GAMEOVERGAMES PRODUCTIONS'S PROFILE

There would be one less person with a green name.

I don't like clicking on things, but you support release day, so I give it a 5/10.

Ok first of all, this is not to encourage piracy.
Nor is it to post links to where stuff can be pirated.
I can not be responsible if the 1/6,000,000,000 chance that this is found and used as evidence against you by some giant company to sue you for pirating comes true. I would also point out that this is not for lame jokes about pirates, but that would mean someone would make one for sure.

That said, do you ever pirate anything, why do you pirate those things, and for what reasons do you think people in general pirate things?

I do occasionally pirate some games, such as older games that can no longer really be found to buy (such as SimCity2000), games that I once had but the CD was lost or scratched with time (my copy of Warcraft II), and Spore because the pirated version works better :-X. I also randomly download music that I hear without caring whether it's legal or not. I will never pirate from an indie company though.

For why people in general pirate things, I do believe there are several reasons. For one, cost. There are three sides to this really, minors who don't have the money to / parents won't give the money to / to lazy to get a job and pay for the game, cheapskates, and people who live in countries that they can't make as much money in, and so don‘t really have the cash to pay for a game. Some of those people spend a large amount of their wages on paying for a computer and internet, but they technically save money by pirating games/music/etc. that otherwise they wouldn't be able to get. Also, added onto the country idea, availability. If you're in some small country far away from the U.S., it's probably going to be hard to go and legally by a Microsoft game. (And also, if you're a minor chances are your parents aren't going to go out and buy that Ao rated game for you.) Such as this quote from a different forum:

In my country (Romania), I guess the first reason of game piracy would be price, and the second would be availability.
The average monthly wage here in Romania is about 250$ and most gamers are young, so rely on parents to provide them with allowance.
Most companies don't consider discounts or lower prices to match the buying power of the customers here (for example Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare costs here about 95$, with the 19% taxes) and kids just don't have the money to buy such games, and parents would rather buy food, clothes and other more important things with the money.
Even if you would want to buy some games, in some cases you can't or you don't benefit from 100% of the game's features. For example, a major game seller in Romania decided to stop selling Xbox360 games here because games couldn't be validated or there was no support for the games in Romania and if there were problems with the DVDs you would have to send them in US or something like that (Microsoft considers the market here too small to bother and while they import consoles and games, the console repairs take months and in some cases don't even bother to send a replacement DVD for the bought game)

As for pirating games, some people might pirate them if there isn't a substantial demo release so that they might see if it's worth buying, of course though, if you have already pirated it there is no real incentive to buy the real thing. Also, for games as well as music, or just anything that's on a CD, you will probably lose a CD, or it will get scratched at just the right place to screw up the installation, etc. at some point. I know this has happened before to me, and if you've already bought it, why buy it again? Then there are the people who illegally download console games onto their computer to play, which the lack of having that particular console probably contributes to.

There is also the fact that to many people there is the false illusion that pirating just isn't bad. Game developers are letters on a screen to the majority of people who pirate games. There is no guilt, no remorse. We're not hurting anyone because they aren't actually putting in any extra effort to produce that additional game. It's a false belief, but it's an easy one to hold on to.

Finally there is also the easiness, and laziness in not having to go out and buy that music CD, or videogame, which combined with everything else, can cause piracy to become a habit. As one person put it:

Once you start pirating games there's no real incentive to stop. There is no guilt, no real public ridicule, an infinite amount of excuses as to why it doesn't really matter, an endless supply of stories about gaming companies screwing the consumer, and an almost celebrated regard for doing it from anyone below the age of 30. Unless you have a real respect for a company you're likely going to want to try before you buy, and then you'll likely not make the purchase because the minimum standard for purchase becomes ‘exceptional'.

I would have to say that I think monetary/availability (which in many cases can go together) reasons are the main reason things get pirated, with laziness as a close second.

Discuss

RMRecker doesn't make a difference in the specifications, its just a tool for changing them. The basic rm2k/2k3 engines share the same default ExFont.bmp (special symbols) and specifications. It takes the form of 12 by 12 pixel black and white symbols (black background), with thirteen columns and four rows. The $letter code goes in order from left to right.

Here's the unedited ExFont (Only it has to be a bmp, it can't be a png):

Welcome to the land of milk and honey.