Whats your opinion on pirating game because of their price?

[THYpiper]

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.

 

[Tonberry]

I'm totally ambivalent nowadays. Sometimes I pirate games, sometimes I buy them. I don't really have a pattern as to why I choose one over the other anymore. Though I usually buy modern games and pirate old ones, simply because it tends to be easier both ways, but it's not a rule I follow.

I don't really care about money (even then I barely have any), so price has never been a reason. I'd say go nuts, you don't really need to justify it for anyone but yourself, especially om a forum like this!

 

[AncientBehemoth]

Yohoho. Strike me with thunder that day I say that I care if multimillionaire company lose some profits.

 

[CargoRoms]

Well, sometimes I don't know if I'll like it, nor will it run on my PC, and since it doesn't have a demo...

And of course, decades old games should never cost too much.

 

[Antilocal123]

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

 

[PrismRed]

Totally acceptable until a certain price. Although the VN patch stuff is another point of topic entirely.

 

[Clippy]

Iirc the reason VNs get released like that is to avoid the dreaded 18+ label and getting buried. In this day and age you're lucky the uncensor patch doesn't cost extra. If it did it would be yo-ho-ho all the way. As is, it's up to you I suppose. If you feel the game is worth it, you want to support the dev and have extra cash on hand I say buy it. If not then the least you can do is spread the word of a good game.

 

[Tonberry]

If not then the least you can do is spread the word of a good game.

This is a good mindset too, I think.

 

[OfManNotMachine]

I don't generally worry about it because I believe 95% of people who pirate anything, were never going to buy it in the first place anyways.

 

[THYpiper]

Iirc the reason VNs get released like that is to avoid the dreaded 18+ label and getting buried. In this day and age you're lucky the uncensor patch doesn't cost extra. If it did it would be yo-ho-ho all the way. As is, it's up to you I suppose. If you feel the game is worth it, you want to support the dev and have extra cash on hand I say buy it. If not then the least you can do is spread the word of a good game.

I see, I thought the sexual content tag that the game hadcounted as the 18+ label.

 

[Zerohour2k12]

Understandable. I got plenty cracked games myself as well as a means to play delisted ones and emulating console exclusives. Also a way to try the game out before deciding weather to buy it. been on a few pirate sites for a long while too.

 

[GardeniaSky's icon GardeniaSky GardeniaSky]

I've been burned too many times now by big AAA companies releasing mediocre games.

Or I'll get repacks/cracks if the game simply isn't available on Steam.

If i like a game, I'll buy it. But I don't trust most companies anymore to purchase on release. That trust has been BROKEN.

 

[Deleted member 884]

I never think about it, nor I care. Until I could, I bought several games, mainly because I had never heard about pirating. But now it's irrelevant, if I wanna playa game I donwload it, period.

 

[CargoRoms]

Oh, there's also the DRM. Remember Games for Windows Life?

Nowadays, every gaming company wants their own Steam platform. Much like how every movie/TV show company wanted to be the next Netflix. But streaming felt flat on its face, as soon as content alteration and scavenger hunt became problematic.

 

[PSVitaForever]

Thanks to being able to play games this way, it has happened to me more than often that after trying them I liked them so much I ended up buying (even if they were Gamestop used cheap copies). I remember buying "Avalon Code" and "Knights in the Nightmare" just for the sake of having them because I liked them a lot, even if I had already finished them. I'm talking about "retrogaming" (PSP and DS mostly, but for both consoles I also had nice collection of physical games).
It also happens the other way round: after being able to try games without demos, I understood they were not for me so I just deleted them after an hour or so.

 

[Iguana-0]

I hate video games and will not pay for them. Piracy forever!! ARRRRR!!!

 

[Clippy]

I mean multimillionaire companies wanting me to pay 60-100 bucks for a fucking game which will also get DLC that I probably wanna buy that ends up with me paying 150-200 bucks for the fucking games.
Also let say 100 bucks become standard price 300 bucks for 3 fucking games that almost half the price of a PS5 pro. My rent is 620 bucks 3 games would basically we half of what I pay to have a place to live.

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.

 

[RedNin3]

If I see a game that tickled my interest, but it's price is just ridiculous for what it seems to be and you don't have a demo for it, I don't care if you're EA or indie dev number 39587171, I will try that game before purchasing it by any means necessary.
And in the special cases of the game having the malware called Denuvo (fkusega), I just refrain from owing them, I have other good stuff to play anyways.

 

[MasterEn]

some games remove some content like the spicy stuff that you see in some visual novel games because some countries outright ban the game permanently if it gets the adult only label. there are about 20 games that have that rating, according to a video that i watched that covered manhunt 2.
i'm pretty sure that is the reason why some games remove their content or tone it down if need be.

Post automatically merged: Mar 17, 2025

now, to comment on the price of games in general, most games are barely worth $30 - 40. a handful are worth $60. it's not our fault that modern day devs decided that raw graphics were more important than everything else. they will only get the point that they should put more effort into their games when the vast majority of people stop buying mediocre slop. if it has enough content and replayablity to warrant the price tag, then it's fine to pay that much. otherwise, wait for a sale or ignore it.
bringing back demos would certainly help people to make a decision on whether or not to purchase a game. i've gotten a few games because i could playa demo and see if i liked the game or not.

 

[Cocaine Owlbear]

I don't think I've ever pirated something just because of price. I've done it to circumvent DRM control and malware disguised as DRM or anticheat, or because nobody wants to sell it. If I desperately wanted to play a game put out by a publisher or other entity I refuse to support on moral grounds, I might pirate it - but probably not. I probably just wouldn't play it.

But price? Not really. It's a game. If I can't afford it I just play something else. There are lots of great, inexpensive games, free games, and even a few decent open source ones. And many of those cheaper games are also better experiences overall, IMO.

This isn't an ethical thing, BTW. I couldn't possibly care less about stealing from a multi-billion dollar company, and if you wanna pirate the most recent AAA release, more power to you. I just don't think the games are good enough to merit the effort. Steam, GoG, and Itch,io are easy. DLing and playing Unciv is easy.

 

[groundbeef]

There are times I agree with piracy completely such as with compilations like Rocket Knight: Re-Sparked. $30 for some measly half-baked emulation games with picture albums. It is pricing like that which encourages many to pirate. There are plenty of other examples on Steam I have found that make me cringe. Most of the time the pricing isn't bad and the sales are usually well done, but sometimes i'll see something absolutely crazy and wonder what the game producers are thinking when they establish their priceline.

 

[MasterEn]

There are times I agree with piracy completely such as with compilations like Rocket Knight: Re-Sparked. $30 for some measly half-baked emulation games with picture albums. It is pricing like that which encourages many to pirate. There are plenty of other examples on Steam I have found that make me cringe. Most of the time the pricing isn't bad and the sales are usually well done, but sometimes i'll see something absolutely crazy and wonder what the game producers are thinking when they establish their priceline.

if i remeber correctly, there is a sales tactic that the normal price will be very high and will every so often get discounted to a more reasonable price, which is the actual price that the company wanted for their game or dlc. fallout 76 did this with a lot of the microtransactions in that game.

 

[Konatalzumi]

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.

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.

 

[MegaHiro91]

One side of me "knows" that piracy is bad because I take something (or copy it rather (nothing is technically "taken" since nothing is removed but merely copied)), and while I will sometimes pirate newer games just to save money, I am all for pirating older games that are going skyhigh on eBay, whether it is morally right or not. If a let's play made me curious about a 25 year old game that goes for 1200DKK on eBay, should I then shell out that money just to check it out? No, that's ludicruis money for ANY game! If I absolutely MUST have it for my collection, then sure, you do you with your own money. But if you just want to check the game out and see what you missed those 25 years ago... pirate that shit, no one who made the game cares anyway.

Besides, they say that some 70% of all games are lost media, because some companies don't care. Well in those cases I see piracy as not only the only way to preserve those games, but to spread them as well and make them more widely known.

You could say; "Well you don't hold the rights to that game so no matter your intensions you have no right to pirate it. If the developers have no interest in preserving it, then that's their right."

But to that I say that the moment you release something to the world, it becomes part of our collective culture, and culture isn't owned by one lone individual. So the moment you make a work of art (like games are) you don't have the exclusive right to say "don't preserve this".

Art is part of our culture, our history, and our identity, and again no one individual owns those three things.

 

[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.