Video Game Piracy

[Maxite]

Hello. I want to start a discussion on one of the greater controversies within the video gaming community: piracy. What are your opinions on piracy? Are there times when piracy is allowable, or should it never be tolerated? Have you personally engaged in piracy (see poll)? Do you think piracy is as bad as the media portrays it? Discuss and debate away, but please be civil and respectful of people's positions.

[R7308xx]

Do you mean like burning them to discs or carts, or using emulators?

[Mari-Illustrious-Makinami]

Do you mean like burning them to discs or carts, or using emulators?

Yeah I have the same question. (but emulator's aren't illegal, I don't think)

[Greenpickle]

Not emulators themselves, of course not, but possessing commercial games to play on them, yes.  (I'm sure there are some exceptions or something, though...)  And piracy is just coming into possession of a commercial game you haven't paid for the right to own, in any form, isn't it?

I've never pirated a game, simply because I've never felt the need.  I barely have the time to play through the few games I do buy, let alone even a tiny proportion of the great free games/mods out there.

Do I think it's wrong?  I don't really care what other people do, though I guess, even though larger studios have more expenses, I have a bit of a preference that they wouldn't pirate games by small, independent teams.  I don't really have a problem with those that just want to try out games without demos, then buy them if they like them.  I can't really think of a scenario in which I would pirate a game.

[Mari-Illustrious-Makinami]

Well, I have 87 Nintendo 64 ROMS, does that count as piracy?

[R7308xx]

In this case, I've never pirated a game, though I have 2 GBA ROMS (Mother 1+2 and Mother 3). I plan to get more.

[tacopill]

I think piracy is an unfortunate thing we have to deal with. I'm not endoursing it, but i am not condemning it either.

I think it is a bad thing, because too much of it can have detrimental effects to an existing series, as there are now more copies of the game out there, then the company has rightfully received money for. However, at the same time, i know a lot of people who simply can't afford to legally buy games for themselves, or the game is not available in their region.

Related: i know people who can legitly buy games on their own, but choose to download it for free; and that doesn't sit well with me.

[Manga Maniac]

If I already own a GB/GBC/GBA game, then usually I'll get a ROM for it for the Visual Boy Advance. Mainly I do this with Pokémon games in order to get emulation hacks or, in the case of Red and Yellow, in order to smash the game open and summon h POKé, MissingNo., 'M and all other spawn of Satan to roam the wild, viciously destroying the world around them and transforming my Pokémon into hellish strange things that sort of resemble what they looked like before.

But, as I said, I only do that with games I own in real-life.

[R7308xx]

Related: i know people who can legitly buy games on their own, but choose to download it for free; and that doesn't sit well with me.

Would having a FF3 SNES ROM when I already have the GBA version count?

[tacopill]

Related: i know people who can legitly buy games on their own, but choose to download it for free; and that doesn't sit well with me.

Would having a FF3 SNES ROM when I already have the GBA version count?

With me, it's "ify", leaning towards "allowed", because you 1) have the GBA version (which means someone gave Nintendo money) and 2) Nintendo won't be selling SNES games anytime soon.

but that's just me.

[R7308xx]

There's actually a place called the Scurvy Gamer near the Wal-Mart closest to my house, and they are a shop that sells pirated games and empty cartridges/ disks so you can do it yourself. Bad boys, bad boys, whatchu gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

[tacopill]

There's actually a place called the Scurvy Gamer near the Wal-Mart closest to my house, and they are a shop that sells pirated games and empty cartridges/ disks so you can do it yourself. Bad boys, bad boys, whatchu gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

interesting......

[Miles of SmashWiki]

I'll only pirate games that are exceedingly difficult or impossible to obtain legally.

[tacopill]

I'll only pirate games that are exceedingly difficult or impossible to obtain legally.

yea. that's understandable.

[Zesty Cactus]

I'll only pirate games that are exceedingly difficult or impossible to obtain legally.

this is basically my stance. i have played a few ROMs over the years, but that was only for games i was unable to purchase legally. (the only one of which i never bought was EarthBound because i don't own a SNES, though i have deleted the ROM anyways)

a few i can think of off the top of my head are LttP (bought it when it came out on GBA), Monster Rancher Battle Card GB (FINALLY found a used copy!), Pokémon Card GB2 (I found an import copy at a used game shop, and now it's BROKEN!!!! :@ so i may get another ROM of it after all, haha.)

Related: i know people who can legitly buy games on their own, but choose to download it for free; and that doesn't sit well with me.

same here. it kind of pisses me off when people, who within reason have the means to buy the game, don't just to be cheap/belligerent/whatever.

[theichibun]

Before the Wii had their virtual console stuff out I justified having ROMs for dead systems by saying that those games couldn't be purchased anymore anyway.  I always thought that games on collections didn't count.

Now it's a bit trickier, but since I've had the stuff for so long I don't think my opinion will change.  Especially since a good number of the VC versions have something changed about them.  Even if it's just a graphics upgrade it's easy to justify it as a different game.

[Naesala]

Before the Wii had their virtual console stuff out I justified having ROMs for dead systems by saying that those games couldn't be purchased anymore anyway.  I always thought that games on collections didn't count.

Now it's a bit trickier, but since I've had the stuff for so long I don't think my opinion will change.  Especially since a good number of the VC versions have something changed about them.  Even if it's just a graphics upgrade it's easy to justify it as a different game.

No, no it's not. Aside from a small spelling error that got fixed in Super Mario 64, I can't think of any other changes.

[Mari-Illustrious-Makinami]

Changing the ads in WaveRace 64 to because the licence expired.

[Naesala]

Changing the ads in WaveRace 64 to because the licence expired.

Oh yeah, still it's the same game.

[Mari-Illustrious-Makinami]

But it's not the way you got it in the original N64 release.