Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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I have spent a few hours playing the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake (on PC I might add). It's a very charming and well-made game. It lifts the spirit.
The devs added major image sharpening to it though, probably in an effort to make a 1080p game look better on 4K TVs or something. I hope that can be modded out soon.
I think it’s vulgar to pirate games (I assume you’re not ripping it from the cart). Call it a matter of honor. If one must do it, it is best not to mention it.
Why? With what the game industry as a whole has earned such a respect? AAA, microtransactions, wokeness (even worse than wokeness - cringe wokeness), bugs, abusive drm, overbearing licenses, consistently terrible writing, hostility and contempt towards their own audience and customers ... the list goes on. Even before gamersgate the industry was busy destroying the goodwill earned in the golden age of 1995-2006
If, ideologically, the developers aren’t worth supporting with your money, then you definitely shouldn’t support them with your time and attention by playing their game. The latter two things are much more valuable to them. Surely there are smaller creators much more deserving of those things out there to support?
You're conflating is and ought: the big names have more resources so they can make games that are sufficiently better (and in the case of multiplayer games having a large userbase) than indie stuff that it remains better even after worsening it with cash-grabs and political content.
Maybe the smaller creators are more morally worthy of support, but that doesn't mean they have the same quality/quantity of goods as the mainstream studios.
Also this is a weird 50 Stalins criticism to claim that actually the piracy is helping the studios. It is violating their wishes, so it is straightforwardly harming them. IMO piracy is immoral and a form of theft, but also even amongst otherwise law-abiding middle class people so I do it too and accept that I'm doing something wrong.
Fortunately when it comes to games these days, my ought practically already is. There are maybe three or four AAA studios left that are not slop mills and still put out good games. Indie and AA are unironicaly much better in quality now despite the resource gap. Why that is is out of the scope of this comment. The main thing they still have over smaller studios is marketing budget, name recognition, and (fairly relevant as you pointed out) player count.
You are denying them a sale, yes, but if your reason for doing so is ideological — not wanting to support a hostile message — I think it’s important to recognize that you are still paying your enemies. By playing or watching, you are giving your time and downloading their ideas into your head.
You’ll be able to take part in water cooler conversations about their product, get the references, and contribute to making it that much more popular, more culturally relevant. Most people pushing for heavy ideology in your media don’t care about the companies’ bottom line, but they care a lot about putting their beliefs in the wider culture.
I should clarify I’m not talking about piracy for reasons of economics or convenience here. This is more meant to address the partisan justification for pirating from one’s political enemies - at the end of the day, you are still consooming their content.
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