LOL. Nice try, number 6.

I'd never in a million years consider buying game keys from any of those shady unauthorized sites personally. I mean, I don't care what other people do personally because it has zero visible effect on me personally, and only a miniscule effect indirectly (possibly by causing game prices to rise or something like that, similar to how shoplifting causes prices in stores to rise to pay for the stolen goods). But I just wont do it personally, and not because it may be in a legally grey area, and not to hold some moral high ground either. The reason I wont do it is selfish. Throughout the years, like probably most people I have gotten games, music etc. from a variety of sources including retail stores, online stores, bargain bins, gifts from friends, borrowing from friends or someone making a copy of a cassette tape, CD or similar. There aren't that many human beings alive that haven't gotten a copy of something from someone at some point either as a loan or actual copy, even if it was just a mixed tape recorded off the radio or something.

What I've found over time though, is that you don't always get the best experience from loaners, copies, hand me downs, or other sources. Sometimes it is a crap shoot, and in the case of games, sometimes trying to get the games to work you can waste hours of your time. It can become a time consuming hassle in the end trying to save money by borrowing, getting copies or whatever, or you might end up with something that is poor quality, outdated etc. I'm speaking in real general terms here.

I've had good and bad results over the years with both purchased products, loaners, hand-me-downs, copies, you name it. It's been a total mixed bag. When I was younger, I didn't mind that so much and wouldn't have a problem with spending time trying to get a copy of a game to work, but often it was indeed a huge PITA.

Now fast forward to today, and with online stores like GOG and Steam, I personally find legitimate digital gaming etc. to be extremely low cost compared to what we had available in say 1995, much higher quality and much greater experience of ownership overall (not in every single case, sure there are bad examples out there too, I am generalizing). So for example in my experience it is so simple to buy games online from GOG or Steam or authorized resellers and know with absolute certainty particular aspects of what I am gettting (to the degree that I need to know), and that my legitimate purchases will have very low risk to later disappointments, while in the case of GOG knowing that I get GOG's amazing customer support (in my personal opinion). Sometimes I wonder how they make any money selling a game for say $2, then you have a problem with it and a tech support engineer helps you via email and ends up spending perhaps 15/30/60 minutes of their time to resolve your issue. The price paid for the game in that case doesn't even cover their wages! You could never ever get that kind of support in the 90s from any game company anywhere and definitely not from any stores.

So I've concluded that actually buying games from GOG, and within certain conditions that matter to me personally occasionally from other legitimate retailers as well ends up being a very positive experience overall for the money spent, with very low risks to me. I love the convenience and I love the support, and think the value I get for the money I spend is well worth every penny.

What does all that have to do with the shady key resellers? Well, it's a fact that they sell illegal keys knowingly or unknowingly and somehow manage to skirt the law. If you sell stolen goods (including goods purchased with stolen credit cards) in the real world, then you are considered to be breaking the law as well. If you purchase or accept stolen goods from someone, whether you know they are stolen or not, you are generally potentially at risk for breaking the law also. I don't want any part of that whether it is widely accepted that the risks are low or high or otherwise. Then there are keys that are not bought with stolen cards and perhaps no laws are actually being broken - but it's just pure shady gaming of the system, and people and companies that engage in such practices are shady people and companies, and if they're willing to do such things then they simply do not have other people's interests at heart. They have greed and selfishness at heart, and if they end up ripping someone of on purpose or by accident, they wont sweat a tear about it and may even laugh and rejoice as the money piles in.

I've heard endless stories of many people getting ripped off by these shady stores, and just being out the money they paid for what they were excited to get, and then sometimes directing their anger at GOG, Steam, or Origin for cancelling their illegally obtained keys etc. But they still turn around and keep shopping at the actual shady website that are the ones that actually screwed them over, or some other similarly shady site.

I believe in the principle that when someone ( a person, a company, some other entity) shows you who they are and what their values and principles are by means of their actions - believe them, they're showing their true colours, and if they screw over Valve/GOG by ripping off their keys through shady underhanded means that are either outright illegal or just barely skirt around the law, then they will morally be perfectly ok with screwing you the customer around either illegally or just barely skirting around the law, knowing that there's almost nothing people can do about it.

I don't want to be ripped off, so my risk management involves carefully trying to avoid doing business with stores, people, etc. who have demonstrated that they are shady and have no business ethics or concern for the well being of others, and are ready willing and able to rip people off any chance they can just for the almighty dollar.

No thanks, that's just not for me. I'll gladly either pay a legitimate store a little bit more to know I'm highly more likely to have good experiences than to take risks at getting ripped off by scam artists and con men.

TL;WA :)

Oh right, like I'm going to read that whole thing! :P

Actually, tinybuild did a lot of giveaways on facebook and maybe steamgifts. Then a lot of botters/fake accounts will brute all of those keys away to resell them on G2A. G2A responds to this as "these keys were from an official source and thus it's your own partners selling them on our platform", which is pretty dumbass of a claim but what do you expect from thieves anyway?

The solution is to get rid of cd-keys and activated box copies. Only sell them direct on Steam/GOG/etc. and this cd-key resellers will die out, devs/pubs get all of their money, and no one has to worry about it ever again. It's pretty useless selling on websites like GreenManGaming or Amazon anyway since people buying your game will buy it wherever it's available. No need for their preferred stores, just their preferred platform.

He's probably got three more of those in his deck.

The black market is disreputable? Say it ain't so!

moved

Whodathunk Jon Motley and Tyler Black would be facing off for the WWE title? Well there's that other guy too... But that's as surreal to me as anything.

Why don't they DMCA the shit out of G2A? A reported infringer is presumed guilty until they prove they aren't. Let the scammers prove the unprovable.