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What games suffer most of piratism?
Nikosu Oyama
Finland
Turku
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In my case the question of piratism is a hypothetical one. I haven't ever played a "pirate" game in my life. And I consider that it would be stupid to make a cheap version of a game that you can still buy from the hobby shop. If I was a very serious fan of a game that I couldn't get from anywhere, I'd maybe make a copy of my own out of wood.

So my question is this:

Have you ever played or seen that a boardgame listed in BGG was played with a home made "pirate" version of the game? What game was it? If you haven't seen a "pirate" version of any game in your life, what game do you think is or would be an easy target of piratism? Why?

War of the Copyright is raging in my thread: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/160431
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Posted Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:21 am
1. Board Game: Magic: The Gathering [Average Rating:7.29 Overall Rank:116]
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Nikosu Oyama
Finland
Turku
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Once I played this gaming with a friend using few home made cards. The idea was to try cards that are out of print. This could be considered as illegal by some people. I didn't think that there was anything illegal in doing so.
Vincent Brengman
United States
San Jose
CA
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Scrye released a way-oversized version of the Black Lotus in their magazine about ten years ago. We used to put it in our decks sometimes as a joke.
Tom Rosen
United States
Arlington
Virginia
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I did the same thing with my way-oversized Chaos Orb, hehe. Never had the urge to tear it up so I could destroy even more stuff though.
Kristian
United States
Seattle
Washington
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Making out of print proxies out of basic lands is a pretty common thing to do.
W M
United Kingdom
London
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I've got about 15 oversized (8inch) cards including basic land, black lotus, chaos orb, shivan dragon and a couple of others. If only I can find someone else with the same sized deck we could have a proper game.
Nikosu Oyama
Finland
Turku
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Well proper game requires 40 card deck. It would be funny still. :D
2. Board Game: YINSH [Average Rating:7.73 Overall Rank:39]
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Nikosu Oyama
Finland
Turku
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I read from the BGG that some people had played home-made version of this. Although hard to make the pirate version as good looking as this. I assume one can easily make a playable pirate version out of this.
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Edited Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:17 am
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フィル
Australia
Newtown
NSW
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You could scavenge an old Othello set, I suppose.
3. Board Game: Struggle of Empires [Average Rating:7.69 Overall Rank:51]
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Nikosu Oyama
Finland
Turku
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This is an amazingly good looking "pirate" version of the game. Considering I paid only 40 e from this, I assume that if counting materials and the time (lets say 5e / hour) to make this awesome copy of the game has costed atleast four times as much. Probably even more. I think that people should have the right to make upgraded versions of their games if they choose so.
フィル
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I think the folks who make deluxe versions usually own a couple of copies of the printed version anyway, so it's probably moot. But yah, if you pay a few hundred bucks to make a slick copy of something, you're obviously not doing so to be a cheapskate.
Marshall Miller
United States
Medford
Massachusetts
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I very much agree. As long as its a game you play and are not attempting to make money on, I think it should be ok to make your own deluxe/travel copy. However, I do think its worth buying a copy so that the designers/publishers can feel your love and support.
:arrrh:
Steve Bachman
United States
Colonie
New York
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Quote:
I think that people should have the right to make upgraded versions of their games if they choose so.

I'm pretty sure, in the US at least, people are entitled (I wouldn't classify it necessarily as a "right") to do just that, provided they own a copy of the game as well.
4. Board Game: Tichu [Average Rating:7.72 Overall Rank:37]
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Nikosu Oyama
Finland
Turku
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I have actually considered to play this with an ordinary deck of cards. Well the game is so inexpensive (10e) and good looking that if I like the game, I'll buy the original cards. I think that one should have the right to first try and then buy if they like it. With this game it's quite easily done.
フィル
Australia
Newtown
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Like Lost Cities, I think this one is worth buying to get the 'themed' cards. You could play it easily enough with other decks, but it'd be less enjoyable.
5. Board Game: No Thanks! [Average Rating:7.01 Overall Rank:217]
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Mikael Ölmestig
Sweden
Halmstad
Halland
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I am playing this regulary with a 6 Nimmt deck and glasstones. I will own it eventually, but I have no rush.
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Pee di Moor
Netherlands
Rotterdam
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hehe, I also took the 6 Nimmt cards, but additionally took the coins from Citadels ...
Pax Vobiscum!
United States
Grand Priarie, Texas (between Arlington and Dallas)
Texas
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...and don't forget the cards from Rack-O.

Gg
Rayito CarterClaytonCarson Gauguin
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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Guilty. Though my deck is Category 5.
Andrew C.
Australia
Sydney
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Magic cards (lands) that I wrote on with a black marker + poker chips. I had already ordered the game, but wanted to play it before it arrived! My set has the bonus that all the cards 3-9 are Forests, 10-19 are Plains, 20-29 are Swamps, 30-34 are Islands and 35 alone is a Mountain!
Michal Vit
Czech Republic
Zabcice
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Never played till now, but I'm also planning on taking some cards with numbers and just playing it.
6. Board Game: Carcassonne [Average Rating:7.48 Overall Rank:65]
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Thomas Fuhs
United States
Goldsboro
North Carolina
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Pick tiles, scan, print & mount on pasteboard / sticky magnet. Should be simple in theory, I guess. Not that I EVER would do this as a scaled down travel sized version. Nope, would NEVER do that:what:
Paul Blake
United States
Corbin
Kentucky
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What, seriously? If I was going to make a travel Carcassonne, I'd just render the tiles on playing cards, then draw the map on a piece of graph paper. Sure, it would be a hassle to keep track of how many used meeples you have, but it's still well within the grasp of the average gamer.
7. Board Game: Code 777 [Average Rating:7.08 Overall Rank:671]
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Jon Theys
United States
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma
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I admit I have a homebrew version of this game, with numbers printed out and pasted onto big chunky mah-jongg tiles.
I would like mustard with that. No! Wait. make that ketchup. Wait! WHY MUST I CHOOSE?!? Can't the Feds provide free ketchup to everyone?!?!?!
United States
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma
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and I hear your version goes up to 9
W M
United Kingdom
London
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11
8. Board Game: Liar's Dice [Average Rating:7.03 Overall Rank:215]
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Olivier
Canada
Montreal
Quebec
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I showed this game to someone and he made his own version.
1 comment [Hide]
Edited Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:52 pm
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Paul Blake
United States
Corbin
Kentucky
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Perudo is an ancient, public domain game. Liar's Dice makes some minor changes to the basic formula, but it's still essentially the same game.
9. Board Game: Yahtzee [Average Rating:5.09 Overall Rank:5852]
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Olivier
Canada
Montreal
Quebec
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Probably the most ¨pirated¨ game I know
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3 comments [Hide]
Edited Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:43 pm
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Stephen Brakman
United States
Grafton
Massachusetts
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Maybe not. There is a public domain game called Yacht that Yahtzee is based on. Besides for terminolgy and pretty scoring sheets there is not much difference.
Marshall Miller
United States
Medford
Massachusetts
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While I own a copy of this game, I can never seem to bring myself to deface the score pads. They just look so.... complete. So I routinely print up homemade copies so that I don't have to use the provided score pads.
Bryan McClendon
United States
Girard
Kansas
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easiest game to pirate.

Too bad I can't stand to play it.. figures. ninja
10. Board Game: Battleship [Average Rating:4.43 Overall Rank:5923]
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J Weintraub
United States
Commack
New York
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Does this count? It's especially easy if you use grid-lined paper.

I won't bother to add Tic-Tac-Toe to the list.
Steve Bachman
United States
Colonie
New York
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Tic-tac-toe is Public Domain - how could it get pirated?
Robert Rossney
United States
San Francisco
California
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For that matter, Battleship is public domain; playing it on paper long pre-dates MB's version.
11. Board Game: Magic Realm [Average Rating:6.99 Overall Rank:403]
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Scott Lewis
United States
Castle Rock
Colorado
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I've started making this. The investment has been largely time as I'm not using the highest-quality materials, but it's definitely made me appreciate the game :)

Hopefully I'll be able to snag a REAL copy of this sometime, though!
Jorge Arroyo
Spain

Madrid
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I made a copy of Magic Realm a couple of years ago, but recently managed to buy an old 1st ed. copy. I'm still using the counters I made tough. They're the redesigned ones that have all the needed information on them, and I cannot play without them :)
12. Board Game: Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization [Average Rating:8.30 Overall Rank:5]
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Paul Blake
United States
Corbin
Kentucky
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Scarcity does funny things to people.

I've played this game, and would probably drop $50 retail on it. Much more than that, though, and my desire (and ability) to purchase the game goes down rather quickly.

Nandeck is a pretty powerful program for someone who knows how to script things efficiently, and blank cards on perforated sheets are available. I've still got some left over from back when BGDF.com was selling them, but I'll probably need to pick up new ones from PlainCards.com.

At any rate, it wouldn't be too difficult to put together a Nandeck script that produced cards which looked at least as good as the original with this game. The card layouts were pretty simplistic, and could be standardized pretty easily. There's only 201 different cards in the game, anyway. Add some glass stones or colored cubes, a board (which also could be done in Nandeck), and a few pawns, and you've got the extremely tempting prospect of making your own homemade version of a $200 game out of bits you probably already have.

I'm actually strongly considering doing this as a stop-gap replacement until the reprint occurs.
13. Board Game: Diamant [Average Rating:6.79 Overall Rank:344]
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Rayito CarterClaytonCarson Gauguin
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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Made my own copy of this using some Rage cards and tokens from another game. Played it a couple of times. Even free it wasn't worth it.
John Farrell
Australia
Aspley
Queensland
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I made a pirate copy of this before the rules were even available in English, and decided I wanted to buy it. Then when I saw it for sale the price was horrendous. I now have my own 2nd edition copy.
14. Board Game: Hive [Average Rating:7.38 Overall Rank:85]
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Rayito CarterClaytonCarson Gauguin
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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Made my own copy of this by cutting out hexagons on normal paper, just to see how the game played. Great game and I will be picking up a copy in my next order.
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Edited Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:59 pm
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Panayiotis Zinoviadis
Greece
Thessaloniki
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I have made my own using Large Hexagonal steel nuts.

Believe me, it's heavy as hell :). But it feels really good.

I should post SOME pics SOMEday though...
Michal Vit
Czech Republic
Zabcice
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I also own a home made version of this. The reason was to check whether my wife will enjoy playing it. The judgment wasn't passed yet, since we had only one session of few games till now.
15. Board Game: Barbarian, Kingdom & Empire [Average Rating:7.01 Overall Rank:1962]
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Japan
Tokyo
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I made my own copy of BKE because it's rather difficult to get. (I pre-ordered the reprint that is planned by DG, but that wasn't planned when I 'pirated' the game.) The picture you see is my version of the game board. Besides the board, there only are some 600 counters, which makes this game pretty easy to 'pirate' if you can find a copy of the rules (the only thing not available on BGG).
16. Board Game: Ca$h 'n Gun$ [Average Rating:6.82 Overall Rank:325]
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Peter Johns
United States
Houston
Texas
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I made my own copy of this with plastic guns from the dollar store and perforated business cards. I did it because it wasn't available in the country at the time.

I think I've played it twice and then it fell by the wayside. Just wasn't popular enough with our crowd for me to warrant importing one.
17. Board Game: Antike [Average Rating:7.27 Overall Rank:151]
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Seth Jaffee
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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I made a copy of this when I couldn't get a hold of one even overseas... I think I played it twice, and never since. It's a shame, because I really liked it when I first played it.

It's also a shame that while making a copy, I came across the exact same clip art used in the actual game.
1
18. Board Game: Zendo [Average Rating:7.30 Overall Rank:218]
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John Farrell
Australia
Aspley
Queensland
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I made a version of this using coloured paddlepop sticks. Not sure what the American term for that is... Anyway, at $A2 for the bag it has worked out somewhat cheaper than importing Icehouse pieces, and the kids love that the sticks can be used as a game.
Gregor McNish
Australia
Melbourne
VIC
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translation - popsicle sticks
W M
United Kingdom
London
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lollipop sticks?
19. Board Game: Borderlands [Average Rating:6.92 Overall Rank:1186]
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Gregor McNish
Australia
Melbourne
VIC
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I made a copy of this to give it a go. Good game. Kind of like Settlers with conflict. Still only played it the once, and it took several hours to put together.
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Rayito CarterClaytonCarson Gauguin
United States
Tucson
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I have a copy of Havoc: The Hundred Years War that I've played David and Goliath with. Would that be considered a "pirate" copy?
Jorge Arroyo
Spain

Madrid
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I think it's different to copy a game using the original artwork than to make your own copy without using any of the copyrighted material...

For example, if someone teaches you how to play Lost Cities and you play with a generic deck of cards, I don't think you're doing anything illegal, and you can't say it's a "pirated" copy...

Add in some generic game systems such as the piecepack and icehouse sets, and you can play many commercial games, just not with the nice artwork...

Check: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/15415 for some examples...

Edit: oops... I hadn't noticed you had also started the copyright thread... then this comment is a bit redundant...
Edited Thu Apr 12, 2007 2:35 am
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