Software piracy – copying programs and games so that you can run them without paying for them – has been around as long as software itself.  Modifying a machine (“modding” in today’s parlance) to get it to do something it wasn’t designed to do is also a time-honored tradition.  Long thought of by developers as a nuisance, the advent of the internet and lightning-fast transfer of pirated software has created a real problem for publishers.  In this article I want to look at how this shady scene can affect your family, perhaps even in a positive way.

First, some ground rules.  I’m going to avoid moralizing, just know that most of the world agrees that downloading commercial software without paying for it is both morally and legally wrong.  People use all kinds of justifications – “I wouldn’t have bought it anyway” and “Games are too expensive” being the popular ones – but for all practical purposes, piracy is theft whether the dictionary agrees or not.  How that fits into your ethical makeup is up to you.

Secondly, I should define “modding”.  In computer enthusiast  and gaming circles, the word has several meanings.  It can be creating extra content for a game, with or without support from the original developer.  It can be customizing your system with flashy lights and upgrading your hardware.  Or it can mean modifying a console to circumvent the control manufacturers have on the hardware, allowing you to run 3rd-party software and typically defeating the detection of pirated games.  It’s this last definition that I refer to here.

And thirdly, I think parents should be educated on this subject because we are raising our children in an information based society and it is up to us to provide the right foundation for them.  Some parents might not be aware of the ramifications of software piracy, equating it only with “taping a friend’s album” like we did as kids.  With that out of the way, let’s look at some facts:

Pirated games can be played on virtually every system.  At the time of writing, I am only aware of one system that is free from piracy, the PlayStation 3, and it’s only a matter of time before that protection is broken too.  Everything else (Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, PlayStation 2, and so on) has been broken open.

It is incredibly easy to find pirated games. A quick web search for “download 360 games” (replace 360 with the platform of your choice) is all it takes to find the games themselves as well as tutorials and guides to get up and running.  Some systems will require the purchase and installation of additional items (a “modchip” that is soldered inside the console) but many others just need the right piece of unlocking software, also freely available.

Pirated games can side-step your parental rules.  You won’t buy your teen Grand Theft Auto and you’ve coordinated with other parents so they’re not buying it either.  Your teen just downloads a copy, labelling it “Cool Game #28” and you’re none the wiser.

Modifying a console can break it beyond repair. As soon as you open up the case, you’ve voided the warranty.  Soldering jobs can go wrong very easily, and even software modifications (“softmods”) can mess up vital system files leaving you with a “bricked” system (so called because it then becomes a useless, expensive plastic brick, unable to play games, pirated or otherwise).  Good luck on getting the manufacturer to repair a system that has been tampered with.  And while there is a certain amount of scaremongering, pirate software and file-sharing networks truly are a breeding ground for viruses and other programs harmful to your computer.

Piracy cheapens games. I don’t just mean literally – of course a 50 cent blank DVD is cheaper than buying a sixty dollar game – but think about this: you don’t buy your child every single thing they ask for because you don’t want to spoil them.  Being able to play any game they want without paying for it has the same effect.

Piracy hurts the industry, including the players. It’s hard to put a dollar amount on piracy losses, no matter what figures the various agencies bandy about, but game developers operate on smaller margins than you’d think.   When a game doesn’t meet sales expectations, perhaps due to piracy, it can close business doors.  To combat this, publishers demand safer, more mainstream titles – and that means less innovation for us as gamers.

You can get caught. Online services can usually detect when a pirated game is being used, and in the case of Xbox Live, the console itself will be banned from the service, forever.  That’s getting off lightly compared to being sued for damages when downloading games, which IS happening.

So with all this, why do I think there’s a positive aspect to this pseudo-underground scene?  Let’s have another list, things that you can do with a modded system that are NOT software piracy:

You can protect your investment. Discs get scratched and handheld cartridges get lost, that’s why I’m glad to have the ability to back up many of my games in case of any problems.  You’ll find that “back-up” is often used as a euphemism for “stuff I downloaded from the internet”, but you can indeed use a modified console to play copies of your legally purchased games.

Convenience is king. Copy protection stops us from fully utilizing the technology we have at our disposal.  Systems with hard drives do not need us to keep the game disc in the drive, but copy protection demands it.  By removing this protection we have easier access to our legally purchased games.  In fact, some modded systems allow you to store dozens of games, perhaps your whole collection, on your console.  Long car trips are no problem when I have all the kids’ favorite games loaded onto the DS and PSP, with no rooting around for cartridges or discs.

Travel the world. For all kinds of tedious licensing and economic issues, many game systems are “region locked”, so a US Wii can only play US Wii games for example.  This is usually no problem, as the big games are generally released everywhere eventually, but if you crave quirky Japanese games that don’t have a chance of a domestic release or you’re a European who doesn’t like waiting months after the US release of a game, you frequently need to flout the rules the console manufacturers made.

New functionality. Today’s consoles have multimedia capabilities, but did you know that people have been enjoying much more advanced media features for years on modded Xboxes?  Or that tired of waiting for Nintendo to release a personal organizer program for the DS, which is otherwise perfect for some grown-up notetaking and reminding, people created their own version (DSOrganize is in its third revision)?   Map software provides directions to the lost, musicians have composition programs for both handhelds, and artists on the go can turn to several painting and animation packages on the DS.  Game consoles can do so much more than play games, but if you want to unlock that capability, you need to move beyond official offerings.

Free games.  Wait, didn’t I just say piracy is bad?  Well there are actually plenty of legally free games released for any platform that has been successfully unlocked by the underground.  You’ll see clones of commercial games with more features and remakes of classic arcade titles, but also plenty of original creations, weird little games that would never get a commercial release but are still entertaining.  Here are a couple of examples of free homebrew games on the DS:

It’s these last two things, this “homebrew” software by eager bedroom programmers, that really excites me.  And the tools are freely (legally!) available to make your own games and software thanks to the efforts of the homebrew community.  While I wouldn’t reccommend homebrew console development as the best way to learn programming, kids can get one heck of a kick out of seeing something they’ve created running on the same hardware as their favorite games.  Or you could surprise younger children by cooking up something unique just for them (my son got a birthday greeting on the Gameboy Advance, and my daughter loves doing jigsaws on the DS with a game I wrote – something I’m particularly proud of given the surprising lack of commercial jigsaw games in the US!)

So steer your children away from the temptations of piracy, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.  If you’re prepared to risk your gaming systems and get your hands just a little dirty, you can squeeze so much more out of that system you paid so much money for.

Tags: Misc