I mean "i pirate because yolo" makes more sense and is far more logical and acceptable.
My reasoning is entirely logical. I've returned to piracy because I don't wish to have my computer loaded down with DRM clients.
This is a wholly practical consideration. DRM is historically anti-consumer, inconveniencing (difficulty accessing products, loss of access to account, etc.) and even harming (disruption of driver configurations and OS settings, junk file accumulation, connectivity disruptions; occasionally even damage to hardware) paying customers, all while being almost entirely ineffective at accomplishing its goal: preventing piracy. DRM has a proven history of clandestine datamining, rootkit installation, and bogging down system performance with invasive processes and reconfiguration.
In the past, I simply refused to play DRM client-exclusive games at all. I quit playing Ubisoft games, even those that interested me, because although they're available via Steam, one also has to download UPlay in order to access them. One could argue that if I really feel so strongly about DRM, then I should avoid Steam as well—but there is value in making limited compromises. Steam is relatively benign from a consumer's perspective, despite its shortcomings (mainly its success in cornering the market, though there are others).
The Epic Store is a whole new ballgame. It's not just a DRM client for one publisher's or console manufacturer's games, which to be entirely fair is how Steam began as well. It's a platform for all comers, but unlike Steam, the Epic Store attempts to compete through bribery of independent studios into exclusivity agreements. That is where I choose to draw the line, because what they're doing
to consumers is textbook coercion. Furthermore, multi-developer/-publisher DRM client exclusivity on the same fucking platform (the PC) is going a bit too far, a clear step toward consolization of the PC itself, and not only of individual games.
True, ultimately my justification is: 1.) because I can, and 2.) because they can't stop me. There's also a 2.5): They can't even datamine me and then send impotent hate mail to my ISP, because I use a professional VPN.
I do like to explain my reasoning and watch myself type, as we all know, but ultimately I don't seek your approval of my reasoning, nor anyone else's. There are a lot of Codexers who happen to agree with my stance on these matters, and while that's nice, I don't give a shit about their approval either.
