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AITAH for pirating games before buying them? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Nowadays, the absolute vast majority of games that I play are shit tbh.

This is why I pirate games first to try them out. I wanna be very clear that if I think a game is good I buy it, no questions asked.

However, since most games don't have demos or trials, I don't want to feel like I've wasted money so I look to piracy so that I can try them out before making a purchase.

AITAH?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I didn’t say they were getting paid directly, but indirectly. Their employment and income - like all other working class grunts' - depends on their ability to generate profit for their employer. If we deny the employer their profit, the employer will take that out on their grunts. Conversely, if we pay them, that money likely will end up sponsoring further developments which - guess what? - pays the developers for developing more stuff.

Much of our modern economy is centered around credit and debt. The developers are effectively paid as a credit, in the expectation that the profits will pay the debt. If it doesn't, that will affect further credits.

And no, I don't remember Usenet, but it sounds like that was a good time then. How do they compare to modern games in terms of entertainment?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Almost none of the profit made off AAA games goes to the people actually creating the game. They don’t get a bonus if the new Madden makes $10 mil more than the old one. You’re tossing hundreds at the CEOs and saying it’s worth it if the devs get a few pennies.

Many of them probably aren’t even at the same studio anymore by the time you’re buying the game.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Did you actually read my comment? They don't get the profit from the old game. The success pays for them to develop new games.

Asked the other way round, if the game's profit doesn't pay the devs, what does?

The company employing them

Why does the company employ them?

To make money

So what happens if the company stops making money? A game's profit doesn't pay the past developers, but it does affect their future employment and income.

I'm not defending the exploitative system that bleeds us dry for the privilege of getting to temporarily benefit from the wealth they've already extracted. I'm not opposing piracy. I'm very much in support of OP's strategy.

All I'm saying is that piracy won't fix that system, because the ones most dependent on the game's success aren't the exec's that'll be hired elsewhere nor the investors that'll extract their wealth elsewhere, but the devs whose employment and existence depends on their capacity to generate that wealth.

Attack the system at the top, but don't drop the bottom.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

How do they compare to modern games in terms of entertainment?

I'd comfortably argue that Tetris is amongst the best games ever made.