4 ms·

I don't know about software, but pirated games are generally more secure, stable and performant with less spyware than the official games with all the DRM.

nsomaru 6y ago
Citation needed. I guess you’re probably right but companies are way more accountable than random internet person who modified the dll/binary to work without copy protection.
- morsch 6y ago
  Now you have customer support to complain to when they lose your photos.
- quantummkv 6y ago
  https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/evidence-continues-to-mount-about-how-bad-denuvo-is-for-pc-gaming-performance/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/evidence-continues-to... https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/crackers-say-denuvo-drm-caused-slowdown-on-rime/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/crackers-say-denuvo-d... That's the point. Companies have proved themselves not accountable to their customers.
- hosteur 6y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_roo...
- owl57 6y ago
  What's "accountable"? Any old releaser on a big tracker has way better track record of not screwing users than the average corporation.
- xmprt 6y ago
  I remember hearing about at least one game that was significantly more performant when pirated (I think it was by Ubisoft). They had so much code for DRM and network tracking that it was faster to just stop that code from executing by hacking the game.
  - fuzxi 6y ago
    This happened with Monster Hunter World's Iceborne expansion. It updated the included version of Denuvo and added many, many threads that constantly scanned the game executable for modifications as an anti-cheat mechanic. A modder distributed a tool to bypass the anti-cheat and restore performance the same day the expansion released. It took over two weeks for Capcom to get the game playable again, and many more before they improved performance back to roughly pre-update levels. For reference, I'd been using Steam Proton to play the base game on Linux and was getting 60fps at nearly max settings. After the update, I got 1. One frame per second. I saw a number of similar reports from native Windows players.
- saiya-jin 6y ago
  You don't follow games recently (meaning 10 years at least). There are few publishers that put pretty nasty DRM protections inside that run constantly, take few % of the CPU and do constant full memory checks (among other things). Performance drop is visible unless you have obscurely expensive hardware. This is kind of expected for online gaming due to many folks fucked up mentality of using cheats and playing with rest of the crowd (some psychologists could probably go quite deep on breaking this down to mostly childhood issues). If you play on your own, its just a pain in the a. Many people buy the game and then play pirated version, just to avoid this kind of punishment of the lawful citizens.
- GoblinSlayer 6y ago
  No, for companies anything goes because copyright. They are in god mode, farming users.
- krageon 6y ago
  > companies are way more accountable Probably over half the popular multiplayer products on Steam have rootkits in them that send a lot of data about you straight to the publisher. Companies are not accountable for the things you want them to be accountable for, so for normal people it just looks like they're not accountable at all.
laumars 6y ago
There are other options out there that don’t include DRM but also don’t advocate piracy. For example GOG.com
- lecarore 6y ago
  I tend to buy (indie, Linux) games on gog/humble bundle/itch.io, or on the official developer website. When I have to use steam it really pains me, their client, drm, marketing forced accounts, pricing policy .. are a pita.
powersnail 6y ago
Haven't played video games for some time, but at least when I was still pirating, malware and spyware was pretty common. Bugs and incompatibilities caused by pirating were also not unheard of. Playing pirated game is putting trust into the hands of some anonymous hackers. And that begs the question, what do they gain from giving out the game for free? They could be doing it just for fun, for coolness, or out of altruism. And that's true for probably many case. But to say none of them wanted to earn expedient money would not persuade me.
- syshum 6y ago
  >>malware and spyware was pretty common. Malware and Spyware is pretty common with purchased games, of course they call it "DRM" but it has the same goal and purpose

nsomaru 6y ago

Citation needed. I guess you’re probably right but companies are way more accountable than random internet person who modified the dll/binary to work without copy protection.

morsch 6y ago
Now you have customer support to complain to when they lose your photos.
quantummkv 6y ago
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/evidence-continues-to-mount-about-how-bad-denuvo-is-for-pc-gaming-performance/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/evidence-continues-to... https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/crackers-say-denuvo-drm-caused-slowdown-on-rime/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/crackers-say-denuvo-d... That's the point. Companies have proved themselves not accountable to their customers.
hosteur 6y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_roo...
owl57 6y ago
What's "accountable"? Any old releaser on a big tracker has way better track record of not screwing users than the average corporation.
xmprt 6y ago
I remember hearing about at least one game that was significantly more performant when pirated (I think it was by Ubisoft). They had so much code for DRM and network tracking that it was faster to just stop that code from executing by hacking the game.
- fuzxi 6y ago
  This happened with Monster Hunter World's Iceborne expansion. It updated the included version of Denuvo and added many, many threads that constantly scanned the game executable for modifications as an anti-cheat mechanic. A modder distributed a tool to bypass the anti-cheat and restore performance the same day the expansion released. It took over two weeks for Capcom to get the game playable again, and many more before they improved performance back to roughly pre-update levels. For reference, I'd been using Steam Proton to play the base game on Linux and was getting 60fps at nearly max settings. After the update, I got 1. One frame per second. I saw a number of similar reports from native Windows players.
saiya-jin 6y ago
You don't follow games recently (meaning 10 years at least). There are few publishers that put pretty nasty DRM protections inside that run constantly, take few % of the CPU and do constant full memory checks (among other things). Performance drop is visible unless you have obscurely expensive hardware. This is kind of expected for online gaming due to many folks fucked up mentality of using cheats and playing with rest of the crowd (some psychologists could probably go quite deep on breaking this down to mostly childhood issues). If you play on your own, its just a pain in the a. Many people buy the game and then play pirated version, just to avoid this kind of punishment of the lawful citizens.
GoblinSlayer 6y ago
No, for companies anything goes because copyright. They are in god mode, farming users.
krageon 6y ago
> companies are way more accountable Probably over half the popular multiplayer products on Steam have rootkits in them that send a lot of data about you straight to the publisher. Companies are not accountable for the things you want them to be accountable for, so for normal people it just looks like they're not accountable at all.

laumars 6y ago

There are other options out there that don’t include DRM but also don’t advocate piracy. For example GOG.com

lecarore 6y ago
I tend to buy (indie, Linux) games on gog/humble bundle/itch.io, or on the official developer website. When I have to use steam it really pains me, their client, drm, marketing forced accounts, pricing policy .. are a pita.

powersnail 6y ago

Haven't played video games for some time, but at least when I was still pirating, malware and spyware was pretty common. Bugs and incompatibilities caused by pirating were also not unheard of. Playing pirated game is putting trust into the hands of some anonymous hackers. And that begs the question, what do they gain from giving out the game for free? They could be doing it just for fun, for coolness, or out of altruism. And that's true for probably many case. But to say none of them wanted to earn expedient money would not persuade me.

syshum 6y ago
>>malware and spyware was pretty common. Malware and Spyware is pretty common with purchased games, of course they call it "DRM" but it has the same goal and purpose