In the recent months, there has been only one game that's grabbed and maintained my attention for an extended period of time. Valkyria Chronicles 2 for the PSP is a beautiful handheld game, combining good graphics with deep and tense gameplay. This post, however, goes beyond the scope of just VC2.

As a fan of Valkyria Chronicles, I naturally was interested when I heard that the third game, Valkyria Chronicles 3, was announced for the PSP. I was even more interested, however, when I read some of the user comments at the bottom of the post. Inevitably, there were the usual laments about how they want it on a home console, how they were disappointed with VC2 because it abused anime conventions, and so on. Perhaps it wasn't new, and I had just never noticed it before, but I was completely taken aback by the number of people who showed indifference to the choice of platform because it was going to be free to them, as they were unashamedly boasting that they would be pirating the game.

As time went on, I saw this type of behavior on every type of game that was discussed for handheld systems. I know the discussion of piracy as an issue has been discussed, but this particular attribute of the practice was strange to me. This blatant declaration of intent got me to wonder; Why are people pirating games? And more interestingly, why are they so upfront about it?

I can imagine that there would be two major reasons that would be given for piracy, one being practical and the other being romantic in nature. The practical reason is perhaps the most obvious. Gaming is an expensive hobby and the cost of keeping up with the latest developments is measured not just in time, but in increasingly large sums of money. The target audience for most games, middle and high school boys, are constantly being appealed to while in most instances remaining outside their personal capacity to play. Mom and Dad may be good for a few, but because the sheer number of games being released seems to be increasing, it's much easier to fall behind. Kids don't have money, and a system like the PSP makes it easy for kids to take what they consider as a harmless shortcut.

The second image is that many pirates consider themselves as modern day Robin Hood figures, robbing from the rich, greedy and exploitative development and production studios. They likely believe that by pirating games, they are able to lodge a complaint against the industry portion of gaming, sort of a social commentary. What's most interesting, however, is the concept of posting their intentions to pirate games on public message boards, which could be evidence in any criminal prosecution. They're acting as protesters, rallying against anything they dislike, be it decisions in pricing, quality of the product, platform choice of the product, and the list goes on.

My question to all of you readers is simple: Why do you think gamers pirate games? Have I left out a reason you believe to be the issue? Why would someone post their intentions on an increasingly less anonymous internet? As always, let's keep the discussion positive and insightful.