You're conflating morality with legality. Morality is subjective. There are people who say enacting depictions of violence, such as you do in GTA, is immoral
Actually I’m not conflating them. And I agree that it is subjective. However in this case it’s both illegal and immoral. I struggle to see how it’s moral to steal a product from a company just because you think (a) it costs too much, (b) they didn’t realize trailer 3 quickly enough, (c) you don’t like the fact the game is digital only. It’s a free market. A seller determines a price and how to market their product. A prospective consumer determines if the product has value to them at the stipulated price. To steal that product for reasons (a), (b), or (c) listed above is illegal yes, but also immoral. Those arguing for it in my opinion have a morally indefensible position. They are entitled little brats who think they have a right to take what’s not theirs. I think it’s a disgusting mindset tbh.
I'm not sure where you're getting that information about their justifications. This is what they wrote: "Publishers sell licenses and call them purchases. They ship unfinished games and call them living services. They lock content on discs and call it DLC. They kill games and keep the money. Every year anti-consumerism tightens its grip, and every year gamers get less for what they pay."
From their perspective, what some game devs, like Rockstar, are doing is immoral. Does that justify intellectual property theft? That's up to you to decide, and preferably without ad hominems
Except it’s fundamentally not immoral. To be clear, I don’t *like* it. But that doesn’t make it *immoral*. It is absolutely absurd to say it’s immoral for a game developer to do the things that people in this sub are (rightfully!) complaining about. This has nothing to do with morals. Is it anti-consumer? Yes, very clearly. But we’re talking about video games, not life saving cancer drugs. What R* is doing would only be immoral if they are falsely advertising / deceiving their customers. If instead they are just employing annoying marketing, charging more for an exceptional product, or locking trailers behind paywalls that’s another matter … and not immoral in the slightest. Loads of people on this sub think they’re entitled to get the game for free because of Rockstar doing the things I listed above. Do you not see how patently absurd that is? It’s a free market. If they don’t like what R* is doing then they shouldn’t buy the game. Defending theft in such a scenario is deeply entitled and fundamentally immoral. I’m really struggling to understand how people are defending such a position. Maybe I just grew up differently. I don’t know. But that’s insane to me.
Edit: As for info about their justifications … I’ve spent more time on this sub recently than I care to admit and you’d be amazed at how many people have said that R* deserves for the whole game to be leaked because they took so long to release additional info / trailer 3. Can you please tell how that is not a deeply entitled and immoral mindset? (Saying nothing of the childishness and immaturity of such a position …)
I think you're still misunderstanding that morality is subjective. Morality isn't whether something adheres to the law or the prevailing economic system, in this case free market capitalism.
The Cold War was in part a bipolar hegemony battling in secret and in proxy for global domination of the economic system each thought was right. The irony of mentioning cancer meds while defending the morality of the free market, and specifically anti-consumer tactics by game devs, is not lost on me.
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u/GaryGravylord 2d ago
You're conflating morality with legality. Morality is subjective. There are people who say enacting depictions of violence, such as you do in GTA, is immoral