Sony is erasing over 550 movies from PlayStation libraries without offering a single refund. If clicking "Buy" only grants access until a corporate licensing deal expires, the service is fundamentally broken.
I was young, it was convenient, and satisfying. Eventually, I relented to the idea that I was doing it more for personal reward than for any kind of “fuck the establishment” message.
I got a good-paying job, and felt the satisfaction of buying a good game on sale with my own money.
I still maintain, as do most people, that tons of publishers are scummy and anti-consumer, but I also built more positivity towards developers that don’t exhibit such behaviors.
Even if Steam were to somehow go down for a month, by now I’ve learned about other storefronts and methods of purchase that provide a place to move to. There’s a devoted centrism to the way people consume most media franchises that basically guarantees they can flip prices to infinity, control purchases, and never suffer consequences, and piracy absolutely feeds into that; helping them to paint themselves as victims to policymakers while they rake it in.
I used to pirate, don’t anymore.
Even if Steam were to somehow go down for a month, by now I’ve learned about other storefronts and methods of purchase that provide a place to move to. There’s a devoted centrism to the way people consume most media franchises that basically guarantees they can flip prices to infinity, control purchases, and never suffer consequences, and piracy absolutely feeds into that; helping them to paint themselves as victims to policymakers while they rake it in.