Here's a Novel Idea: Let's Actually Purchase the Video Games We Play

The Best Way to Fight Video Game Piracy is Not to Participate Yourself

Let's just come right out and say it - it's very likely that we've all been, at some point, a media pirate. There's a fine line to walk between "archival copy" of a media product we own, and making a copy of a movie/song/game from a friend that we're interested in. This is especially the case with the status quo of the video game industry - more and more people are using "torrent' and "warez" sites to download and play non-purchased copies of video games. Now before you shout out "Ye who cast the first stone...", here's some full disclosure: I fully admit that I have made and used copies of pc video games in the past. It was just so easy. Yet why did I do it?

What is it about media, particularly video games, and the Internet that seemingly makes this entire prospect seem ok? There really is no gray area to this at all: we're stealing products, plain and simple. Is it because it's so easy to do that it's perpetuated? If it were vastly easier to walk out of Best Buy with a brand-new box of BioShock or the latest Jay-Z cd, would more of us do it? Perhaps - but I sincerely doubt it very much. There is the inherent morality to the whole stealing aspect that makes most of us know it's wrong, and the actual physical act of taking something off a shelf and walking out of a store would seem to many to be extremely low on their "to do" list. Yet it is happening all the time on the Internet, and is a damaging problem with the games industry today.

Take, for instance, the disturbing quote found on this subject from Infinity Ward (IW), maker of the Call of Duty games. You may read it here. They don't list percentages/numbers of cracked games out on their servers, but their quote of "It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it's not physical or it's on the safety of the internet to do." the IW representative makes a solid statement. Ethereal or not, a physical disc or not, if you have it but didn't pay for it, and it wasn't a gift or demo, guess what - it was stolen.