What is your relationship with cracked games?

[Xzi]

it was an exaggerated example, but on canadian ebay they go for like $80-ish, and older pokemon games can easily go up in the multiple hundreds, some copies of earthbound go anywhere between $500 to $3000, most of them around$400-500, with repros being like $40

Yeah stuff like Earthbound and Mega Man X2/X3 being expensive is more understandable being that there were never that many copies out in the wild to begin with, and even fewer in good condition now. A high price on Wind Waker is surprising mostly because of the availability of WWHD, but then again I guess the WiiU was an even bigger commercial flop than the Gamecube.

 

[linuxares]

Games? Not really. Most games I've pirated of late I own a retail copy of. I just dont wanna open the package to take them out and rip them.

 

[SylverReZ]

I pirated lots of games because they're all too pricey and even hard to find in many cases. I also don't want to be restricted to such anti-consumerism bullshit such as copy protection (aka DRM).

 

[Blakejansen]

Piracy doesn't really make you a bad person and neither does watching anything on the internet for free. If Big brother didn't want us to have free games or free videos, we wouldn't have them.

 

[Viri]

store.steampowered.com/app/45750/Lost_Planet_2/

Sometimes cracked is the only option.

 

[mrgone]

1. cracked games are much earlier available online than in retail
2. when i was young, saved money; one can't buy every game, then loose interest
3. now that i earn money, it's really try before buy
4. the collecting a drm less version aspect is always there

 

[Jayro]

I'm more than willing to pay the devs of Blur on PC for a legit key of the game, but they won't take my money, so piracy is the only method I have to play it on a computer. Which kinda sucks, because I WANT to buy it legit. I don't think it was ever released on disc for PC either.

 

[Xzi]

I'm more than willing to pay the devs of Blur on PC for a legit key of the game, but they won't take my money, so piracy is the only method I have to play it on a computer. Which kinda sucks, because I WANT to buy it legit. I don't think it was ever released on disc for PC either.

Glad I bought this one on Steam while it was available, same with Deadpool.

 

[JaapDaniels]

Why?

• At first i did for the demo's were not comparible to what you expected to buy if you bought a full game.
• Later for the fun of i could get those premium games.
• Then for the nostalia of the extra fun introduction NFO intro.
• Learned myself to crack some basics.
• Now getting games unrestricted, for many games are censored or not sold at all here.
• And sometimes it's for the EULA is against what i stand for and i will not cooperate.

Razor 1911 was special for they used my favoryte symbol of zelda everywhere.
By The Way, i do buy most of my games now... but most games, they make me feel cheated when bought, for they're too PC principal nowadays.

 

[Ryab]

I dont really understand what you mean. what kind game developpers would refuse to sell you its game or make it difficult to buy???

Nintendo is an example. Look at their entire Gamecube library. The only method to get them now is to buy used from random retailers.

 

[Marc_LFD]

I only used cracked games for older OSes like XP, but nowadays? Not really. I got Steam and GOG with the games I want.

If they're not there, I'll use an emulator. Speaking of which, I want to play Scud Racer (Sega never ported it to the DC or other consoles stupidly).

 

[FAST6191]

I am being the bigger man so if they want to apologise then

It is the default way I play games, even those I own (who cares about multiplayer). That said not actually done any in years -- between cheap xbox 360 games and DRM free PC efforts then had no need.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

I'm not generally personally opposed to piracy or downloading cracked games, same goes for most other forms of media.

Here are my reasons why:

• Most people do this to get things that aren't broadly available on the current market.
• Secondhand sales do not benefit game devs/musicians/actors/whomever else.
• Many pirates fall into two camps: "I wasn't ever going to buy this anyway" and "Now that I've seen how cool this is, I may buy it or something else to support the developers/creators"; This is not all-encompassing, but I do believe it to be valid.
• It is, in terms of effect, no different than borrowing a game disc/CD/movie from a friend.
  

The main difference is scope because of how these cracks are distributed; more people can download something like this than can borrow a single physical object at a time, BUT the "harm" claims could fall on the end-user in exactly the same way. They're a "lost sale" regardless of who they borrowed from (a friend or a download).

Morally, I think the middle ground IF you have to pirate any type of media for some valid is to realize and agree to the following:

• You are probably breaking laws (depending on where you live) and can be held responsible as a result.
• Know that because you're pirating something, the work of someone else is being consumed for free; at least make an effort to find an alternative way to support them; buy another title from the same dev/publisher, merchandise, etc.
• If you get a virus/keylogger/hacked, etc., it's your own damn fault.

 

[eyeliner]

With the amount of games around, the lower prices everywhere, free games being given and the used market, I don't really see the point of cracking a game.
Cracks are a beautiful remnant of an era where games were harder to access. The time where to get a game you had to spend most of the day waiting for it to download, or there was no physical release near your location.

I remember doing that for a few games, but I eventually got them legitimately. They were Civilization II and Quake.

Now, if we were talking software, that is a notably different issue. Photoshop, Office, Windows, and many others that I eventually ended up going legit or just cracked for no reason, as I didn't really needed them, like web editors, and media players.

 

[DinohScene]

I don't pirate, I digitally archive.

 

[Tomato123]

As a kid, everything was on the table for pirating (kinda had very little money as I was a kid). As an adult, I generally try to only pirate games that don't align with my morals. Too high of a price, low quality, DRM or my biggest pet peeve... Epic games launcher exclusives. They like to say they are the good guys trying to stop Steam's anti-consumerism but... they're the ones forcing me to buy from their terrible platform where Steam has never had to do that afaik? And publishers usually stick their games exclusively on Epic simply because they got a nice cash bonus for it.

 

[godreborn]

I didn't really play pirated games when I did pirate them, but it's tempting with Nintendo's approach of another day, another lawsuit, when it comes to their fans. I will say that's justified.

 

[SaberLilly]

I used to have a really crappy PC, we're talking like a core 2 duo and GT710 in the days of the 8th/9th gen i series and 20series cards. So if i saw a game i wanted, i'd pirate it to see how it ran, but only if it didn't provide me with a benchmark tool. Now that I have a much better PC and laptop, i no longer have to pirate games, either i buy them or i don't.

 

[Noctosphere]

I used to have a really crappy PC, we're talking like a core 2 duo and GT710 in the days of the 8th/9th gen i series and 20series cards. So if i saw a game i wanted, i'd pirate it to see how it ran, but only if it didn't provide me with a benchmark tool. Now that I have a much better PC and laptop, i no longer have to pirate games, either i buy them or i don't.

 

[Veho]

I remember that one or more Sims sequels were literally unplayable on some computers because the anti-piracy measures clashed with Windows or some such bullshit. The original game disc simply wouldn't run. And even if you were able to make it work somehow, every expansion pack would break it again.
So the established practice in fan circles was to buy the game, and then never ever take it out of the box, and play a pirated copy instead.

There were a lot of similar instances where the DRM software on the disc would either break the game, was actually spyware, or actual malware in some cases, so cracked copies were a must.