Is getting a cracked game a bad thing?
| Personally idc cause if you couldn't have bought it, it's not a loss of income (as you were never gonna pay for it anyways).
With studios and publishers I imagine you're not paying the devs even but the business, as the devs already got their wages paid (hopefully, some studios treat their workers as shit and haven't paid them. So that's something to keep in mind.)
| > However, in this new era is pretty normal getting digital things for free.
First of all, what the fuck.
Second, my homie my gurl my sweet summer child, everything in the world takes effort to create. Just because it's digital doesn't mean it doesn't take effort. You would pay for bread because there are people whose livelihood was growing wheat and you pay for that, yes? There are people whose livelihood is developing games, and then they sell it, and then you pay for it.
| Sure some people release their work for free, but it's in the same way there are people who give bread away for free. Maybe they're being nice and their livelihood don't depend on it. Maybe they do it as a stepping stone so they'll get something else down the line.
But to think that digital things should be free just because it's digital is very, very wrong!
| >>705994 This is personal moral to anyone. Cracked games don't carry any perjudication towards the developers at all. It's the best way to test a game and usually if a game is good it let to a person to become a fan so he will eventually buy that game and probably other games of the same company.
If the person didn't like it simply he won't play it, the same as not buying it in the first place. It's also the case of supporting or not a company.
| There are also boicots towards certain CompEAnies who exploit consumers, cracking them is often seen good and EA really don't care that much
| The best known example is Minecraft. The game has been cracked since first released and even devs have promoted it in some way. The game was the most cracked game ever and it's also the most selling game in story. The second example is The Sims 2, which before Minecraft was the most bought and cracked game ever. So it is really that bad?
| >>706020 To add to my argument in the shopping scenario example. Imagine all those 2x1 or 3x2 product offers, some portion is free, but the "please your client" is there so he won't go away. When a dev decides to give free their game for a time period, they are not losing money. They are gaining attention for next products. They get a better image, this is how stores themselves work and digital stores do aswell. Origin started like this and Epic is following the same formula.
| I have no money for games so I just play them for free. I also don't buy books.
| If you can't pay for it, don't get it. You don't get things from the store because you can't pay for it. Same goes for games.
| >>705994 Imo, you aren't stealing any money from the devs if you were never* going to buy it, but the problem is when people who could buy the game decide to pirate it anyways.
*And usually it just takes a couple of weeks of saving up to purchase a legitimate copy, so it's very rare that piracy is excusable.
| If you pirate it to test it out you're fine. If you enjoy it, but decide to keep the pirated version I think it's scummy.
| >>706036 I do think somehow cracked games affect developers. For big companies they consider sales in major stores if tons of people are playing the cracked version instead of paying to buy one, the company might not think the developers' game do well and the budget for their next game might be lower. I also think that normalizing playing cracked games is kinda bad, I personally know some people that would deliberately play pirated games.
| Nope
| Because and I quote “you guys are stupid to pay for a game when you can pirate it for free.” These fucking shitbags take pride in pirating games and think they are the normal people. While some people might at first pirate games and get into the cycle that I have been pirating games for so long why change now? >>706158
| >>bd9792 well, if that's the norm, then games will adapt by having shitty Live Service or Gacha model. And at the end, everyone including the paid customer loses.
I've seen the type of pirates who refuses to pay if they can get it for free, but I think OP is the type of pirate who grew up in an environtment which pirating is normal to the point that paying for games in unheard of; that's why she's just questioning the morality now. Probably from a third world country or russia.
| >>705994 for personal use, why not? It's your moral decision, so i think that is fine if it's fine for you or if you can't really afford buy games, software.. but support it front of others is something what shouldn't being supported.. i do buy really a lot games, i do tolerate downloading games from not legitimate sources, but i don't support it
| And as with everything, there is no clear answer. Some people pirate because they can and they don't care. Some people legitimately can't buy it or would never have done so anyway.
I pirate a lot of shit. Games that are really memorable, I do end up buying though. Most of my Steam games are ones that I pirated at some point. Wish I could buy 'em all but I can't so I just buy the most enjoyable ones.
| And these discussions only ever cover games. Why not manga? How many people who are against pirate also just read manga online?
I do it less so with manga, but I do buy some manga that I just read online, like Berserk
| Music, anime, TV show, movies, etc.
| >>706164 those people who pirate all they can don't cause any troubles to the developers because they wouldn't buy anything in the first place. I get your point if everyone pirates that could be bad, but in reality no, that tells to the developers that the game should be free to play (like Destiny 2, though I'm not sure it was heavily pirated to consider it a factor)
but where piracy is, it's because sales were good in the first place so every pirate would want it.
| >>706219
This discussion absolutely applies to everything else! I guess games get talked about a lot because buying legit is getting increasingly easier. TV shows and movies have streaming services rivalries to deal with, manga/anime have localisation/license issues.
| To add my two cents, regardless of the morality of it, pirating games shouldn't be normalized. It should still exist, for games preservation's sake, but it should be mentioned in hushed tones. You shouldn't be proud of it, the same way you shouldn't be proud of having to borrow money.
| There is a whole platform that prooves that piracy means nothing to the sales, in any case improve them. Ps Vita which got piracy around 2017 but the console was already doomed before that by Sony itself, sales were not good enough. But then piracy happened already too late but it got a boost in sales and developers still considered the platform and there are still games coming up even though almost 90% of users pirate it now, unlike for example 3DS which died once Switch released
| >>706235
I mean, I can get books/manga at library, is it bad? I didn't pay for it and now writer will starve?
| >>706241
Libraries paid to have that copy there for you to borrow, don't they? They have their own ecosystem going.
| >>706234 I can guarantee you they will buy the game if there are no way to pirate it, the guy I mentioned did buy a few indie games where he cannot find anyway to pirate it. Participating in pirating kinda advertise the people who give out the “pirated content”, which make it more well-known. Not all games can be turn to a free game, especially single player where there are no other means for them to earn money.
| >>706234 Imagine a world with no piracy or there are major consequences with piracy, what will the pirates consider if they really want to enjoy those games? Maybe getting themselves a copy? If pirating is more stigmatized like knock off clothings, I am sure there will be a boost in games sales. Games that are morepopular will have a stronger effect and further increase their sales.
| >>706263 I can guarantee that with no piracy at all gaming wouldn't be a thing or would be less popular than it is right now because companies would sell their games for over 100$. So the richest would still play games, but fewer people would be interested in saving money for games. Indies wouldn't be a thing at all. So major companies would still be a thing, but wouldn't have the quality you can find now because there wouldn't be a major audience to direct the games to.
| >>706263 and pirating doesn't advertise anything, right now everyone could pirate but they don't, why is that? Why people who pirated when a kid now buy games? yeah there is going to still be pirates, but that's how the world works, compare it to illegal things, why doesn't everyone do that if it is so easy? Because of law and moral. And yet there is a percetage of people who still break the law, why would that make the rest to think like the breaking lawers?
| >>706262
Then I can pirate books right? If someone took last copy of the book I wanted from the library? What's the difference? Someone had to buy the book to scan it and give it away for free too...
| Why do people pay over 100$ to watch a football play or a concert when they could just watch it for free on bar or on Youtube? why do people still pay for microtransactions when there is a percentage of players who don't pay at all?
| >>706276 look at Netflix. That's literally what they do. As libraries they offer a service, free or not. And it's really easy to just record your screen and upload it to the Internet. Do you see Netflix caring? They don't do anything and they even joked about it in a random tweet once and even on some of their series.
Most books you just search their title + .pdf and you already have it for free. Then a lot of companies win so much money for these books, how? dark magic?
| I'll stop downloading cracked games the day every game that comes out has an extensive demo that allows to feel it out (like, say, Dragon Quest XI), and not a day before that.
| >>705994 No. If you live in a third world country, piracy would be maybe your first and second option for everything.
| >>705994
Semi-bad for developers. Depends on the exact situation. Can be good. Can be bad. You need to evaluate added exposure/lost revenue ratio, which is borderline impossible.
Bad for the government. Less taxes.
Bad for legal distribution platforms.
If you really give a damn about any of the above - then it's bad for you.
If you do not - it isn't. That's about it.
| >>706276
That makes no sense. If a book is checked out, you wait for it to be returned. If you don't want to have to wait or share, you buy the book.
Yes, the first person who scans the book (or copy a game, or copy a movie from a DVD) bought the book. But afterwards it can be copied infinitely without the author receiving a cent from it, and that's where the problem is.
| >>706273 that just doesn't make sense at all, how does piracy popularize video games? Piracy existed when there is a demand, so that means video games should already be popular? In the early years of gaming, there are no to much less piracy going on, how did pong, space invaders... become popular then? If there are demands then there will be multiple competitors and with competition, video games prices would surely be adjusted so that consumers can be afforded.
| >>706422 I would argue indie developers would actually be much more popular in that scenario as they can provide games in a much lower prices than than the big “companies”, they have a much larger audience. Returning to the reality, I think most indie developers make a much higher quality games than the “big one which have more audience”, looking at hollow knight, celeste, ori, VA-11 Hall-A ... while AAA company keep making battle royals and shooters just to suit the big audience.
| >>706426 shooters and battle royals are just examples, what I mean is following the trend and saturate the genre of games.
| >>706275 A tons of people still pirate games, like I said pirating is not stigmatized compared to other illegal activities, smoking and smoking weed are illegal in some countries but without proper enforcement, these activities become popular, so popular that in some countries, the government legalize them just to earn money. Piracy is a snow ball effect, if we continue to support piracy, there will be a day where pirating is actually considered “smart and normal.
| >>706275 Instead of letting piracy thrive why not encourage and popularize demos? If people are really pirating to test it out why not try demos and steam refund system exists for that. Still can't sure if it is good? Look for trailers, gameplay or reviews. If you can't pay for a game that developers put their time and effort then you don't deserve to enjoy it, perhaps consider free games? Where they can earn money on alternative ways?
| >>706277 Watching live and streaming is a very different scenario, the atmosphere is much hyper in live. People paying for microtransactions? Perhaps it is a free game and they want to support the developers? Maybe they just want to look cooler with skins (I personally think it is stupid to pay more when you already bought the game tho).
| these companies are already rich so idgaf, pirates dont really impact the sales anyway lmao. i also refuse to give money to games with terrible dlc policies like paradox
| Personally, i think pirating an indie game is sinful. Cant say ive never done it, but i decided to stop cause indie devs make such great games with a small team. AAA games might deserve it if theyre just not putting in the effort (ie those EA games you know the one). Sometimes if they pirate it to try it out, its fine that way they know wether the game is actually their moneys worth (assuming theyll buy it afterwards and are good g/u/rls)
| Well, if you get fucking region lock, then i will pirate the shit out of it.
| >>707074
That'll depend on the libraries. As I said, library/author/publisher have a whole ecosystem of its own.
Refresh
| Recently I saw a post somewhere where someone was asking for a website to get free cracked games.
Like most of the people I have downloaded cracked games but the thought about it being right or wrong just came to my mind.
Is getting a cracked free game a bad thing? A lot of people did their best on creating the game, one should support them and thank them for the game by purchasing it.
However, in this new era is pretty normal getting digital things for free.
What do you think?