@stabby_cicada I would not call culture any single manufactured product made by a private company primarily for profit. Culture, to me, is the sum of activities of a group of people in a certain area during a certain period. Making you think you're missing on culture because you can't obtain a game, an album or a movie is, to me, a strange capitalistic distortion of the notion of culture. I do not see "pirating" anything as bad though.

[–] stabby_cicada 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I have to disagree with your definition of culture.

I think, in general, art is vital to a people's culture. More specifically, subcultures form around the creation and enjoyment of specific art forms - from graffiti to theater to, yes, video games. And those subcultures, in aggregate, form and inform a people's culture as a whole - because when people ask themselves what art is most important within a genre, what art most matters to their culture, what even counts as art and what doesn't - that determination is generally informed by the subculture that surrounds that genre of art.

When you're part of a subculture focused on a particular art form, and you aren't able to experience a work of art that people in that subculture consider important to experience, yes, you are missing out. Theater and movie fans have lists of shows every true fan needs to watch at least once. Fans of a particular musician would deeply regret missing their concerts when that musician is touring in their area. If gamers aren't playing the same games their fellow fans are, they'll be left out of discussions and won't understand the memes. And so on.

If you don't have the money or resources to do something that many other people in your subculture consider important, you are missing out, and it does suck. And this is true whether the thing being missed out on was created for profit or not. Because it doesn't matter why the thing was created. It matters how you and the other people in your culture feel about it.

[–] Damage 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Culture, to me, is the sum of activities of a group of people in a certain area during a certain period.

Aren't games made by a group of people in a certain period? Historical artists produced commission work to live, is their art worthless because it's made for profit?

[–] crricrri@mstdn.jp 1 points 3 months ago

@Damage In the sense I see it, you cannot have access to culture or not. Whatever you use to do or avoid doing, and the values you transmit or avoid transmitting, this is the culture of the human groups you belong to. Some people do not have access to some kinds of goods or ways of self-education and information, but they are not barred from culture. Some groups produce video games, some others consume video games, that is indeed part of their culture. That is the way I meant it.