My permanently installed games (and the first ones to go on a new computer):

The entire Baldur's Gate saga
Simcity 4
X-Com 1
One of the Civilization games (right now I have 2 and 3 on my netbook and 4 and 5 on my desktop)

Um... actually that's pretty much it... Maybe TF2 as well?

I believe that was kinda the point in a sense. How many times running a red light before oops, a camera at that one. Speed limit as well, always speed, how long before passing that car in the bushes with radar on ya?

poisonelf1

I'm not saying it's rare to be caught in those cases (it is, but that's not what I'm arguing for).

I'm trying to say that there is a moral outrage over the act of downloading a game, yet none exists for the crime of speeding. Heck, you might even feel impatient driving behind sombody going just below the speed limit!

I think most of that is due to propaganda - we see a lot more anti-piracy warnings and embellished numbers about piracy in the media than we do about speeding. Seriously, who talks or cares about some slight speeding? Yet what's the worst that can happen when you speed? You can kill someone (or a few people). I'm just using speeding as an example, but there are other illegal activities which aren't that morally reprehensible either. The point is that you can't just say 'piracy is illegal, therefore all pirates are bad people.' Now, if you were to say '

Don't get me wrong, piracy isn't desirable, but it also shouldn't be AS hated as it is. I don't think we need another thorough explanation of why piracy isn't as big a deal as the industry makes it out to be, but I'm pretty sure if you skimed the thread you'd see how it can be that the industry estimates on losses due to piracy is vastly exaggerated. Not only that, but many people who do download pirated games may be doing something against the law, but are not necessarily immoral. Despite what you may be told, there are tons of people who use pirated versions as demos, and others who already have the game, but downloads it due to either DRM or an inability to play the game otherwise (maybe it's on a CD and you have a netbook). Then there really are a large number of people who simply pirate because they don't want to pay.

The point is... you can't be mad at EVERYONE who pirates. It's a grey subject, and saying it's immoral because it's illegal is definitely not a good argument against it.

Agreed with Baldur's Gate (especially 2)

Also, Planescape: Torment - It's like playing through a very well-written novel. Play it and you'll know why games can be as much of an art form as books or film.

One of the Civilization games is also necessary - the series don't just appear on top games ever lists without a good reason!

Ultimately, is it right or wrong is going to come down to the individual, and likely not to be brought up on charges, or caught.

No different than running a red traffic light. Did ya get caught, perhaps get popped by a picture?

poisonelf1

Or speed - everyone who drive speeds. You can't tell me you never go even a little bit faster than the limit. Yet you don't hear 'it's marked 50km/h! Why are you going 55? Don't you know it's illegal? You should be ashamed of yourself!'

I prefer the arrow keys for several reasons:

1. I have long fingers, so I can easily get to the Pg/Pd/Del/etc. part and the numpad without moving my hand (try hitting that 9 without moving your hand with a WASD setup), as well as the right-most part of the main keyboard (Enter/shift/Ctrl/etc). I don't even think the gaps are that big. Actually my fingers feel all scrunched together when using WASD.

2. I'm not very well coordinated, so if I move my hand to find a key on the main keyboard, I'll have trouble finding the WASD part again. I don't really have that problem with the arrows since they're such a distinct part of the keyboard. It's also easier for me to know exactly which number I'm pressing without looking using the numpad than the actual keyboard part

3. I like how there are keys all around the arrow keys, making full use of my 4 fingers. In comparison, there are only about 2 or 3 other keys I can hit with my pinky using the WASD setup. Sure I'm not really using my thumb for anything, but with WASD, you're only really using your thumb for the space bar anyway.

I used arrows back in the days of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom and all the games like them. Arrow keys to move, space to open doors/flip switches and ctrl to shoot :) Those were the days. I switched over to WASD when I first played half life 1 because it was needed in order to access ctrl and space to crouch jump.simardbrad

See I just use R. Shift and R. Ctrl to do crouch jumps. Using the arrow setup, my pinky's always on the shift key, so all I have to do is push down on Shift and flick it towards me to hit the Ctrl key in one fluent motion, making it seem like I only pressed one button instead of having to press 2 with 2 different fingers.