Downloading games - right or wrong?

I prefer to ignore notions of right and wrong, and instead focus on what is realistically attainable, then go for it. I never feel guilty and I'm not concerned with who my actions burn. I guess I'm selfish that way.

Glenn the Great wrote:I prefer to ignore notions of right and wrong, and instead focus on what is realistically attainable, then go for it. I never feel guilty and I'm not concerned with who my actions burn. I guess I'm selfish that way.

You'd think such an opinion would be based on the observable effects of your actions. If you stole candy from a baby, you'd see that baby cry. If you hacked a forum, you'd see people all depressed and stuff. If you stole a game, you'd never see the additional $50 or so go into the coffers of the company. Of course you don't see that anyway, ...

AlexMax wrote:Wrong.

Pretty much any other response is a weak justification of illegal behavior.

I do it, and I know it's totally wrong, and it would piss me off. I usually buy the games I like alot anyhow, and most of my emulation is GBA, NES, and SNES. *shrug*

I figure, if they hate it so damn much, then they should make it harder. I know it sucks, but hell... it happens. No matter what, it will happen.

meh...I'm for downloading the older stuff for the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, Atari, ect.
Hell, I even download some of the newer PC H-Games. Do I really care? not at all
But the fact of the matter is, once I play most of these games, I order/buy it either online or at the used game shop. (that and rip the music from em) :shrug:

Britannianhero4 wrote:
If you stole a game, you'd never see the additional $50 or so go into the coffers of the company.

Do you mean stole a game out of a case thus depriving the store, and hence company, of a bunch of matter someone else could buy?
Or do you mean "stole" in which everyone else who was going to buy that still could?

I am not sure of your wording?
Are you saying that if I stole a game I wouldn't see that the company would never recieve $50 dollars?
Unlink seeing a baby cry right away.
Of course that assume I would buy it anyways.
Unlink physical products my obtaining of it doesn't affect others' ability to do so.

Mottzilla wrote:
But let no one fool themselves.
If you don't own the original or own the copyrights to the product, what you're doing isn't right.

Yes, it is illegal.
I do not think it is always immoral.
I'm not sure which definition of "right" you are using, legal or moral, so I can't elaborate.

punkonjunk1024 wrote:BUt the question is - Do YOU do it?

Yes.

I don't justify it. I know what I do is illegal and don't try to convince myself otherwise. Anyone who accuses themselves me of being a hypocrite, please reply if you have never, ever done something that you knew was wrong.

Game, set and match.

Glenn the Great wrote:I prefer to ignore notions of right and wrong, and instead focus on what is realistically attainable, then go for it. I never feel guilty and I'm not concerned with who my actions burn. I guess I'm selfish that way.

"It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care if people think you are an idiot."
-John Defillipe

Hey I haven't downloaded any full games but that is because I don't know where to go.

Slothman - If you had your way all software developers would work for free and we wouldn't have an IT industry. Or perhaps you pay for software development with happy thoughts and nice wishes? Every product on the market today has be to researched and engineered. The majority of what you spend on mosts products _is_paying_for_that_. Software is no different.

Perhaps you are just lazy/selfish and you don't want to admit it. With a screen name like "Slothman" you think you'd be happy to admit these shortcomings. :shrug:

I'll repeat: Its none of my business if you pirate software, but don't kid yourself and try to moralize it.

Piracy =/= the high road.

Well, if its a really old game, say N64, then downloading one probably wouldn't make a difference. Because the store buys the games from the company to which they turn around and sell to the public. But if it were a N64 game, when the store sold out, they wouldn't order more N64 games. So since the store already paid for the games, you technically not stealing from the company, but from the store.

But then again. If you downloaded a popular game, then that's one more copy the store has to sell before they order more from the company. So that's indirectly stealing from the company.

But if download a game that you can't get, i.e. it hasn't been released, it's no longer on the shelves, etc. It adds a little bit of morality to it. Especially if the store is a hour and a half drive away from you. If the company didn't want you to download games they should have built a store closer to me, and then maybe I wouldn't have download their games. So in turn it's the company's fault.

But all excuses aside, stealing is wrong M'kay?

I see absolutely nothing wrong in downloading a game that the company cant make $ with anymore.

Downloading new releases however, not right.

Okay, here's an interesting dilemma. (I think that's the word I'm looking for.)

I want to play Half-Life 2. But my gaming machine doesn't have an internet connection, which HL2 needs. Does that make me wrong in downloading a cracked version of HL2 on this machine, putting it on CDs and installing it on my stand-alone PC?

Well...In all honesty I don't download games because I don't play games.

But! I don't give a shit about stealing, I'd steal a BMW from the dealer if I thought I'd get away with it and not feel a twinge of guilt... :P

course I'd find it really hard to go into someones home and take something from it... who knows how hard those people worked to get that item? maybe not at all, or maybe its the only thing they have worth something...

But as for dling who cares? shit like that always happened in one way or another with PCs. I remember trading games for the C64 with a buddy so we could copy all the games hah...

fun stuff! 😃

Darth Marsden wrote:Okay, here's an interesting dilemma. (I think that's the word I'm looking for.)

I want to play Half-Life 2. But my gaming machine doesn't have an internet connection, which HL2 needs. Does that make me wrong in downloading a cracked version of HL2 on this machine, putting it on CDs and installing it on my stand-alone PC?

I'm not too concerned about it myself. So far, the only games I get are the ones I can't find normally. (Star Ocean, Bahamut Lagoon...Terranigma, etc.) My computer's too crappy to play anything more than a 16-bit games without massive slowdown, so I only get the older games.

Nobody's really buying them anyway, and I don't see how I'm hurting anyone by downloading games nobody else's buying.

algam86 - the thing is tho... the companies dont make money because no ones buying the old games... if you download it because no one buys the game anymore then your a moron as that excuse is incredibly lame.

based entirely on the post above this.

(got that post kinda explained in a PM)

I admit, I'm kind of a moron (accidentally mopped out the fridge once). But just because I download their older stuff doesn't mean I won't buy any of their other things. Like, Nintendo. I might download a Super Metroid ROM, but I'll go to the store and buy Metroid Prime 2 (which I'm trying to find...), or a DS...or the *cough* Wii.

:disgust: Oh, heck, Revolution forever!

Or maybe I'll pick up Square-Enix's original Final Fantasy 3 for the NES. Doesn't mean I won't go pick it up when it comes out for the DS...soon as I get one.

I generally don't download anything I can't easily find, don't already have (which, if you have the original game, getting a ROM isn't supposed to be illegal...or so I think. Haven't been to a site in a long time.) or doesn't have a jacked-up price for it. Does that help any? I still have to buy the majority of my games, because my computer's so weak, anyway. Plus, I think they're better on the consoles.

...:cry: Actually, I ran out of space, so I had to delete 'em, anyway.

algam86 wrote:I generally don't download anything I can't easily find, don't already have (which, if you have the original game, getting a ROM isn't supposed to be illegal...or so I think. Haven't been to a site in a long time.) Plus, I think they're better on the consoles.

imo so far thats legal only in america... everywhere else your not legaly entitled to having a copy of a game no matter what. (copy not retail/original media)