I have spent countless hours working on my first novel. My opinion is definitely subjective, but while I would not call it the greatest thing since Harry Potter, it is definitely not as bad as some of the things that are out there (reading Fifty Shades has convinced me of that.) It is sold on Amazon for less than three dollars. I have sold three books. Because the only way for me to advertise it was to spam forums and the threads promptly got deleted and I got banned. I seriously cannot blame the moderators and I think I deserve that, but how the hell wam I supposed to go out there and advertise it ? Hint : I can't, in fact, without spending a shitload of money or being an annoying bastard.
Point is : believe me, I would LOVE to be pirated. I would LOVE to see my book being shared on the likes of Piratebay and rapidshare websites (except when I tried to put it on some websites overthere, my post got also deleted because they could "not verify the link", what the hell). This would give me the visibility I wish I had. I do not hope nor intend to make a load of cash and quit my day job. Nah, I just want to get some feedback and see how much it can make. Some people think this is greedy though. Yes. I'm three dollars greedy, apparently. Pirate the fuck out of me, for god's sake. It's the best thing that could ever happen to me.
This being said, I also do pirate, and I certainly do not see how this is avoidable if you do want a complete video game culture. First, there is the case for abandonware. Try to find "The Pawn" or some other magnetic scrolls games on eBay ; they are absolutely unaffordable on eBay and I have found some that ranked on the thousands of $. So, to be clear, to stay on the legal side, I pretty much need to sell my car to play a game.
What the fuck is wrong with that.
The things on GOG can sometimes be even more shabby. I have no care for the rightholders. Aren't we supposed to buy games and artistic media to help the artists that create them ? After all, this is what all the MPAA communication and other stuff is about , right ? Except if you buy a game on GoG or on the Wii Virtual Console, most often, the people who worked on the games will never see the money. Instead this will end in the account on some publisher that will use it to shit a new Mario or even a new Call of Duty. Seriously, buy System Shock 2 on GoG? What the hell for?
Then there is the case for AAA. And for this while it is illegal and some might argue immoral to pirate, it's hard to feel the pain. I am not sad of having torrented Bioshock Infinite, because this game was an enormous lie. There is also the fact that these games make a ton of money with or without piracy, so why should I care ? In fact, some make so much money it's actually better than people pirate them and belittle as much as possible their success ; just imagine if everyone bought legally Call of Duty? You'd get even more Call of Duty. Pirating it removes the guilt of funding crap.
This being said, I do buy games once in a while. I jump on the steam sales, the humble bundles and things like that. And bloody hell, there are too many of these. And there, the nasty thought gets in my head.
"If I am not playing these games I buy, I waste money I could save for my kids going to college, or, in fact, money I could give to charity. Fuck that shit."
So I even download that shit once in a while ; but the good thing, is that I'm not proud.
