I must admit, I don’t really buy software, because I find it terribly overpriced here, in Eastern Europe – but if I can afford it (probably through discount sales in major supermarkets) and do find it an invaluable one, I am willing to pay. If it is a game and it does entertain me (which is terribly hard) then it’s fine - I only ask for two things. Try to keep the software bug free (and at least try not to annoy me with patches and automated downloaders) and don’t install crap (spyware or other assorted “security” software “protection”) on my machine, because if you do so, I might as well used cracked executables (risk of getting malware, risk of having unwanted bugs etc).
Also note that having a broken Internet connection around here is not so uncommon; last time I felt a bit bored because of this I wanted to play Half Life 2 single player: Steam laughed in my face.
Now, on with the rant: I liked Neverwinter Nights a lot, but that’s a bit dated, so I’m willing to pay for the somewhat better (still butt ugly) graphics NWN2 would offer and I may consider buying Kotor2, though I’m not a big fan of the Star Wars universe. Also lately I tried out Mass Effect which really really could entertain me: I love the storyline, the carefully written dialogs, the graphics, the gameplay – and since it’s not an FPS, I still can play a couple of hours without having a migraine (free look camera controls even with vsync can give me quite a headache).
So this means we got a buyer, am I right? Hell no. All three software has showstopper bugs (NWN2 for example is well known for its’ lockups and freezes – more than 20 major patches/updates has been released since initial launch) and both NWN and ME has Securom protection, which is very very close to spyware. If I let the softwae phone home all the time and install a low level rootkit (buying it in a shop) I may play; if I choose to pirate the game, I commit a crime, loose risking data and probably will loose updates (a small hope for bugfixes).
So is this a justification for pirating games? Will I use pirated copies instead of legit ones? The answer is no: I will not use either one, this is not a justification, this is not an excuse; I just ditch gaming – the glory days are over for good, thank you EA, BioWare, Valve and rest of you.