Pirates, keep them or ban them, what would you do?

[Sean Aero]

The main reason for this is I want to get some insight in what is accepted within this community towards pirates and up till what point they should be included.

Alright, after the whole Microsoft E3 announcements and with the upcoming Halo titles being Xbox360 exclusive, my mind started wondering about the Halo PC community.
I kinda figured that the earliest date possible for a new Halo PC release will be 2013 with the Halo PC 10 year anniversary and if that doesn't happen it basically never will.

So my mind continued wondering a bit more about the current Halo PC community and its population.
As in the different type of players that we have and why the latest version 1.09 is less popular than v1.00.
This is mainly due to Pirates that are out there populating v1.00.

At this point it seems the community is accepting them more and more and is also taking them into account.
As in support for v1.00 in apps and such all due to its population size.
Even though everyone that bought a key still thinks these people should get a legit key after all these years off of e-bay for a mere 5 dollars.

So basically I seek your opinion this is all a bit hypothetically speaking, but just play along with me.
Answer the following question:

"If you had to make the decision now to include pirates completely into the Halo PC/CE community or ban them forever what would you do?"

Try to explain your reasoning. "Why did or didn't you?"

Your opinions are much appreciated, thanks!

[Rainbow Dash]

It's either play with them, or don't play at all, so we don't have a whole lot of choice in the matter.

[Pooky]

I'd rather see the game die than be supported only by a bunch of brain dead thieving idiots, so fuck them. Nobody who didn't pay for the game has any business playing it online for years on end.

[Vicky]

And those are pretty much both extremes, we bought the game why don't they? Maybe because they can't anymore. But, if they wouldn't be there the game would be pretty much dead. I'd go somewhere in the middle, if they play normal let them, if it's again a noob with a bot (easy to spot) ban etc.etc..

[StankBacon]

get rid of them.

[Pooky]

Maybe because they can't anymore.

Bullshit, the game is still for sale all over the place. If they can't afford it, well tough shit. You don't go to a car dealer and drive away with a new car just because you can't afford one.

But, if they wouldn't be there the game would be pretty much dead.

I'd rather it die gracefully than go on in some sort of half-dead state populated only by mute, brain dead morons.

[p0lar_bear]

Leave it be.

How many times have innocent end-users gotten screwed by anti-piracy measures? I'm sure any anti-piracy measures would catch a bunch of false positives, such as "stolen" keys like the ones in that key "generator" that Roger Wolfson was worried about, and the people affected who already bought the game once would be forced to hunt for another copy and buy it again.

Also, as much as it annoys me that a majority of pirates that play can't speak English, I'm a little sick and tired of the elitist mindset Halo players have. I'm not going to deny I had a high horse back when CE was in its prime, heck, right now I still don't like a bunch of the players in the game or the userbase in general save for my friends. Let these people play the game and enjoy it, who cares if they paid or not, especially on a PC game about 7 years old with virtually no support from its creators?

[Pooky]

How many times have innocent end-users gotten screwed by anti-piracy measures? I'm sure any anti-piracy measures would catch a bunch of false positives, such as "stolen" keys like the ones in that key "generator" that Robert Wolfson was worried about, and the people affected who already bought the game once would be forced to hunt for another copy and buy it again.

In this case I assume we're not talking about fancy copy protection software or innocent end users. If this is just a hypothetical question of whether I'd rather keep these pirates or be rid of them, I say fuck them. As has been pointed out, Gearbox always had our backs. People whined at them about the shitty netcode, but they offered us support for custom content and continued supporting the game way after they really had to (1.08 and 1.09 patches). Now here are these pirate fucktards, leeching off Gearbox when they clearly put a ton of effort into this game. And I'm supposed to think of the pirates as victims?

Also, as much as it annoys me that a majority of pirates that play can't speak English, I'm a little sick and tired of the elitist mindset Halo players have.

At another time I might have agreed with you p0lar, but these people aren't just bad, and they're not just foreign. They're so mind crushingly stupid that they make the game worse simply by playing it. If any of these people even tried to learn or get better, I'd be interested in helping them. But all they want to do, day after day, is play Blood Gulch CTF ad infinitum, in silence, and really badly.

Once again, I'd rather Halo die gracefully than continue with only these people supporting it.

[Rainbow Dash]

I'd rather see the game die than be supported only by a bunch of brain dead thieving idiots, so fuck them. Nobody who didn't pay for the game has any business playing it online for years on end.

Fuck this, there's no other good games to play, I'd rather play with a bunch of dipshits than not play anything.

[Cortexian]

I'd rather see the pirates gone since 99% of them are horrible players that don't even speak English... I have nothing against them really, they provide some good cannon fodder since they suck so bad but I don't really need to play with people that bad, it's not fun.