No. If you want the service, pay for it.

No, never.

I sometimes justify it cause I keep all my CD Keys but my CDs get damaged or lost so I just download the data but activate it with my old CD Key. This is why I love Steam never lose my rights to the game or the data.

Yes it is here is why,

think about it like this, Industries are like a government and sometimes it takes the people to remind them of what they can and cant get away with

Example: CDs used to sell for 19.99 a piece and you would need to buy the entire CD to get 1 song you wanted with no alternative, then data was revealed they were making almost a 400% mark up, then you have bands like metalica coming out against napster saying, they are hurting our business, basically what they were saying was, them downloading our songs is affecting us from making 400 million a year to 175 million a year, boo hoo, at the end of the day, there wouldnt bee reasonable priced games or music if it wasnt for pirates teaching the industry a lesson of, if you dont keep it reasonable, well find other ways to get it then

The people when, not the organizations period

The way Nintendo and Microsoft have allowed it to go unchecked for years without doing anything about you would think it was okay.

Hellno.

I think its okay to pirate for old games
like gameboy games or other system where they no longer make or sell on the market. That's not really hurting any one since they no longer sell it.

But for current gens or system where the market it still continuing i say no

Well, we keep hearing reports that gaming sales are not what they once was. It's not like the music or film industry, because they apply to everyone. Everyone watches a film, everyone listens to some kind of music so it's basically massive. The gaming industry only applies to a particular population and with decreasing gaming sales, I don't think it would be ok to pirate.

I want the gaming industry to flourish, not get damaged. Let's be honest, we know how much the PSP and DS have been damaged by pirating and it's basically the equivalent of someone stealing the work you've just spent a year + on. I certainly wouldn't like that and I like to treat things the same way as I expect it to treat me.

Something can make sense without necessarily being right. Heck, there are laws out there that can't even be called morally justifiable, but people will still obey them until the government decides they need amending.
I don't pirate, but not all the reasons why people do are unjustified.

This article is so incredibly immature I don't even know where to start. The graphics used are not at all professional, the writing is a mockery, and all-in-all, it is the exact summary of what N4G has become: bullshit.

imo if its activision i dont blame you.

Only when it comes to Namco. I mean after all they don't like making money. I'm just pissed off I might not play Tales of Graces or Vesperia on PS3.

Pirate Activisions games.

I've only ever pirated a couple of games, and that's because they were riddled with DRM. But even then, if the games were good I normally buy a physical copy afterwards, just to sit on my shelf.

It all depends on the circumstances, and isn't as clear cut as "yes or no". What if a game isn't released in a certain country? Take Australia for example, the only way for some Australian gamers to play banned games is to either import them, which can be costly, or simply download them. The government are already denying the sale of the goods in that country, so the developers aren't loosing out on potential sales.

I don't see it as wrong if an old game for example is impossible to get hold of, or the only way to obtain a physical copy is to pay extortionate prices for it second hand. The developers aren't going to see any of that money, so whats the harm in downloading a copy instead?

What people should do is GET A FREKN JOB so they can afford games. Stop pirating them.

Why would it be ok to steal from hard working developers or musicians especialy the one's we admire?If we get a quality product they deserve quality product back otherwise it's insulting to the game industry as a whole.The game industry is a bussiness,and just like every bussiness it needs finances, to continue forward the same with music.So hell no to piracy of games,or music,the movie industry I could care less.Hollywood is responsible for MTV,and fagd-up the image of the vampire,so to hell with hollywood I get my horror and action movies imported from japan anyway.

i don't think that's its OK but its just too easy to pirate a game then buy it, i think that's the reason people download games for free, if Piracy was way too hard well then you would not do it would you?

its not ok but i dont care i will always pirate my xbox 360 and pc games
pirating FTW ..

This article (if you read it) isn't pro-piracy propaganda. . so your "OMG HELL NO! GET OFF MAH INTERENETZ" replies aren't just.

It's a light hearted take on why anti-piracy measures are poor, and inconvenient. We point out that as things are; it is quicker, easier, and more painless to pirate a game than acquire it legitimately.

if its published by activision its AOK to pirate it....or anything the devil aka bobby kotick is involved in....i say pirate it all

besides that dont pirate game....if the dev is good and they deserve support then buy their stuff....support the devs that deserve it and throw the other pricks like kotick under the bus

Piracy hurts the industry and in turn hurts us. It's often defended because people get free stuff. That it can benefit an individual is not a worthwhile enough reason to commit a crime.

The individual more than likely won't get caught, meaning it's even more acceptable to commit the crime, but even if you're never caught it can still hurt the industry.

Draconian DRM isn't helping, but it's mostly in place because piracy is such a problem. Before the internet, piracy was still an issue, but the protection was simpler and the market was smaller. Now it's much larger and thus the protection needs to be that much more sophisticated.

Just because we want something doesn't mean we deserve it or have a right to it.

Oh yeah jjesso1993 that proves everything. 1.5 million fixes everything. Okay let me rephrase what I said. They allowed it to go on for years before doing something that was effective or made any difference. How many 360s,Wiis or DS do you think were modified before Nintendo and Microsoft are only now taking about preventing piracy. Millions!!!!! No one I know has a 360 or Wii that's not modified. So everyone can stop pretending the Nintendo and Microsoft cares about piracy so much.

Well done M$,that's why off line games(AW,ME2,B&K)never sell well...

no its never alright but piracy along with RROD has saved the xbox from landing in 3rd place. (wont be for long though) lol

lower the retail prices to make consumers more interested in purchase instead of doing counter-productive things like charging for dlc that's already on disc

I won't deny that, but stopped since I got PS3 since I feel its a better investment of my time and money.

kind of a way of "giving back" -_-

still, piracy isn't "cool" but it happens, pointless to try to stop it, people have to find a way around it (Sony with PS3 for example)

pirates have never created anything, thats why they see no problem with it.

if they put the countless hours of sweat equity and money into creating a game/movie/band and some snotnose thinks they're entitled to their work for free, i guarantee they'd be singing a different tune.

Piracy is easy for me to justify in one regard.

When a company no longer offers a game for sale new, then I see no reason why someone can't go out and pirate a copy. The industry already hates used game sales since they make no income from it. In this way, piracy and used game sales equal the same thing.

Lower the general price on everything by some 30% and you'll see how mad the sales will go up. PS3 games in my country cost a 100$ each, and our standard salary is what, 600 bucks? Nice one, especially when your kid is nagging and crying about a new game and you don't have the heart to tell him you don't have the money for it.

Anywho, that's country-specific, I know. But the point stands - piracy is present because of the industry, it's their fault and their fault only. They do all these hypes and pomps for each and every title making it impossible to buy all of them and you'd like to play all of them. They're games for cryin out loud, products for teenagers who don't even have income or jobs for the most part.

The same thing is happening with music, if you're gonna go legit you can have a total of maybe 500-1000 albums in your lifetime, and there's so much more music to be heard but it's simply impossible to get it fair and square. We're the ones who are actually being deprived of enjoying these products because some ceo chair got hungry and decided to do another price boost.

No, unless its call of duty or guitar hero piracy then thats fine(not legally fine). Activision needs to pay for what they have done to the series that they have.

Console Pirates are Some serious Pirates as they buy mod chips and soldering irons to get free games.

PC pirates are just normal everyday PC whiz kids editing the execution file of a developers lack-a-daisical program .exe file and cutting out that resource hogging DRM crap that's all.

STARFORCE messed up a lot of PCs so go you know what to yourself and that's the one main reason pirating started.

The DRM on GTAIV was horrible so most people including those who bought that 360 port used the "work around" because the DRM slowed that un-optimized crap down.

You want less pirating.... heres how

PC games = $39.99

Make PC games that use modern PC tech as PC gamers are not gonna buy console ports.

Make better more imaginative games. CODMW2 clones will get you nothing but huge pirating figures.

Kill DRM and buddy up with Steam as Valve does it best.

If you make a game so good, so graphically intense and so long that no one wants to download 50GB of data the "slow way" when they can buy it for $39.99 or $45.99 but no higher. PS3 games 30gb PC games 6gb unzipped to 10gb

Also I can't understand why you moron developers can't make encrypted .exe files as if you want your games to be pirated.

Just run the .exe through a encrypted flash drive that gets a key from your website upon installation. Flashdrive needs to be installed to run the game because the .exe file is on the Flashdrive and not in the HDD install. The game runs and constantly checks the flashdrive for authenticity. Pirating solved, for now.

if you can't decrypt the .exe you can't bypass it. Even so a large part of the game is on the flashdrive so therefore it won't run because it needs to authenticate every X times per X minutes.

Any Pc Gamer Enthusiast has a PC that can easily play a game maxed out, run 2 firewalls, run a antivirus, run two monitors, run Skype while gaming, and have enough resources for interaction between a flashdrive, HDD, and Cpu for game authentication once every 3 minutes or so without interruption in the game.

For example, one of my PC discs stopped working for this game called Warrior Kings. I'm not going to buy it again, so i downloaded it.

I think along the lines of emulation. Emulation conduct suggests that you only download games to emulate that you already own, then it is not stealing.

Let me be brutally blunt, it's ok when I do it. All of you should support the game developer so he gets paid and keeps making games for me to pirate.

Piracy is not stealing and heres why.

Pirating is the coping of a product and then selling it for financial gain without the consent of the copyright holder or in this case the publisher. This is Piracy and Illegal so don't do it.

When some one buys a game then makes a copy of it then gives it away for free that's not Pirating and that's why so many sites exist for people to give away or TRADE free copies or originals of what ever because giving away free stuff is never illegal.

You can buy a game or Cd legally, copy it, then give it away for free as it belongs to you and possession is 9 tenths of the law.

Companies are trying to change copyright Laws to state that with your $59.99 purchase, you don't own the game but are just using it and legally the publisher can take it back or terminate your use without refund.

Read the Eula once in awhile.

Valve and Gabe Newell has proven that piracy is caused by the Developer/ Publisher rather than the gamers

For example
Its not the gamers fault that Rockstar did not release GTA IV in Russia
Rockstar b!tch because the game sales are slow on PC and blames the pirates
90% of the pirates are Russian that have no other access to the game

So the issue is Rockstar is not happy because of piracy
The gamers are not happy because of availability

The only way Russian gamers can get the game is to pirate it
Therefore Rockstar has created piracy and its their own fault not the gamers

http://m2.n4g.com/8/Comment...

BTW I do not condone piracy

I have 186 games on Steam and put over £1000 in to it

Piracy is never ok, period.

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau