Minimum Tempo

I used to pirate games. I eagerly downloaded titles such as The Sims 2 or F-Zero X, blissfully basking in gaming fun without giving a damn about game developers and publishers. Then I realized that without people like myself actually purchasing the game, they will go to the crapper and we will not have any games. Of course, the company has not lost a sale because I would not have bought it if piracy did not allow me to obtain the games. But if everyone proceeded to download games, the industry would collapse and the ESA that wonderfully tries to protect the industry from media and government attacks would turn their backs on us gamers and possibly follow an MPAA/RIAA-like approach. That’s not the last thing we want.

In some cases, I am alright with others pirating. This goes for music released by a major record label that is associated with the RIAA, heavily promoted movies produced under a major production studio that is associated with the MPAA, software that should not be hundreds or thousands of dollars (Adobe Photoshop, Apple Final Cut Pro, etc.), and anime that is currently unavailable in the U.S. or is released on DVD for obscene prices for the amount of content they provide, such as true tears from Bandai. This may perhaps label me as a hypocrite, and I accept that. I do admit I support piracy while disapproving of the practice.

Perhaps unfairly, for games, I am fine with piracy if at least one of the following two requirements are met:

1. The game is not currently manufactured and was released on a system that is not currently manufactured (at the time of writing, this would be any game on the Xbox and GameCube or prior systems, but not the PlayStation 2).
2. The game is absolute trash (see Ninjabread Man for the Nintendo Wii) based on general gaming community and media consensus.

Face it, I don’t want to pay for a crappy game like Superman 64, and it will be pretty damn difficult if I attempted to find Earthbound for the SNES for a reasonable price. I also support the piracy of games that fulfill the 1st requirement but are currently being sold on the Wii Shop Channel, Xbox Live Marketplace, and/or the PlayStation Store. Why should a company be able to profit from something they don’t manufacture anymore? If I really wanted to pay for it, I would go to a store and purchase it used because I like my hard copies (I’ll touch on digital distribution on a future date). In Nintendo’s case, they can go screw themselves because their prices for those Classic NES series were ridiculous.

My former school is exploding with R4 owners, and I was frankly sickened by the fact that they were excited to download the new Advance Wars title, Days of Ruin. For the solid reviews and the critical acclaim it achieved, it needed people to actually purchase the games. According to VG Chartz, the well-received and anticipated game sold only a paltry 80,000 copies in its current 3 weeks of availability. Ubisoft’s Imagine Babyz, available since October 23, 2007 in the U.S., has sold an estimated 800,000 copies. IGN gave it a 3.0. And even without reading IGN’s review, we know a casual title like that is going to be poor in terms of quality. Although I can not directly attach piracy to Days of Ruin’s low sales, it can definitely be considered a factor considering I know many people with the game on their R4s.

Well, anyone with an R4 that does not use it for legitimate reasons: Fuck you. Despite the absence of a direct correlation between sales and piracy figures, you can’t say it’s not a factor at all. Back when Beyond Good & Evil was released, I pirated a copy and played it. I could have afforded it, and I’m pretty sure others could have bought the game as well. But we chose not to, and a franchise with incredible potential was lost in favor of more profitable titles. I understand if you use an R4 or some other “backup” device for games YOU ACTUALLY OWN, but if you do not intend to purchase the game new at some point, don’t download. Besides, you’re just giving the ESA a reason to become the game industry equivalent of the MAFIAA.

So why won’t I buy an R4? I don’t want to be tempted into something as cheap as that. I want to support developers instead of playing an awesome game like Psychonauts for free.

This post is tagged Advance Wars, Beyond Good & Evil, ESA, Game Industry, MAFIAA, MPAA, Nintendo, Piracy

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