To Buy or to Burn.
 

I am not sure if this is supposed to be an unspoken topic here, but here goes...

Originally in Gaming, I was wondering if because mod chips and other such modifications were available people were more inclined to simply get games online or not. The fact of the matter is some people are by nature collectors and so the fact that they are available at a much, ahem, lower price is irrelevant.

But since it could be more broad and since other media doesn't usually require anything other than the default playing equipment, I was wondering if people here were more collectors or more, I suppose, prudent with their money. Not the best way to phrase the latter since it casts a negative light on the former, but yeah.

In my opinion, if a game isn't worth $50 of your money, then how can it be worth even 5 hours of your time?

I believe that if you enjoy a movie/album/game, you should pay for it. I guess it's easy for me to say, since I don't play many games.

I only play pirated games when it's no longer possible to get a copy of the original firsthand. For example, I tried Final Fantasy VII for the first time just yesterday.

If imports diddnt cost so much and my demands wernt that high I guess I would buy all my stuff.

The only system I have modded is my Sega Saturn. And I love it to fucking death.

I might mod my PS2 whenever PS3 starts to creep out. But I dunno how reliable they are. I've heard that modding your PS2 leads to some compatability issues for some reason. I'd love to burn some copies of games that're almost impossible to track down these days.

I condone pirating console games on the basis that if game makers wanted your money that bad they would neither create nor support game systems that have territorial lockout. I know there are plenty of people here in the US who would gladly buy some Japanese games if they would run on their PS2s, and I'm guessing the same is true for Japanese gamers and American made games. And the people who pirate games to laugh in the face of the law are just going to find ways anyway, so all that's being done is people who would buy the game can't. I seriously believe that console game manufacturers don't give a crap about making money on any game that isn't released in every country the console is sold nor do the makers of said games. Thus why I would never pirate a DS or GBA game but would feel completely right in pirating a PS2 game.

I've only recently started pirating games on my PS2. I will still buy games, but the ones that I just want to try will be burned. I already have the majority of games that I want for the system anyway. The ones that I'm burning now are mostly older games that are hard to find in my area. I'm not a fan of ordering stuff off of eBay.

Me too =o Sony is fucking stupid, no big fucking surprise everyone in Europe's gonna pirate PS2 computarsoftware that has already been released in the USA but will come to Europe like 15 months later (Kingdom Hearts II, ding~dong~ding~dong). I don't feel any guilt at all. If they come to my house I will sing them a fucking lullaby.

Unless the game is amazing, I probably wouldn't buy it. Simply because I'm poor and can't afford 75$ games.

But if I saw Goldeneye, FFVII, Chrono Trigger, etc, I'd whip up the cash for it instantly.

Where do you see 75$ games? You can get most games used for twenty dollars, at most.

I have a hard time believing there's no other way to get a new copy of FF7...

I'm seen a number of used copies of FFVII... There are still a far number of them out there, so I don't really see why you couldn't find one. Check eBay if you can't find one locally.

Firsthand means NOT used, people. Get it through your heads.

And I'm a pretty strict believer in paying for games that I play. I'll only download games that I can't buy at reasonable prices (Suikoden 2, Valkyrie Profile, etc.), or I want to try before I buy. And I'm not a big fan of buying used games at all anyway, since not only do I not like having games in perfect condition, but the game developers get none of the money from sales of used games, which defeats the purpose of buying games in the first place.

I'm talking about CND btw.

For example, Battlefield 2 Xbox is 75$ including tax.
Kingdom Hearts II for PS2 is 65$.

Same goes for most Gamecube games I see. After three or four games, I just payed for the system.

I pirate the game and then donate the money it would have cost to an organisation of humanitarian aid workers in war torn regions of Africa.

I don't really pirate games anymore because I've found that if the game isn't worth forking out the money for the real thing then I'm probably going to get bored with it really soon, really making it not worth it to even download.

On a message board dominated by US Americans, you might as well make that clear right from the start ;)

Why buy a used copy when I can get a pirated version for free?

Remember the publishers aren't making any money when someone sells their old copy of FF7.

My point exactly.

If it isn't worth my money then it isn't worth my time either.

I agree only while he/she has his/her location displayed as "United States Of America".

When I or an Australian talks about money, it should be taken for granted that we're talking CDN or Aussie dollars. We can't be assed to convert currencies for you if you can't be assed to do it too.

Wow, you're really picky. I mean the attitude "It's free, I don't care" I can see, but it's already there and you still don't feel like it? Color me amazed.

I tend to prefer retail myself, but wouldn't mind figuring out some way to organize all that into something more attractive than a castle tower stack.

Now anime on the other hand, I'm not about to reward companies for putting out absolutely shitty English dubs.

If given the chance, I would buy an original game. But due to my poor economic stature, I resort to either downloaded games, or buying cheap pirated copies ($3 a disc). If you like the game, movie, or cd, better buy the original.

Buying pirated copies? Heck download them!

As for Final Fantasy VII, I've seen a couple brand new ones (Greatest hits but that doesn't change anything, except the case.) so I doubt it's so hard to find.

I prefer pirating games. Unless I really like them of course, then I'll go buy them. And just think of Suikoden II which is around $150-$200 on eBay. I would NEVER pay that much for a game.

I download the game, if I like it then I buy it... When the price drops. I aint paying more then 30 bucks for a game unless it's a pretty good game. The only time I spent 50 bucks for a game was for WoW.

Um, there aren't too many things I pirate that I could get imported unless it's a movie or anime. Then once it hits USA then I'll buy it. Samething with music really as well.(Yeah sorry off topic.)

The only thing I would like to do is buy a PS and mod it.(Since PS2, well, supposly it's hard to mod.) and I would want to download, burn and play old PS games I can't get cause I want Medieval but no one has it. ;____;

For me, if it's really worth the money, i'll totally pay for it.
Something about having the actual case and booklet and
decorating my computer desk with it~ hahah geeky!

As for imports, the only games i've imported are Bemani.
Totally worth it ~

I'd buy more games if they were full of quality.
I just can't say that about too many games lately though...

About 75% of my MP3 library comes from CDs I've bought myself.

I'll pay to go see a film in the cinema, but there's no fuggin' way I'm paying for a DVD.

As for games, I'll download them whenever I can. Never paid for a single Xbox title yet.

I think movies are the only thing I won't burn. I see them in the cinema, then buy the DVD but I usually wait cause then they are usually 5-15 dollars then.

Kinda like when I waited about 2 or more years for the gamecube/PS2, I got them dirt cheap new(by dirt cheap I mean atleast 100 dollars cheaper when they first came out.) and thier games dirt cheap rather new or not.

I'll pay to see a film in the cinema and if I liked it enough i'll buy it on DVD when it comes out. I'm not really into gaming anymore so I don't buy games and I wouldn't be arsed downloading them either.

I download music all the time, i'd rather download an album, listen to it, see if it's good and then decide if I want to pay money for it. I'd hate to buy a CD and not like it, the only time where i'd buy a CD without downloading it first if it was an album by one of my favourite bands. All the albums I download I buy if I like them enough, but the majority of my music collection is burnt since i'm quite fussy with music >_>.

I don't play enough games to bother pirating them. I buy more games then I play so I don't see the point in pirating something unless it's an import or something I don't want to buy online.

Music? Please. I download more music a day then I could afford in a year. I suppose that's a pretty bad thing.

I used to be a massive downloader, but lately I've been buying a lot of CDs, particularly imports from Japan. For one thing, when it comes to music I'm a bit of a quality freak, and then I just like collecting things. Its kinda like the way I've always been with books; even when I could just go to a library and borrow a book I'm more likely to buy it from Border's or Waldenbooks. I still download tons of anime though, mostly fan-subs of unlicensed series but sometimes licensed series as well. Though I have bought around ten or so series I'd already downloaded in their entirety.

As far as modding a system like PS2, I'd definitely go for that. Even though my Japanese skills are terrible, I'd still be very interested in buying games from Japan; but the stupid media companies have decided that I shouldn't be allowed to play them on my legally bought hardware. The way I see it, if I bought the hardware, and I bought the game, I should be able to play it; I shouldn't need to buy new hardware that is identical except for a couple of bytes in the ROM and some stored text.

I won't pay for music but movies and ps2, gamecube, and xbox games i will gladdly pay for. For some reason i always feel riped off with music and plus i usually listen to european music anyways. I will download the occational pc game but recently i stopped doing that to because i found after i download them i don't even play them. I'm a collector and sometimes the urge to collect leads me to download things i'll never even play.

I buy nearly any game I want for any system I own, with the exception of GBA games. Most of them are becoming harder to find new, and even when you do find them they are still expensive, so I would just rather download the roms and play them on an emulator rather than try to hunt them down.

But for my current systems (PS2 and DS), I only buy games for them. Part of this comes from the fact that I just like to own the actual games, and the other part comes from the fact that I don't even have the means to play downloaded games on either system. I wouldn't really call myself a collector, even though I do have quite a few games for each one (76 PS2 games and 17 DS games), but rather, I would just say that I'm an avid buyer of cheap games. I probably bought over half of my PS2 games while they were $20 or less, which is probably the only reason why I have so many (and the majority of them were bought new, since I generally hate used games).

As DVDs, it just depends on the category. I never download any TV shows on DVD, because I do consider myself a collector of them. As for anime, I probably have more of it downloaded than I have on DVD, but I still buy plenty of it on DVD. I mostly like to buy boxsets though, as they give you the most bang for your buck. And as for movies, I hardly watch those to begin with, so I don't even waste my time downloading those. The very few that I have on DVD (exactly seven titles) were ones I bought at the spur of the moment, and were only $10 or less.

With me this is pretty much a non-issue. I'll buy a game if I have the $$$, if I come across it while surfing online and think "hmm this looks sweet" I'll just download it. Probably won't end up buying it, but you never know. If the game just blows me completely away, I'll sometimes buy it.

I'm more anal about my movies. Any movies I have MUST be purchased, I pirate movies, sure, but I ALWAYS end up buying them. I'm really not sure why. Some kind of f'd up psychological deal. Music I virtually never buy, games I normally buy, and movies I ALWAYS buy.

I only buy, but that's because a) I never learned how to pirate ps2 games, and b) I can only download using my college network, and they watch to see if you're downloading big files, and if they catch you pirating you get "disciplined".

I generally buy all my CD's, games and films. But i won't say no to something i can get for free, or at least for a discounted price.
And anyway my internet connection won't be able to take the strain of downloading large files. :(

I download just about all of my music and PS1 and 2 games. I would like to own the games that are my favorite but may or may not get around to buying them since I don't play them very often. I never need CD's becuase of my iPod so they would just collect dust on the shelf after I ripped them.

With movies, I rarely, if ever, download them. I have Netflix so I just burn them and send them back. If there is a movie I really enjoy and could see myself watching it again and again I will definitely buy it... eventually that is. Usually I can wait for a sale or boxset (Harry Potter, LOTR, etc.). Something I love, 24, but I can't see myself watching those again. I dunno why... because I already know what will happen? Those would still be cool to own just because it's such a great show.

Anime is something I rent or download as well. I have to agree with SILBER-3, getting the boxset is the best way to go (...waiting for Cowboy Bebop Remix box). They are just a lot cheaper bundled together.

With online capability, isn't it possible to detect pirated games? Like the Xbox, I think your account gets banned if you are caught playing a pirated game or something.

I get games and movies off the internet mostly to try them to see if they're worth buying. Besides having the actual thing is just better. I mean, Im not going to ask a girl over to watch a boot-legged version of Silent Hill on my Computer. ;P

I guess when it comes to games I don't bother pirating them. I'm not a huge gamer myself. If anything, I buy a couple titles a year. Paling in comparison is my blatant pirating of music and movies, movies of which I discovered less than a year ago. I also don't like the notion of modding my PS2 in fear of screwing it up. However, I have played games on emulators, which is different since I don't need any hardware modded, so I'm cool with emulators. Where else would I play such gems like Valkyrie Profile?

Most games right now are easy to find, maybe most GH. So it's not a massive expense like $50.