I get the vibe your venting. But have you even tried to email support@stardock.com ?

LOL

Being okay with piracy = Near future when game developers can't afford to create their games.

Yep, that's sure what I want...

I had my computer formatted the other day and never installed ie 7, so I was in fact surprised it was required.

and the topic is somewhwat hilarious, since impulse is a fair bit easier to handle than torrent software.

the only reason I could think of to pirate games is out of sheer spite for all the anti-piracy stuff included in some games. but then, I can mostly live without those games and don't have to resort to this, because I don't play that many games that much anyway.

The real reason people pirate is because Empires put bounty out on eachother.

Seriously though, don't Pirate software, if you worked a 12 hour day and never got paid, would you go back to work?

it's alot easier getting patches once u manage to get impulse running.. believe me "i tried it"

actually pirating sins beyond v1.05 is very possible... they'll just upload the entire "for example" 1.15 version of soase... and since soase is only 1/2 gigs or so big....download wont last that long

i firmly stand agasint pirating and not buying.... but i've also had troubles getting Impulse to work, and i did try to just pirate patches at that time tough.... mainly after reading solutions on this forum that didnt work or werent optionable for me...

BUT finaly got it working... after a week or so... with.. guess what... help from a pirate site (when checking for patches) noticedon day 7, hour later Impulse was running"

huge torrent programs? there's this few companies that distribute huge programs... with a build-in microwave etc.   all useless stuff. theres also a few clients that are pretty small and easy to use.. Utorrent etc...

again i'll mention i firmly stand against pirates that dont buy and i did bought SoaSE, for those of you that dont understand true piracy and want all of us dead

Impulse is really not some massive burden as some try to make it out to be. For the overwhelming majority of people it "just works", and for the rest, just contact support@stardock.com and they'll gladly get you going.

As others have pointed out, piracy would require third-party programs too, so that's a non-argument, and IE should always be kept up to date on any windows machine even if you don't use it, for security reasons (IE7 was pushed out as a critical update for XP more than a year ago).

People can make all the excuses for piracy they want, but that will never make it justified or right. At the end of the day you're still taking the fruits of someone else's efforts without providing the compensation they've asked for such. And if you think a game is bad, why is it even worth playing even for free? If it's worth your time, then it's worth your money. And if you don't have the money to spare, then maybe you'd better be looking to fix that situation rather than playing games.

The reason I see pirating existing is a lot of games just completely suck ass, and they cost $50+.  Hell, look at Sins when it first released.  It was $40, I got it release day at Gamestop and it was mostly a mess.  It didnt have a campaign, the online was unstable, and the AI was crap.  It was a fun game, I'll give it that, but for $40 I felt ripped off.  Look at entrenchment...  On release day (Original release, in November), the beta was a complete mess too.  I'll give Ironclad or Stardock credit for owning up and delaying the release.  Now, look at RA3 or CnC3.  Both were shit, and both never got better.  I bought RA3 for 35$ on sale, and regretted every dollar of it.  Some games are great, but most are only ok, and for every good game there are 5 bad ones trying to steal your money.  Since most games dont have demos, it can be hard to find a way through the marketting BS to get a good game.  Pirating basically lets you try the game before you waste your money on it.

While I dont actively download games, I will try a pirated game at a LAN party or friends house.  If the game is good enough for that, 99% of the time I'll be buying it soon.

If game companies really want to do away with pirating, they should make better demos, and give a return policy, or admit that some games arent that good, and charge less for them.  I can definately think of a few games recently I've purchased at full price that are worth the cost, namely DOW2, Company of Heroes, Fallout 3 and Sins.  Other then that, most have been dissapointments.

Almost any other product I can return for a refund (minus restock).  Even movies I've been known to leave early and get a refund, or a free ticket.  I dont see why games should be held to a different standard.

The only games I "pirate" are games that aren't sold new and factory sealed anymore.

When you buy from a  used game store, not one penny  of that reaches the guys who made that game.

You want to end Piracy?  Go tell Gamestop and EB Games to shut their doors.

If it's just not going to profit the maker AT ALL, why pay for it AT ALL?

Like if I want, say, Tiny Tank for the PSOne... I'm not even sure those guys still exist as a company, and beyond that I doubt Tiny Tank is being sold for any profit to Sony, the game's publishers, or its developers.

So then why pay for it if it's not supporting the makers?  I'll just go grab it off torrent or something.

And BTW I do like Impulse, I did buy Sins outright, and I'm considering getting Entrenchment once I see more.

Maybe some ObjectDesktop stuff too...

Never pay for anything. Be a pirate. LIVE THE LIFE!!!

http://www.2kgames.com/pirates/pirates/home.php

People pirate games because (IMO) they regret for those dollars/euros spent for the game.

Now, if you are smart enough, you will download a demo, watch some trailers, gameplays BEFORE you decide to buy the game. If it's good enough for you, you will buy it.

Message to all pirates: It's up to you. If you gonna pirate things - don't be surprised when you gonna see the police is looking for you (you might get tracked, you know, this is a modern age we live in now).

If you gonna stay still - smart choice.

AND HOW THE F*CK DO YOU PIRATES EXPECT TO GET THE GAME IF EVERYBODY WERE PIRATING? WHO WILL PAY THE DEVELOPERS OF THE GAME? DEVELOPERS WITH NO MONEY = NO GAME!!! JEEZZZZZZ

Now that I'm not a high school student without income anymore, I can afford to pay for my games and I gladly do so. There are still cases where I don't feel any shame for pirating a game :

 - There's no demo and I want to try it before I buy

 - The game is old and hard to find in stores - Even if I do find it, my money probably isn't going to the original developper

Services like Steam and Impulse make it much easier than before to buy and install games. No need to even get out of the comfort of your home. Streamlined, universal install and update process, no need to search the net for patches or use flaky built-in updaters, etc. No need to carry around discs than be damaged, if I want my games on another computer I simply log into my account. I'm a big fan of the system. Of course, my dearest hope is that if (or when) they go down one day, we will still be able to play all the games we bought with them.

DELETED BY USER.

Impulse is great and is the best way to get digital games. By far better than the other digital downloads i have tried.

Plus it is far easier to use then P2P downloading and installing and cracking of games and then worring about viruses on top.

Not to mention the FACT that some torrents can take DAYS or even WEEKS to finish if not seeded well, vs downing the game from the devs in > hour. And don't give me any BULLSH*T that ALL the games you've pirated are well seeded and finish in a matter of an hour or so. I've seen enough torrents to know better. Ya, Ya, Ya you use Linux for downing and get better speeds but it still depends on seeds.

there's also the time you spend trying to optimize your torrent down speed,

And I suppose Elisius that your telling us you've NEVER downed a game torrent that the hacker royally screwed up the crack or f*cked up the keygen so that after you spent hours downing it, you were left with a piece of garbage that wouldn't play leaving you to hunt down another crack or keygen. Again, I've seen enough to know better, and if you haven't your a torrent n00b who knows nothing about what he's talking.