Sony is erasing over 550 movies from PlayStation libraries without offering a single refund. If clicking "Buy" only grants access until a corporate licensing deal expires, the service is fundamentally broken.
I was young, it was convenient, and satisfying. Eventually, I relented to the idea that I was doing it more for personal reward than for any kind of “fuck the establishment” message.
I got a good-paying job, and felt the satisfaction of buying a good game on sale with my own money.
I still maintain, as do most people, that tons of publishers are scummy and anti-consumer, but I also built more positivity towards developers that don’t exhibit such behaviors.
Even if Steam were to somehow go down for a month, by now I’ve learned about other storefronts and methods of purchase that provide a place to move to. There’s a devoted centrism to the way people consume most media franchises that basically guarantees they can flip prices to infinity, control purchases, and never suffer consequences, and piracy absolutely feeds into that; helping them to paint themselves as victims to policymakers while they rake it in.
The thing about piracy is that it’s not a binary choice. Personally, I think there are times that it is unethical. But if you already paid for it, and then publisher takes away your right to consume it, then I have no ethical qualms with pirating that media. If the publisher puts an account-linking requirement or requires any sort of internet connection to play, or some sort of invasive DRM that impacts your ability to play or enjoy that media, or removes or paywalls features, etc., I have no problem with pirating that media. If the publisher no longer makes it available for purchase, whether at all, or simply in your region, I have no problem with pirating that media.
Yeah, I have no issues with that as a solution to wholly broken purchases. I think those are incredibly rare though, even among digital games.
I do think a lot of Denuvo’s opponents tend to exaggerate its effects on the game’s playability, when the findings regarding cracked copies have leaned different directions in performance depending on testing method. Most people can play Denuvo games no problem, even offline.
Online requirements I certainly sympathize more with if it’s a game you like. I enjoy Hitman WoA, and wish other people would try it, but a fair few avoided it for the online requirement. I hope for legislation that ensures, someday when IOI is packing up its last employee and shutting off servers, they can also hand out the keys to an offline mode. But legislation like that (eg, SKG) doesn’t come about from pirating. It takes effort and vocalization.
I used to pirate, don’t anymore.
Even if Steam were to somehow go down for a month, by now I’ve learned about other storefronts and methods of purchase that provide a place to move to. There’s a devoted centrism to the way people consume most media franchises that basically guarantees they can flip prices to infinity, control purchases, and never suffer consequences, and piracy absolutely feeds into that; helping them to paint themselves as victims to policymakers while they rake it in.
The thing about piracy is that it’s not a binary choice. Personally, I think there are times that it is unethical. But if you already paid for it, and then publisher takes away your right to consume it, then I have no ethical qualms with pirating that media. If the publisher puts an account-linking requirement or requires any sort of internet connection to play, or some sort of invasive DRM that impacts your ability to play or enjoy that media, or removes or paywalls features, etc., I have no problem with pirating that media. If the publisher no longer makes it available for purchase, whether at all, or simply in your region, I have no problem with pirating that media.
Yeah, I have no issues with that as a solution to wholly broken purchases. I think those are incredibly rare though, even among digital games.
I do think a lot of Denuvo’s opponents tend to exaggerate its effects on the game’s playability, when the findings regarding cracked copies have leaned different directions in performance depending on testing method. Most people can play Denuvo games no problem, even offline.
Online requirements I certainly sympathize more with if it’s a game you like. I enjoy Hitman WoA, and wish other people would try it, but a fair few avoided it for the online requirement. I hope for legislation that ensures, someday when IOI is packing up its last employee and shutting off servers, they can also hand out the keys to an offline mode. But legislation like that (eg, SKG) doesn’t come about from pirating. It takes effort and vocalization.
They don’t. There are in-depth analyses confirming it’s effects published all over the web.
I tried to play one last week (someone in my family purchased it) and it did not work offline. Very big problem, and not acceptable.
Doesn’t matter if you like it or not, it’s never acceptable.
LOL sure they can, but they usually don’t. There are decade-old games at this point with Denuvo still active .