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| 12.25.2006Response to Recent Piracy Article
I think every person has a tendency to justify his/her actions no matter if they are right or wrong. First of all, who doesn't like free stuff. However downloading pirated games off the Internet is almost analogous to driving away unlocked cars with the keys inside from a dealer. Right or wrong?
There are many flaws with the justification of stealing software with the pretext of spreading word of mouth and they are not necessarily obvious. First, demos are available for trying out games, why insist you must try the full game before you can decide to buy the game or not. Even if the features are limited in a demo and people may not be satisfied with it, that's a problem for the developers. If they want to do a better job at marketing their product then they can decide to improve the demo, or unlock more features, etc. But it is not something that the consumers themselves should take it upon themselves and make pirated copies of the game and distribute it. And seriously how many people do actually buy a game after they have played the whole thing? Maybe there are a couple of exceptions, such as purchasing the original to get a key to play online or having the original because you love it, but these exceptions are very few. Put it another way, instead of movie trailers I want a copy of the whole movie and watch it at home before I decide to go to the movies and watch the same movie.
Second, if you are allowed to have it for free why not everybody else? Is that fair to other consumers who do not get pirated games and get them legally instead? If you are really serious about informing other people of good game choices then you should consider a job at a reviews outlet instead. If you work at Gamespot or IGN or any other games magazine, I am sure they wouldn't ask you to download pirated games to do reviews. Or do they?
Third, "my parents didn't buy me computer games or I couldn't afford it", seems to be a reasonable excuse to "get it for free". However, maybe your parents just didn't want you to play video games, in which case it would be more of a family issue rather than a justification to download pirated games. Now if you couldn't afford to buy new games then you could had tried used games or the cheapest budget games or even free internet games. Unfortunately the society that we are in only allows us to get what we can afford. Is it fair? I don't think it's fair, but that's a different topic. Again put it another way, if Ferrari gave me a F430 Spider I would tell people how great it is and buy one myself when I get enough money, would they give me one? Well, until I can get my hands on a Ferrari (which could be never) I can always go and get a cheap used corolla (even this I don't have the money for). So do I have a justification to steal a Ferrari (or a corolla;p)? This is just an extreme example to illustrate my point. Games don't even have that kind of disparity in terms of price.
In conclusion, piracy is unfair and I haven't seen any valid justification for it. I do agree that games should be more accessible to the general public in terms of affordability, so that people don't have to resort to piracy. But of course this is easier said than done.
I am sure most people who download pirated games feel that there is something wrong with it, but since there are no consequences what so ever one tends not to give it too much thought. Oh well, a guilty pleasure maybe?
Note: As my views seem to favor the developers' side I just want to clarify that I am not a developer I am just a college student. And I made these comments with no intention to offend anybody, however they represent my honest opinion on why piracy is wrong.-Nick Wu
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Letters to the Editor
