It's a bit of a misconception that because they don't saddle their customers with intrusive protection that they're giving free reign to pirate their software, they do it out of concern for the customer than willingness to let people to pirate it. If there was some magical protection that worked and didn't affect legitimate customers in any way they wouldn't not use it out of good will towards pirating.

They've said themselves they don't like their software being pirated and don't condone it in any way.

Get a grip. Pirating has become the same as "Demo" lately for a lot of people.

Things will get pirated, always. The thing is with Demigod..there are actually a lot of pirates picking up the game after playing for a while.

You can't do anything against piracy. All you can do is hope your game is awesome and has unique features only available through paying the full game.

In the case of Demigod that would be Pantheon..once it starts working and a competitive price (which is very far from the case actually fot what it offers). There are so many people who would pull the trigger without a second thought if the game was 29.95$ digital version.

"Get a grip. Pirating has become the same as "Demo" lately for a lot of people."

There are a lot of morally bankrupt people out there...that doesn't make it right, of course.

And it is untrue, what you say about there is nothing companies can do.  It's already begun.

But it will bring the end of the computer age!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xfqkdh5Js4

Wow has this thread seriously gone off track or what? People pirated the game. In a perfect world that would never happen, but there isn't really anything that can be done to stop piracy as it stands right now (doubly so since this particular act of piracy occured in the past). These threads with people proclaiming that they pirated the game are sort of pointless and could probably be locked/deleted with little consequence. Also some users on this forum could realize that there is nothing to be done about people who already pirated the game (except convince them to buy it) and stop crying over spilt milk.

Here's the point that actually matters:

To the OP: It's great you want to buy the game and now I believe it's unlikely you'll find the collectors edition at retail, but I could be wrong. I see in your edit that you found it on amazon. That's as good as anyplace else unless you want to buy directly from Stardock (they do make a larger profit if you buy directly from them). I do hope you actually purchase demigod and I hope that you have fun playing it. 

Yeah, I found the game on The Pirate Bay but decided just to buy it right way, because I didn't know if i would remember to pay for it.

The only reason I even cared is because this is stardock, and I really respect them. Its sad to see some pirates decided to stab them in the back, but theres a lot that are also support stardock. Im sure that if they made copyright protection then they would of lost more money then they are now.

Not all pirates are bad people, its just now days publishers (EA) are making DRM that is just insane, punishing people that are legit. Its like you buy a game and then you can install it 3 times, then if you pirate it you can install it as many times as you like. Its starting to get to the point where you get more for $0.00 then you do for $39.99.

Stardock took a stand agenst DRM and a lot of pirates respect them and support them, but there are those who don't know or are ignorant enough to not care.

I do feel sorry for stardock and GPG for having their trust serverly abused by some pirates with no respect for publishers that are basicly on their side on the DRM war. I hope they understand that some of these pirates wouldnt of ever of been buyers, but there is a group of pirates that still respect them and their stance on DRM.

wow... i really didn't expect all this venom from such mean people

i'm a long time customer with stardock actually, i only pointed out that i pirated the game to bring up the fact that i wanted the collector's edition for what that had instead of just the plain game itself which i already had pirated. i wanted to know what the differences were... thats all...

its cool guys, i certainly won't be posting here again since its clearly not ok to mention certain topics. adios kids!

I also support SD with my money. I buy every game I play. There are companies that I do not buy or play games from though that have offensive and prohibitive DRM schemes in place. My point was that those developers will generally not get my money again. SD is a good enough company that i paid money for a GPG game when because of hassles with them in the past I had decided not to support them as a company.

I don't believe I suggested pirates were "cool" at all. The concept of "coolness" exists within generally small groups of like minded people. If you step outside that group the concept changes. I believe that copywright law as conceived by the creators of the American Constitution existed to try and find a way to compensate artists for their work. Since then the law has been bent and twisted to meet the ends of special interests. People on both sides of the law have bent the law to their own ends. To me this makes the area grey. The following links are just examples of this happening, not a statement of support for any of the causes mentioned.

http://www.techdirt.c
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/2014om/articles/20090319/1850154187.shtml
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/11/opinion/an-abuse-of-copyright.html
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/threads-copyright-abuse-533

To be clear, some of the venues do pay fees. Many of the events they play at for money are also private. Like birthday parties, weddings, ect. Within the context of copyright laws, should this be permitted, or is it an act of theft?

As I stated above, I have paid for the game. Furthermore I suggest that anyone who plays the game more than 10 mins should purchase the game. I also recognize the fact that some people who pirated the game have ended up purchasing the game, as is the case with the OP. I am not suggesting that this makes piracy an ok thing, just that some people who play pirated games are, in my opinion, moral enough to realize that supporting the people who make the things you enjoy is the right thing to do. It is also my opinion that to not support the creators whose product you enjoy is self defeating as you are potentially hindering their ability to create more things that you could enjoy. 

I appreciate the vigour with which you defend what you believe in. I agree with most of what you say, but also am suggesting that things are not always as black and white as we would like them to be. I don't believe people who speed should be handled in the same manner as a rapist. In my opinion intellectual propery has less merit than physical property. This is not a carte blanche excuse to run rampant pirating whatever you want.

One solution to this problem is to go after the people distributing pirated items rather than the ones downloading them. Another solution is to make things inexpensive enough, and easy enough to get that getting a pirated copy is more hassle than getting a legitimate one. I think venues like I-Tunes have made great strides in this direction. Digital distribution like Impulse and Steam are also good ways of doing this. The only potential weakness with these is in the price point, and the real sticking point in that is middle men like EA, Sony and other parasitic entities that rely on others creative energies to exist.

Looks like I rambled on a bit there. My apologies for that. It is not my intent to insult or belittle anyone posting here. I just am trying to look behind the curtain a bit and see if it's really the wizard back there, or just a little old man pretending to be more than he is.

You could just not drag on the topic and give the man his info and move on. You're not going to stop him from doing what he is doing.

Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out, "dad".

I'm glad I'm not a software vendor on the receiving end of your "support".

wow so many shortminded people ... i surely dont pirate games , i buy them and get bitten in the ass (wotlk,AoC,WAR) , but then again i think i have bought 4 copies of wc3 and frozen throne.

but 70% of the people in my country download stuff , imo for people with less moneys culture shouldnt be robbed from them but i know all dont share my opinion , when i was younger i dled some games and music , i didnt have no money to buy game after game or pay 20 bucks for a cd which i wanted to hear 1-2 songs on , i only bought the items i really liked, and i have them in my shelf still.

ofc i think all should buy demigod , i really like the game and i see a bright future if the issues at hand are solved.

and for the record , i DL bassline and underground DnB , you dont find that on amazon , or any other "online shoppingcenter",  and i buy my cds 20 at a time from the uk so cant buy it in the shop ... am i still a bad person then ?

Rofl, piracy has what to do with being morally backrupt?

[Taunt The Pirates]

Try walking into a BestBuy, shoving the CD down your pants, and attempting that explaination in court. The only reason that people like you do not get the criminal prosecution that you deserve is because "big brother" can't get you very efficiently. Not yet. But he will. What makes you think that you have some sort of "right" to the labors of others? This "freedom of information" crap is merely an addle-minded attempt by you and your ilk to sucker society into accepting your criminal behavior as normal.

Let me clue you in on something else while I'm here. I'm damn proud to work for a multi-national "faceless corporation". I am also damn proud that we earn huge profits and pay our CEO a huge salary. He deserves it, because few living humans can accomplish his job as well as he does. What is his job? To make money for the stockholders. You know what we do when people steal our products? We raise prices to compensate for the loss. In the end the thieves do not hurt us, they hurt the poorest segments of society. Just like the thieves who steal cable service, groceries, beer, and government services.

Here's something else to consider, if you are amongst the "we should all have the same amount of stuff" crowd. Do you reeeaallllly want a government powerful enough to confiscate all private property and resistribute it in accordance with the whims of beaurocrats? Think about that for a moment, because your stuff is going to get confiscated right along with everone elses' stuff. Even if that were to happen, the "stuff" would rapidly gravitate back to the people who have it now. It would require a ruthless military regime to enforce Equality Of Stuff. And you just know the beaurocrats are going to make the allotment of Society's Stuff as inefficient as possible. Before you can get your "fair share" of the Stuff, it will all moulder in some warehouse while you fill out about 100 pages of paperwork. Since all accountants will have been put to death or imprisoned, you will be unable to pay someone else to fill out the paperwork. All this because you are behaving in a manner that invites power-hungry politicians to step in and "help". Some help.

haha pirates use the saying "try it first" lol hey when you go get a job tell the boss you wanna work for free for 2 weeks to see if you like the job. what? you wont work for free but its ok to use someone elses work for free? gimme a break.

I have 2 sons and they have friends that "pirate" games and I always point out to them the negative effects of it. I tell them something like "hey tell joe lets all play that game online" and they respond "they cant its pirated", and I will be like "see the bad side to doin crooked stuff.they are so smart that now they cant even play wit us" lol   I have been taken by buying a bad game b4(frontlines:Fuel of War) but I learn who makes good games and buy their product.  just my 2 cents

Stealing is not moral, and the people who steal and try to justify it are morally bankrupt.  See, that was easy.