Might have to visit some torrent sites anyway. Maybe I can find someone who likes Ubisoft games but can’t afford them and doesn’t know how to acquire them…
The term “If purchase isn’t ownership” has no relationship to the article quote. The suggestion of not owning games refers to having subscription-based access to them; as of yet only ever offered as a suggested alternative to purchasing games, which is still very much an option.
These memes are always using terribly structured logic to justify piracy.
The suggestion of not owning games refers to having subscription-based access to them; as of yet only ever offered as a suggested alternative to purchasing games, which is still very much an option.
That is exactly the problem though. How long will it be until the subscription model is no longer an option but the only option? Because i would bet money on that being the actual goal.
Look at the reaction in these comments. Even if some games get attention from Game Pass, each individual game gets its renown through major fans that play 50 hours a month. What would any of these publishers have to gain from suddenly denying that revenue flow for JUST the people subscribing? Even a single game attempting that model would likely receive major backlash.
Regardless, I’m going to continue judging memes and arguments like these as pathetic - as they’re already fully assuming at-present a situation we haven’t even started to move towards.
How have we not started moving towards it when every company is trying their damnedest to get subscriptions? Look at new vehicles, they are paywalling features on an already purchased car, I bet you would have “bet against this” too before it happened. The problem is companies are slowly changing things over time hoping consumers don’t notice until it’s too late.
“Publishers will remove purchase options” does not follow from “Publishers want to add subscription options”. The logic is not there.
If you can name more than a few games that removed their option for purchase due to something other than music licensing problems, that suggest it’s part of a move to encourage people to use subscriptions, you have a case. Otherwise, it’s fantasy. I can’t even think of a single game that’s done that.
He’s basically threatening to move to a subscription-instead-of-purchase model. They’ve toyed with this idea for years, and have been trying to normalize it.
These memes are always using terribly structured logic to justify piracy.
Agreed. Nobody needs to justify piracy. Piracy is automatically justified because the reasons people justified banning piracy were bad-faith. Digital IP is theft whose only purpose has failed.
Subscription models are great when they’re not trying to fuck you. There are upsides and downsides, but if you have options between subscribing with a one-click unsub or buying games and you choose subscribe, it might just be for good reason.
I got Game Pass because I wasn’t sure I’d like Starfield. I now have 20 games installed (including Starfield) and just pause game pass when work is too busy for me to get value out of it. I’m at about $70 total spend. Yeah that’s more than starfield, but I’ve enjoyed close to $500 in games, some of which I either wouldn’t have bought and love or WOULD have bought and am glad I didn’t.
But if somebody makes you pay $20/mo for Dildo Simulator, and colors and sizes are paid DLC, then they’re just trying to fuck you.
Yeah, but if you had bought starfield at full retail price there’s a pretty good chance you’d have regrets about it.
I absolutely don’t mind spending a couple bucks a month to try a bunch of games. If there’s something I like and want to play a lot, I’ll eventually buy it.
Sure? Stealing from a rental car company is still theft. If software piracy was theft, making that software a rental instead of a purchase doesn’t change that fact. You would still be stealing something.
Knowledge theft just can’t be compared with object theft like that. If you had a device that could perfectly replicate a car just by sitting in it, that would be closer.
Alternatively, car companies that can grenade your car’s engine if you drive somewhere they don’t like, or otherwise prevent you from using the car, while still asking for $50k+.
None of that has to do with the definitional distinction the meme is making. I’ve already said it’s not actual theft, my problem is that the argument presented is bad. Even if a customer transaction does not confer ownership, it is possible to steal the thing transacted upon. So piracy WOULD still be theft, if it was theft in the first place. The argument doesn’t work, unrelated to whether or not I agree with the conclusion.
Alternatively, car companies that can grenade your car’s engine if you drive somewhere they don’t like, or otherwise prevent you from using the car, while still asking for $50k+.
Any car that exists can be stolen. That describes a car I wouldn’t want to buy or rent, it does not describe a car which could be taken without that taking being theft.
A device that destroys itself when stolen can’t be stolen successfully. The metaphor still fails somewhat as making a new car isn’t free.
I think I see your point though; theft isn’t defined by ownership, so ownership status is not a case for theft (although they do tend to be caused by the same things). “If the plane wasn’t flying, then I didn’t crash”; crashing is not defined by flight worthiness, or even being in the air.
The logic of the idiom is in the simile though, “buying ≠ owning” has the same logical flaw; there are lots of things we buy that can’t be owned, chiefly services. Yet the expectation of the saying is that buying to own is not owning. Perhaps more explicit would be “If not giving what was payed for isn’t stealing, then taking what should be given isn’t stealing either”, or “If you take our right to own, we’ll take your right to own”.
Like most sayings, being snappy is more useful that being correct, but there’s also an important meaning there if we take the snap out of it.
If someone invented a machine that could print out cars for cents on the dollar, that wouldn’t make stealing those cars fair; especially if inventing that machine cost him billions of dollars.
In fact that’s reasonably close to the case for certain kinds of food - the costs for producing them are infinitesimal, but the logistics of researching that development process, making storefronts, advertising them, and having staff on hand to process the purchase add up. Yet that doesn’t stop some people from pointing to that production cost as reason to shoplift.
Memes like this have always been backwards justification to excuse piracy.
You pay for it, sure, but I’m not sure you “purchase” a rental car. Imho there sould be a legistlation that says you can’t use wording like “buy” or “purchase” for digital media that you don’t own. Like “buy license” or “start rental”… IDK
The exec said that in order for subscription gaming to be profitable, then customers would have to be okay with not owning their games. It was posed more of a hypothetical instead of a sinister plan. Now would they prefer subscription model? Absolutely. Do they expect it to work rn? The exec doesn’t think so.
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