Whats your opinion on pirating game because of their price?

[Neb Lleb]

Just saw a visual novel on steam for 20USD that you need to go out of your way to download a patch on a third party website if you want to see 18+ scenes (whole point of the game tbh, the story is kind of goofy). This made me start to think about how even though people have different opinions (game has mostly positive reviews on steam), some game are not worth spending money for. What's your opinion on pirating? Am I reading too much into it?

PS: the game is night shift nurses, very trashy/questionable fetish content so be warned.

There's a time and a place for piracy, I feel. Because of the fact that most PS1 games are being scalped, I went for emulation and downloading roms for this case. Other times, I go legal.

 

[Leon]

At this point?
I don't care, the industry has completely forgotten what made it good anymore.

 

[Konatalzumi]

I only buy games if it has denuovo, steam workshop, mods, or multiplayer. I used to buy any game I could when I was little, but now I pirate 90% of the games I can get.

Incase you guys are curious, here's my steam profile so you can see how many games I bought since 2015

Steam Community :: Konata

█▀█ ▀█▀ ▄▀█ █▄▀ █░█ █▄█ ░█░ █▀█ █░█ █▄█ Timotei! Timotei! Timotei!~~ View More Info

steamcommunity.com

 

[Ravl]

I always pirate, I don't want to spend money on something I can get for free

 

[Clippy]

Besides, they say that some 70% of all games are lost media, because some companies don't care.

https://gamehistory.org/87percent/

 

[SwordBreaker40]

Look up Train Simulator Classic 2024, Dead or Alive 6 or The Sims 4 on Steam and weep for the people who shelled out for the DLCs.

I know I love Sim4 but Jesus fucking Christ getting all DLC would cost more than I spent building my PC.
And the worst part people want a new sims game but EA was like fuck no we make millions on Sims 4 so we rather focus on new DLC´s and patch the game as much as we can.

 

[Parasite_Steve]

These days I’m only paying for a game if it’s much easier than pirating it, when I want to support the developer or if it’s a retro game that I have some nostalgic connection to (only when the price is fair of course).
I wouldn’t pirate indies for example or Fromsoft games. Same thing with music. I’ll always support my favorite bands.

It’s happened quite a lot that I bought a game and due to intrusive drm or shitty additional launchers *cough* uplay *cough* I still played the pirated version.

 

[Ravl]

https://gamehistory.org/87percent/

Don't tell me you guys would actually buy roms if they were all commercially available

 

[Konatalzumi]

Don't tell me you guys would actually buy roms if they were all commercially available

not me. never.

 

[TheDuke_11037]

Just saw a visual novel on steam for 20USD that you need to go out of your way to download a patch on a third party website if you want to see 18+ scenes

This is mostly a thing on steam, they don't let certain 18+ things onto their storefront. I usually don't mind doing it since it's free. Other stores like GOG don't usually have those patches that need to be applied because of ye more lax policy.

 

[Bonkers225]

Are some of you even aware what site you're even on? There's no such thing as ethical pirating. "Oh ho ho, I'm a good guy, I only download old games, never the NEW games, oh ho ho!" That's like a bank robber saying, "No, I only took all the 20's and not the 100's!"

 

[DanVzare]

My personal opinion is that everything is already free, since it's so easy to pirate. So what you're paying for is convenience. Convenience being a relative term, since it can mean anything such as being easy to find, easy to get running, easy to preserve, or easy to mod.
If they don't provide enough convenience for what you're paying, then you may as well pirate it.

But that's just my personal view of the matter.

(And as an indie game developer, I'm A-Ok with people pirating my games. Just so long as someone is playing them, feel free to go nuts. I look forward to the day when I see a game I've made on a pirate site.)

 

[destinyduelist]

If the game is reasonably priced I'll buy it. Buying a game on Steam and then just going on Steam and clicking download and play is significantly easier than going through fitgirl or whatever else site you want to use and then going through some shady installer and then blah blah. Look, I know I make it sound harder than it is everyone here pirates and we all know it isn't difficult, but I'll be damned if I don't buy some random game I've been wanting to play that's like 5 bucks on sale. Its easier, its safer. I don't care about supporting multi million dollar companies, I only care about ease of access, this is why I don't buy Ubislop or EA games anymore, the day I play a game that requires me to download a secondary shitty launcher ever again is the day I've been murdered and replaced with some evil fucked up clone of myself.

 

[RustySK]

I'm honestly plain too lazy to pirate games nowadays.
My internet connection is slow and my memories of ye olden days when a cracked copy of a game was a genuine gamble on whether it might brick your entire PC or not run deep, so given the fact that I've already got the kind of backlog that would make a strong man tremble in fear, I just don't really bother anymore.

That said, I see absolutely no issue whatsoever with pirating AAA-budgeted games or anything put out by any of the larger publishers anymore.
Quality and creativity in that space are sinking, prices are spiking to ridiculous degrees and in recent days, those big name releases even tend to be broken for at least a couple months after release, too - they've got nobody to blame but themselves.
Those companies have grown way too large for the industry's wellbeing anyway.

When it comes to indie games... I mean, those can be overpriced or released by problematic individuals too of course, but more often than not I'd feel pretty bad if an actual, passionate dev were to lose out on possible profit.
There are other ways to support an indie dev while pirating ther games though, I suppose. Promoting them based on your impressions of a pirated copy, for example...
But yeah, I think when it comes to indie releases piracy is definitely a bit more problematic to me. I know that I personally would always want to throw money at an indie game I enjoy either way.

Not like I'd begrudge anyone anything in that regard though. Times are hard and money's short, but even still, everyone needs at least some kind of entertainment.

 

[Lemons]

I don't care, doubt the corpo does as-well, but I'm also self-aware to know what I'm doing is wrong.

Stealing is fun, have you ever ripped the tag off a product at a store? /j

is your signature a dracula flow quote

 

[LoneTroglodyte]

I'm either not buying it, or not buying it and getting it by alternative means. So, either way, noone's making money.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I don't agree with pirating something because it's expensive (games are not necessities), but I'd a 100% support the practice of actively getting profits away from companies that mistreat customers and employees alike. If your game can't even work right without fan intervention because your staff was worked to death to meet a totally artificial deadline and then is "rewarded" for it by getting laid off while record profits start falling in, then yeah... It's torrenting for me.

 

[Yt56]

For 18+ games like light novels and rpgm's I most of the time pirate it to try it. If it's good and available on steam with achievements, I'll grab it. I'm ok with publisher posting games without the 18+ content, but if they ain't adding achievements or at least badges this is lazy.

 

[opeb]

Personally, a game like Night Shift Nurses would be more worth my money than a typical AAA title since I'm very into visual novels and appreciate when games get brought over in English. Smaller releases like that usually operate on much tighter margins so you can't really say when it'll be their last. It's also a blessing to get a game at $20 compared to $70 nowadays, haha. MH Wilds being a big recent example, I got it at a discount to make it $60 and was handed a flickery, blurry, laggy mess that's ugly even on good PCs, I can completely empathize with someone wanting to pirate that.

Ultimately it lands on that famous saying about convenience. Now that I am an adult and have a disposable income, I don't pirate anything modern. I have no reason to judge others if they do, though.

 

[Adrastia]

Just saw a visual novel on steam for 20USD that you need to go out of your way to download a patch on a third party website if you want to see 18+ scenes (whole point of the game tbh, the story is kind of goofy).

This is why I've seen many people say not to support Steam's practice of selling VNs with the content gutted. Especially when they have very graphic "Co-Ed Beach Party Bikini Fest 33" type games that I have had to block over and over because they clog up my searches of just about everything. So you end up paying full price for gutted VNs and if you don't read the disclaimer you wouldn't know that.

I'm not interested in the H scenes themselves and usually click through them unless they are story relevant. There's actually a few like Sayonara O Oshiete where the hentai is important to understand parts of the plot. There's a little too much of it and I got annoyed. But some key H scenes are actually key scenes. That game is never coming to Steam though. Believe me.

Unfortunately a lot of denpa VNs are in the same boat. I do wish I could find more that are hentai free. But it's one of those necessary evils. H scenes sell copies.

Wonderful Everyday has too much H scenes for my taste too. But there are some plot important ones. I pirated it and my version was missing a couple of scenes I wouldn't want to see anyway because it was a version that had already removed a couple of controversial scenes.

But I have heard that Sweet Pool is horribly mangled on Steam to the point where it ruins the flow of the story. As much as I want to support the developers so we get more official VN releases I tend to think twice before purchasing anything that requires a patch. I'd understand more if those literal porn games were also subject to the same deal. But they aren't.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's iconRanmyakuIchi]

I'm a fairly frequent sailor of the high seas. It largely started back when I was broke and couldn't afford or justify spending more than a small amount on games.

Nowadays, I only really buy games if it's something I actively want to support. I suppose that makes me a thief, but I feel so alienated as a consumer in this day and age that I really don't care to financially contribute to a company that would rip me off in a heartbeat. Again though, I like to purchase legitimately when it's something I feel deserves it.

 

[G.L.a.D.O.S.]

Ah, the noble art of gaming ethics, where I, a self-proclaimed connoisseur of pixels rarely dabble in the murky waters of piracy—unless absolutely necessary, of course. As I pen this missive, I'm struck by the reality that not even a single shiny new game has sparked my interest. But old titles? If I can play them—say, on a Switch or if I have a fondness for the studio—I’ll whip out my wallet faster than you can say “nostalgia tax.”

Now, if we’re dealing with a long-abandoned relic, where the only option is paying a ransom to some eBay goblin with a nostalgia fetish? Yep, consider my moral compass spinning wildly; I’ll just take that digital treasure for free. And can we talk about those DLC prices? It’s like a greedy corporate giant said, “How can we squeeze the last drop of joy from our fans?” And voilà, overpriced DLC was born! That’s why, when it comes to gems like Dead or Alive 6, I bought the base game, but let’s just say I responsibly obtained the rest in a manner that didn’t involve bending over for a corporate cash grab.

And before you judge, let me throw in my defense: indie developers? If I love their work, I’m throwing my money at them faster than a kid at a candy store. So there you have it, folks—my gaming morality wrapped in a shiny, cheeky package.

 

[LiberoVulpes]

I have a set price which is the limit i am willing to pay for a game, its roughly 20 USD after conversion, i don't care if they are indie or AAA, make something worth its price, otherwise, i don't care, i am raising the black flag.

Even as someone who makes games i will tell you game devs don't deserve more than that for any given game.

 

[Raziya The Seeker]

I have a simple dichotomy for buying vs pirating games.

• If a game is over $40 USD, it's usually AAA shlock not worth buying in the first place.
• If it's $30 to $40 USD, I budget around it and consider real hard if it's something I'd actually like.
• If it's $20 USD or less, I consider getting it sooner than later, and it's probably something I'd like. With diminishing returns, because there's a lot of shovelware on Steam for $5 or less.

I don't pirate games that aren't more than five years old, where I'm pretty sure the original creators have long since made their expected profits on it. If it's a game I wouldn't pay for, I probably wouldn't play it anyway. For indies, it's unforgivable. For AA's, whatever. For AAA's, why even bother playing their overrated, overpriced bullshit?

Now excuse me as I see if there's anything I wanna bother with on the Steam Summer Sale, let alone browse the Repo.

 

[fake-kun]

Who gives a shit?