Supporting Piracy

[Maxine MagicFox]

Not that I'm really arguing with you but I just kinda wanted to point out something that's a little (or I had assumed) obvious with Atlus USA.

Atlus USA has never made it a secret that in addition to localizing a majority (not all) Atlus JPN titles but that they touch the stuff that no one else wants to touch. This is a game company that (and I don't know if it has changed since Demon's Souls and I kinda fell out of the loop) that makes a majority of its profits based off of pre-ordering. The design of their company is such that they do not expect to make a great deal of profit.

I'm somewhat mildly entertained that Luminous Arc is the one title that your criticize most when there are are several other far more gameplay offensive games that pop into mind (My World, My Way anyone? Baroque?)

Again, no argument or judgement, just pointing out that as a rule it should be decently obvious in some way that there's probably something probably off about the game if it's Atlus that's picking it up to localize it (and it's not an Atlus JPN title). I think Demon's Souls is the super rarity that I think even took the company by surprise that they cashed in that much.

I think "Buyer Beware" is implied if Atlus USA is the localization company.

[Randomnicity]

My World My Way came out after Luminous Arc. LA was pretty much the first giant miss for Atlus for me. Although yeah I didn't purchase MWMW either.

I guess it's more of Atlus publishing games with gameplay quirks that were designed fine or at least had some unique twist to it but not really accepted by the mainstream. Like The Dark Spire's ultra retro gameplay or Knights in the Nightmare's... well where to begin... Even games I didn't like, Contact for example, I could really feel the ideas the developers were poured into it.

But LA was just... terribly average at best. I seriously tried hard not to think about FFT, Front Mission, Tactics Ogre, or Fire Emblem when playing the game. But I just couldn't stop feeling like all the negative gameplay aspects of every SRPG I played suddenly came together and LA was the result.

And yeah I've always had my "buyer beware" alarms go off when it came to Atlus published stuff even before LA, but I've always wanted to see what made a game stand out so Atlus would pick it. LA just fell flat.

[Lumnaya]

In my view, the issue isn't whether you download content illegally or not, but whether you support the creators or not. Piracy is bad when it's simply used as a way to avoid spending money — but when it brings a little-known or underrated work to a wider audience, piracy may even help the creators eventually.

Talking about music (because I rarely ever pirate games): when I was 15, I almost didn't pirate at all and relied on reviews, friends' recommendations and 30-second extracts from Amazon and Fnac to decide which CDs to buy. As a result, I knew very little about music, made some purchases I regretted and was even driven away from some records I ended up loving years afterwards.

I later started downloading more and more, then downloading everything I might be interested in before buying my favourites — that didn't lead me to spend any less on music, just to make more informed choices. So I really don't think I'm doing anything wrong… though it might be because I tend to be a consequentialist.

[Trifkin]

I can agree with Lumnaya's points. One of the few times I bought a CD without knowing quite what I was getting I was very disappointed. I knew I liked some of the band's work, but I happened to pick up a live CD that was mostly goofy ambient noises and silence. : /

Although, even if you're pirating because you can't afford to buy, you might still support the creators by talking to your friends about it. "This game/cd/movie is so good! You've got to get it! Here's why I love it: blah blah blah" goes a long way toward others buying legitimate copies. Most of the people I know in real life don't know how to download things that way or don't want to, so their only options are through legal means.

[Wolfling]

Reading all post,then.
......................(Silently reflecting on what I have so far and realize 6 out of 10 I spent my time on are pirated)...........

No way around and its useless denying, Im a pirated fanboy. But I can say this, the only time I don't feel bad about doing it is when I'm retro gaming. Those classics are really hard to find

Rereading: "pirated fanboy", so I'm also pirated?

[heprea]

I have no problem with people pirating games that have been killed off("online only" single player games, that have non official viable offline versions around the internet).

And to be perfectly honest, I don't feel like getting angry at some 12 year old teen downloading a 60 dollar games from big multi billion company.

Once you become an adult and have a job, that is when I can hit people with the hammer of justice.

Just couple of my cents on this topic.

[WillowWolf]