I know people have beaten to death topics about piracy, modding, cracking and the like but I'd like to just state my story and views in case anyone is interested. It might be too long so there's the warning done.
Back when my parents sent me off to a smallish town (not by population standards) in a developing country, it was impossible to get films, music and even games that I liked. [My parents just wanted me to experience a different sort of life, a learning, growing experience in their words.] In those days the internet was still new and dialup was the best you had for personal use and even that wasn't available in every city there. There were stores that pretty much rented out pirated games and movies (Almost all of them have been shut down by law enforcement agencies now as far as I've heard from the one friend I know who visits the place once a year). So when the internet was finally available regardless of the ridiculous bills I managed to get I used to download pirated stuff. I was sort of in the scene with hacking and cracking certain things. Though I never 'released' them myself. I always maintained that if I could buy them I would. Even legitimate stores wouldn't sell consoles and if they did it'd be modded ones. I learnt how to mod some of the 90s consoles for fun. However, I did have a yearly source of games when my folks visited. That didn't satisfy me a lot because well I was in my late teens and games are something we enjoy more in that age group. I only started downloading movies later but quit that soon enough as for some reason I couldn't justify that piracy since I could watch most of the films that interested me back then through cinemas or if they were obscure ( if it weren't a blockbuster type film meant for a mainstream audience the chance of it being released was minimal) VHSes, VCDs or Laser Discs.
I wanted to buy some of the games later but either they were ridiculously overpriced or in the most cases totally unavailable. I went scoured several places and nearby cities just to find games that I'd like to play. So when PC gaming took off properly thanks to the AGP boost, I built a high end machine and had no choice but to get them through 'releases'. I remember the few games I bought and was proud of. I wanted to buy the ones I liked but I couldn't. Eventually i just lost track thanks to a friend and got into the collection mentality and downloaded music and games I didn't care about (This phase fortunately didn't last long). Soon after university ended and I started working and being on the road. I figured my gaming days were over. But at this point I did make a note to buy every piece of music I downloaded or liked (which i do to this day, expensive habit sort of considering my tastes). As for movies, due to my line of work I am fortunate to own many of them for free.
Today when it comes to games, I buy everything and have built up a massive collection. I've always wanted to buy them but due to many reasons never did. This was strange in a sense considering I owned practically every console from the NES era onwards (my first one was an atari 2600 but didn't get whatever came in between and never really did much with my c64).
When it comes to the point of modding and games, especially here in the west. I see game prices fall like crazy pretty fast. I do not really see the need to want to play every game in the market and nor do I feel entitled to do so. I am aware of the way to try games or even see gameplay videos via youtube that I do not feel the urge to pirate any title. I don't quite understand where that sense of entitlement comes from. I just wanted to play these games as there was no access to them at all. I understand why there exists piracy in some places and why people do it. But I don't get the need to be greedy as a consumer. In fact modding a console need not be inherently bad if it was done just to open the system for fun, unfortunately it gets manipulated and is just a source for people to get the sense of false entitlement to own things they actually have no need to own or play. I totally understand the need to want to try something. But these days, there's far too much information about games that to be fair a lot of the thrill of seeing something when actually playing it goes when you've watched the videos. So if someone is purely interested in it from that perspective then I can understand to an extent but not if there's no real reason to purchase. I do agree that it would be great if more titles had demos like in the past so people would get a chance to try a title before buying it. Games have reached a point where you don't need to play them all just like you do not need to watch every film. As there's too many of both medias to go through one lifetime really.
As someone who used to mod or crack for fun, I don't really partake in it these days. I'm always of the opinion that these people would be good to hire for their skills. The best person to catch a thief is always a thief. As for piracy, what really is the point. There's plenty of good things to enjoy for free these days. And if you can't try them when you're young because you don't have the funds to do it or if your location and situation can't help it - there's always that drive to want to do these things when you are in a better position to do so. And regardless of what anyone says, the ability to enjoy the fruits of your labour is the best reward of it all expressed through your purchasing power. Of course if you're one of those who do pirate software, yeah I get where you're coming from - though one solution is to pool up for a license and spread it between the few of you. It's a lot better really and helps with getting some freelance jobs too.
Back when my parents sent me off to a smallish town (not by population standards) in a developing country, it was impossible to get films, music and even games that I liked. [My parents just wanted me to experience a different sort of life, a learning, growing experience in their words.] In those days the internet was still new and dialup was the best you had for personal use and even that wasn't available in every city there. There were stores that pretty much rented out pirated games and movies (Almost all of them have been shut down by law enforcement agencies now as far as I've heard from the one friend I know who visits the place once a year). So when the internet was finally available regardless of the ridiculous bills I managed to get I used to download pirated stuff. I was sort of in the scene with hacking and cracking certain things. Though I never 'released' them myself. I always maintained that if I could buy them I would. Even legitimate stores wouldn't sell consoles and if they did it'd be modded ones. I learnt how to mod some of the 90s consoles for fun. However, I did have a yearly source of games when my folks visited. That didn't satisfy me a lot because well I was in my late teens and games are something we enjoy more in that age group. I only started downloading movies later but quit that soon enough as for some reason I couldn't justify that piracy since I could watch most of the films that interested me back then through cinemas or if they were obscure ( if it weren't a blockbuster type film meant for a mainstream audience the chance of it being released was minimal) VHSes, VCDs or Laser Discs.
I wanted to buy some of the games later but either they were ridiculously overpriced or in the most cases totally unavailable. I went scoured several places and nearby cities just to find games that I'd like to play. So when PC gaming took off properly thanks to the AGP boost, I built a high end machine and had no choice but to get them through 'releases'. I remember the few games I bought and was proud of. I wanted to buy the ones I liked but I couldn't. Eventually i just lost track thanks to a friend and got into the collection mentality and downloaded music and games I didn't care about (This phase fortunately didn't last long). Soon after university ended and I started working and being on the road. I figured my gaming days were over. But at this point I did make a note to buy every piece of music I downloaded or liked (which i do to this day, expensive habit sort of considering my tastes). As for movies, due to my line of work I am fortunate to own many of them for free.
Today when it comes to games, I buy everything and have built up a massive collection. I've always wanted to buy them but due to many reasons never did. This was strange in a sense considering I owned practically every console from the NES era onwards (my first one was an atari 2600 but didn't get whatever came in between and never really did much with my c64).
When it comes to the point of modding and games, especially here in the west. I see game prices fall like crazy pretty fast. I do not really see the need to want to play every game in the market and nor do I feel entitled to do so. I am aware of the way to try games or even see gameplay videos via youtube that I do not feel the urge to pirate any title. I don't quite understand where that sense of entitlement comes from. I just wanted to play these games as there was no access to them at all. I understand why there exists piracy in some places and why people do it. But I don't get the need to be greedy as a consumer. In fact modding a console need not be inherently bad if it was done just to open the system for fun, unfortunately it gets manipulated and is just a source for people to get the sense of false entitlement to own things they actually have no need to own or play. I totally understand the need to want to try something. But these days, there's far too much information about games that to be fair a lot of the thrill of seeing something when actually playing it goes when you've watched the videos. So if someone is purely interested in it from that perspective then I can understand to an extent but not if there's no real reason to purchase. I do agree that it would be great if more titles had demos like in the past so people would get a chance to try a title before buying it.
Games have reached a point where you don't need to play them all just like you do not need to watch every film. As there's too many of both medias to go through one lifetime really.
As someone who used to mod or crack for fun, I don't really partake in it these days. I'm always of the opinion that these people would be good to hire for their skills. The best person to catch a thief is always a thief. As for piracy, what really is the point. There's plenty of good things to enjoy for free these days. And if you can't try them when you're young because you don't have the funds to do it or if your location and situation can't help it - there's always that drive to want to do these things when you are in a better position to do so. And regardless of what anyone says, the ability to enjoy the fruits of your labour is the best reward of it all expressed through your purchasing power. Of course if you're one of those who do pirate software, yeah I get where you're coming from - though one solution is to pool up for a license and spread it between the few of you. It's a lot better really and helps with getting some freelance jobs too.
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