Anon tries to save money

Thats fair, and I agree with you for torrenting, its the one thing I wish they'd change. For privacy though, I feel like Mullvad is leading the pack. (Not having to provide an email, crypto and/or cash payments, DAITA)

Yes shame about Mullvad. AirVPN still allows port forwarding though.

Now days I just stick to private trackers while using a cheap European VPS setup with wireguard. Only saves me a couple of bucks a month compared to VPN service but it adds up.

My ISP couldn't give a rats arse if I pirate games or not. That's the benefits of a local ISP, they are so small they don't care.

But no girls or nonbinary folks.

enjoy downloading a 10GB game on 32Mbps...

Hotels. Tell the restaurant you left the thing with the wifi password in the room.

That depends on a number of things, like do you want to seed (if so, Mullvad is out), how much do you plan on downloading (if a lot, a VPS may be out), if your ISP blocks any of them, etc.

I generally recommend Mullvad or DIY w/ a VPS (I DIY a wireguard VPN on a VPS), but just try some out and see what works best for you.

You've never gone tromping through the woods?

That's all of Alberta CA I think

If you're from the South in England, and haven't made any friends by uni (if you even get accepted) just give up, you're never gonna make any, not over there at least.

Northerner terrifies Londoners by saying "Hello"

That's kind of wild to me. There's so many unique types of games, and not a single one interested you?
That's like not being interested in an entire media category.

I can understand not relating to the gamer culture, but even my grandma games on her tablet.

Mullvad lost me when they stopped allowing port forward

they aren't free really,.

A fine for pirating? How awful.

Unfortunately in my area Comcast has a super monopoly and they're huge narcs

This, and if you're downloading a large game, it might take a few months over a Tor.

sh*t

Uhh ignore the example, idk a free vpn that supports P2P.

This is the way. Plus you can set up RD through Stremio/various Kodi add-ons so you can stream shows and movies directly from them. And! They even give you credits when you pay for service, that you can then redeem for more service. Pretty nifty 🙂

How did you set it up? Proton offers port forwarding, which mullvad does not

Sure will.. in 10 years when its $3 on sale because borderlands 69 is being released soon.

Because it is. Just recently some VPN provider I already forgot the name of cancelled all lifetime subscriptions. There were multiple posts on Lemmy about it.

How do you mean?

Ten years and counting for me and VPN Unlimited so far. Unsustainable? Capitalism is un-sustainable. Cheaper than paying monthly or yearly? Absolutely.

Personally, I use the VPN to do my searches, grab magnet links, and get the torrent started, then I disconnect the VPN and switch to Cell data, as that ISP has never sent me a nasty-gram about pirating.

Reasonably sure Nord is still turning a profit on my sub.

Okay so I think you are talking about getting caught by a copyright holder, and I am talking about getting caught by your Internet service provider. The alternative (free) solution to the former is just to use private trackers. The alternative (free) solution to the latter is to fully encrypt your traffic.

Is there anyone left that actually cracks denuvo? I've only heard about Denuvo games getting bypassed due to denuvo-less copies of the main exe file getting leaked.

Which is my point. I pay for games. If they have Denuvo slowing them down, it isn't because I paid for it, it's because other people stole it, or have stolen in the past. The anti-theft software doesn't exist because there are no thieves. I do my best to avoid Denuvo games on principal, but it's hard to play a AA game or higher without it. There are a lot of people to blame for it, but it wouldn't be there at all if not for thieves.

+1

You are not to decide what we do, only suggest.

If you enjoy stealing, then that's something you should talk to a professional about.

every person that does it is just another reason for companies to put Denuvo in their games.

If you want more, it's also a rally cry for execs to bring up at board meetings about why their latest game didn't sell well. It's why Nintendo can brick your Switch 2 from orbit if they detect pirated software (which will surely lead to false positives).

It is theft, and th people that say it isn't are making excuses so they feel better. You can grow your own food, you know? And it keeps growing back. But if you walk into a grocery store and walk out without paying, you are stealing. If you walk onto a farmers land and keep taking food from their crops without paying, it is stealing.

You make two very different arguments that highlight my reason for calling out theft. The first is that the person steals because companies don't allow us to own anything. That almost holds water, until you understand that entertainment isn't a necessity, and so stealing it is a wholly selfish act.

However, that brings us to your second point: people pirate because they can't afford it. You contradict yourself. Who is the "pirate"? The one who steals in under misguided idea that some things cannot be owned, or the one that steals because they can't afford it?

At the end of the day, you are being advertised to, and you feel that you have to have the latest thing because the advertising is working, and so you steal when you can't afford. You are a part of the system that you fight against with your mantra of "nothing can be owned." Stop.

This article points to a research that concludes that piracy is really not an issue for those companies though.

And yet we still have anti-theft measures on most games. The anti-theft measures aren't there because there were never any thieves. They are there because theives provide a scapegoat to publishers to blame low revenue on. Regardless of whether or not it is actually happening, the net results are the same because the lie is there. Pirating or stealing games may not have a real effect, or may even be a positive one, but it doesn't matter because there is still a negative outcome when companies increase the price of their games and force anti-consumer launchers and anti-theft DRM into games.

Imagine a world where pirating music is shun today. Nobody cares now, we all listen to free music online without paying.

Maybe you and your friends do, but a lot of people pay for music streaming services with give an admittedly mediocre amount of revenue to the artists. The idea that we should steal "culture" and make it free to everyone is ludicrous. People still have to eat. All of the time and effort that goes into making a game or a record has an expected return, and that return is a paycheck.

Now, selling a game that cannot be owned and that can be revoked at anytime or a game that can change its TOS on a whim is much scummy imo.

If you don’t want people to pirate your game, price them fairly and allow you customers to own a copy and offer an easy to use service.

That is why there are pro-consumer groups working to make sure that bullshit like what happens today doesn't continue in the future. The EU and UK have very strong pro-consumer policies that protect the buyer instead of the seller. Change is happening, but it doesn't make it easier when there is the ever present scapegoat of, "we do this because people steal."