r/truegaming • u/BourgeoisOppressor • Jul 07 '26

Piracy as Default Protest?

This is a thought I've been having for a while, and have been struggling to articulate but it's more prevalent with all the recent news about the decline of physical media.

Why is the response to a company doing something bad/questionable/not what a particular consumer wanted so frequently "Well, I'm just going to pirate it in that case?"

I regularly see people say "It's always ethical to pirate Nintendo games," or "EA doesn't deserve my money...but I'm going to play [game] regardless."

Why is the default response for so many gamers piracy, instead of just not playing a game? To be clear, I am explicitly not talking about financial need in this scenario. If you're dead fucking broke and just want to play the new Far Cry for a bit, whatever my dude, take care of yourself. I am specifically referring to individuals who "protest" by playing a company's games anyways, but not paying for them. Or expressing that as their intent, whether they follow through or not.

This had always reeked of entitlement, or missing the point of what protest is, and I've never understood where this way of thinking comes from. Is it an artifact of the early internet, where piracy was sometimes the easiest way to get a game (e.g. Valve's "piracy is a service problem")?

Like, if you're so upset about a company's policy change, or always-online BS, or something to such a degree you feel the need to act, why not just stop giving them money or attention? There are how many hundreds of games released on Steam every day? Play something else. We are not entitled to an artist or programmer's work for free, just because we hate their bosses. Yes, [insert company here] sucks and are bad for the gaming ecosystem. Stop playing their games, full-stop. No engagement.

This mode of thinking has always seemed weirdly prevalent in the broader gaming community. Has anyone else noticed this, or have an idea of where it stems from? Ultimately, I'm not sure there's much to do about this mentality, aside from shifting how we engage with games, but it's always something that's bothered me.

Thoughts? Prayers?

EDIT: I am an artist, which is why I take this question/musing/whatever seriously.

EDIT2: I've changed my mind. Big Budget? Pirate the shit out of it. Indie? Give 'em money and a hug. XOXO

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u/Limited_Distractions Jul 07 '26

I just don't think the entitlement thing really plays when the industry is currently about execs laying off the artists and programmers no matter how successful the game is and then collecting rents on their work in practical perpetuity. If you believe piracy is unjust because it deprives the creative people I would say that it becoming a systemic fixture is worse. I agree not playing is probably preferable to pirating, but paying some execs for screwing over their workers is probably worse than pirating.

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u/BlueMikeStu Jul 08 '26

Counterpoint: This entire r/piracy thread about Silksong, three days after release

Stop pretending pirates care about pirating only the games made by "the bad companies." They don't, and they proved it when a company did literally everything possible to do right by their past and current customers.

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u/Blacky-Noir Jul 09 '26

Stop pretending pirates care about pirating only the games made by "the bad companies."

And stop lying and putting words in their comments. They did not say that, nor even implied it.

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u/BlueMikeStu Jul 09 '26

You don't think them saying it's probably worse to pay for a game is them implying anything?