GameTap?
If you live in Texas, then there’s probably a Half-Price Books near you. Start checking there every week or so and you’ll evetually be able to purchase all but the most rare PC games.
Really, the only thing I haven’t seen there lately that I’ve been looking for is Anachronox.
There may be moral justifications for theft from time to time (stealing bread to eat, stealing munitions from an enemy armory, stealing used panties from the dumpster behind the nursing home so that I can wear them while chewing on licorice whips and putting out lit cigerettes by pressing them into my forearms).
But getting back games that were stolen from you doesn’t quality. It sucks, just as when you have physical devices stolen from you. But it doesn’t justify you stealing to replace it.
Thats my 2 cents.
So, anyone clicked this and care to report?
It sends you to a Houston Real Estate website. Very odd.
Everyone knows Houston Real Estate is the real pirate haven.
Its url is actually HAR.com, so I’ve got no idea how it went from lots of letters to three that don’t appear in that order.
Fortunately, he’s just pirating.
WOOP WOOP thread disaster warning!! :)
Now this is an odd position to be in, but… erm… how is he stealing? He paid (legally) for the games. He accepted the license. He has the codes that prove he accepted the license. All he’s actually missing are the bits. It’s like the inverse of the argument that we usually have around here: A game is not the bits. It’s the IP and the work and the effort that went into producing the game. The fact that you can make a cheap copy of the bits is moot. Generally the arguments here come down on the side of “It’s all the stuff that goes into the game that makes it valuable and what you should pay for; the fact that you can unfortunately make a perfect digital representation of the game by copying a bunch of seemingly random ones and zeros is rather immaterial.”
In this case, if he truly has the license codes, has bought the license, and those weren’t stolen, I’m having trouble understanding why he ought to be forced to re-buy another license simply because he lost the physical medium. To be sure, for things like my academic discount software, I can buy as many copies of the stuff as I want for $5/disc for the medium. That sure doesn’t give me the right to install one copy for every disc I buy. In fact, it gives me no rights to actually use the software; those rights are carried externally by the license to the software, not implicitly by owning a disc containing the bits that make up the software.
Mind you, it seems like much of this would be moot anyway since it’s very hard to find unaltered copies of discs, and those with nasty copy protection generally rely on non-compliant bit patterns that can’t be burned out anyway. But conceptually, it seems like the OP actually has managed to retain the parts of the software that give him the right to use the software (mind you, without reading through any of the EULA’s out there) and the thief is, well, the thief (in terms of possibly playing the games as well). So I’m hard pressed to figure out where re-acquiring the digital information that contains no inherent rights to use the software would be piracy.
If he/she still has the original jewel cases, and said jewel cases have the serials printed in them, why would it be “stealing” to get copies of the games from less than reputable sources and use his/her own serials to install them?
Moreover, stealing from whom? Looking back at my collection of games from the past 15 years, some of these companies are out of business. If my copy of Fallout was stolen and I re-bought a used copy of it somewhere, is Herve going to see a penny? In the same situation, if I downloaded Fallout, would Herve lose a cent?
Copyright still gives the copyright holder the right to control how the game is, well, copied, separate from any licensing issues.
Some companies are rather unconcerned about it; Microsoft doesn’t really seem to care how you get the disc as long as you’ve bought a valid key, for example, but not everyone is that generous.
Microsoft is generous? Since when?
I knew I should have put it in scare quotes, but thought I’d been overusing them lately…
Caring and bringing resources to bear are different things. I’m sure they care but can’t justify the cost of enforcement. Companies like Nintendo, however, was known for enforcing their copyright quite viciously and will shut down and sue the pants off anyone distributing ROMs of their older works (NES, SNES, etc). I’m not sure if that’s the case anymore, because frankly some of people who used to pirate those types of things are now buying the titles on virtual console on their Wii for like 100x the cost they should be sold at.
On some other forums I’m on we usually get these moron threads…eek my games are broken,stolen,nuked,abducted, please help me with them crackz.
Bleh on you sir.
To be honest I’m really surprised at how much negativity this thread has generated thus far. The point is that I still have my cd keys so I was expecting more discussions like the above rather than simply being flamed. I guess most of you just expect that I’m lying, which is a shame.
I guess a moron thread deserves a moron reply. ;)
You are have awakened teh groupthimk.
The best option is to ask Scharmers where he lives, and when he’ll be out of town next. Then you can replace your collection much easier than downloading for hours and hours.
Cool idea! I’ll even leave my Steam & D2D account information “just lying around”, check the coffee table.
Here’s what’s available:
Civ IV : Warlords
FEAR
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
GTA III
GTA III: San Andreas
GTA III: Vice City
IL-2: 1946
Mass Effect
Neverwinter Nights 2
Oblivion: Shivering Isles
Silent Hunter III
Silent Hunter IV
Silent Hunter IV : U-Boat Missions
Space Rangers 2
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
STALKER
SWAT 4
The Movies
The Movies: Stunts and Effects
The Suffering
The Suffering: Ties That Bind
Trackmania United
Vampire: Bloodlines
688(I) Hunter/Killer
Audiosurf
Bioshock
Call of Duty 4
Condition Zero (inc. CS Classic)
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Doom 3
Doom 3 Resurrection
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Flatout
Fleet Command
Half-Life 2 (inc. CS source & DM)
Half-Life 2: EP1
Half-Life 2: EP2
Painkiller Gold
Peggle Extreme
Portal
Prey
Project: Snowblind
Sacred Gold
Shadowgrounds
Sin 1
Sin Episodes
Sub Command
Team Fortress 2
Titan Quest
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
X:3 Reunion
Age of Mythology Gold
Civilization IV
Combat Mission Anthology
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Dangerous Waters
Diablo 2
Diablo 2:LOD
Dungeon Keeper 2
European Air War
Far Cry
Flight Sim X Deluxe
GRiD
Gunship!
Hearts of Iron Anthology
Lock On: Gold
Mechcommander 2
Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries
Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance
MOH: Airborne
NWN 2 Expansion
NWN Diamond
Oblivion
Oblivion: Knights of the Nine
Pacific Storm: Allies
Secret Weapons of Luftwaffe
System Shock 2
Universal Combat: Collector Ed.
Unreal Gold
Unreal Tournament 3
Unreal Tournament
Wings of Power WWII SE
ARMA Gold
Battle of Britain 2
Carriers at War
Evochron Renegades
Fate
GalCiv 2: Gold
GalCiv 2: Twilight of the Arnor
Lord of the Rings Online
Space Hack
Starshatter
The Witcher
Do you mind leaving your spare key under the mat? I’d rather not have to bring my lockpicking set. Thanks!