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Oh, I quite agree with you that it hurts profits. It just annoys me because I grew up in (and still live in) an area with poor to no internet access. Hell, I don't even have a working landline on rainy days. Or a good chunk of winter for that matter. So having digital products that are tied to internet access has always just pissed me off in general.
However, I still do buy indie games, directly from the developer or from GoG if I can't get it straight from the dev. I still buy CD's and tapes from local bands even though I may not listen to them. Having played in a shitty local band for almost 6 years now, and a numerous string of even shittier ones before that, I know the plight of indie devs, and the need to sell as much of a product as possible, (Why do you think so many smaller bands have such a ridiculously large selection of merch? Because not many people are going to share a t-shirt, or a sweater, or a pair of pants, whereas with CD's, there are no such restrictions. Also, if they are with a label, the label takes a large cut of CD profits, akin to a producer with videogames. Also production and distribution. SUPPORT LOCAL BANDS, BUY MERCH[/midrant-rant])
However, when it comes to a larger developer, frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. I don't want to pad their pockets anymore then I already am. I will borrow my friend's game with no remorse, just as I would borrow a CD that had anything to do with a corp like WMG. [/rant]
That being said, when it comes to my aforementioned close friend, even with indie games, I'll still swap games with him. He's more like family to me than my actual sibling, so w/e. Plus, there's some games I just want him to play, that I know he won't buy himself, like To The Moon. He played it, enjoyed it, and I know for a fact that he convinced one of our mutual friends to legitimately purchase the game.
So, while he did not constitute an actual sale, his praise of the game led to an actual sale. I'm not saying it's particularly right, it's just that we've been doing this for ages now.
HOWEVER, I doubt I will ever come around to seeing things as you do when it comes to getting used games. I can't afford to buy $59.99 console games, and until recently, digital distribution wasn't an option for me. Is it really a problem if I pick the game up for $29.99 used, if I never would have bought the game anyways because of the price? There always stands a chance that my glowing praise of the game will convince someone else to buy it (which is a fragile argument, I know), but if I was certainly not going to buy the game ever at full price, is it the wrong thing for me to do? On the same thread, I'm playing my new used game and my friend comes over, sees me playing it: "hey man can I borrow that when you're done?" Sure, why not.
I guess the point that all my rambling is trying to convey is that while it may be better for the developer, being able to share games with a friend was part of the reason I got into video games as much as I did, and being able to buy video games cheaper allowed me to play a much wider selection of games than I would have if I'd bought them new. Thus, it's much harder for me to see things from the developers perspective, especially considering the fact that I'm more or less solely talking about console gaming here and 90% of console games are some Hollywood budget production by a larger dev.
TL;DR: Support indie devs and local music.
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Topic: SALES Thread (Read 1482720 times)