Torrenting is perhaps one of the most iconic habits of the millennial generation (that hopefully will be passed on to every future generation). Since the development of BitTorrent P2P protocol in the early 2000s, it has become the most common way to transfer large files, bit by bit, across individual computers.
P2P – sharing is caring
As files grew bigger and bigger in size, the question of how to transfer them became essential not just for personal use but also for enterprise solutions. P2P revolutionised file sharing because of the way it operates. Instead of relying on a centralised server for data uploads and downloads, P2P sharing relies on a distributed network of individual users who act both as uploaders and downloaders at the same time. This system offers a number of advantages compared to the client-server architecture. First of these advantages is continuous availability: for every server that is down, there is always a backup server to continue peer-to-peer sharing. P2P converts every user (node) into a server that can operate in the sharing capacity within the distributed network – such system not only guarantees uninterrupted availability of data, but also high download speeds. Moreover, more devices joining the download means that more devices are joining in on the distribution, increasing the speed by taking the load off the central server.
It is necessary to mention the importance of P2P sharing in countries where internet speeds are slow and the connection is unreliable. Among the countries where gaming industry declares the highest revenues are India and Saudi Arabia where internet speeds are below the global average. For countries where internet speeds are extremely low and licensed copies of games are scarcely available torrenting becomes the only reliable source of entertainment.
Your Guide to Safe Torrenting
How to choose your perfect game torrent site
There are torrent platforms build especially for gaming enthusiasts and indexing exclusively gaming content. For some people, torrenting pirated content is a kind of lifestyle: even if you can afford to buy a game you would still turn to BitTorrent to catch an earlier release. When choosing platforms to access game torrents, take into account a couple of factors. Do you know what you want and just looking to download it? Are you browsing around trying to find something new that will catch your attention? How fussy are you about non-curated content, and do you have measures in place to protect your computer from a digital equivalent of Ebola that you may accidentally download with a fake torrent? Or perhaps, you want to download your games from a members-only torrent community?
TorrentGames offers one of the best layouts for searching and categorising gaming torrents. All content here is curated, so there is almost zero chance of downloading any kind of malware, and you can also filter your search by gaming platform (PC, PlayStation, etc.) to refine the results.
GazelleGames is an invite-only closed torrent community for gamers. In countries where copyright authorities are proactive in screening torrent nodes and submitting IP identification requests to ISPs, invite-only communities ensure that only members who are vouched for have access to torrent files.
TorrentBees and TorrentSnack Games are good for their visual presentation of content: you get screen caps, promotional photos and video previews of the games, so these two are perhaps the best platforms to browse intuitively in search of new discoveries. As long as you know your preferred gaming platform and genre, you are likely to find something interesting.
As a bonus, it is necessary to mention the giants of the torrenting world, such as RARBG and Pirate Bay. These are not game-only platforms, and you can find any kind of torrents here. The beautiful thing about Pirate Bay and RARBG is that even if all torrent sites in the world wither and die, these two will exist and be reborn over and over.
Afterword
In any case, mind that torrenting pirated content is illegal in most countries, although the enforcement of copyright laws in regards to torrenting remains rather inconsistent. Some countries force ISPs to block specific domains that host torrent platforms: Pirate Bay, ISOhunt and other popular ones are among them. It is very easy to circumnavigate this by accessing the page through Tor browser, or using a VPN and configuring your IP through a country where the domains are not blocked. When using your BitTorrent client, keeping your VPN on is a must: not only it will hide your browsing history from the ISP, but it will also mask your IP address so that nothing links you to the download.