What a nice story. Kid pirates turn into adult gamers. First GTA I played was a pirate copy of GTA3 when I was a student. I bought GTA4 three times, Xbox, PS3 special edition, PC. GTAV on like day two, Red Dead day one preorder, Max Payne 3, Bully x2, Manhunt 1 and 2. I feel like I got them back again.

I'm pretty sure I have one of the only copies of Manhunt 2 in my entire country.

NOT SO FAST!

Security cameras got a picture of this guy leaving the Blizzard offices. The picture is a little blurry but I swear I've seen this asshole before!

Something is fishy here!

PC still doesn't have an offline mode? They added it to the console versions, so what's their excuse?

So wait a minute, they were poor broke students that didn't have a dime to spend on a game, but they could afford a 1x CD burner and "helluva" expensive writable discs?

OK, sounds to me like they invested in a pirating scheme from the start. Sure, they could afford to pay back the 1 copy they ripped, but what about the other 100+ they sold for $1 or more (or gave away to all their friends for free)?

Gone are the days of just Don't copy that floppy.

Seems to me at best you broke even, though probably he still owes you a few bucks. :D Pain and suffering and all that.

Huh? I did pirate Diablo series as well when I was young. At that time it was almost impossible to even buy Diablo 2 in my country especially where I lived... with reasonable price.

I bought them all though probably two years ago on Battle Net.

https://fineleatherjackets.net/monkeyinflation

I didn't pirate Diablo, but I did spend a decade or more searching for the hellfire expansion, which cost me a lot a money!

....but if you think about it.... oh, wait.... I see what you did there!

This story reminds me of my youth.
As a kid I never saw a PC in any home. (My family couldn't even afford a TV. :P)
However my school had few system on which we used to practice LOGO.
On some lucky days our teacher allowed us to use Paint and to play Dangerous Dave and Prince of Persia which were in Floppy.
In my tee age I saw PC in some school friends home as they were rich (when I say RICH read it as RICHIE RICH as they had rewritable CD drives and internet connection.)
Only one or two of them use to buy Original games. Rest of them didn't even bother about the price of original.
Years after that in end of my teen age I used to give some kids tutions and earned enough to buy a bundle which had Original DarkStar One (DON'T LAUGH, I actually brought bundle for this game!!!) along with Will of Steel and 3 other games.
I also got an used Deus Ex CD from a friend who was moving to another place.
I used to play them on my friend's computer whenever I visit his place to do some C++ coding. However I never got to play them on my own system as they were lost when I went somewhere else for higher studies.
There were many reasons why people preferred to get pirated games here. One of them is Originals were only available in big towns and most of times they were imported (so retail price was bit too high) and pirated copies were easily available. Internet was not that easily available.
I finally managed to get my own PC.
So in 2012 I once brought pirated Batman: Arkham Asylum DVD. Enjoyed it very much.
Few days after I played it I had to go to another town to meet a friend on my way back I saw Batman: Arkham Asylum on sale with an affordable price. So I brought it along with Titan Quest Gold and [PROTOTYPE].
I remember my friend called me crazy because I spent that amount on two "old" games.
Well after that I got an internet connection and downloaded some games from TPB torrents.
Few days after that GOG put Torchlight as a freebie.
Enjoyed it and well after that my pirate days were over.
I could find games at good price on Humble Bundle or on Steam (I think Left4Dead 2 was freebie from steam).
Now I own almost every game I pirated earlier ON GOG/Steam/Origin !!!

That's other thing that I never got a chance to meet a game dev in person...

Because "the online requirement is critical for the long-term integrity of the game experience".

Your question has been satisfactorily answered. Now move along, sir.

Sounds legit.

For that matter, whatever happened to local co-op games? It's rare now, even on consoles, but D3 on consoles has a local co-op mode for up to 4 players as far as I know.

I guess they had to remove that from ( PC ) games, to have another excuse for their internet connection requirements.

My buddy gave me a CD back in like grade 5 with the oriingal GTA on it. Bought every one after that and was glad to do it. Vice City is still in my top 5.
Bargain spindle at radio shack for less than 10 bucks :D

Hate to rub it in by my friend got a shitload of N64 games for pennies at a garage sale so I HAVE to spread the pain :P

Confession (game version) :P