How do you respond to people asking you about piracy on stream?
7 years ago

Hi guys,

so I thought about getting into speedrunning/streaming.

I read about Twitch rules getting banned for streaming a pirated game.

One thing that I noticed is that many (famous) speedrunners play games on emulator and I highly doubt that they actually purchased all of the games and even if I don't think they made the effort of dumping them to their PCs, they just downloaded them.

So let's suppose someone actually asks you if you've purchased + dumped the game you play on an emulator and you have no clue about dumping a game.

What should one say?

Edited by the author 7 years ago
European Union

doesn't see any reason for emulator since there are capture cards.

anyway - if someone would ask me if I had purchased the game - I'd just shove the physical cartridge into the camera and say "does that answer your question? now let me fckn run the game"

North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

i say that i bought the game because i dont like piracy. i think its a waste of time, you have to look so long for a game that dont crashes and dont contain a virus. if i want to play a game i just wait a few months untill the next steam sale or playstation store offers. i dont care about to play a game as fast as possible after release.

but i dont think that viewers want to know if a streamer bought a game or not, they just want to watch.

France
xDrHellx
He/Him, It/Its
7 years ago

Personnaly, i'd just say that;

Not everyone can afford the material to dump games. Not everyone can afford buying an NTSC console and game, especially when the game is rare and costs a lot.

In my case, for boktai there is, technically, a lot of stuff to buy:

  • a GC
  • a GB Player (30€ where i live)
  • a DS with capture card if you're not using GC
  • UV Flashlight (usually 12 to 25€)
  • the game(s) (30€ or more per game in this case)
  • anything to make the flashlight stay on top of the solar sensor that's in the cartridges

Still, in most cases, i'd eventually atleast try to look for an actual cartridge / disc.

The thing is, no matter if you own the game you're still not allowed to download it.

But I guess viewers barely ask streamers if they acutally purchased the game or not because pretty much everyone got a game at least once by just downloading it somewhere.

Just think of the Super Mario 64 hacks. I guess there's no other way than downloading them.

Washington, USA
EmeraldAly
She/Her, They/Them
7 years ago

Piracy is one of my 'buttons.' It's actually a rule in my channel to not discuss it. I don't use emulators. I don't think I'm better than anyone because I don't, I just choose not to. Ethically a very grey area for me (probably a dark, dark grey) so it's not something I'm comfortable with. The "not everyone can afford it" argument is such crap though. You know what happens when you can't afford it? You don't get to have it. That's kinda how the world works.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
Cambridgeshire, England

2:30 in that vid explains everything.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
Dendris and unzppd89 like this

I think a huge amount of streamers use everdrives to play all games. Specially casual playthroughs

Most of speedrunners use original consoles, But I seriously doubt that everyone has all actual original games they enjoy playing.

Cartridges are very pricy, and some of them are very rare. Like few dozens around for sale in the world.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hagane-The-Final-Conflict-Super-Nintendo-Entertainment-System-1994-/142260578357

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aero-Fighters-VGA-80-Factory-Sealed-Super-Nintendo-SNES-Brand-NEw-Holy-Grail-/182455100851

Edited by the author 7 years ago