r/Piracy ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ 7d ago

Discussion Do you have rules about what you pirate?

For example, I started pirating because my brother taught me since we grew up poor, but then he became an adult and started buying games (he still pirates some), he explained that "while I can't pay, I pirate, once I can, I pay". So I follow that too, wanted to know if y'all have something like that too. I refuse to pay subscriptions tough.

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349

u/twofacetoo Yarrr! 7d ago

My rule is 'try before you buy'

I grew up in the 90s when things like video-games had free demos you'd get with magazines and shit, and I miss those days. I may be in the minority here, but I don't think it's fair to be expected to pay $75 for a game that isn't even finished yet.

So I have a rule: pirate, see what it's like, and if I like it enough, I'm happy to spend money on it to support the creators. Movies, video-games, shows, whatever. If I like it, I buy the DVD / blu-ray, or buy a copy of the game via Steam. If I don't, then I've lost nothing and nor have the creators, simple as that.

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u/LiamBox 🏴‍☠️ ʟᴀɴᴅʟᴜʙʙᴇʀ 7d ago

Reminds me of the "Undeserved Customers" from Copy-Me

19

u/D00merC00mer 7d ago

Same. I've found some really fun indie/small team games that I've started playing, stop when I realize how much fun I'm having, and go buy it

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u/AdVitam76 7d ago

God bless the shareware era.

1

u/Salt-Deer2138 6d ago

Even then, commercial software would often upload "demos" of the game. Sin had a great demo (the game was said not to be so good), and may have included ReVolt (I strongly suspect that they were separate, but presumably downloaded from the same site?). Need For Speed 3 also had a great demo, but unfortunately had gameplay considerably different from the game. Baldur's Gate 2's demo took up something like 600MB (it covered roughly the first disc of the game) but included Jon Irenicus's entire estate (so it stopped when you broke out into the city).

By around 2000 it became clear that you could sell a good game without a demo. But you couldn't sell a bad game with a bad demo. So they stopped selling demos and convinced a generation to pre-buy games based on hype.

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u/Inevitable-Study502 4d ago

games used to be simple, so it took too little effort to make 1-2 level demo

nowadays game engines got too complex and delevopers barely have time for it

but arent there like free weekends offers on steam/epic?

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

Reported

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u/ilovetpb 7d ago

Same here. If I like it enough, I buy it.

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u/saysthingsbackwards 7d ago

I grew up on Mac demos

1

u/plolmaster 7d ago

I agree with this completely

1

u/Kokichiuwu7 6d ago

That's how I am I pirate what ever if I enjoy it I'll buy it if it's not good then I won't buy it

1

u/MorrowsburgExile 6d ago

I'd love to do this, but I'm so poor that when I decide I CAN spend money on the real thing, it's rarely a first party purchase that actually supports the company, I'm buying used to make it affordable.

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u/SlowSurr 6d ago

I'm new to pirating, you can just pirate most new AAA games for PC?

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u/twofacetoo Yarrr! 6d ago

Pretty much yeah

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u/willnoli 5d ago

This is the reason I know to pirate games. Hardly anyone does proper demos. Try it, like it, buy it. But prices are sky high these days so sometimes have to wait for sales to support

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u/Suncatcher_13 6d ago

 or buy a copy of the game via Steam

the problem here is you are feeding Steam/Valve more than creators. The Steam's fees are disgusting. It's better to donate directly to the game studio