Kinda the same. My first ever experience was meeting (Real Life!) in front of a local church (with my mom as a bodyguard) with a guy that I found on a local newspaper ad. We talked on the phone, and each enumerated their game collection. After that, we set up a meeting spot/date - took our cassette tapes with us, and voila! Swapping was performed. Not much later, I was swapping 5.25" diskettes, then 3.5" diskettes - but this time for the new Amiga 500. ALL were infected - no exception. But I didn't have a harddrive so who cared! I played Monkey Island 2 from no less than 11 diskettes, swapping as the game required me to. And it was better than any current games, for me as a kid. As for nowadays, yeah, I pirate games, not all. I have stuff like Diablo 3, Overwatch, WoW and Destiny 2 bought cause they're online only. No longer playing any of them. I have AC:Origins too, cause I like Egypt. Witcher 3 cause CD Project RED deserves it. But I'm not gonna pay for things like Final Fantasy XV or Kingdom Come Deliverance or Far Cry 5 that I basically use as benchmarks. Or for Divinity Original Sin 2, which I knew from the start it would annoy me with game design decisions, but still wanted to see how it runs - and then ditch it. Or DOOM when I know I only wanted to see Vulkan on my GPU and that I'd be bored in a day. I'll buy Cyberpunk when it comes out. Other than that no, screw the current gaming market, I'll save that money towards a beefier PC. I don't care about the devs, their kids and the publishers, they are FAR richer than I am, and they'll manage just like I do. They make ENOUGH. If they don't, stop doing it, no worries, this is the Internet, if your gaming company dies, another will replace you. Gamers will be fine.
Don't play games anymore, now that I can afford to buy so any game needed(my wife plays on her PS4) I buy for her. Its far easier now with so many online stores & year round discounts etc. This was not the case here when I was game addict back during school days.
Sometimes... A game that comes out that I am not sure on and it's available for the PC/Xbox/PS4, etc. I'll download the game, play it for a few hours, if I enjoy it, 95% of the time I will go out and buy it(or wait till it's discounted on ebay or something). A demo that is offered is normally very short, I want to experience the game to see if I really want to go on that quest or not.
Been a pirate since i was a kid in the 80's but Steam and gog made me a legit player and yes I got too many games that I have not played because sales Anyways. I don't play many games these days. I play one mmo and sometimes the odd singleplayer or atm. Vermintide 2.
No, I don't pirate games. In my opinion, if I can't afford to pay for a game and so I'll rather not play.
Do you pirate games? No, I'm too old to play such a games. I only play sometimes a pocket-billiard with two balls and it's also free for me.
yes for others, on windows machines. i am a linux/bsd user. the trouble/effort i need to uptake for the same game to work in linux/bsd itself is a game. So if trying to make a game work in linux is a game then i am pretty much the best gamer. i can make all the games go past the first display/welcome screen and then loose all interest.
Do I pirate? Kind of. There has not been anything come out in the last ~8+ years worth buying or even pirating. A bunch of DRM and micro transaction infected, short, little, quicktime event, crap on rails, rehashes of the same garbage games over and over and over. Most so buggy and poorly optimized I don't even consider them 'playable'. That said, I do 'demo' one from time to time if they seem like they may be worth buying. If they are, and they are not $59.99 (F#%$ that!) I buy them. Last decent game I bought was Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, because it was something different, but that was bugged as all Hell too. Before that....I can't even remember. Just Cause 2?
One of the only games i play is WoW which is subscription based, so i don't really have a choice but to pay. But besides WoW i like to give a couple of indie games a shot, which i usually find on steam, so I usually watch a couple of videos of gameplay and if it seems interesting i'll buy it, not only because i want to support whoever made the game, but also because for some weird reason, i feel like i enjoy the game much more when i pay for it! I did, although, pirate a couple of games like GTA:SA and Minecraft (lol) but that was years ago.
unfortunately? we all may behave here like the best boys in class, but that is only varnish, i suppose. you seem to deplore trying games out?
Yes, I say unfortunately because as I haven't paid for them I feel really bad when I play them, kinda guilty.