Ethics is kind of a personal viewpoint, there’s no “agreed upon table of ethics”. So of course be aware you are just getting opinions here.
Now my opinion, I do fall into the “if it’s worth the money pay for it”, if it’s not, don’t, and the Pirate now decide later is IMO a totally valid way to do that, and quite a few independent developers, etc… flat out encourage that method. Of course that doesn’t mean they all do. But to me my personal ethics say it’s more ethical… paying for a bad game, at the cost of not paying for a good game, is a travesty. My ethics say the best games should be the ones purchased… not the ones that had the best marketing and tricked the most people.
Ethics is kind of a personal viewpoint, there’s no “agreed upon table of ethics”. So of course be aware you are just getting opinions here.
Now my opinion, I do fall into the “if it’s worth the money pay for it”, if it’s not, don’t, and the Pirate now decide later is IMO a totally valid way to do that, and quite a few independent developers, etc… flat out encourage that method. Of course that doesn’t mean they all do. But to me my personal ethics say it’s more ethical… paying for a bad game, at the cost of not paying for a good game, is a travesty. My ethics say the best games should be the ones purchased… not the ones that had the best marketing and tricked the most people.