this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
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It is not self-explanatory. You needed to explain it. On its face, it sounds like it's saying to just pirate. I can get behind the message, but these three words aren't it. I know that coming up with effective, catchy slogans is hard, but this one's not going to do well.
Not pay and even if pirate don't promote these games
If you're endorsing piracy as a political stance in any way, I don't see it gaining traction. People need to be paid for their work; especially those who built a product for you that's meant to last and can't be taken away from you. I don't know how you convey that in a three- or four-word slogan, but I don't think this one does it.
The dogged insistence that piracy of a corporate product impacts the pay of it's employees neglects how the wage system works.
The wages only appear if the thing they produce creates profits for the corporation. If they continually produce something that doesn't sell, they won't have a job anymore. And I'll raise you another part of this equation. If you pirated Assassin's Creed: Shadows because you hate Ubisoft or whatever, that game will take somewhere between 35 and 65 hours for most people to finish, according to How Long to Beat. That's 35 to 65 hours that you weren't spending in some other game, perhaps a game that respects your values enough that you'd part with your money to play. Maybe that's Kingdom Come: Deliverance II or The Alters or Knights in Tight Spaces; whatever your preferences are, there's some other game that also didn't get your money because you were playing that pirated game instead, and I picked those three examples because they're recent and run a range of different developer/publisher models while still being DRM-free.
What are you talking about? Game devs are constantly being laid off even after the product they create, creates profits for the corp.
That's a different story entirely. That's poor allocation of resources on large projects, when certain disciplines needed at the end of a project don't necessarily have work to do at the beginning of another. The money that hired those people in the first place still came from selling the company's previous video games.
Eh, there are enough news reports of record profit game sales followed by massive layoffs to say otherwise. The poor allocation of resources you're talking about? Bonuses to upper management :/
I will 100% pay full price for an indie-published game, or for a game published by an honorable corp. If that company is fucking over its development team, layed off the development team after a successful launch, or is doing some unscrupulous shit, the black flag is raised.
If further projects by that big corp aren't funded, oh no! That's the point. Starve the bastards enough that they change their ways or give up the game.
That doesn't dispute what I said in the slightest.
This you?
Yes, those are not conflicting pieces of information. The poor allocation of resources is not having a Project B ready for people to move to when their job on Project A is done.
Would you take a job that requires years to complete and forego wages until it retails?
Nobody actually works like that.
No, they typically don't. That's more what startups do. In the corporate world, the schedules are amortized, but the money has to come from somewhere.
You’re right. It often comes from the previous game but if that game doesn’t do well then the chances of there being another are greatly reduced.
And yet there are free indie games out there that are generally better than the corp funded crap. Creators will create, no matter what happens.
You'll find far fewer of them creating when they need to spend more of their time at a job that will allow them to feed their families. And I don't think the games I've found for free (actually free, not given away for free once as a promo) have tended to be better than the paid ones.
I've put more hours into Infiniminer, Minetest/Luanti, Industry, Dopewars, dnd, dopewars, and various Twine/Frotz games than any corporate games. When I do want an FPS (rare), I look at Doom sourceports and maybe Cube/Sauerbraten.
And there's the real time-murderer: Nethack.
Having a personal taste and preference that lets you enjoy free indie and/or old DOS games is great for your wallet, saying these games are "generally better" than paid-for games funded by corporations is wild to me.
To each their own, but I'd say none of those compare to Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, and Skullgirls.
That's entirely untrue. Plenty of people get paid to make games that flop.
Living in some fantasy land where never paying artists for their work magically results in them being compensated is pointless.
If you want to pirate, go ahead. I have. I don't pretend it's the "moral" thing to do.
In a corporate setting, wages pay the artists prior to the games' release. And the artists don't see additional revenue after it's release.
Well if single player game needs to connect to publisher sever to play then you don't buy this game and piracy is just preservation. I'm not endorsing piracy, but not condemning it.
I agree with the first sentence, but that's what I feel this slogan does a poor job of reinforcing.
I would argue in some ways piracy is a progressive form of demonstration against a systematic problem, and in this case the bigger studies that milk users and take advantage of those doing the work.
So telling people not to advocate with their form of protest is a bit unfair, it takes all tactics to get change. Its a bit like telling someone not to go out and march because you don't like that approach. People should get paid, but fairly. and consumers shouldn't be fleeced....So my sympathy for the studios involved is little theres been plenty of time to talk...they didnt listen, infact they stuck two fingers up.
It's a convenient form of protest that just happens to get you stuff for free.
I'm not better than pirates, I am one at times. I don't pretend like I'm doing something moral. I, like everyone else, do it so I can enjoy the content while saving the money for other things.
Then they need to quit fucking over their paying customers
Plenty of them aren't. Pay them.
I seriously don't know how you're this off mark about all of this. No one has said to pirate games from companies that doesn't do what the thread is about. It's literally only about either pirating or not playing the specific games from the companies who shut down games.
You're on the verge of being like that Pirate Software dude who is against the SKG movement because he's so fucking dumb that he doesn't understand the extremely obvious and clearly communicated points.
Piracy of shitty AAA games sends a simple message: “These games aren’t shitty! They’re STUPENDOUS!!! But they just need to work a liiiitle harder on DRM systems to lock thieves out of it.”
Besides, I know very few pirates that draw a firm line between AAA/indie pirating. Many will shift excuses at will to play what they want.
My reaction is simple: Don’t play bad games. Piracy has no entry point to that equation.
I am going to be frank, most people don't care about piracy. You making it the crux of this issue is a red hearing and disingenuous. It is something a corporate shill would bring up.
Being frank, nothing will come of a movement about consumer rights if it looks like you just want to get things for free.
Listen, as long as we allow corporations to ruin culture we will never be happy. There is no magical world where we respect copyright and corporate rule and get what we want.
Your opinion is simply wrong for multiple reasons. That is okay.
Picture a neutral voter reading two different headlines. Importantly, picture the voter’s reaction. How they show support in legislative bodies is important.
1: Purchases of newer video games have gone way down. Consumers are reportedly pirating them instead.
“God, the younger generation is so incredibly entitled. People slave away on these things and they just want to steal them? Makes me think that ballot question they had about ‘Stop Killing Games’ was just about making them easier to steal. What pathetic thieves.”
2: Purchases of newer video games have gone way down. Consumers are reportedly buying many indie games instead.
“Wow, I should look into some of these ‘indie’ games if they’re so good. Sounds like there’s a lot of money in them now! If they spend that much on the hobby, I guess it makes sense they’d push that legislation about consumer rights.”
I can't dictate whether or not you pirate; I just think you can help influence the world in a more positive way if you don't. There are games made by people who worked hard and aren't employed by a corporation. I would encourage you to buy from them, because you can show that you value their hard work and want them to keep doing it. Games have the good fortune of being more democratized than other media, so even if they have the lion's share of the market, you can go on enjoying video games, even paying for video games, without giving those corporations the time of day.
You don't have to explain to me, I already know. I said you were wrong and I meant it. There is not going to be a corporation that is not enshitified. Did you miss all of the independent studious being bought up and now closed.
They are destroying our culture and the best you can muster is buy ethically? We are far beyond that rhetoric now. Like I said before it is okay. You have not really thought about what is going on and there is no shame in that.
No, I didn't miss the independent studios being bought up, nor did I miss the countless others formed in their wake and free from corporate control. I'm not ashamed that I have a realistic view of the world, and I find yours to be childish.
More independent studios to be forced to use corporate stores to sell digital merchandise that can be revoked at any time. The only person acting childlike is you playing pretend that this is acceptable.
I totally get it, you want to ride your high horse into the sunset. Do a us all a favor and do this. You don't have answers, you just want the status quo and we are all tired of it already.
This is such a pathetic, thoughtless dismissal of an argument.
Gabe Newell on Video Game Piracy (Full Version, HQ) (2009)
Basically, if they (publishers) want money, they should stop being cunts to their costumers.