Piracy is effectively legal in Canada, for downloading. ISPs can’t share your private details without a warrant from the courts, and the courts have rejected mass John Doe lawsuits to unmask users.
Plus, infringement for private use has a maximum penalty of $5000, but could easily be set by the first case creating court precedent at 3× the retail price of the pirated media (punitive damages are usually capped at 3× the value of the good, in Canada.)
That means that going to court would be incredibly expensive, could only target single individuals, and would likely set a precedent that they can only get $60 in damages for a $20 movie. Not going to happen.
So, piracy is effectively legal in Canada, for private use. Just don’t be stupid and profit from piracy.
I think it’s more that, in absence of a gaming social circle, games discovery in the indie scene is hard. So, the easiest way for a lot of us is to find a gaming content creator who played games we like and play whatever they’re playing.
There’s a YouTube streamer I’ve been following for over a decade and every single game he plays is a 5/5 for me. At least ½ of my gaming is just games from his channel. It’s super easy; I don’t even watch him on Twitch much, but I can scan his recent broadcasts for gaming suggestions, and watch him play for like 30 minutes to figure out if it’s for me.
I guess, but lots of players do Solo Self Found, ignoring trade entirely. It’s like doing race mode.
Depending on the build you’re going for, it can be more fun. Sucks if you need specific build-enabling uniques that you can’t farm for with div cards, but it works well for lots of builds.
You can still trade between your different characters on the same account, too, so it can be fun to create a character for the items you’ve found.
DS flashcarts are great and cheap, and the DSi can be soft modded to work directly from an SD card. If you can afford it, get a DSi XL for the best DS experience.