Gabe - Piracy non issues for Steam.

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":ls6gyzb4]Serious question, do you guys still download shit? Movies? Series? Music? Games?

I won't hide the fact I download music quite a lot, and when I love what I hear I order it on vinyl right away and go to the bands' gigs when they come to France, and I also buy some stuff from their merchandise. I still have a lot of vinyls to buy though, but some day I'll have them all.

I sometimes download series and movies but I haven't done that in quite some time now. The last series I downloaded was Game of Thrones because it isn't broadcasted in France yet.

I haven't downloaded a single game in ages since I usually wait for the holidays when they are a lot cheaper, and this year I think my wallet will hate me as usual. On the other hand, when games are stuffed with DRM I don't bother and just pirate them if I absolutely want to play. Otherwise I just avoid them. Punishing the honest person who pays for the game with a shitload of DRM is really a bad move. I've always liked Valve's position on piracy/DRMs and I share their opinions on the matter, but yeah the 1$ = 1€ policy on Steam can be quite bothersome when the game is just released and you absolutely want it. On the other hand, for us developers, that policy is pretty good since we can make, erm, more money.

I occasionally casually pirate games that I don't REALLY want to play, but want to at least dabble in to take part in the overall gamer conversation and see what they're about, like the COD games. I played MW3 up until they laughably attempted to make controversy in the UK level, and quit, and I don't really feel like I owe Activision any money for that. I'd probably buy these games or ignore them at all if my budget was bigger, because then I'd have more work to make that extra disposable income and I wouldn't be wasting time playing tripe to get the context of videogame discussions.

Games I actually want though, like BF3 and Saints Row, I buy. This month has been super expensive. I actually wanted to upgrade my hardware but couldn't afford it yet because VIDEOGAMES. Thankfully all three of those run ok with settings turned down. Saints Row had some stutter issues until I edited the ini to turn off motion blur, but after that it's just fine. Also coop, fuck yeah!

[Blocked Image: http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/596954956118861201/792F4BF0D2CA2ECC6B3D4C0B587A923632FEA88E/]

I still download TV and Radio shows, though I pay my TV License (nothing good has been on C4 for about 11 years, and nothing good has been on ITV ever). I won’t lie and say I’ve never downloaded music, but anyone I like I obsess over anyone own pretty much everything they put out - I have Giant Squid vinyl and I can’t even play it. While I was in Japanland I even tried to find some of the random doujin circle stuff I’ve 'acquired' too.

Back in the PSX era I remember getting games as presents or saving up for them. These were games I knew were awesome through magazines or tell-tale signs like “Capcom” on the box. I did get a Gameshark/PlugMod so I could import Final Fantasy Tactics (awesome) and Chrono Cross (not awesome), but everything else was legit.

At one point I went around a friend’s house and where he had a modded PS1. He stuck a pen and some blue-tac into the lid so he could manually open it, caught the disc and then got out a massive folder of CD’s with game titles in marker. Though he played things completely different; he’d throw something in, randomly stab the buttons, and then pick up something else. I remember that made me more irritated off than the piracy, though I was cool about it all.