What's your opinion about piracy?

I use it as a way to get GOOD demos. It usually leads to a sale if the game is any good. Last example: GhostControl Inc., today.
The way I see it it's forgiveable as long as it's done in good faith. Leeches who never pay for any game are bad.
Poor people and wary people are another matter entirely.

makes me want to download illegally all things when I paid a lot of money for a game and become to f2p

I usually pirate games only to check out if I can run the game well, IF there is a steam version available. Also if the game is single player with not much info available and its on its early builds. Better pirate the game and see if its any good before paying $20 on a barely functioning game.

I think it's fine if you want to test out a game to see if you like it, but if you plan to plan through it, you should purchase it

1. Pirate it
2. Never finish it
3. Buy it from Steam when it gets %75 off
4. Finish on original,updated,recent version
5. ???
6. Profit

If it's an EA game;

1. Pirate it
2. Finish it
3. Watch people crying over it's countless number of DLC's and insane number of bugs
4. Give it a low score on every review site
5. ???
6. Profit

The demo excuse is pretty much a load of crap. Once you've downloaded the full thing for free, it's a lot easier to find some minor flaw after you get tired of it and claim that it's not worth your money. If you're worried about how it will run, you can read the specs and make a pretty educated guess, or ask on some forum and get a good answer.

I can't really chalk piracy up as either good or bad because it really depends on the pirate's motives. On one hand a pirate could see a game and think 'I could buy this... but I'd rather just pirate it.' , or give it some other justification ('The game should be cheaper' 'I don't know if I'll like the game' 'I hate EA' etc.). On the other hand a pirate might have never bought the game in the first place, no matter the reason. In that case, it wouldn't really effect the developers. TLDR: Of course pirating is morally wrong, but unless you would have bought the game otherwise, it really wouldn't effect anyone.

Louis CK on piracy in Australia.

Its decline is the real reason for global warming.

As someone who has been involved in the "piracy" side of things since the days of Is0warezz on Efnet (ahh, memories!), I do download games. I don't sell them or share them, it's purely for myself, and maybe the kids, BUT!! If I like a game enough, I buy it because if I keep playing it until completion, then, in my opinion, they deserve the money for it as they made, to me, a good game. However, we aren't a wealthy family, (I'm on disability, my wife works part-time and we have 2 kids to support), so sometimes I have to wait for the sales and to save up however much it is.
Most of the "pirates" I know and talk to also do this but, unfortunately, for every 1 of us that do that, about 99 other DON'T. We understand that, if there's no money going into the game's makers/publishers, then there won't be any games in the future to pirate OR to buy.

I haven't pirated since my black cat died :-(

I do like pixel piracy, which is pretty obvious from this post.

I don't think I have the right to judge anyone for pirating as I've pirated some games myself at one point of my life (when I got cable Internet instead of the 56k one). Many were doing it and it was more convenient, you didn't have to go anywhere, a game was just a few clicks away plus totally free.

Anyway, my computer had become quite old by that time, so I wasn't pirating that much (mostly for the games I owned, but lost/couldn't find the CDs and didn't feel for buying them for a second time). So I was mainly playing the old games I bought or MMOs.

So now I don't pirate, even for a demo purposes (mostly because I'm too lazy to download/install/play it), I just watch a couple of videos on youtube.

As for people who say they aren't going to pay 60 euro for a game, let me say you what - Bioshock Infinite was 60 euro when released (now 30), Skyrim 60 as well (now 20), new Tomb Raider 50 or 60 (don't remember, now 20). Now apply steam discounts (ANY AAA game will have a 75% off in a year or two) and you can buy these games pretty cheap. Yes, not for free, but still cheap. You just have to wait a bit, no need to play games right when they release (unless it's some multiplayer game. And even then it's not always the case).

Oh, one more thing about pirating because of DRM. If I see any DRM I don't like, I just skip the game, simple as that. Then again, have no idea if those other Uplay/Origin/whatever DRMs are bad. Played Dirt 3 with GFWL and wouldn't say it was bad.

As for other types of pirating - I still pirate films/tv series from time to time, but mostly when I want to watch them in the original. Maybe if there were some service like steam (or better like gog), I wouldn't.

don't steal mmmkay.
i cant claim to have never pirated a game but given what i know about game development now, i view it in a different light and try not to promote it.

I think piracy fantastic for most games, and here's why:

Sure, you get to play the game, but a lot of times you usually get either outdated versions, you need to go download another entire torrent just to update, you don't get steam achievements/trading cards/hours recorded/etc. if the game is on Steam, a lot of times multiplayer is restricted when it is one of the largest features of the game, and best of all you get to play the game to see if you will actually like it before you buy it :)

I mean yeah, sure, a lot of times it sucks for developers if they aren't on Steam or if people play the game the exact same as if it would be if they paid for it, but for the large chunk of piracy that is done on PC, I'd say that yeah, piracy is pretty fantastic for a lot of people (not myself of course).

This

If you can't afford to buy the game then you should use the hours you want to use playing the game to make money to buy games.

Piracy is theft, regardless of whether the product is still there after duplication.
Rather than justify stealing the product, why not protest by ignoring the product?

Prices will never drop while people are still interested in a product, they will only go up. Developers won't start making better games while there is still interest in the product, they will only shovel out more crap, with more expensive DLC that makes the game "complete".

The only people you punish with Piracy are the genuine buyers who will constantly suffer price hikes by developers hoping to recover losses on the garbage they deal.

I see that someone didn't read the upcoming new site rules.

Skip this kind of discussion in the future, it won't go well.

Everyone to their own.

On the consoles side of the issue: Sadly, not everyone can afford a console (or their older consoles are broken or worn out and they prefer to play their old-school console games on PC) and that's why we have the whole emulator scene going on. Maybe if Nintendo for instance went the Steam/Origin route and expanded their Virtual Console service to be a PC Network/DRM and offer their older 8-bit/16-bit games to be playable on PC for a reasonable price, that might curb the "illegal" aspects of emulation and the pirating of their games somewhat.

As for the PC side of the issue: Being chiefly a PC gamer myself, I don't really see any reason to pirate PC games. I prefer to get them legitimately (either buy them myself, or at least get them from legit giveaways or giveaway sites like SG...)

shhhhh...
secret giveaway! ;D

if you can afford the antivirus you use for torrents, then I'm pretty sure you can afford sales :D

If you can't afford to buy a game or it's unavailable in your region, I have no problem with video game piracy.
However if you have like a 2000$ machine, you should probably just buy games, you can afford it.

Piracy is ok if the game is early access or overpriced. For early access games they grab the money and do nothing about the game. And also a dollar is twice of our currency. So it will be very expensive to buy full price, until the sales.

Um.

This. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBH4g_ua5es

You be your own judge. In some cases pirates offer better services. Why should I buy the settlers 7 if I need a constant connection to play and in some cases wont even be able to play? Fuck you ubisoft, go eat rotten maggot eggs you pieces of air wasting shit. In contrast; why shouldn't I buy the witcher 3? Im getting a loyalty discount, drm free game to keep and instal on as many PC's I want and I know CDPR wont fuck me over with post launch DLC that was made pre launch and online activation bullshit. Even If I don't have the money, Ill wait, see others play and deprive myself of that pleasure until I do have enough money to buy it - It's the least I can do.
I haven't pirated since 2008 with the exception of Colonial Marines (yes, they deserved it), largely because of Steam and Humble Bundle. There was no need - steam seemed to provide a far better experience than pirates could (especially when the title includes MP) and Humble actually gave an incentive to give more since you're also contributing to charity.
I also don't believe Origin and Uplay are good enough services and have skipped everything that was exclusive to those platforms (didn't even care enough to pirate). Although once Mirrors Edge 2 comes along... I shall have to visit a certain Swedish website again unless Origin improves drastically (or if it gets a Steam release).

Also: TV and Movies I pirate them all. Paying for a digital rental is robbery (or paying more for HD). Services providing those services also arent available here anyway so... yeah.