No idea what happens nowadays also probably depends on your location too, but a friend of mine downloaded fallout 4 when it released and his isp disabled their houses internet until he went to a web page and checked off a box saying “i have deleted the following file(s) from my machine” lol

It was a tame outcome relatively speaking, but it could have been worse.

I have purchased far more than I’ve ever obtained. In some cases I’ve double dipped and purchased multiple times.

The main issue is “can I obtain it legally and pay the original creators?” And secondary is “is this item reasonably priced and delivered in an accessible way?”.

The last game I grabbed was the Sims 4 + dlc a very very long time ago. The last show i grabbed was probably an anime with fan subtitles.

I don’t have an answer for you, but wanted to say that ffxv is a very unique experience and I really enjoyed it. Watch the anime episodes on youtube and check out the movie too! No other game has given me that “road trip with your friends” vibes like this

I’ll have to take a look! Thank you!

Lol that’s a very good point. I don’t know why that didn’t occur to me, thank you!

If I had the space I would jump on this. Been meaning to play all the ps1/2 titles I’ve missed over the years

I don’t understand why it’s ok if you’re rich. Heck, even if people perceive you as wealthy or powerful, you can get away with a lot.

Hey, thank you for the advice! I’ve had a hard time finding a creative outlet that I enjoy. But I agree. I think that would be a healthy alternative and is probably much needed!

That’s a good point. It reminds me of a quote that I recently heard that I enjoy.

"You should support indies if you can, but culture shouldn’t exist only for those who can afford it. ULTRAKILL wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t had easy access to movies, music and games growing up.

If you don’t have money, you can support via word of mouth." - the creator of ultrakill.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I had used Xbox gamepass for a long time when it was really cheap. You could upgrade a regular subscription to gamepass for a dollar. That went up after a while by a little bit but stayed the same service wise.

They recently changed it to where you can convert, but they reduce your subscription time. It’s annoying because I want to use gamepass as a rental service, but if I do that, they convert your entire account to gamepass and reduce your overall time for their regular online services (which is a whole other can of worms)

I’m debating if it’s worth it right now. I’ve experienced a lot of games i likely wouldn’t try, because of the service. I’ve gotta go through and calculate all the games I’ve played and the price associated.

I already buy most games when they’re on a 60% or more discount. I’m wondering if I should/could just stop most of my purchases… There’s a lot of older titles I’ve always wanted to play.

I’m torn because I don’t really spend money on anything else. Maybe some food or treats. It’s weird because I’m in this middle zone where I can technically save up for some luxury items, but too poor to save for anything actually significant. So it kind of feels like I’m just perpetually stuck on a hamster wheel. I’ve been trying to figure out how I can either work less or earn more because right now it’s really getting hard to justify just working to exist. It just feels oddly pointless

I feel like the carrot(media and consumption) is getting dangled in front of my face. I chase it in order to feel better about my situation, but it’s just a band aid for larger systemic issues that I don’t know how to fix. Without consumption, I am nothing (which is extremely sad and messed up now that I think about it.) Any major goals or milestones are just a dream and consumption is the escape from the reality.

Well that’s a bummer. Thank you for the info!

MangaDex was taken down? When did that happen?

The only game I’m kinda tempted to go find is the Sims 1 and 2. Not the rerelease. I want the originals

But overall, I have too little time and too many games already. I’ve been trying to find unique or fun games to stream

Additionally, manga is way cheaper in Japan compared to when it’s brought overseas. It’s hard to justify purchasing when I could buy some merchandise or something instead

I’m not entirely sure why places do this. It will cause distrust in your product and cause people to find the service elsewhere or for free.

My parents are finally getting rid of it. The one thing I’ve noticed, though, is that not having a subscription service means I’m very unlikely to get off my butt and watch tv/movies. Which isn’t a bad thing, I guess I just value other entertainment more?

I’ve wanted to watch the boy and the heron for a while. Maybe I’ll get to it eventually, lol.

Everyone else, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

I’m a very casual downloader. I rarely download and it’s usually older content like movies or retro games. But my personal method has been do a ton of reading. Find chatrooms, forums, etc, where people discuss this topic and read up on the various sites and people’s experiences with them.

Have a separate device if possible. One you’re willing to wipe if something went wrong. I’ve also heard of people sandboxing downloads to try and keep things safer, but I’ve never personally tried it. My assumption is that the older and less complex a download is, the better, but that could be pure ignorance on my part.

For example, if I’m grabbing a GBA game, it’s one single file. There’s less to visually scan, and it’s easy to see if there’s something that looks off. This isn’t always the case, though. For example, one .exe file could ruin your entire machine.

Something newer like a more modern PC game release, I would pick it from a list of sources that people claim are safe, and then basically hope and pray that I didn’t just infect my machine lol. At that point, I try to also look for any suspicious behavior, or if i notice any kind of slowdown, issues with the machine, etc.

Generally speaking, anytime I’ve infected my machine (that I know of), whatever virus protection I’ve been running has caught it and prevented issues. But generally speaking, I would assume that unless you’re downloading simple stuff, you’re taking some risk.

One of the best gifts I got for someone else (and myself I guess because we enjoyed it together) was all the episodes of Reboot. To be honest, I’ve been at a loss as to what I would even sail the seven seas for right now. I have too much of a media backlog to warrant finding something new anyways.

I guess you’re right. I guess I was thinking better service would equate to more sales /less worry about piracy

Why not just provide better overseas support for anime and manga?