Piracy and Halo Online

Recently I have been spending some time reading up on NeoGafs debate about whether downloading Halo Online and playing it in America free of micro transactions is immoral or not.

I just want to get something off my chest. If piracy is going to continue being as easy as downloading a torrent, I will never judge somebody for pirating a game. Why should someone resist the temptation to pirate a game when it's as easy as clicking a couple of buttons on a PC? I believe it's the job of the publishers to figure out how to ensure they can make profit from their game and if they can't figure it out, not my problem. If they can't figure it out, maybe they shouldn't be making games in the first place. If your passion is to create games, you will find a way to do it and survive. And if you can't, maybe you shouldn't be making games.

Look at crowd funding on sites like kickstarter and indiegogo. Look at what valve is doing with free to play games. Look at what consoles are doing to ensure people can't easily pirate. You can't tell me there's not a way to figure it out. You either adapt or you find something else, this is life.

What? We're calling connecting to free-to-play servers outside of your region piracy now?

@theht:

the game hasn't released yet, and there's a playable build out online right now free of microtransactions

Jesus Christ no, delete this, take it back! That's the kind of attitude that causes invasive DRM and other stupid measures that ruin games.

For every negative invasive DRM that ruins games there's a positive example to find funding for games.

I think it's pretty dumb to equate playing Halo Online outside of the intended regions to piracy, but I really don't get your point here. If a store has no security and I know I could get away with shoplifting something, do you think that means there's no reason not to do it?

People who have a passion to make games probably want to spend their time making games, not implementing DRM solutions. The end result of your reasoning where everyone pirates the shit out of everything because they can is that the little fish get squeezed out of the industry and the only games that survive are those from established bodies which are large enough to be able to spend resources implementing measures to make their games harder to pirate and shitty enough not to care that that usually results in a worse experience for legitimate players. Honestly, the best DRM is a conscience, and attitudes like yours are utterly unhelpful.

How do you explain indie teams on kickstarter? those teams aren't necessarily established? I believe the opposite, the little fished won't get squeezed, it's the big fish that are set on selling their games a traditional way that will suffer.

I guess the post is more about piracy and less about the Halo situation. Maybe the post is more about distribution of electronic goods in general. The same argument can be made for the software, film, and music industry as well.

What? I have no idea what this means.

Crowd-funding websites are not a replacement for profits. They are there to fund development.

Also, like it or not, pirating is always a moral dilemma. Even major companies, like Ubisoft or EA, have hard-working individuals that can be hurt by wide-spread pirating practice. At the end, it's your choice to pirate software, no matter how 'easy it is' to do so.

I wouldn't classify playing Halo Online outside of Russia (at least, I think that's what the main region is) as pirating though. If anything, this may show Microsoft that there is considerable interest in Halo multiplayer on PC.

You have to make the decision for yourself. The only ones who could face real legal trouble are the ones modding and distributing the game.

Because I can seems like a shitty reason to do something, but that's just me.

Also we don't allow discussions of illegal activities like piracy on the forums.