this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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Piracy is essentially a form of archivism. The digital age literally ended scarcity in digital media and these people were like "well that won't do".
You know you bring up a really great point. We've finally hit post-scarcity in an industry (information) and look at what it has done to us. Are we really ready for this in other areas yet. Should we use this as a chance to figure out how to integrate such a creation into society such that the next time this happens it doesn't kill us all.
For sone of these games piracy would solve nothing. How wouldI run an 8vs8 PvP mission in DCUO that players are required to do if there aren't 16 players on the server? If Im hosting it offline that content is still dead.
Private WoW servers thrived. Much of the endgame content required 40 players to collaborate for hours at a time, and they have kept their own dream running for well over a decade.
You should have the option to find and play with others long after corporate servers are abandoned. Whether or not there are other players immediately available is irrelevant to the issue at hand.
Edit - and you're all over this thread licking boots and saying "you signed the agreement!"
Thanks. We know how license agreements work. They are included in the thing we want to change, when we talk about changing the industry. We want to stop allowing bullshit license agreements. The exact same way many of us want Right to Repair for people who bought tractors with proprietary software.
It also allows the game to revive itself. Those 40 players playing pirated WoW could introduce more people to the game. And at the very least, it allows it be run in the future if ever historians should need access.
I dont think you do know how licenses work when your complaint amounts to ” I want this the way I want it not the way I agreed to it”.
You either accept the game the way it us offered or you dont play the game. You are not entitled to get things the way you want them.
Lol swing and a miss again, my friend.
Nice use of the word "entitled" - really sums up your stance on the consumer/business relationship.
The consumer is "entitled" for protesting predatory or unethical business practices.
The consumer is "entitled" for opposing the ongoing enshittification of entire industries.
The consumer is "entitled" for wanting businesses to not be able to legally hide behind unsustainable licensing practices that provide no value to society and further entrench the ever-growing rent/subscription model that is squeezing people dry for no reason.
The entire point - the entire fucking point - is that these licenses are not okay. So, no, I don't pay for these licenses, but I don't think anyone should be able to pay for these licenses, because I don't think anyone should be able to "sell" these licenses.
These licenses - like many unethical business practices - put the corporation that offers them at a financial advantage over the corporations that don't.
Regulations - in every industry - should level the playing field. They can allow ethical business practices to be viable and competitive, instead of being liabilities and risks. The copyright/IP system is an example of those regulations instead being weaponized against the consumer, and needs a massive overhaul.
And guess what? In a functioning society, consumers are entitled to get what they want. They are entitled to oppose unethical business practices, and use their collective power to try to stop it. Why the fuck would we want it the other way around? Why are corporations entitled to get whatever they want?
We have every goddamn right to protest those business practices whether or not we do business with those companies - just as we have every right to protest unethical or discriminatory hiring practices by companies that we don't work for. Even if plenty of people applied for those jobs and signed those contracts, we have every right to protest anyway.
But enjoy the taste of corporate boots!
It is entitlement. When I signed up to play Fortnite BR I agreed to a limited license to play the game as they intended to run it. If Epic kills Fortnite do I have the right to force them to make a version of BR be playable offline? No, because that isn’t what we agreed to.
Nothing about this is predatory. You simply aren’t getting what you want and are throwing a tantrum over it
Well, that's certainly an... Interesting take on someone saying things should be better...
Everything about the "rent/subscription" model is predatory, but we weren't even talking about the truly fucked up stuff, like deeply unethical microtransaction marketing to children ala Fortnite.
Amazing that you think its okay for children to sign contracts where they agree that any money they give to Epic is gone forever, and that any worthless digital assets they are manipulated into purchasing can be voided and deleted at any time without any recompense!
(Lol inb4 "it's the parents job to monitor their kids at all times in case a predatory corporation sneaks capitalism and FOMO advertising into their apparently harmless child-friendly free-to-play game or app")
But sure, keep on defending predatory corporations! Enjoy the taste of boots!
I'll be over here advocating for stronger consumer business protections! Sorry, I mean, I'll be throwing an entitled tantrum lol.
“ Amazing that you think its okay for children to sign contracts where they agree that any money they give to Epic is gone forever, and that any worthless digital assets they are manipulated into purchasing can be voided and deleted at any time without any recompense!”
At no point have I said anything that would lead to this conclusion.
For the record Fortnite is rated “T” for teens because of the microtransactions.
Your “inB4” is moronic. It IS parent’s job to do this. If they don’t have the energy then dont get them a system.
You as an adult are responsible for the agreements you make. It is childish to pretend otherwise.
You absolutely said everything that leads to this conclusion.
People sign agreements with Fortnite that give Epic the right to sell them microtransactions that don't belong to the purchaser. They also give Epic the right to take down Fortnite and therefore remove access to any of the content that they paid for. This is the license that every player agrees to when they play the game.
You claim that protesting the usage of that license is "throwing a tantrum."
Lol I forgot that teens aren't children, apparently. That makes the microtransaction okay, because the players are (supposed to be) teenagers. As if teenagers aren't vulnerable to manipulation, or as if the ESRB actually does a goddamn thing anyway.
Just couldn't help yourself, could you? You just have to defend the corporation's right to advertise to children, and blame everything on the parents. We already had this fight with cigarrettes, you know. People would say that it's the parents' fault if kids were attracted to cigarettes.
How did that turn out? That's right. Nearly every developed country in the world agreed that advertising that shit to children was not okay. Full goddamn stop.
"Oh but it's on the parents to make sure capitalism doesn't poison their childrens' bodies and minds through cartoon villain levels of social manipulation", you say.
Corporations advertising harmful shit to children should not be tolerated under any circumstances, and functioning societies are entitled to make that a goddamn law, which they have done before, and can do again.
No I claim that agreeing to those conditions and then complaining when they do not alter those terms in ways you want them to is childish entitlement. Do you see the difference? If you have a problem with the license you do not agree to it and you do not play the game.
The rest of your post is just more of the same whining about why you can't have things the way you want them when they are not being offered on your terms to begin with.
Finally, you are complaining about video games. You should keep that in mind so you have better perspective on this.
So... exactly what I said, then? You think Epic's licenses are okay, and it's entitlement to complain about them. I genuinely don't see the difference you're trying to describe.
Lol but enjoy defending unethical business practices, I guess. Keep imagining that I've bought these licenses at all, and keep imagining that it's entitlement to want things to change for people's best interests.
I hope the corporations thank you for defending their right to walk all over consumers. Manipulating children into gambling and renting worthless digital products is "just video games" after all. I'll try to keep that perspective in mind.
Hard to hear when you are so angry huh.
Ohh, yes, my comments are just dripping with seething rage. I couldn't hear you over my blood boiling in my ears, sorry.
Want to explain what I missed?
You sound mad now, too. I don't need to explain anything, go re-read the conversation. I can't make you see someone else's perspective, but I can mock you for being so obtuse.
Ahh, the pinnacle of internet discourse - pretending that one wins an argument by minor differences in tone, rather than content. Only... suggesting over and over that someone is throwing an entitled tantrum certainly sets a tone, don't it?
Strange, that I am the only emotional one here. Perhaps if you take a deep breath, and read my comments slower? Maybe ask a chatbot to read them in the voice of David Attenborough or Morgan Freeman?
Maybe you're right, and I've just gone deaf from all this blind rage. At this rate I'll never achieve my dreams of being acutie...
Youll always be acutie on my mind.
And I hope you grow up and learn how engage maturely one day.
"You want to purchase something and use it the way you want to? How entitled can you get?"
Right, and the way licenses work should be illegal. If I purchase something, I should be able to do whatever I want with it, for as long as I choose to. That's what purchase means.
If I rent/subscribe to something, that only lasts for the duration of my contract.
Sure, I'm not entitled to get things the way I want, but am entitled to get things the way they were advertised. If I buy a game, I should be able to play it even if the publisher shops selling it. They have options on how to handle that, either by releasing the server code so I can self-host it, removing the server bits so I can play offline, or continuing to keep servers online for existing owners.
Just to reinforce your point, if you rent/subscribe to something, the duration should be known at the time. The fact that they can pull the plug at any time without a prior warning is what makes it a scam.