Piracy: Or, Biting the Hand That Feeds You.

Ok, I've heard all the completely retarded excuses for stealing software, movies, music, and whatever else happens to tickle your fancy. They're all bullshit. You aren't some nifty political movement, sticking it to the evil corporate empire. You aren't protesting intrusive DRM, and if they released a demo, you'd still steal the full game.

Notice I'm saying steal. Not pirate, not copy, not download, not torrent. I've heard that load of crap too, and you make Downs seem smart if you think people are buying the arguments about it not being stealing. Shall we check the definition of steal, and see?

1.

to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force: A pickpocket stole his watch.

2.

to appropriate (ideas, credit, words, etc.) without right or acknowledgment.

First two definitions for steal. Neither of those mentions physical possession. Intellectual PROPERTY. Rocket science, much? Hell, the second one even covers non-physical stuff, like ideas, or credit... So, apparently, you can steal without denying the rightful owner a physical object. All you have to do is to take something without permission or right. That sounds like what you call Piracy, to me.

So, my next question. If it's a protest of whatever, for whatever (made up) reason, you pretty much acknowledge you're getting it the wrong way, or else the act of getting it wouldn't be a protest, right? The only other way to protest would be to not get it at all. So, if you succeeded in justifying it as just being a copy, and not stealing, it would actually remove any value from the notion of protesting, because your action wasn't wrong at all, and you got the product.

Let's face it. The majority of people aren't stealing a game to play for free to see if they want to buy it. How do I know? Because that's moronic. There's other ways to find out if you want to play a game, especially in this day and age. You aren't stealing it because of intrusive DRM, either. I'd guess something like 0.001% of the people who steal a product to get around intrusive DRM have encountered an issue and known it at the time. Even counting me and all my friends, the worst issues I've seen with DRM have been occasional new CDs not playing in old players. I've never had China take over my computer to sell to the Daleks or whatever, as a result of installing a game.

The only thing you're really protesting is the right of people to earn money by selling games. Yes, you deny money to greedy stockholders. Those game companies wouldn't exist without greedy stockholders, you idiot. The greedy stockholders are all rich and can move their money anyways, so the people you're hurting are the people who lose jobs. The people who make it happen. The common people. So, you're just a prick, you thief.

Long story short, you're making the games industry less profitable than it should be, and now we get nothing but shitty console ports for PC. Thanks a lot, assholes. Rot in whatever hell is most applicable to your religious preference. Yes, they still make money off the buyers, the honest people. But we pay MORE for games, they put worse and worse DRM in place, and everything you claim to be fighting comes as a direct result of your actions. Or at least is justified by them. So go fuck yourselves.

Mac, Why I Hate It, and Why That's OK.

So, there's this funny misconception amongst Mac users. Apparently, there's something wrong with people hating Mac. Even for those of us with a legitimate reason. After all, disliking Mac is clearly a personal attack against all Mac users, or that's how they respond. Now, I'll admit, there's PC users who exacerbate the problem, and I've been one of them. But these days, I'd say that my reasons to hate Mac are legit, and people who disagree should be willing to accept them.

For starters, iMac. Take it out of the box, plug it in, and turn it on. Great. But it's a laptop GPU pushing more display than it should be. You can't open the case, you can't stick in a new GPU, you can't do anything with it. Aside from turn it on and maybe set it on your coffee table as some sort of centerpiece. But it is decorative. Can't change anything, can't tinker... yuck.

Second, OpenGL and game support. You just can't game on a Mac. Now I know not everybody plays a lot of games, and since most Valve and Blizzard games are available for Mac, some people don't need more. I do, and I need it to look good. DX11 with a high framerate doesn't happen on a Mac.

Pricing. The most frequently cited reason, and the least understood. Mac comes with good support, good build quality, good cooling, and good displays. But me, I'm fine with manufacturer warranty for components, and I can arrange good cooling. As far as displays? I don't need perfect color, just decent color and low response times. That's it. I can do that without a Mac, and get the stuff I do want with it.

Hardware... Yeah, you can't upgrade it, you can't customize it much, and it costs a fortune for what you get, from a pure performance standpoint.

Now, to revisit that feature thing. Can't tinker, but it just works. That's good for some people. Expensive, but you get awesome customer service. Can't upgrade, but you get amazing build quality. OpenGL and game support? Not everybody needs that, and for what Mac does, it's awesome. It just doesn't game.