Go to: www.stopkillinggames.com/ Accursed Farms: www.youtube.com/@Accursed_Farms

I will always say it. If buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't theft or wrong.

"Don't pirate our games!" "Okay then let us play it" "No!"

Back in the day, I worked at a music store in the era when pirated MP3 downloading was rampant but iTunes and streaming platforms like Spotify didn't exist. We'd have customers come in all the time saying the CDs they bought didn't work. Turns out the DRM on the CDs (that pirates easily sidestepped) prevented people from using them on certain players, mostly commonly car based ones. The only people DRM actually punished were the people who paid real money for their physical product.

DRM is nothing more than "you're a pirate and criminal first, a customer second" thinking by companies.

Piracy is preservation

If Piracy is theft Then blocking access to games you've purchased should be equally criminal.

I want single player, offline games with no DRM and no online activation. Miss out any one of these and it's a deal breaker. I have more than enough old games that still work to entertain me for the rest of my life

The fact is: of companies star again to sell physical products, they will have to launch it when it's ready, not 1 year before to grab some money and then proceed to keep updating the game until it's done.

"You'll own nothing, and you'll like it" "No, I don't think I will"

The irony of the "official patches" released by some game studios to bypass DRM is that a lot of them weren't even produced by the studio, they just took cracks from the warez community and slapped an "official" label on it...

I just sent my report on The Crew to the fraud reporting website. Thank you for making this video and keeping us informed.

Shoutout to Capcom for their mobile game Mega Man X Dive which ran on free-to-play and when they eventually shut down, they rereleased it as a separate paid purchase that runs entirely offline. It is the best way to save it? Probably not at all, but its an effort that was made at all and at this point, its more than a lot of others are doing.

Only 11% of films from the Silent Era survive intact. They were stored on a physically volatile media and their artistic significance was unknown. A hundred years later, with the advantage of historical hindsight and digital storage, its estimated that only 13% of all videogames are playable without resorting to piracy. This number will only shrink with dying mobile games and games only hosted on official servers. Game. Piracy. Is. Art. Preservation.

Thanks a bunch for the mention! For the record, everything we're doing would cover any DRM that requires internet access also. It wouldn't end DRM in itself, but make it so it would be a legal liability to the company if it needing to dial out made the game unplayable when support ended. The advantage of focusing on international consumer law is the reasons WHY companies make your game stop working don't actually matter much, just that they did it to titles you bought from them. The more attention this gets, this better!

You are morally obligated to pirate all games with DRM until they stop using it. They'll complain that "Users will just pirate if we don't use DRM" but they're already pirating your games and are better off for it. DRM, specifically Denuvo, is awful, and has been anecdotally shown to lower performance of the games. GOG made a whole business model on games without DRM. It's still a digital storefront, but that will probably never change. I think the time of physical media is gone, and now we're stuck to the whims of the digital storefront.

This was the first presentation of yours I've watched. Very nice work friend! It's obvious that you're one of the good ones who truly care. Thanks!

Whenever it reaches this point, piracy becomes saving and rescuing.

This is the end result when you let copyright holders dictate how protected works are preserved. I consider it *literal theft* in a way that copyright infringement can never be. It's theft from the eventual public domain that all works are supposed to enter.

I know its not the most fun topic to cover when compared with fun retro hardware or revisiting favorite games, but i think this is one of your most important videos by far. To me this is one of the biggest problems facing PC gaming as a platform (not that it isn't a risk for consoles going forward as well), it really feels like long term preservation was/isn't even a consideration for most game developers and publishers. and i feel the same way about only really buying old games for the most part nowadays, but don't write off new games completely. There's stuff like pathologic 2, the system shock remake (i know its a remake but still well worth playing) and jagged alliance 3 that are keeping the spirit of old school pc gaming alive and well

Newly accounced Call of Duty requires a permanent connection in order to "Stream textures". Game size oon the drive : 320Gb...

and again the only ones not suffering from all this crap are pirates.

recently i asked on the steam subreddit about how to make games like half life 2 work on a windows XP mashine now that the support has been dropped my post was promtly removed and i was swiftly banned from the subreddit for "promoting piracy" merely for asking if there is a way to make these games work on the hardware that they came out on Edit: please stop telling me about Linux, you are missing the point so hard it hurts my brain

I really appreciate you classic gamers using your oldschool hardware.

GTA4 is another one. Not only are the activation servers no longer working, they changed their activation methods and servers something like 3 times during the early days of the game's lifetime. So yeah, piracy saved me from getting outright scammed when my original in-the-box software doesn't work.

I think it should be a requirement to make the Server Tools accessible once the official server service gets shut down

I remember a time when you'd go to an arcade and your favorite game was simply replaced by a new one. Sometimes you'd never see the game again. That was something you had to live with it, until emulation brought them all back from the oblivion. And now we're reliving this nightmare.

AT the price of games these days I won't lie. I "try" every game before I buy it. If I like it I will actually buy it, but if it is crap, and there is a LOT of crap out, I delete it. I've saved thousands of dollars over the years by not paying for crap "AAA" games.

Let’s be fair here, companies themselves always violate their own terms of service. So why should’t the consumer do the exact same, publishers treat customers like trash. Then we are allowed to do the exact same.

AAA executive: "You're still playing old stuff? You're not playing this brand new thing we just made?"

“Don’t ask questions. Just consume product and then get excited about next product” Jay Bauman Red Letter Media

What an excellent video! Thank you for taking the time to collate all these examples and resources.

Piracy is morally justified. You paid for it. You're owed what you paid for.

It would be great if similar to books, where a publisher has to send copies of the book to the Library of Congress, publishers of software had to put a copy of each release without DRM into a public library archive that is opened to the public after, say, 20 or 30 years. That wouldn't be a full solution to digital decay but it would prevent a whole section of history from being effectively deleted.

Modern gaming is a sham - but do not lose hope. We have more games behind us than we could play in a hundred lifetimes.

I made a PC physical for my game BROK the InvestiGator during the Kickstarter, and I still sell them. The full game is on both a USB key (which can be updated!) and a DVD. No online required. The demand isn't big compared to console physicals and it saddens me a bit, because you know consoles will stop including drives soon and PC will be one of the only possibilities to get physical offline games, as ironic as it sounds right now.

I am so glad I clicked on this video. I still have my Antec Super Lanboy case! It is currently where my home Linux server lives. Though, I did cut the blue LEDs out from the front fan.

The destruction of ownership of personal media is by design.

The future of gaming looks dark but the past has never looked brighter. You are exactly right when you mentioned that there is more than a lifetime's worth of classic games we can spend our time on.

beautiful video & im glad someone is on the forefront of this issues because I would love to play my favorite games in 30 more years.

Ultima Online is still up and running since 1997. Subscription service works.

IMO, every online game that shuts down should take the Club Penguin Island route. Not only did they release an offline mode, they also included a debug mode, that encourages the users to find a way to bring back the game via private servers

This is why I love buying older PC games on GOG as they remove DRM on majority of titles available & even allows you to download offline installers for the games you purchased through GOG.

Companies are stealing ownership from people who bought the item. This is ridiculous.

Loved the video and the idea. Your house is really cool, is like returning to the 90’s 2000’s.

"Breaks social contract, acts indignant when folks go pirate", is indeed the Propellerheads/Reason labs way.

Without piracy, i would literally only have experienced %10 of the games I've ever played either due to scarcity, DRM, or region locking. Ive never understood why people have such moral qualms about pirating games that have not been in circulation for 10+ years, and publishers knowingly remove without giving a us legal way to experience them. Regular people “pirating” games and making them available to the public again have done more for preservation than companies ever can or will. Shout out to magipack games and my abandonware ;)

Seeing the box for "Silent Thunder" unlocked some core memories of playing on my late fathers Win95 machine back in the day. That game was amazing.

6:00 Hyperscape. I felt that one to my soul, fam. You earned the sub. This has got to stop these corporations are choosing what we are allowed to enjoy and it's sickening.

It is not only a problem of computer games, but rather whole computer software.

Lost Planet 2 was “de-listed” (page still exists but can’t be purchased) from Steam years ago because of GFWL, and Capcom just outright abandoned it. While it’s still perfectly playable on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One (and probably PlayStation), it’s been unplayable for years on PC. They claim they’ll keep us informed about their investigation about GFWL causing issues, but instead they left us in the dark and abandoned it. Such a shame…

Thank you for this video! As a game dev that also into retro gaming on the Nintendo DS and 3DS, who grew up on flash games that no longer exist or barely do on Flashpoint, this is a video many need to hear! Thank you for your service, sir!

As a 20 year steam member (and p.c. tech) I remember my horror when I couldn't activate my original Half-Life disc...I knew this was coming then, Thanks for this vid.

"Torture for Windows Live" is a much better name

Another issue are Steam games that only run on older versions of Windows. Since Steam no longer supports older Windows versions, these games (that you can still buy now) are completely unplayable legally.

If buying is not owning, then piracy is not stealing.

This is why I play console games.....but even then, more and more games require a download before you can even play them.

The issues raised in the video aren't exclusive to games, but software as a whole. I appreciate efforts to raise awareness on these issues.

RIP The Chronicles of Riddick. A single player AMAZING action stealth game with DRM servers shut down in 2015.

Very well said! It's a shame how greedy publishers and developers have gotten over the last 15 or so years. The part about Gran Turismo 7 perfectly encapsulates everything I despise about modern AAA games. Gaming has become too corporate. Instead of the goal being to make something great that people will remember fondly(and revisit) for decades, it's about squeezing as much money out of people as possible with microtransactions and addictive dopamine loops that give constant "rewards" that should have just been available to you in the first place. They rely on the temporary nature of online only experiences, encouraging people to buy their games out of fear of missing out. So many games are dead already and many many more will be dead in only a few years time. It's predatory business.

I had one of those antecs from the xp build, brought back some memories, including the slight panic when you accidently click CD/DVD drive and it opens while door is closed.

As an active PC player in the 90s and 2000s, I was warning people of this shit as soon as it started being rolled out, but nobody cared back then.

Another example of this happened to me recently. I bought a copy of Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS only to find out it wouldn't work. From what I read, it seems a system update made it where the game would no longer work on the system. I ended up returning the game to the store. 20-25 years ago we didn't have to worry about consoles and handhelds requiring system updates. All the games just work on those systems.

The worst is Steam will sell games that have DRM dead-ends.

PC games are so weird. The old games that have DRM don’t work on the OS they were meant to run on, and those that don’t have DRM don’t work on modern OS

The most hilarious part of DRM in the 2000s to me? The fact that many steam releases of these games are taken directly from pirates who cracked the originals. DRM is such a hassle that even the original publishers can't be bothered to pay devs to remove it.

I almost forgot about product keys. I remember losing the product key for some of my games, but fortunately those didn't actually use a central server but rather just had a list of valid keys, so you could just use random keys from the internet. I also had a disk that was damaged and could no longer install, but would still validate the DRM. So I pirated a copy and just didn't download a crack.

People who keep claiming disc mean you will always be able to play your game, need to see this

I honestly do not like digital games. I understand digital is extremely convenient for both ends but damn physical copies is what a gamer is all about. Having the cool disc tray and stacking them up in your room and sharing it or trading it with friends.

One of the first KZfaq videos I watched was LGR’s review of Darkspore, a single-player ARPG spin-off of Spore. Since it’s was EA, they structured it like an MMO, so it was never “patched” by fans and I never got to play it because I didn’t have Internet until it was already offline. There’s a reason teenagers are actively moving towards retro games. I do want to shout out Cyan Worlds, the guys who made Myst. They had an MMO-puzzle game called Uru Online in the 2000s, and after they had to take it offline they open sourced the servers and game for anyone to run their own servers. Incredibly cool of a developer to do, and anyone can still spin up an instance and play Uru Online today, along with making new content.

I agree 110% with everything you said. As a kid growing up in the late 90's/early 00's I've witnessed the sheer amount of greed in the games industry and witnessed the slow decline and death of gaming, but it's even worse, it's also music and movies/TV. Only difference is you can copy music/movies and TV, But without a risky, potentially malicious crack you cannot play or copy your games. And like you said as soon as those games went to online only they were running on borrowed time, with a guaranteed death sentence. Modern gaming is a disgrace. Not only do you lose your games and you don't get a box, manual, disc, etc.. but now games also release completely broken or unfinished with the promise of being better in the future... After you pay more money. That would've been inconceivable in the previous decades! No one would've bought the damn game if it came in a buggy, unfinished state. People would've returned it instantly or sued. In the previous decades buying a game meant you bought a fully-functional, fully playable, fully ownable game, that you could enjoy as long as you lived and it could even outlive you. Now some games are lucky to survive even a year! Insane to think about. We truly live in the generation of "you'll own nothing and you'll be happy" how dystopian and 1984 of us... And the bigger problem is that younger generations born into this can't be F*cked to care because they've been slowly taught to accept this and that it's normal. We don't know how good we had it, but we do know how absolutely warped and greedy the industry has become. It's truly heartbreaking to bear witness to.

Yo! I’m so glad you’re getting on board with Ross !

The Okidata printer at end killed me lol great video sir!

Agreed. Not only should this be illegal, this should even be criminal. This is theft. This is fraud. And it's disgusting. So happy to see you put light on this issue that has bothered me for quite some time. And it's not just video games. It's software. It's hardware peripherals. It's happening to physical goods too, not just software. WE DON'T OWN ANYTHING ANYMORE, even after straight buying them.

One type of DRM is on the rise. It's in the form of AI DRM.

Ado for the PS4 just wait for the Stores to shut down for older consoles and see people lose thousands of dollars of games.

That's also why I buy games on GOG. No DRM is awesome, I can archive games as I want. Sadly, GOG library doesnJt contain all games.

It's insane that guild wars released in 2005, with no sub fee's and you can still play that original trilogy on those exact same original accounts.

You can sill play these old games. Cracking FTW. These game companies don't deserve our money.

Hey, this video just made me subscribe; Ive had the same thoughts for the last 20 years, good work 👍

Crack these single player games. That is the ONLY solution. Or find a solution to be able to sue the game companies because they have stolen money from the people buying them.

Thank God for cracking scene

Sim City - 2013 - A game that honest people could not play. All the Pirates were playing online on the official servers using cracked versions that bypassed the Auth system. EA took a few days to sort the issue. but single player pirates enjoyed the game. Customers could not play.

A phisical copy of Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, so cool

I love video games as an experience, but I respect them as a massive collection of human effort. There is something disgusting about taking the distillation of years of peoples lives and tossing it in the bin for the sake of profit

One of the DRMs is documented to kill CD/DVD drives, the company denies it of course, but my DVD drive died after playing that game. The problem was attempting to read sector 0, if I remember correctly.

Don't forget that nowadays, there are many physical games that do not require internet to be played, but you still need internet to play the good version of the game, either to download DLC, or fix a game that was full of glitches at launch. Games often have a patch to fix glitches since Day 1.

If you don’t own the games you buy, then pirating them isn’t theft

Having fully set-up ready to go multiple period correct machines on dedicated space is so cool.

Tech tangents really living up to the name on this one. You’re right, the way modern games and even games consoles become obsolete because they can’t phone home is crap.

As a Mac user. The Half Life (and games around that time) series is impossible to play. Those games are 32bit and Mac no longer supports 32 bit software and steam on Mac no longer support any macOS versions that support 32 bit. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

Every game released should send a version DRM free to the library of congress. Written and recorded media is preserved that way, why not gaming media?!?

The gaming version of 'You Will Own Nothing, And Like It.'

I have photos of me finding a copy of the Sims Online being sold on a physical shelf, unsold, as of 2022. They finally removed it during renovations, or somehow sold it when I returned in 2023. the game died in 2008. I used to shop there all the time as a child for games, as it was the only place in the entire town that sold them there. I saw that copy of the game sitting there from 2005 till 2022, they also had a copy of Zoo Tycoon 2 there until around 2023,

U got a subscriber man! Love your passion and amount of detail

Before your explanation of spore, I was going to comment that I had done the same thing just a couple months ago. Ea was really good about giving me another key. It helps to have the original key and box to prove that you own it.

I loved how pausing didn’t take you to a menu, but actually pulled your character into a sanctuary where you could walk around, rearm, and observe your treasury.

Legally questionable third party tools from sketchy websites are my favourite kind of party tools.

One of my favorite PC game examples of this exact thing is Postal III has had done recently, both physical and the old steam versions used some garbage online server DRM that just stopped working and you needed to use a weird sketchy website to get a key that would end up making it so you could play the game, but what happened is Running With Scissors took the time and PATCHED the Steam version with the DRM-Free patch that existed on a different digital platform and now the game is playable again, sadly nothing could probably be done with the physical copies and you still need that weird work around.

Great points and i agree whole heartedly. It sucks we dont own games we buy. It sucks where the industry is heading.