Anti-Piracy Screens Are Unnerving. But, why?

My Twitter: www.twitter.com/Gearisko My Instagram: www.instagram.com/Gearisko My 2nd Channel: youtube.com/channel/UCtUyST-e34_Ej8qZvXw-m5Q Videos Used: Anti-Piracy Screen Games (the first video in the compilation): https://youtu.be/18Fqk8p9D1w Donkey Kong Country 3 - Error Game Screen: https://youtu.be/E0bHrfPa7uo Super Mario All-Stars (SNES): Anti-piracy screen regional differences (Loading Mario 2 /w 1180508F): https://youtu.be/E0bHrfPa7uo Baldi’s Basics Kickstarter Anti Piracy/Error Screen: https://youtu.be/-v7R-acoT2k Nickelodeon Anti-Piracy Warning Screen (ULTRA RARE!): https://youtu.be/hTaLXXFKCA0 Nintendo GameCube Anti-Piracy Error: https://youtu.be/zqyOTHNSujo Sonic The Hedgehog (1991) “Secret Anti-Piracy Screen”: https://youtu.be/7EcFdxRmgkc Super Mario Kart Anti-Piracy Screen: https://youtu.be/OWnPVxg9yKg Songs Used: Earthbound - One Fateful Night: https://youtu.be/NY9rNnUNBZA Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 8 PM: https://youtu.be/Xsglvg3hK8g Yume 2kki - Forest: https://youtu.be/--MIaaGceP8 Yume 2kki - Flesh Paths World: Passage: https://youtu.be/kSzdNnnno00 Yume 2kki - Overgrown City (City Section): https://youtu.be/T7ftAJjAs-o

I gotta be honest. The fake anti piracy screens overdo it. The real anti piracy attempts are scary enough.

The fake SpongeBob one demanding you send money to the federal government for watching cable TV is so fucking hilarious

I honestly find the real ones scarier and more unnerving than the fake ones. they try to hard to be scary and come up with something ridiculously over the top concept. the actual scary ones are the ones that are more simple.

I think another reason it feels so scary is that As a kid the idea of being accused of something you didn’t do is part of what makes it so terrifying too… Almost everyone has had some experience with a parent or teacher punishing you for something you didn’t do but being helpless to defend yourself. Imagine that but it’s your favorite video game doing it.

those creepypasta anti piracy ones just dont hit as hard as the realistic ones. instead of trying to scare you they just make you feel like a terrible person. it gives "im not mad im just disappointed" and its a lot more scary somehow

What makes the (real) anti-piracy screens so scary is the situation you’re in when seeing them, not only would it often happen to you when you were a kid after just getting a used copy but also you‘d realize it suddenly detects that you were doing something wrong and confronts you about it, despite the fact it’s a product you own that you thought you had full control over. It makes you feel like you’re being watched.

i think it’s a feeling of thinking you’ve outsmarted the technology, but the game knows exactly what you’re doing. very creepy, almost like you’re being watched through the screen

Reminds me of this infamous fake anti-piracy screen for Nintendogs: The puppy dies. The next screen shows its grave and a message saying, “Nintendogs cannot live in a pirated copy of the game”.

Some fan made ones are trying way to hard

What used to freak out me as a kid is when you'd put in a disc in the wii and instead of a happy jingle from whatever game you put in, you'd be greeted with a weird noise followed by silence and the screen saying "disc cannot be read". It gives me the same vibes as the FBI screen before movies or the other stuff ppl are talking about here.

I got an anti piracy screen on not a game but on WebToon, it had a 🚫 mark saying “it is a serious crime to pirate comics, the police have tracked you down and you are going to jail” something like that. It scared me so much I deleted WebToon. All I did was buy the next episode for 3 coins of “Ingrid The Plague Doctor” Edit: no clue why you guys are still replying to this, it’s over with and I’m perfectly fine.

There's something about short repetitive noises and music just suddenly stopping that literally terrifies me

It’s the fact that something so innocent and fun suddenly takes a serious tone with threats of real-world consequences

Someone will one day make a "piracy screen" that makes the entire game a creepypasta

i saw one that wasn't an anti piracy screen, but instead a health warning for ring fit which told the player they're having a heart attack (of course it was fake but still FUCKING HORRIFYING) and i think shit like that is WAY scarier than a spooky face telling you to report yourself to nintendo or whatever

"Those who have stared at the image long enough has claimed to see spongebob blink" Bootleg Spongebob: proceeds to do just that

Ehh, the ones that lean more into creepypasta territory are just kind of lame imo. The whole point about the "creepy anti piracy screen" is that nothing genuinely scary is happening, it's just got an air of unfriendliness in an otherwise very happy and upbeat game. With these creepypasta ones it gets into the actually scary territory and the stories that accompany them are usually extremely generic too ("we found it in a dumpster and someone committed suicide!").

This gives me the same vibes as when I accidentally switch to the static channels on my tv when I was 8

I agree with the comments on horror ones that go WAAY too into the creepypasta elements. One I really enjoy is Ring Fit Adventure where they say your having a heart attack!