Do you ever do anything to get around it? Do you make an exception if you're only boycotting one company but like the other? Do you research the money trail to see how much, if anything, gets to the company? Do you buy a physical 2nd hand copy? Do you buy a suspiciously cheap key from a super shady reseller (how do those even work?)? Or do you just pirate it?

What... No I just wait for a sale.

This is about "THE OUTER WORLDS" isn't it?

Here I guess without EPIC

I don't do anything to get around it that I can think of.

There are too many great games from great developers out there to let those that are scummy get any of my attention at all. I comment on hit here when it's brought up, but during the rest of the day, it's literally nothing to me.

i dont consider it boycotting even though, there are companies i generally never buy from.
tripple A publishers eg EA, Ubisoft have generally made it easy in that they; A: no longer make stuff that i like, or B: have so many microtransactions or online features that diminish my enjoyement of the game.

if i still want the game, usually atleast a year after launch, i get the game for the lowest cost i can legally. only didt it once for shadow of war, still think it was a waste of money.

Most times I do not boycott as most times the "outrage" is something minor or something taken out of context with someone involved with the company, and also because most boycotts are done by not enough people or for too short a period to send a good enough message to bad companies.

When I do do such(which is rare) I buy used for any products that are related to the problem which have physical editions, or very cheap(cheaper than I normally do since I am on a tight budget) to not give them much money when buying digital.

(I actually "boycott" cr*p remakes like the Gabriel Knight 1 remake for being cr*p more than I boycott other games for other reasons, I believe)

Heck, sometimes if a game is rare and hard to find I might bite the proverbial bullet and buy it anyways.

========
As for pirating: I do it a lot less now that GOG and others sell DRM free/hjard to find games for cheap. I still do it for games no one sells(besides price gougers on eBay/etc) anymore, though, and for the odd "must play" game. I usually end up buying many of the few games I pirate later on on stores during sales, though.

Let's put it this way, they can walk the plank and drown and I couldn't care less who handed money over to them.

I might boycott some publishers for aggressive multi-layered DRM, etc, but since I've also lost all interest in modern Ubisoft / Square Enix franchise over-milked over-sequelled, online multi-player lootbox / MT saturated pay2degrind / pay2win, dumbed-down, consolized remake-itus inflicted, etc, 'games' anyway, they're ironically doing me a favor in "self-filtering" out such junk. To me, Larian, CDPR, etc, have quietly become the new single-player AAA studio's whilst it's the more DRM-Free friendly Indie's that seem to bring all the creativity / fresh feel to games. "We want you to pay $200 per game" 'traditional AAA' studio's don't even appear on my radar anymore.

As for buying older physical 2nd hand copies instead of new remakes, I've done that before and was very definitely glad to grab the DRM-Free Age of Empires Collectors Edition (DVD-ROM) off Ebay, add uPatch and enjoy the games that play better than ever rather than pay up for newly Denuvo'd "HD" or "Definitive" versions that seem more and more buggier & sluggish the more they officially over-extend them. Many other games (eg, Thief 1-2) are in the same position where the best "remasters" of all are the continued improvements to the originals done for free by the modding community rather than mediocre 'official sequels' that sell so poorly the entire franchise (thankfully) ends up getting shelved anyway.

I would say that the Thief reboot(correct term?) was decent and many are just wearing nostalgia glasses like with other things(I DO like the originals slightly better in some ways, though....like the easy modding).

As for dumbed down games: If it's a genre or series I like and it's somewhat decent I say bring em on. I love more of the same if it's something I like in general(same with food like pizza/etc).

I rarely boycott a game company outright but will instead just reduce my spending down to a level that I think is justified. Usually that's at least 50% off of normal sales price but in some cases it might be more like 80%. I will wait since I have a huge backlog to play right now.

If the game never comes down to what I'm willing to pay then I simply will not buy the game.

You too? I have around 200+ games in my library unplayed or unfinished and around 200+ more on wishlist...and that's just HERE. On steam I have about half that or less on both library and wishlist, I have stuff on gamersgate, and a small collection of new and old console titles to finish.

Funnily enough I used to pirate a ton of stuff due to rampant hoarding impulses, but since GOG came around I do that a lot less.

So true, same here. Don't forget Warhorse (Kingdom Come Deliverance) and, arguably, 1C. These new "AAA"s are the ones making the "AAA" style games I actually want to play, meaning ones I can effectively own and don't rely on moneymaking scams that don't respect me as a consumer.