a weird thought about ethics.

[baratron]

I'm catching up on my newsreading at the moment. Whizzed through uk.people.gothic and uk.net.news.config, and more slowly through uk.transport.london and uk.games.video.playstation. I stopped and posted quite a few messages in both utl and ugvc. I seem to be the token female in both groups - it's really quite amusing. There are a fair number of women programmers and sysadmins (computer geeks), but comparatively few trainspotter or gaming geeks. I'm not sure why.

One of the messages I posted in ugvc is something I'd like comments on from a wide audience. It's too early to point you to it in google groups - I only just posted it - so I'll include the text below:

(Note for the uninitiated - "backups" is the term used by Playstation gamers for unlicensed copies of games - when you put the original into a CD burner and make a gold CD of it).

I just had a strange thought about "backups".

I pretty much only own original games. The "backups" I have are all games that either didn't get a European release at all or weren't available in Europe at the time I got them. I feel quite strongly about only buying original games and supporting the developers, but I have absolutely no problems with owning "backups" when the stupid companies don't bother to grace us with a release.

However, at least half the games I own were bought secondhand. So the developers have only seen the money from the original purchase - my money is just going into the pocket of the seller. So am I wasting my money by buying secondhand originals? Should I just get "backups" if I'm not prepared to pay the price of a new game?

I'd be interested to hear thoughts on this.

Comments

Secondhand ethics?

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Hm... that is an interesting question. I suppose that, when you buy a game second-hand, the company that made it isn't hurt because they were paid the original price of purchase, but if you get a "backup" then the company doesn't get paid the original price at all. Except for whatever price was paid for the original from which the backup was made, of course. Hm.

Um, it's a fascinating ethical issue, which I'm not going to go into right now because I'm getting kicked off the computer. :)

[firecat]

If the main ethical point driving your behavior is "supporting the developers," then I think the best thing to do would be to buy a new game, not a secondhand game or a pirated game.

[djm4]

Well, if you buy a secondhand game you are giving money to someone who may well go out and buy new ones, so they'll end up with more money to do that. So you may be contributing indirectly to the developers, even if you're not doing it directly.