Anon tries to save money

Technically you don’t need a vpn if you live in certain countries where the government doesn’t give a shit that you torrent.

Only thing Eastern Europe does better than the west
- Maybe it's luck but I've shamelessly torrented in the UK my whole life, I wouldn't be surprised if in the past fifteen years, I've downloaded a petabyte on pirated content.
  I've never used a VPN and the one time I got a letter from my ISP, I suspect it was a scam anyway. I have used at least 4 ISPs in this period and two mobile networks, I've even used public and work WiFis with not issue.
  I'm not sure if this a UK thing or if I'm just wildly lucky.
- I'm doing fine in Ireland anyway.
Brazil and most Latin American countries are also safe pirate havens, unless you set up a for-profit piracy site, then you're painting a huge target on your head.
You can also just direct download games without a VPN.
100% safe?
No, but uh, ISPs have so heavily switched over to monitoring torrents, they kind of forgot the other option exists.
(I'll update this with a -whoops I got fucked- if that happens, but I've been doing this for half a year now, no problems.)
Another option is I2P for either direct dls or torrents, no subscription fee, but it is quite slow.

$14.99 Netflix subscription

$11.99 Gamepass subscription

$11.99 Spotify Premium subscription

Want more than one networks programming? Hulu/Max/Paramount/Peacock all cost around the same

ISP still sells your damn data to advertisers

OR

$5 Mullvad subscription.

You tell me what makes more sense.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend Mullvad for Torrenting. They blocked port forwarding, making seeding and thus contributing back to the network that much slower
I just went for ProtonVPN since (next to iVPN I think) it's the only other one to at least be partially OSS and still viable for daily-use
- Thats fair, and I agree with you for torrenting, its the one thing I wish they'd change. For privacy though, I feel like Mullvad is leading the pack. (Not having to provide an email, crypto and/or cash payments, DAITA)
- Yes shame about Mullvad. AirVPN still allows port forwarding though.
  Now days I just stick to private trackers while using a cheap European VPS setup with wireguard. Only saves me a couple of bucks a month compared to VPN service but it adds up.

It's hella cheaper tho

Yeah and something that is useful for all kinds of situations like circumventing geo-blocking as well. So it's always a good idea to have a VPN.

I have never once used a VPN to pirate shit.

I did ONCE, and got a notice. 😂 VPN all the way boys!
- My ISP couldn't give a rats arse if I pirate games or not. That's the benefits of a local ISP, they are so small they don't care.
- But no girls or nonbinary folks.
I used proton once...
Same. I get notices from my ISP on occasion but nothing of consequence.

I may or may not have torrented so many games, software, movies and albums without any VPN. It went well for years until we got one of those letters.

Woops, looks like I left my Wi-Fi network open. Must have been my neighbor ;)

You also need an ISP, which isn't free either.

If you have a non-sucking ISP, you don't need a VPN. But a VPN is incredibly cheap, so just lump it in mentally with the cost of the internet service.

What VPN do you recommend?
- That depends on a number of things, like do you want to seed (if so, Mullvad is out), how much do you plan on downloading (if a lot, a VPS may be out), if your ISP blocks any of them, etc.
  I generally recommend Mullvad or DIY w/ a VPS (I DIY a wireguard VPN on a VPS), but just try some out and see what works best for you.
Free Public Wifi.
- enjoy downloading a 10GB game on 32Mbps...
- Hotels. Tell the restaurant you left the thing with the wifi password in the room.
You also need something to play the games on, a place to play them, electricity for the internet and device, etc., and none of them are free. But they're also not exclusively used for playing a single game, unlike the single game you're pirating instead of buying.

No money, no friends? Maybe that a signal it's time to take a break from the screen

Going outside when you're nowhere near a city:
(in USA at least)
- That's all of Alberta CA I think
- You've never gone tromping through the woods?
- If you're from the South in England, and haven't made any friends by uni (if you even get accepted) just give up, you're never gonna make any, not over there at least.
  Northerner terrifies Londoners by saying "Hello"
Exactly.
I tried, but could not get into gaming at all. Boy am I glad about that.
- That's kind of wild to me. There's so many unique types of games, and not a single one interested you?
  That's like not being interested in an entire media category.
  I can understand not relating to the gamer culture, but even my grandma games on her tablet.

protonvpn

until proton's ceo was all "o captain my captain" about trump and the "good things" that trump is doing
Mullvad vpn
- Mullvad lost me when they stopped allowing port forward
- they aren't free really,.
the free tier doesn't support P2P

Direct downloads are fine enough. No need for vpn.

Edit: Depends on your location. US is fine with ddl

Depends on where you are. Don't try that in Germany, you'll get a hefty fine.
- A fine for pirating? How awful.
Right? They only get your IP from torrenting because they’re torrenting it too.
A single download source you trust is usually fine unless you’ve got a super-narc for an ISP.
- Unfortunately in my area Comcast has a super monopoly and they're huge narcs

Can't you borrow games at the library?

You can also torrent games at the library
In Austria you totally can and it costs € 30 / year. But for the new ones you can simply torrent them because nobody cares here.
Not at mine. We have board games and telescopes though.

Read the megathread ffs, use ProtonVPN

Don't use Proton, use Mullvad.
That said, if you're only paying for a VPN so you can torrent, you're better off getting a Debrid service instead (like Real-Debrid). It's cheaper and gets you direct downloads to any torrent you want at 1Gbps speeds.
- This is the way. Plus you can set up RD through Stremio/various Kodi add-ons so you can stream shows and movies directly from them. And! They even give you credits when you pay for service, that you can then redeem for more service. Pretty nifty 🙂
for direct downloads it works, however I tried to torrent on it and it disabled and said "no p2p". I pay for mullvad now and have no regrets
- How did you set it up? Proton offers port forwarding, which mullvad does not
Proton is not that good bro. At least not the free version. I kind of hate when people suggest it because just like other free vpns, the free version is designed to not work well. It does basic browsing very well but you are not gonna torrent with it.

Use Tor Or a pretty good free vpn like ProtonVPN. Just not a "free" one. Looking at VeePN with disgust

Please do not use Tor for piracy, you're taking up valuable bandwidth that people in authoritarian countries need to fight government censorship and surveillance
- This, and if you're downloading a large game, it might take a few months over a Tor.
protonvpn free tier doesn't support P2P
- sh*t
  Uhh ignore the example, idk a free vpn that supports P2P.
You shouldn't torrent through tor, however, i2p has built in torrents

80$ games btw.

If you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make it happen! 🏴‍☠️
- Sure will.. in 10 years when its $3 on sale because borderlands 69 is being released soon.

Desde los 2000 sin VPN y me he salvado de todas

Piracy free?

100TB isn't free Fast internet connections ain't free VPN ain't free Hundreds of hours ain't free

What is free is the freedom that comes with just being able to watch whatever the hell I want to watch when I want to watch it, without ads, without "oh now we found another way to make money, we shuffle media between providers so now pay someone else too if you want to finish this show"

You forgot electricity to power your PC

Lifetime VPN sub. Makes it a one-time purchase.

This sounds as unsustainable as free vpns
- Because it is. Just recently some VPN provider I already forgot the name of cancelled all lifetime subscriptions. There were multiple posts on Lemmy about it.
- How do you mean?
- Ten years and counting for me and VPN Unlimited so far. Unsustainable? Capitalism is un-sustainable. Cheaper than paying monthly or yearly? Absolutely.
  Personally, I use the VPN to do my searches, grab magnet links, and get the torrent started, then I disconnect the VPN and switch to Cell data, as that ISP has never sent me a nasty-gram about pirating.
  Reasonably sure Nord is still turning a profit on my sub.

I recommend Fastvpn, they have great support for just 15$ a year

This is always such a stupid take. Just force fully encrypted traffic in your torrent client... No VPN necessary.

This is wrong, torrenting is mostly caught by reviewing the peers list of torrents with infringing content, not analyzing the traffic. Only a VPN (or Seedbox) masks your IP, or alternatively private trackers are rare to get monitored.
- Okay so I think you are talking about getting caught by a copyright holder, and I am talking about getting caught by your Internet service provider. The alternative (free) solution to the former is just to use private trackers. The alternative (free) solution to the latter is to fully encrypt your traffic.

If you live in a country that requires a vpn to torrent, you can probably afford video games.

Wrong, you probably can afford a temporary license to play a video game.

Or, and hear me out... you could stop treating entertainment as a right. Stealing food and necessities? I'll help you carry your prize. But stealing entertainment isn't a flex. You aren't helping to drive cost down, and every person that does it is just another reason for companies to put Denuvo in their games. You aren't "owed" entertainment. Don't steal it. Find something else to do. Get an old console and a shit ton of games for next to nothing and simultaneously help out the second hand game economy.

What it comes down to is the price of modern entertainment isn't just $60 for the game. It's that plus all of the extra bullshit you have to do. If you don't want to pay that, fine, no one is forcing you to buy the games, and you don't need them to survive. Your silent protest against the gaming industry isn't some valiant effort to rob from the rich and give to the poor. It's theft. Call it that. You aren't fucking batman; you are a person who steals entertainment because you have to have the latest thing. You aren't fighting capitalism, you are part of it, and you are making it worse for everyone else.

Downvotes are to the left.

Nice try. The downvotes are actually on the right.
Denuvo doesn't even stop games from being torrented. They still get cracked.
It's a just a nuisance for paying users and degraded performamce.
- Is there anyone left that actually cracks denuvo? I've only heard about Denuvo games getting bypassed due to denuvo-less copies of the main exe file getting leaked.
- Which is my point. I pay for games. If they have Denuvo slowing them down, it isn't because I paid for it, it's because other people stole it, or have stolen in the past. The anti-theft software doesn't exist because there are no thieves. I do my best to avoid Denuvo games on principal, but it's hard to play a AA game or higher without it. There are a lot of people to blame for it, but it wouldn't be there at all if not for thieves.
They're to the right actually.
You aren’t “owed” entertainment. Don’t steal it. Find something else to do.
I shouldn't do what I enjoy because you said so? 🤡
- +1
  You are not to decide what we do, only suggest.
- If you enjoy stealing, then that's something you should talk to a professional about.
How is torrenting "making it worse for everyone else"?
- every person that does it is just another reason for companies to put Denuvo in their games.
  If you want more, it's also a rally cry for execs to bring up at board meetings about why their latest game didn't sell well. It's why Nintendo can brick your Switch 2 from orbit if they detect pirated software (which will surely lead to false positives).
piracy isn't stealing. it would be stealing if people were able to literally take ownership of a company's game.
if one person wants to buy a game, but doesn't have enough money, or the game is too expensive, pirating it doesn't make a difference, since they wouldn't buy it anyway. it's very rare for a person who would actually buy a game to pirate it, so the difference is minuscule.
edit: i forgot to say, if after pirating someone likes the game enough, they are likely to actually buy it once they have enough money.
- It is theft, and th people that say it isn't are making excuses so they feel better. You can grow your own food, you know? And it keeps growing back. But if you walk into a grocery store and walk out without paying, you are stealing. If you walk onto a farmers land and keep taking food from their crops without paying, it is stealing.
  You make two very different arguments that highlight my reason for calling out theft. The first is that the person steals because companies don't allow us to own anything. That almost holds water, until you understand that entertainment isn't a necessity, and so stealing it is a wholly selfish act.
  However, that brings us to your second point: people pirate because they can't afford it. You contradict yourself. Who is the "pirate"? The one who steals in under misguided idea that some things cannot be owned, or the one that steals because they can't afford it?
  At the end of the day, you are being advertised to, and you feel that you have to have the latest thing because the advertising is working, and so you steal when you can't afford. You are a part of the system that you fight against with your mantra of "nothing can be owned." Stop.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/09/eu-study-finds-piracy-doesnt-hurt-game-sales-may-actually-help/
This article points to a research that concludes that piracy is really not an issue for those companies though.
It think that piracy is actually a great way to give everyone access to culture that shouldn't be gatekept by their financial situation. Imagine a world where pirating music is shun today. Nobody cares now, we all listen to free music online without paying. Not to mention that piracy is pretty much the only sureway to make sure some medias (including games) are preserved. If you want to make sure that your favorite games don't become lost medias in the future you should consider the good sides of piracy because those companies don't care about it; they just want you to buy the next thing.
So if piracy is not affecting those companies revenues and if it gives access to culture to everyone and even help preserving media why the hell shoul we lose our minds over it? Sounds like a good thing to me.
Now, selling a game that cannot be owned and that can be revoked at anytime or a game that can change its TOS on a whim is much scummy imo.
If you don't want people to pirate your game, price them fairly and allow you customers to own a copy and offer an easy to use service.
In any cases, I won't shed a single tear if someome pirate a game especially a AAA game.
- This article points to a research that concludes that piracy is really not an issue for those companies though.
  And yet we still have anti-theft measures on most games. The anti-theft measures aren't there because there were never any thieves. They are there because theives provide a scapegoat to publishers to blame low revenue on. Regardless of whether or not it is actually happening, the net results are the same because the lie is there. Pirating or stealing games may not have a real effect, or may even be a positive one, but it doesn't matter because there is still a negative outcome when companies increase the price of their games and force anti-consumer launchers and anti-theft DRM into games.
  Imagine a world where pirating music is shun today. Nobody cares now, we all listen to free music online without paying.
  Maybe you and your friends do, but a lot of people pay for music streaming services with give an admittedly mediocre amount of revenue to the artists. The idea that we should steal "culture" and make it free to everyone is ludicrous. People still have to eat. All of the time and effort that goes into making a game or a record has an expected return, and that return is a paycheck.
  Now, selling a game that cannot be owned and that can be revoked at anytime or a game that can change its TOS on a whim is much scummy imo.
  If you don’t want people to pirate your game, price them fairly and allow you customers to own a copy and offer an easy to use service.
  That is why there are pro-consumer groups working to make sure that bullshit like what happens today doesn't continue in the future. The EU and UK have very strong pro-consumer policies that protect the buyer instead of the seller. Change is happening, but it doesn't make it easier when there is the ever present scapegoat of, "we do this because people steal."
Yeah, but nowardays you paid for the product with your data.