Johnny

If you would be so kind as to properly read my post, you'd notice that I attacked you directly at specifically two points. The first being when I told you to keep terrible psychoanalysis out of this, and the second being when I not so subtly accused you of using ad hominems. The part you think is me accusing you of being a sheep, a white knight, or standing in line to purchase CODBLOPS is actually the part where I try to offer an explanation as to why pirates like me get so defensive. Do you remember the gaming press and large portions of the gaming community's reaction when Roger Ebert said he did not believe games could ever be art? Pretty defensive, right? Well, now imagine that coming from pretty much everyone in the industry, but instead of claiming your hobby to be lesser than that of movies, they make you the scapegoat for everything bad in the industry while saying you should go to jail. I'm surprised pirates in general aren't more defensive than this. As for feeling bad over pirating... Hah. I feel bad over spending too much goddamned money on games, all because I sympathize with some bedroom indie developer with more imagination than the entire ex-Infinity Ward team put together. I admit I should maybe double-check my usage of terms like ad hominem before using them. I was pissed off and neglected to do so. My bad. I am not sure if what you did can be accurately described as ad hominem, but it's still fucking bullshit, no matter if the term fits or not.

Please keep your quite frankly terrible psychoanalysis out of this. "He's defending himself, so he's got to be guilty"? We try to explain it because nobody likes having every white knight on the internet pointing fingers and going "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT YOU EVIL FUCKER!" Especially when said white knights then stand in line paying overprice for fucking CODBLOPS, a game Activision has now released three times (CoD4, MW2 and BLOPS) in the span of four years and are sucking incredible ammounts of cash out of the industry. Cash that could have been used to fund untold interesting games. The mainstream games industry is bloated as fuck and it's attempts to try and make it seem like our friends while shoveling out games made to specification in order to gain a sale from the mindless sheep are incredibly weak. In comparison to the state of the mainstream games industry, fucking Hollywood looks relatable. I purchase what games I can afford - too many, in fact - and then I get demonized for wanting to look around and try games out before deciding which ones to support. Insulted by CODBLOPS-buying sheep. ---- EDITED because I realized I wasn't quite done and doubleposting is evil ---- By the way, if we're gonna use ad hominem, then why are white knights so eager to stand up and put blame on everyone? Is it because, maybe, deep inside, they know that paying for overproduced, overpriced games designed not out of artistic joy, but out of a desire to make a profit, really isn't as morally pure as they want it to be? But, of course, that would be a completely retarded line of reasoning.

Outside of what has already been mentioned by Cyber and Ethan, I have one single complaint about the Extra Credits episode. Yes, if you can afford a PC or an xbox or whatever you can probably afford one or two games. But that doesn't mean that you can afford all the games you're pirating. It's not that black and white.

This might be slightly off-topic (but not more than you guys. Smartphone app discussion, really? =P), but it's a rant I've wanted to get out of me for a while. Wether game piracy is right or wrong, this is so blown out of porportion. We're really good at overreacting and pretending like this is a life and death issue. While I do agree that people should probably support this industry if they like what it does for them, it's time for a reality check. Is there any industry that at times produces content I enjoy, that I still don't support in any noticable way? TV would be one. I never watch TV, and when something good does come out of it I will generally either not see it, or get it pirated. Now I know a lot of people who make a big deal out of game piracy, but nobody makes a big deal out of this. And so what, right? It's just another industry. We can't support them all. Now, I understand everyone (or at least most people) here care enough about gaming to try and support it in a real way, but just as most serious gamers I know do not care when someone doesn't support TV, we need to be ready to accept that a lot of people do not care and won't choose to support it. They'll blow their money on things that are of a higher priority to them instead. Sure, if you pirate a lot of games and never pay for any of them, then you might be kind of a dick. But if not supporting this industry is your heaviest sin, I consider you a full-blown saint. It's easy to lose perspective on the internet when you're surrounded by games and gaming discussion. In the end, maybe all that money I gave to indie developers could have been better served donating to cancer research. But I didn't think of it or care at the time and truth be told I'm not likely to do so next time either.

A closer analogy would be that the teacher is punishing the whole class for a behavior which is not affecting the other students in a real way and in the end the "troublemaker" finds a way to avoid the punishment.

The point was not to put up a defense for piracy, the point was to stamp out a misconception that serves as a basis for a lot of people's arguments about piracy. Wether right or wrong, piracy is not theft, logically or legally, and thus basing anything on the "fact" that it's theft is just terrible. As for my own opinions on piracy... Eh, it's a grey area as far as I'm concerned.

No, I'm trying to explain to you that piracy is not theft. I am not trying to justify piracy - my opinions on piracy itself have very little to do with wether it is stealing or not. This would all be halfway relevant if my post was anything about the moral right/wrong about piracy. As it stands, my post was about the definition of piracy and how it is certainly not stealing.

People who claim piracy is stealing should not be allowed to enter into any discussion of any sort ever. Why is this, you ask? Well, because you are basing your whole argument on a FACTUAL ERROR. Why the hell would you do that? You are making yourself look like an idiot while contributing absolutely nothing to the discussion at hand. Piracy is the act of making a copy of a product. It does not remove the original product. Hence, logically not stealing. Furthermore, it is not legally considered stealing either. It is considered copyright infringement. So, oppose piracy if you want to, but please, for the love of whatever deity you believe in, base that on some sort of rational argument, not a plain lie.