PC Gaming

Same here. The problem was that I needed more RAM. 🙃

Same. I had no idea what the title meant at all. Interesting though.

It's a catch 22. If everyone uses it, game companies get it shut down, and then it doesn't exist, and then nobody uses it. The only existing methods of piracy are little known. That you've never heard of it is expected.

https://fitgirl-repacks.site/

Yeah, Denuvo registers every version of Proton as a different computer. So when you cycle through a bunch of different versions, Denuvo sees you booting it on a bunch of different computers back-to-back. IIRC Denuvo’s ToS allows for 5 different computers to boot a game within 24 hours. So it locks you out for 24h, as an anti-account-sharing measure. It has hit the spotlight a few times recently, because of the Steam Deck users needing to cycle through Proton versions.

Same thing happened to me with Street fighter 6. I was just trying to get it to run and kept switching proton versions and it got locked.

Yep, she was super happy when another girl came upon the scene, Empress. They collabed on a big release one time and I remember her saying "Girl power!", then not long after Empress had a big ego trip and falling out with the repackers.

do an extremely bad job at basic tasks like compression

I've installed one game from FitGirl so far. It took three hours to unpack while hammering all the cpu cores, failed, and required another three-hour go to install properly.

So you're saying that all games should install like this?

The thing about compression is you have to process it to decompress it. It may be benificial to people with limited bandwidth, or for peer-to-peer sharing, but it's probably better for most users for someone like Valve to share the uncompressed version. Bandwidth isn't the issue it used to be.

It also makes progressive updates harder. The best you can do is compress each update individually, not the whole package.

I wouldn't really say that. The kind of extreme compression Fitgirl does comes with the tradeoff of really long decompression times. Depending on which games, nearly 45 minutes (with a 7800x3D)

Some games lack compression but I would not want those long install times by default, if you have a speedy internet connection they usually take longer to install than to download. Don't get me wrong, for people with really slow internet those repacks are a godsend but they are not "better" on every aspect.

It's more likely that the devs are not being given the time or resources to do this kind of thing properly. Their bosses are too concerned with what will save money and generate shareholder value.

If you can afford it. Might be a better option, or least send the devs some support while using repacks.

Honestly, I think this is a case-by-case basis. I don't weep for EA losing money when people acquire The Sims for example. The people that did the heavy lifting already got paid, and the less money that's going into the Trump Empire and Saudi Arabian pockets the better.

That's almost besides the point, though. We're living in a time where if you buy something you for the most part don't own it. Buy an EV? Then the battery is rented. Buy an iPhone? You don't get to choose what software or hardware to put in it, only Apple batteries are acceptable else your screen/camera/faceID array will magically stop working. Android phones are barking down the same route.

Buy an eBook/Audiobook from Amazon? Well they can edit and redact it whenever they please. A film from iTunes? DRMed, bound to die whenever Apple decides to no longer support your platform. Video game? You get a license to run the software, nothing more.

There are studios I feel happy supporting, ones that treat their customers and their workers right. Don't think a single one of them is a AAA studio though. Like, why should I pay Bethesda when they don't pay their musicians?

I don't know which stores exactly are listed there. But at least with some shady key resellers, piracy might actually be better than buying from them according to some indie devs: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48908726

I actually didn’t know that the whole point of fitgirl was for compression

The whole point of view of the article is about people from countries that can't afford the modern AAA price, internet bandwidth... and even PC capable to run the game decently (AAA the full price always take in account hardware that runs on "Ultra settings"; not the customers running it at very low).

As aside note, piracy isn't even about piracy itself anymore: someone who buy an AAA videogame on "exclusivity store" (such as Epic)... soon or later will discover that's easier to store a fitgirl copy of his purchase to run the same game seamelessly across all the PC in their household (good old: Install > Next > Next > Finish) ... rather having set up those 2+3 launcher per PC.