regions from accessing content (either trough region locks or a distribution pronlem) not very ethical either.

 

if you cannot legally get the game either way, they're not losing money, so i can somewhat deal with the idea. although, something that makes me absolutely crings are those "try before you buy, and probably forget to ever buy" pirates. if you have the money, means to give the dev your money, and like to play the game, the dev deserves every penny of your money.

 

unless, one case... if the dev just tosses his game out in a "playable" state, and then just ignores any reports of bugs or issues with the game while they count their money on the way to the bank... they dont deserve my money, and neither deserve yours. but that comes back to ethics: if the dev doesnt bother maintaining the experience you pay for, do you have to pay for that experience (you'll most likely not end up enjoying because of issues)?

"Piracy is theft" 

lmaoooooooo no, it's copying, not stealing.

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, Paralectic said:

"Piracy is theft" 

lmaoooooooo no, it's copying, not stealing.

well, you dont '"take" something, but you dont give them money for a service you're supposed to pay for.

 

its like taking a train ride without a train ticket <.< >.>

[StevenSensei]

What about abandon-ware or older games that are no longer available for purchase? Is it ethical to download a ROM for a game that is not for sale, the publisher / developer is no longer in business or unknown? 

 

[Paralectic]

Just now, manikyath said:

well, you dont '"take" something, but you dont give them money for a service you're supposed to pay for.

 

its like taking a train ride without a train ticket <.< >.>

That's not even close to a valid comparison. There's no way to compare it like that. It's digital, copying, no intrinsic value to a few bytes.

[noisebomb44]

1 minute ago, Papakuma said:

What about abandon-ware or older games that are no longer available for purchase? Is it ethical to download a ROM for a game that is not for sale, the publisher / developer is no longer in business or unknown? 

 

I do this a lot since ebay copies of the same game can go 60 euros>, and the money only goes to the person who bought the game 10s of years ago

 

I believe its ethical since your money isnt a "reward" to the devs either way, and im pretty sure everyone here atleast agrees on that point

Also abandonware is often legal to download for free, since its "abandoned" and its license has often run out

[manikyath]

3 minutes ago, Paralectic said:

That's not even close to a valid comparison. There's no way to compare it like that. It's digital, copying, no intrinsic value to a few bytes.

well, the train company doesnt lose anything from me bunnyhopping on an -either way empty- train. that doesnt mean they dont deserve the profit from me taking that train.