Vault_Boy: There are loads of private servers for people who do not want to pay monthly fee for a game that looks like it was released ten years ago.

Have you followed the ruling of our Supreme Court lately? They say that if you buy a game that requires Steam then you technically do not buy a complete product at the retailer but only part of it. The product will be completed by activating it on Steam, and thus cutting off every option to sell it some time later. No wonder that people resort to piracy, or, like me, do not buy Steam games at all. As long as user rights are restricted by means like these (and Ubisoft, Blizzard and others are equally bad as Valve is), I can fully understand everybody who pirates games with heavy DRM.

Crassmaster: Nope, sorry...heavy DRM does NOT give someone the right to pirate a game.

Vault_Boy: I did not say that piracy is legal or justified but that I understand people who are pirating because of heavy DRM.

Crassmaster: Okay, why? Why does heavy DRM somehow give them justification for their piracy? Why can't they just NOT PLAY THE GAME if they don't want to buy it?

Crassmaster: Okay, why? Why does heavy DRM somehow give them justification for their piracy? Why can't they just NOT PLAY THE GAME if they don't want to buy it?

Vault_Boy: Once again, there is no right to piracy. I did not even say I sympathize with pirates. There seem to be roughly two groups of pirates: People who pirate everything because they can. The other group would be those that buy games, too, and would probably buy a game they just pirated but did not do it because they do not want to support or even harm the developer who uses strict DRM, or maybe because they had serious trouble with DRM like Starforce or Securom (which is not that uncommon) or some other reason. These reasons do not justify the download of games instead of buying them but I can see why people are doing it nonetheless.

Crassmaster: My apologies. It seems like most often when an argument like this pops up, the person presenting it then supports and justifies it. I apologize for the assumption you would be the same...not fair at all on my part.

Also, it's 3 in the morning. Maybe that 'sleep' thing would be a nice idea. :)

Trilarion: If DRM works or not? Well for WoW at least it kind of works. I would not be too sure about the dominance of piracy in the future.

Vault_Boy: No harm done. This must be one of the most controversial discussions surrounding gaming (that, and censorship, especially in my country -_-).

Crassmaster: Nope, sorry...heavy DRM does NOT give someone the right to pirate a game. To not buy it, of course. Nobody should buy something if they aren't 100% comfortable with the entire business arrangement. But these ridiculous arguments that 'Oh, it has DRM I don't like so I magically get to pirate it." are childish and stupid.

Now, I DO agree with Stinging Velvet and what he's talking about, since he has actually purchased the games in question. But you don't get the right to pirate something simply because you don't like the protection it uses.

Crassmaster: What is the state of game or media censorship in Germany? I've heard a lot of conflicting information on the subject, and I'm curious to know what the reality of it actually is.

Vault_Boy: I do not want to lead this off-topic. Drop me a mail and I can give you an overview of what's going on around here: themadman13h at web dot de.