My issue is the license part. If I can’t own the installer files then it really doesn’t seem right anyways.
Is the development team still intact or were most of them laid off after the game’s success?
Hmm, well I’d say no. Like what if the ip or production company is garbage? Definitely wrong to give them money.
Maybe slightly off-topic, I just want to remind that Denuvo used pirated (personal licence) VMProtect in their commercial product.
No, buying a license is never ethical.
It’s very difficult to imagine a situation in which pirating would be unethical.
Killing sailors and sinking the ship is quite unethical by the norms of my culture. But I suppose you’re talking about unsanctioned copying. Yes, copying is always ethical.
I’ve bought plenty of games that I’ve pirated. I’m just not willing to pay more than a dollar or two unless it’s DRM free.
If the game doesn’t a demo or a refund period, then I don’t see a problem with it.
I miss shareware demos
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.
There have been several games I ONLY bought because I pirated it first to play and then purchased. Some games don’t have demos available,
I spent a good 8000 hours playing Fallout 4 before I bought it. Might have been the 5th Anniversary sale?
Also, it’s one of the few games I’ve ever actually paid for.
What made you decide to pay for that one?
An incredible Steam summer sale for the GOTY edition with all the DLCs. When fallout 4 first came out, it was pretty buggy, so regular updates for both the main game and all the DLC‘s was pretty crucial in the early years. I got sick of having to deal without them.
If it’s unethical to pirate, you can assuage your guilt by buying the thing after the fact, or deciding you were never gonna buy it anyway. If you don’t think it’s unethical to pirate, then it’s not an issue.
As to what I believe… if buying isn’t owning, pirating isn’t stealing.
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It’s true for music too apart from the chart-topping names. Music and games are both art forms, and the general principle is pretty simple: if you don’t already have a dedicated fanbase, obscurity is a much greater threat to your finances than piracy.
I did that with WinRAR, decided I didn’t need it after all
I guess it’s my turn: “If buying isn’t owning…”NM, missed it by an hour. 😏
