How many of you use pirated copies of games you've legally paid for?

[cheesehead]

I, for one, am quite fed up with the current state of DRM. Many software vendors - Bethesda, Crytek, and Electronic Arts most prominently - have made actually buying their games far more difficult than it would be to download them.

So why not have your cake and eat it too?

While I intend to buy a copy of Spore before I download it, I really cannot be bothered with the B.S. you need to go through to run it - doubly so because I hope to use Cedega instead of actual windows - and as such my copy may never leave the box at all. Instead, I'm going to save myself a lot of trouble and download it off of the Pirate Bay. As far as I can tell, everyone wins - I get my game hassle-free, and the programmers can afford to feed their caffeine addiction.

There are other advantages to this approach, too. If the game proves to be a buggy mess (Fallout III, anyone?), you can return it to the store for full value and buy it for $20 less a few months later when it's been patched to the point of playability. Similarly, if you found you've just spent $120 on a Collector's Edition of Daikatana II, you can get your money back.

 

[Maleficus]

All of my games work, of course I haven't bought a new game in years so I am basically exempt from DRM-gayness.

 

[LumbergTech]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead
I, for one, am quite fed up with the current state of DRM. Many software vendors - Bethesda, Crytek, and Electronic Arts most prominently - have made actually buying their games far more difficult than it would be to download them.

So why not have your cake and eat it too?

While I intend to buy a copy of Spore before I download it, I really cannot be bothered with the B.S. you need to go through to run it - doubly so because I hope to use Cedega instead of actual windows - and as such my copy may never leave the box at all. Instead, I'm going to save myself a lot of trouble and download it off of the Pirate Bay. As far as I can tell, everyone wins - I get my game hassle-free, and the programmers can afford to feed their caffeine addiction.

There are other advantages to this approach, too. If the game proves to be a buggy mess (Fallout III, anyone?), you can return it to the store for full value and buy it for $20 less a few months later when it's been patched to the point of playability. Similarly, if you found you've just spent $120 on a Collector's Edition of Daikatana II, you can get your money back.

the problem with your logic is that i think it will cause publishers to take even less risks in terms of what games they allow through...but i think there has to be some kind of middle ground ..because i agree, im sick of getting buggy and shitty games at full price

 

[chronodekar]

Me, Red Alert 2 !!

The game comes with 2 CD's and the manual does say that you can play LAN matches with the 2 disks. But an error pops up saying that the serial key is already in use !@!

I haven't bothered with the patches. I'm still with ver1.0 So, I just downloaded a crack and had an enjoyable match with my brother.


As far as it goes, I WANT to buy RA3, but the DRM on it repels me. I've lost count how many times I've uninstalled and reinstalled RA2. Usually, it stays on my system for 3 - 5 hours, then once all my cousins leave, I uninstall it and get back to work.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead
I, for one, am quite fed up with the current state of DRM. Many software vendors - Bethesda, Crytek, and Electronic Arts most prominently - have made actually buying their games far more difficult than it would be to download them.

So why not have your cake and eat it too?

While I intend to buy a copy of Spore before I download it, I really cannot be bothered with the B.S. you need to go through to run it - doubly so because I hope to use Cedega instead of actual windows - and as such my copy may never leave the box at all. Instead, I'm going to save myself a lot of trouble and download it off of the Pirate Bay. As far as I can tell, everyone wins - I get my game hassle-free, and the programmers can afford to feed their caffeine addiction.

There are other advantages to this approach, too. If the game proves to be a buggy mess (Fallout III, anyone?), you can return it to the store for full value and buy it for $20 less a few months later when it's been patched to the point of playability. Similarly, if you found you've just spent $120 on a Collector's Edition of Daikatana II, you can get your money back.

I think a lot of people/gamers make more of an issue out of DRM etc....personally I'm proud of not having any pirated games out of my 300 plus retail games,yes never had any issues with Staforce,TAGES,SecuROM etc.. over the years and thats a lot of years .

 

[Martimus]

I did download a no CD crack for Starwars Battlefront 2, because I was tired of trying to swap out disks (I had to keep them up so the kids couldn't get to them, and then I would never see them again.) I am wary of any pirated software though. I have had my identity stolen once already, and I don't feel like having more malicious things happen to me. Beware those that do a lot of work to help you for free; they likely have some sort of reason for doing so.

 

[Xavier434]

If I have purchased the game and I have difficulties getting it to work then I will do whatever is needed to make it work properly and without any unnecessary hassle. I'll leave it at that.

 

[rudder]

I scratched a DVD of COD2 once and it would not load after that. So I downloaded it rather than pay the replacement cost.

 

[Beev]

Generally if I buy a game I don't bother pirating it, but if the game has dumbshit DRM I'll straight up pirate it even though I was going to buy it (Example: Spore).

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

I don't. Though if securom support doesn't take a sudden, sharp upturn in ability to actually read the emails I send them, it's going to become 1.

 

[brandonb]

Since 2005, I've bought only MMORPGS and X3:Reunion (version 2.0 non DRM version)

So I haven't had any problems.

 

[Czar]

I only buy games on steam now, and only if its just steam copy protection, not games that also include extra vendor copyprotections.

 

[cyphilis]

Call me old fashioned, but I like to have a box, and actual disc with my games. I never really liked downloading games legally, and not so legal.
Hell, I will sample and download music, but still will go out and buy the CD to support the musicians as much as I can.

 

[Lonyo]

I have a downloaded RTW disc I think because mine got scratched, and I use no CD cracks for most games (if they even require a disc) because it makes things easier.
Many games nowadays don't require discs anyway though so it's not a huge issue. Crysis Warhead and Spore both don't need a disc so I use my legit copies.

 

[Kromis]

Bethesda? Really?

 

[Xylitol]

Me
Starcraft, Warcraft III, Battlefield 1942

 

[Atreus21]

Sometimes I pirate things out of defiance. My copy of Supreme Commander shipped with a cd key that didn't work. I called them up, and they said I needed to buy another one. So I asked the guy what the word "bittorrent" meant to him.

Then I hung up.

 

[MarcVenice]

Originally posted by: Atreus21
Sometimes I pirate things out of defiance. My copy of Supreme Commander shipped with a cd key that didn't work. I called them up, and they said I needed to buy another one. So I asked the guy what the word "bittorrent" meant to him.

Then I hung up.

Lol pwned. You should have returned to the shop though, they would have given you a new one.

 

[Pelu]

Why developers invest so much time and effort making DRM if it can be pirated anyways?????

 

[nosfe]

the developers usually don't have the power to decide that, the publishers are the ones that want DRM

 

[Pelu]

Why Publishers invest so much time and effort making DRM if it can be pirated anyways?????

 

[Smilin]

I do and then some. I own two copies of quake I play neither.

I have a Quake I CD off in a closet somewhere and I also have one I purchased off steam as part of the id pack.

The CD one is good old software rendered quake and all. The one on steam will NOT let me change the resolution with the command line options ( -width -height -bpp ).

So I use this copy I put together a long time ago. It has glquake, the idgamma fix, transparent water hack etc.

I have been known to use a no-cd fix on games I own as well. I always pay for my games but I simply hate swapping a CD.


I'm not sure I I agree with some of the OP reasoning though. Spore is fairly lax DRM. It doesn't get in the way unless you are trying to install to a bunch of machines. There is no CD to insert even. You agreed to that limitation so using a pirated copy because you want to get around it some day doesn't quite fly. Also you can't return a game once you've purchased it. Using piracy to get around this limitation doesn't fly either.

I'm not saying I like the DRM mess or the no-return policy mess but that's the way it is. If you don't like it nobody is holding a gun to your head to make you buy it. Games, movies etc are essentially services rather than products. If you decide you don't like it, the service has already been rendered so you can't "un-play" the game before you return it.

I'd like to see better demos come about as a method to get around this problem. Until then right is right and the law is the law.

 

[imported_Imp]

Nope. I've used a CD crack cause the BS protection wouldn't read the disk, which I bought, in the drive.

 

[ShawnD1]

I can't think of any off hand. The only games I've downloaded were ones I already owned yet lost the physical media of. I had GTA Vice City, played through it, then I lost the CD. I wanted to install it on my new computer, so I just went ahead and downloaded a hack copy. My friend says I lent it to him and didn't ask for it back, so I guess it's in his house or something. Luckily I still have the game manual, so I don't need to pirate that
I'm not in a hurry to get my real CD back since the hack copy works just fine.

Other games that I've downloaded because the CD was lost or broken:
-Ultimate Doom
-Doom 2
-Duke Nukem
-Warcraft 1
-Warcraft 2
-Diablo 1
-Heretic
-Command & Conquer (my DOS version didn't work in XP, so I downloaded a Windows version)
-Imperialism
-Imperialism 2

I know what you're thinking - I must be some kind of retard if I'm breaking this many CDs. What happened was that I had one of those CD booklets that I could easily flip through. My brother dropped his electric eraser on it, and it smashed damn near every CD in the booklet. Lesson learned: never use real CDs, make images of everything and use either Daemon Tools or Alcohol. Keep the real CDs stored in a safe place where you won't touch them on a regular basis.


Getting back to the topic of pirating a game before buying it, I'm thinking I might need to do that for a few games. Example: where is the Fallout 3 demo? Google around; you'll never find it because it doesn't exist. Am I supposed to lay down $55 CDN (a normal game is $50) and just hope like hell that I win? Where is the demo for Mass Effect? Why doesn't GTA4 have a demo? I've played GTA4 on Xbox and I know it's a good game, but I'll still need to pirate-demo this just to see if my PC can handle it. That game has some really intense graphics and I really don't know if my computer can handle it.

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: Kromis
Bethesda? Really?

In all fairness, the big problem with Fallout 3 is not DRM but astounding bugginess.

Apparently, the new standard is to save huge sums of money on beta testing games and just release them as-is.