You are NOT Responsible for Game Developers!
189One of the things that I absolutely love about PC gaming and also jailbroken console gaming is the fact that you can sail the seas for the games and save that money to buy actually good hardware or pay the bills.
But what about supporting developers? I wholeheartedly reject the notion that supporting the developers is the player's responsibility. That's actually a privilege that these developers have to earn with the products that they are offering.
The same goes with YouTubers. I have to earn your viewership. I have to earn your willingness to donate to me. I can't stop people from using ad-blockers. I use ad-blockers too, but it's not people's fault they use ad-blockers. It's the corporations for setting up garbage ads. It's not people's fault that they pirate. It's the corporations for setting up terrible prices for video games and ripping people off and getting away with it.
You know who is responsible for the well-being of developers? The corporations. They're the ones that employ them in the first place. They're the ones that are responsible for their bills, and yet here we are living in times where games like Hi-Fi Rush can be very successful, and you'll still get screwed. Don't screw them up, Krafton.
Look at the insane amount of layoffs in the gaming industry as of late. It just tells me that the money that we gave to these corporations are not being used to support actual game developers. They are being used to buy two more cars for the suits at the top. I wish I was kidding. That's exactly what happened with the Bungie executives as said that by developers that got laid off.
Thankfully, video game piracy or piracy in general is something that requires a level of computer literacy that 99% of people don't have. 10 million pirates around the world is nothing compared to the 1 billion of media consumers who are still willing to pay to enjoy their media.