Mysterio wrote:

"killed stone dead by piracy"

F*ck pirates, as a man who designed video games from 1988 through 2012.

70-90% of Doom's players pirated it. If not for that we would literally have had so much more for our workspace and upcoming projects - Quake may not have gutted id Software. At least 50% of Age of Empires was pirated which helped lead to our MicroSoft buyout and eventual demise.

And your excuses of "we have to try before we buy" are complete bullsh*t. Doom let you play a full 9 levels free. Age of Empires let you play a battle free to see how it worked. We bent over backwards to ensure you'd know what you were getting into.

Damn pirates are the guys who killed game companies. like Atari, Amiga, Cinemaware, 3D Realms (Duke Nukem!)

And if you're NOT a pirate, I salute you. You are a gentleman and if you ever see me at a convention, walk up and say, "Hey Sandy, I never pirated a game." and I'll buy you a drink.