In my opinion games developers are near criminal now as the majority of them do not release finished games for PC. I have at least £400 worth of games stacked up in my cupboard which I purchased last year and played only to find they were ridden with problems.
Majority is an extremely harsh word to use for that, I don't think that's true at all, and you even mentioned later in your post how easy it is for developers to release patches and updates for PC Games, which is why it's never a static experience.
You're actually more likely to get stuck with a buggy unsupported game on a console, at least when you purchase a game on the PC you know there's a solid chance they'll be fixed (Even E:TW is a perfect example of this), as long as you're dealing with large companies.
That may be do, that is why I do not state that I speak for every 'pirate'. However the 'majority' that do not pay almost certainly would not have purchased the games anyway in my experience at college. The people whom introduced me to pirating never paid for them. They used Proxy servers and everything so they experienced the whole games free of charge. They had no morals and yes, should be obliterated as it is just plain stealing.
With regards to not believing in people that say they only use them as demo's. Well you are entitled to your own opinion, however that is the main reason for myself posting here. To hopefully help some people restore their faith in humanity!
You made a post called "'Pirate' here!", then continued to tell us why pirates are cool people who only steal games to test them, then promise to pay for it!
Again, your argument that people who pirate "would never have bought it anyway" is totally moot, neither of us can make a claim to prove either side because it's all theory, but if you really think gamers wouldn't buy games if piracy didn't exist, I dunno what to say to you.
Boasting about being a prolific pirate isn't the best way to get the community onside and "restore faith in humanity!", I'm pretty sure the majority of us now just think you're a cheap bastard. It's also excruciatingly ironic that you say things like other people who pirate have no morals, are thieves and should be obliterated, but you doing it is totally fine because it was for the greater good right? Right. If you reread half the things you say, you'll understand why I use the words skewed/twisted justification so much in reply to you.
With regards to having to purchase the game to play online, that is not true. There are ways round it, even the demigod download I used prior to purchasing the game had full insctructions on how to access an online 'pirate' community. I personnaly do not use those bits as it is over stepping the 'demo' mark for me.
Single player games, I have no idea about as I only buy them on consoles. Only good solo games seem to be released on them....So your point is most probably valid! (I think the real reason is that PC's only real triumph over consoles, is because they were the first to have online capabilty and it is very easy to adapt any computer game to support online and apply patches, as opposed to consoles where to the best of my knowledge it seems to be much harder to get a working online community and it is much harder to distribute patches as game data is all stored on read only media)
Demigod is so easy to get working on something like Gameranger because it contains absolutely no DRM whatsoever, other games are not so easy, and most gamers (pirates or not) want to be part of the main community, since "cracked" fake-LAN communities are a) Terrible, 
Tiny and c) Old. Even Demigod, a game with no DRM, still operates on the original version of Demigod on Gameranger/Hamachi etc.
A good example is CoD4, I know people who pirate 95% of their games, who bought that, purely for the Multiplayer. There are ways around not playing online officially, but it's rare, usually hard to do, and comes with all the stipulations listed above.
There's no point discussing the SP argument further, since you seemingly either play SP titles exclusively on console, or pirate them on PC, so it's a waste of time to argue that with you. The reason SP games are more widespread on the console isn't the immersiveness factor you're trying to propagate, piracy is a huge chunk of it.
That is news to me, if every retailer offered this then piracy = solved, even my case. I would never need to 'demo' a pc game again if I knew the game was garbage I would be able to return it. As far as I knew, once you had purchased a piece of software you were stuck with it due to CD Keys etc. I assume this is if the game is purchased direct as opposed to going through a 3rd party retailer?
But at the same time I disagree with these types of policies as I know people exploit them. Playing through the whole game in a week then returning them etc.
It only works because Stardock are hands-on enough to ensure refunded games have their CD Keys banned, and you can get a refund if you buy it at a gamestore, you just send it to Stardock through the mail with your receipt and they refund you what you paid. The time limits for refunds are as follows (I believe):
Digital Purchase w/ Credit/Debit Card = 90 days refund option.
Digital Purchase w/ PayPal = 60 days refund option.
Retail Store Purchase = 30 days refund option.
By any reckoning, Stardock can't say fairer than that, I could continue to play Demigod for 80 days and still get my money back, which is why people pirating this game drives me mad.
I do not trust reviews anymore, Empire Total War was given 95%, 9/10 etc etc on many well established magazines and websites. When it arrived I just could not believe it. Neither could thousands of other users now asking for their money back on the forums, which of course they will not get as the vast majority of companies will not offer any money back guarentee.
Again the SP issue I cannot comment on as for me, PC = Online Multiplayer with Teamspeak, forums etc. Console = Big TV with immersive surround sound and a control with all the buttons to hand and curtains drawn. With no crashes to desktop/hardware worries whilst I am immersed in my own little solo world.
That's why I specifically mentioned Metacritic, because it's super easy to go there, and even though a game might be listed with a 90 score, you can go down and read the summary of reviews of those who scored it low, and more importantly, why.
I'll concede that sometimes there are games that get really good reviews and a high Metascore and still suck, but that's such a minority, it takes 5 minutes to work out if a game that's rated high is there for reasons you agree with or not.
Your console thing is fine, but it's also the exact reason you shouldn't comment on things you don't know about.
That is true, but my point in posting here was my personal little attempt to restore some faith in humanity and compliment them on such a resoundingly good job as I am really impressed. They are making some pretty groundbreaking changes to the way PC Gaming could work in my opinion.. So yes, for them to sue me would be a bit of a blow to the face. I could have made a fake account etc, used a proxy and what not, but I am young and still have enough faith to believe that sometimes people can see both sides of the coin.
You'll almost undoubtedly completely get away with it, especially considering even if they banned you they refund you, Stardock are really a company you want to rob huh? Faceless bastards right?
Indeed
I'm glad we agree.
