Addiction withdrawal is easy. I don’t know why, but I’ve been playing a lot less Final Fantasy XI lately. I guess my hots for that game are drawing to an end, with the ending of my vacation soon. Or maybe it’s just the fact that I’m plain broke in game. (If anyone reading this is in Seraph and somewhat well-off in gils, please donate to Kurashiire. Thanks!)

Anyway, I’ve been sorting out lots and lots of thoughts about pirated games lately. The pirated games market exists as people refuse to pay $60 for an original game when they can pay $3 for a pirated one. Even when top-notch games devalue in a few months, they would still pay $3 for a pirated one than $20 for a repackaged or 2nd hand version. And then companies, seeing the rampant piracy, source technology from companies such as Securom to protect their “intellectual property”. Which doesn’t work considering that pirates are real good at cracking such technology.

But hey, there just isn’t any point in collecting Amaray cases with nicely printed covers, a 20 page manual that doesn’t even teach you the slightest thing about game mechanics and um, the game disc itself.

At least put in a cloth map or something, sheesh. Heck, a nice “limited edition” model of one of the game’s protagonists would be good too.

Well, the companies can continue on their raids and everyday copying prevention. Consumers can continue buying their pirated software. I’ll just happily play whatever game I like. Ignorance is bliss.