Editor's note: It bothers me that so many people feel entitled to games, whether they can afford them or not. Jordan says he's a former pirate that's coming clean and also mentions how game companies may be able to stop some piracy. He does say at the end that this is an entirely fictitious account, but I detect some truth here. -Jason

I began pirating when I was 14. I was in a situation that I imagine is fairly common among pirates. I talked my parents into buying a good computer and paying for a fast Internet connection. It was for school -- or at least that's what I told them.

Talking them into buying more than a few games a year wasn't as easy. And since I couldn't get a job even if I wanted to, the only way I could get new games was to steal them.

It made perfect sense. I never bothered to concoct some ethical justification for my actions; ethics didn't enter my mind. I was a kid, and I wanted something, so I took it. I would have shoplifted the games, but I was afraid of getting caught. Besides, I was a nervous and awkward youth; I couldn't manage the nerve to talk to a girl, let alone pull off something as suave as shoplifting.

At first it was a frustrating process. Stealing one game could take hours of sifting through virus-plagued sites and clumsy peer-to-peer software. But I had lots of time and no money, so going through that effort for a free game was worth it. As time passed I discovered new methods to quickly steal the games that I wanted and to protect myself. Eventually, I developed enough knowledge to steal a game with only a few seconds of effort and minimal risk.

How long is eventually? Long enough that I could have gotten a job and paid for my games legitimately. But why would I go through all that work? I was already in the habit of stealing games. By this point it was easier to steal a game than to get off my lazy behind and drive to a store, let alone actually earning the money to do so.

Even when I got a job, I still stole my games, or at least some of them. The advantages of stealing games instead of buying them are huge. First, there's the whole no-cost thing. A lack of cost also means a lack of risk; even if you have money, you're still cautious about spending it. If the games cost you nothing, you can investigate many titles that you would've otherwise ignored. Then there's the fact that pirated games lack invasive digital-rights management; hilariously, DRM is justified as an antipiracy measure. And I must re-emphasize the convenience of pirating games. Once you have the infrastructure, it only takes four clicks and one typed phrase. It can be done in under 10 seconds. These days the stolen product is usually the better one. Some people don't want to hear this, but they need to accept reality if they hope to counter piracy.

It took a few years, but I did stop pirating. While it was a slow transition, and at the time I never thought it through this clearly, I think that I stopped pirating for three reasons. The first is that I had money. Make no mistake -- if I was still broke, I would continue to steal games. If I suddenly become broke but manage to keep my computer and Internet connection, I may very well relapse. I don't think game companies are too concerned about people who don't have money, anyway. The second reason is that my conscience started to gnaw at me. I really love videogames, and therefore I have at least some affection for the people who make them. And I like to think of myself as a relatively good person. So the whole "constantly stealing videogames" thing made me feel bad. This became especially acute when I started regularly listening to videogame podcasts, which made me feel closer to a larger "gaming community." And I began to use Steam, Valve's digital download service. Steam is almost as convenient as pirating, although it has that extra step of entering your credit card number. Steam also offers services that help build communities and make updating games easier. Piracy has its own community of sorts, but it's not exactly cohesive. And the difficulty of updating games is one of the greatest disadvantages of piracy.

The reasons that I stopped pirating games may be important to reducing piracy in the future. Note that I said reducing piracy. No one is going to stop piracy, ever. Crimes such as burglary, shoplifting, drugs, and murder will always exist, and so will piracy. But we can do our best to keep the unsavory elements of our society under control.

What can we learn from this story? You can't keep people without money from stealing games. Poor people like games, too. Game companies need to realize that those people wouldn't have bought their games anyway. Or they can improve the economy, provide full employment, and convince parents to cough up more cash for their kids' entertainment. I think the first way is easier. For people that do have money, guilt trips do work. Pirates are people, too, and if you can force them to think of an EA employee's starving kids, they'll probably cough up the dough. On the other hand, the more soulless, authoritarian, and generally evil an organization looks, the easier it is to justify stealing from it. This means it might be possible to counter piracy with good public relations. Finally, game companies need to realize that they're in a business and that their competitors are cheating. Pirates usually offer a product that's just as good, if not better, for a much lower price. To beat them developers must either match the price, like with free-to-play products, or offer a better experience that pirates can't copy, like Steam.

That's all for my first post on Bitmob. I hope that you enjoyed it. And to any game companies and lawyers: This is not an admission of guilt for criminal acts that may or may not have been committed within the statute of limitations; this is a fictional article written in first person. "I" refers to my imaginary friend, Bobo the Chimp, and not me.