How to tell if someone pirated a game?

[Mayo]

I don't know if this belonged in steam disscussions or not, so I posted it here.

My issue is that I saw a person in the disscussions page of Punch Club playing the game, but it said "Playing a non-steam game: Punch Club". From what I heard, Punch Club is ONLY on steam. Is it possible this person pirated the game? If so, how do I report him?

[rojimboo]

There are millions of pirates, though admittedly much fewer on Steam.

You will never catch them all, you will never prove that they are pirates.

For instance, in this example, you can name your Non-Steam games anything you want. So he can just say "LOL NOOB - I was playing Solitaire and pretending I was playing Punch Club - lololololol".

Trust me, it will be better for your sanity to completely ignore them.

Unless they are advertising/advocating/promoting piracy of course, then you can just report them.

[Mayo]

Originally posted by rojimboo:

There are millions of pirates, though admittedly much fewer on Steam.

You will never catch them all, you will never prove that they are pirates.

For instance, in this example, you can name your Non-Steam games anything you want. So he can just say "LOL NOOB - I was playing Solitaire and pretending I was playing Punch Club - lololololol".

Trust me, it will be better for your sanity to completely ignore them.

Unless they are advertising/advocating/promoting piracy of course, then you can just report them.

Oh, ok. It's not like it's affecting me personally, as I am not a developer of the game, but it would have been nice to serve some sort of justice to these people.

[♠ZerØ♠]

That would seem really silly for a pirate to link his pirated game to the platform that sells it. But I have seen dumber things done.

And yea. I used to run minecraft as Half-Life 3 BETA just to screw with people on my friends list.

And it even gets harder to tell with multi-platform games. I talk about Fallout 4 and MGS5 a lot, but I play them on a different platform.

[eram]

If they dont have a little icon next to their name in the games forum they dont own it on Steam.

Some people like to troll, you can rename any exe to any games name and load it as a non steam game. Notepad.exe for example can become Half Life 3 Beta.

[Mayo]

Originally posted by eram:

If they dont have a little icon next to their name in the games forum they dont own it on Steam.

Some people like to troll, you can rename any exe to any games name and load it as a non steam game. Notepad.exe for example can become Half Life 3 Beta.

Thanks, i'll go back and check if he doesn't have a little icon!

[rojimboo]

Originally posted by chubbyfluffycat:

Originally posted by eram:

If they dont have a little icon next to their name in the games forum they dont own it on Steam.

Some people like to troll, you can rename any exe to any games name and load it as a non steam game. Notepad.exe for example can become Half Life 3 Beta.

Thanks, i'll go back and check if he doesn't have a little icon!

Yeah but...

It doesn't really prove anything.

You can't actually prove he pirated the game. Even if he displays intimate knowledge about the game on the forums without a mouse icon, he can just say "LOL NOOB - I watched LPs on Youtube. Noob."

Let it go. Trust me. You can never win.

[Mayo]

Originally posted by rojimboo:

Originally posted by chubbyfluffycat:

Thanks, i'll go back and check if he doesn't have a little icon!

Yeah but...

It doesn't really prove anything.

You can't actually prove he pirated the game. Even if he displays intimate knowledge about the game on the forums without a mouse icon, he can just say "LOL NOOB - I watched LPs on Youtube. Noob."

Let it go. Trust me. You can never win.

Guess you got a point there, i'm sure he'll one day he'll get caught pirating though, probably by his own stupid mistakes.

[Meurock460]

Originally posted by chubbyfluffycat:

I don't know if this belonged in steam disscussions or not, so I posted it here.

My issue is that I saw a person in the disscussions page of Punch Club playing the game, but it said "Playing a non-steam game: Punch Club". From what I heard, Punch Club is ONLY on steam. Is it possible this person pirated the game? If so, how do I report him?

There isn't any way I know of proving if that particular copy of the game they are playing is pirated unfortunately. You could ask them but I doubt they would give a trueful answer if it is a pirated copy.

However, bear in mind you can add any non steam game to your library. You also happen to be able to rename those non steam games in your library, whatever you call it is what will be displayed to others. I wouldn't automatically assume anyone who is playing a non steam game is a pirate.

There is a slim chance that they is playing a completely different game and has just renamed it to Punch Club. Why they would do that is beyond me (it ain't exactly trolling) but its still possible.

[♠ZerØ♠]

Since we seems wrapped up, here is a fun item for you to contemplate.

If developers released demos for every game, do you think piracy would lessen? Pirates like to claim they want to test the game to see if they like it before purchase.

Me, personally, I think nothing would really change, because their cover is largely a lie. Some MIGHT be on the level, but not many. IF one steals, not a far reach to see you lie about it.

[Mayo]

Originally posted by ♠ZerØ♠:

Since we seems wrapped up, here is a fun item for you to contemplate.

If developers released demos for every game, do you think piracy would lessen? Pirates like to claim they want to test the game to see if they like it before purchase.

Me, personally, I think nothing would really change, because their cover is largely a lie. Some MIGHT be on the level, but not many. IF one steals, not a far reach to see you lie about it.

I never believed that people pirate games just to "test them". I'm sure there might be some pirates that do that (keyword MIGHT) but most people pirate just because they don't want to pay.

[rojimboo]

Originally posted by ♠ZerØ♠:

Since we seems wrapped up, here is a fun item for you to contemplate.

If developers released demos for every game, do you think piracy would lessen? Pirates like to claim they want to test the game to see if they like it before purchase.

Me, personally, I think nothing would really change, because their cover is largely a lie. Some MIGHT be on the level, but not many. IF one steals, not a far reach to see you lie about it.

This point is pretty moot these days with Origin having a weeklong refund and Steam having 2hr refunds. That's basically your demo right there, no need for developers to worry about it.

But pirates will always find an excuse for a free lunch.

OP - Have you tried shouting obscenities at them on the forums? That works great for peace of mind. Until you are banned, that is.

[Mayo]

Originally posted by rojimboo:

OP - Have you tried shouting obscenities at them on the forums? That works great for peace of mind. Until you are banned, that is.

No, although I don't think calling them names and cursing them out would make me feel any better, probably because I don't feel much emotion from him pirating.

[Spawn of Totoro]

I can rename notepad to Punch Club, run it as a non-steam game and it will say I am playing Punch Club.

Some do that to troll others.

Sometimes it is best to just let those who have more/better resources find and deal with these people, especialy if you can't confirm it to be true.

[♠ZerØ♠]

Oh good lord. I can only hope Matt shows up next, to make this thread the most intimidating conversation ever.

Originally posted by chubbyfluffycat:

I never believed that people pirate games just to "test them". I'm sure there might be some pirates that do that (keyword MIGHT) but most people pirate just because they don't want to pay.

Yea. I never have bought that excuse. It's a bogus answer to a real issue. It's why I ALWAYS report any thread involving emulation or possible piracy.

[RobotParty]

I understand the whole "Piracy affects the market in one way or another" and the countless other arguments that are arguably refutable, however, in the grand scale of things, does it really affect *you* directly? Just report them and move on. That is, if you're concerned. Otherwise it comes off as you trying to butt in when it doesn't directly affect you.