4 ms·

This is just one piece of anecdata, but I'm perfectly capable of pirating games yet haven't in years. I buy everything on steam or gog because it's so convenien

This is just one piece of anecdata, but I'm perfectly capable of pirating games yet haven't in years. I buy everything on steam or gog because it's so convenient. The last time I pirated any video games was suprise surprise when I wasn't making enough income to buy them. TV series on the other hand I still pirate to this day (if they aren't on the couple of streaming services I sub to), because buying them is way too complicated (even impossible with a large portion of shows that aren't current, and a fair number of current shows too). Movies are a mixed bag - grabbing cheap dvds or blu rays of pretty much anything is easy online so I usually do that, but I imagine if I preferred digital media or watched enough movies for my physical collection to be unwieldy I'd resort to piracy because buying digital copies of movies is just as complicated as TV. Give me "Steam for Movies and TV" or a streaming service that aggregates licenses from everyone, and doesn't only host the content that they think will be most popular and I'll probably stop pirating those too.

Causality1 6y ago
It's the unreliability I can't tolerate. I don't pirate pc games because when I buy something on Steam it will always be available for me to download, even if a licensing problem means other people can't buy it. With streaming, who knows? Maybe Netflix loses the rights and it disappears. Maybe their encode is garbage and it ruins the dark scenes. So, I still pay for streaming services but anything I actually care about I download and archive.
- kroltan 6y ago
  > Maybe Netflix loses the rights and it disappears. That is interesting because it happened to me in the most annoying way possible: I was watching Donnie Darko, a rather obscure movie that requires (or at least for me required) a bit of brainpower to watch. So I watched the first half of it and planned to watch the remainder the next day. Come the next day, and where is the movie? Nowhere to be found.
  - cableshaft 6y ago
    That happened to me with Stargate SG-1. Was going through it on Netflix and suddenly it disappeared. Eventually resurfaced on Amazon Prime but the video quality is garbage on it for some reason.
    - Causality1 6y ago
      Prime Video quality seems breathtakingly bad to me as well. Even their "high quality, 8GB per hour" setting looks remarkably worse than a 4GB h264 rip, to say nothing of HEVC.
      - cableshaft 6y ago
        I actually didn't mean video quality on Amazon Prime in general. For example, we just got done watching Mr. Robot on Amazon Prime and I had no issues with the video, personally. But Stargate SG-1 was particularly bad, for some reason. Worse than SD, lots of artifacts.
        dahi1203 6y ago
        you can download and use amazon prime video mod apk for free https://modlelo.com/amazon-prime-mod-apk/ https://modlelo.com/amazon-prime-mod-apk/
  - the_af 6y ago
    Hah. I had bookmarked Donnie Darko because, while I had already watched it (good movie, even better soundtrack!) I wanted to watch it again with my wife. I swear it was available the week before I finally decided to rewatch it, then of course it was gone when I wanted it. (By the way, I know this doesn't actually happen, but I swear Netflix sticks in my bookmarks movies and shows I never bookmarked!)
  - donpott 6y ago
    I was mid-way through watching the newly released (on Netflix) S2 of "Derry Girls" and they deleted it mere days after making it available. I was annoyed. Turns out they had messed up the rights. https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-07-14/derry-girls-season-2-removed-netflix/ https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-07-14/derry-g...
- progman32 6y ago
  > when I buy something on Steam it will always be available for me to download At least, until Steam goes offline, or maybe your account gets lost. I for one still use Steam, but I do wonder if I'll be able to play my favorite games in 20 years. A plain EXE from itch, GOG, or some other source will work as long as compatible hardware lives on.
young_unixer 6y ago
Another big deterrent to pirating games is the possibility of it installing malware in your system. That danger is almost exclusive to software piracy. The probability of being infected by an evil pdf, mp3 or mp4 is really low if you know what you're doing (i.e. updating and using decent software).
- axilmar 6y ago
  An effective DRM technique would be to spread a version of the game without DRM but with lots of malware in it then.
notsuoh 6y ago
Same boat for movies. I used to use icefilms or torrents extensively for every film. But now my first stop is Justwatch to find out what service has the film I want to watch, and then I log into that service and buy it. Admittedly some services, like RedBox, are more frustrating than torrenting though.
menybuvico 6y ago
Adding my voice to this argument: Xbox live stopped my pirating simply by providing a more easily accessible alternative and with prices that are competitive enough for me to prefer to pay for games rather than getting through the hassle of pirating. This included RDR2. Totally worth it.
leetcrew 6y ago
a key feature missing from netflix and amazon prime (and presumably the others, I haven't tried them) is the ability to force a certain quality for the stream. AFAIK, they don't even indicate in the UI whether your stream is 480p, 1080p, or 2160p. youtube has had this feature for at least a decade and even most porn sites seem to have it now. if this is somehow "too complicated" for the average user, just make the default an "auto" setting that does whatever it does now and bury it in a menu somewhere.

Causality1 6y ago

It's the unreliability I can't tolerate. I don't pirate pc games because when I buy something on Steam it will always be available for me to download, even if a licensing problem means other people can't buy it. With streaming, who knows? Maybe Netflix loses the rights and it disappears. Maybe their encode is garbage and it ruins the dark scenes. So, I still pay for streaming services but anything I actually care about I download and archive.

kroltan 6y ago
> Maybe Netflix loses the rights and it disappears. That is interesting because it happened to me in the most annoying way possible: I was watching Donnie Darko, a rather obscure movie that requires (or at least for me required) a bit of brainpower to watch. So I watched the first half of it and planned to watch the remainder the next day. Come the next day, and where is the movie? Nowhere to be found.
- cableshaft 6y ago
  That happened to me with Stargate SG-1. Was going through it on Netflix and suddenly it disappeared. Eventually resurfaced on Amazon Prime but the video quality is garbage on it for some reason.
  - Causality1 6y ago
    Prime Video quality seems breathtakingly bad to me as well. Even their "high quality, 8GB per hour" setting looks remarkably worse than a 4GB h264 rip, to say nothing of HEVC.
    - cableshaft 6y ago
      I actually didn't mean video quality on Amazon Prime in general. For example, we just got done watching Mr. Robot on Amazon Prime and I had no issues with the video, personally. But Stargate SG-1 was particularly bad, for some reason. Worse than SD, lots of artifacts.
      - dahi1203 6y ago
        you can download and use amazon prime video mod apk for free https://modlelo.com/amazon-prime-mod-apk/ https://modlelo.com/amazon-prime-mod-apk/
- the_af 6y ago
  Hah. I had bookmarked Donnie Darko because, while I had already watched it (good movie, even better soundtrack!) I wanted to watch it again with my wife. I swear it was available the week before I finally decided to rewatch it, then of course it was gone when I wanted it. (By the way, I know this doesn't actually happen, but I swear Netflix sticks in my bookmarks movies and shows I never bookmarked!)
- donpott 6y ago
  I was mid-way through watching the newly released (on Netflix) S2 of "Derry Girls" and they deleted it mere days after making it available. I was annoyed. Turns out they had messed up the rights. https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-07-14/derry-girls-season-2-removed-netflix/ https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-07-14/derry-g...
progman32 6y ago
> when I buy something on Steam it will always be available for me to download At least, until Steam goes offline, or maybe your account gets lost. I for one still use Steam, but I do wonder if I'll be able to play my favorite games in 20 years. A plain EXE from itch, GOG, or some other source will work as long as compatible hardware lives on.

young_unixer 6y ago

Another big deterrent to pirating games is the possibility of it installing malware in your system. That danger is almost exclusive to software piracy. The probability of being infected by an evil pdf, mp3 or mp4 is really low if you know what you're doing (i.e. updating and using decent software).

axilmar 6y ago
An effective DRM technique would be to spread a version of the game without DRM but with lots of malware in it then.

notsuoh 6y ago

Same boat for movies. I used to use icefilms or torrents extensively for every film. But now my first stop is Justwatch to find out what service has the film I want to watch, and then I log into that service and buy it. Admittedly some services, like RedBox, are more frustrating than torrenting though.

menybuvico 6y ago

Adding my voice to this argument: Xbox live stopped my pirating simply by providing a more easily accessible alternative and with prices that are competitive enough for me to prefer to pay for games rather than getting through the hassle of pirating. This included RDR2. Totally worth it.

leetcrew 6y ago

a key feature missing from netflix and amazon prime (and presumably the others, I haven't tried them) is the ability to force a certain quality for the stream. AFAIK, they don't even indicate in the UI whether your stream is 480p, 1080p, or 2160p. youtube has had this feature for at least a decade and even most porn sites seem to have it now. if this is somehow "too complicated" for the average user, just make the default an "auto" setting that does whatever it does now and bury it in a menu somewhere.