I'm probably going to take a lot of flack for this piece, but I have to be honest: I don't get pirating. Well, let me try that again: I don't get people who try to justify pirating. If you say that you pirate games/music/movies because you just don't want to pay for them, I get it. You like stealing. At least you're honest, like a homeless person with a sign that reads: I JUST WANT MONEY FOR BOOZE.

But I find it odd that people feel the need to talk about the reasons they choose to pirate games. Because unless you're talking about how you love free shit, there is a good chance you are lying; venturing onto the internet in an attempt to find just one person who will agree with a practice that you must not totally approve of yourself, otherwise you wouldn't care what other people think.

So what are the reasons people use? Going off of what user MathewRD wrote yesterday, there are apparently several bullshit reasons people think up to justify their practice. Money issues and wanting to test a game first seem to be the top two choices.

For money issues, it's simple: If you can't afford something, you're going to have to learn to live without it. In the days before the internet, that was something people did all the time. If you really wanted that new Color Me Badd cassette but couldn't afford it, you saved up and bought it. Why should it be any different in the digital age? It's not like you're taking bread to feed your family. You don't need to buy video games. It's a choice, a hobby millions partake in. Is it expensive? Yes, and that's a fact paying gamers deal with so there is no reason you shouldn't as well.

As for testing a game before you buy it, they have demos for that. As a matter of fact, all the games MathewRD listed have demos on Steam. So he could have tested the game without pirating it. And guess what, buying bad games happens. Going to see a bad movie happens. Buying a bad CD happens. I've probably spent close to $500 over the DS and Wii era on games that ended up sucking. I traded them in and got smarter about my purchases, I didn't go and pirate all future potential purchases. Studios and developers have no obligation to make sure that every single person likes their product. Instead, they (hopefully) are releasing a product they really believe in and hope to find a fan base for it. The product is really only half of the purchase. The other half is the experience. If you pirate Amnesia: The Dark Descent, play it and decide you hate it, you've already taken the experience of playing the game for free. Even if you delete your copy, you'll always have that experience, something others actually paid for.

And I love the idea that you're not really stealing because the product is digital, therefore it's not an actual object. However, once people buy a game it suddenly becomes a very real product. We demand digital rights, the ability to copy the product over to a new system and to back the game up onto our own hard drives. The transfer of money doesn't magically make a product real, it was still very real when you decided to bittorrent it.

I'm not going to write about how pirating is the bane of the industry, because I feel there are a lot more pressing issues that pose a greater threat. But I do think it's bullshit that so many people feel they are entitled to something they haven't worked hard to earn. So if you're going to pirate games, go right ahead. But don't try and justify your actions with bullshit.