Indie game developer strikes back at pirates

[Nerraw]

D3 has been DRM cracked via emulated server from one month after release. I don't know how it is now, but that's what happened beforehand.

Emulating a server and actually having it in a playable state are two different beasts entirely.

[Verdugo]

D3 has been DRM cracked via emulated server from one month after release. I don't know how it is now, but that's what happened beforehand.

They only created skeleton, GLHF playing a game where nothing happens.

[Kathandira]

For those who feel File Sharing is the same as stealing.

Come to my house and ask to watch TV. Ohhhhh sorry, you can't watch my TV, I paid for that service, you will need to pay for your own service if you wish to view the programming.

I'll grab you a beer from the fridge while you sign up for a subscription...Oh crap, I can't, that would be blocking a potential sale. There are so many people who work hard to get that beer to me. The brewing company, the shipping company, the bottlers, the store who sold me the package. I can't take food out of their children's mouths.

Not any different.

[Odina]

For those who feel File Sharing is the same as stealing.

Come to my house and ask to watch TV. Ohhhhh sorry, you can't watch my TV, I paid for that service, you will need to pay for your own service if you wish to view the programming.

I'll grab you a beer from the fridge while you sign up for a subscription...Oh crap, I can't, that would be blocking a potential sale. There are so many people who work hard to get that beer to me. The brewing company, the shipping company, the bottlers, the store who sold me the package. I can't take food out of their children's mouths.

Not any different.

Actually its akin to you paying for cable and then being able to give it to everyone you know whitout them ever needing to invest in it.

It's like you bought a case of beers then gave 23 bottle to friends that they didn't pay for but those bottles never ran out of beer so they never have to buy beer from that company again.

You are making valid links just not taking into account all the variables... bad comparison is bad!

[Lillpapps]

Actually its akin to you paying for cable and then being able to give it to everyone you know whitout them ever needing to invest in it.

It's like you bought a case of beers then gave 23 bottle to friends that they didn't pay for but those bottles never ran out of beer so they never have to buy beer from that company again.

You are making valid links just not taking into account all the variables... bad comparison is bad!

Except his friends would never buy that brand of beer but since they got it gifted to them they actually found out that it tasted really good. So the next time that brand releases a new beer then they buy it because they dont want to wait for their friend to give them one.

[subanark]

DRM in older games was something else...
1. The game would check things like access speed on a floppy disk to determine if it was copied.
2. Various copy protection measure were in place that were checked at different points. If one of the later ones failed, then the game would work up until a point where it would either be unplayable, or the difficulty would ramp up to impossible. This was done so that crackers wouldn't easily know if they bypassed all the security measures.

Today with a varied number of OSs, distribution media, and with the advent of CD and network emulators, it is harder to detect if an unauthorized copy is made.

[Prag]

For those who feel File Sharing is the same as stealing.

Come to my house and ask to watch TV. Ohhhhh sorry, you can't watch my TV, I paid for that service, you will need to pay for your own service if you wish to view the programming.

I'll grab you a beer from the fridge while you sign up for a subscription...Oh crap, I can't, that would be blocking a potential sale. There are so many people who work hard to get that beer to me. The brewing company, the shipping company, the bottlers, the store who sold me the package. I can't take food out of their children's mouths.

Not any different.

Except you paid for the cable service, not per viewer. You also purchased that beer. While there are regulations as to how you distribute it (eg re-broadcasting or alcohol to minors, respectively), they are yours and paid for.

You didn't purchase the pirated files. You also didn't buy the Internet, you're merely renting it and they have regulations that you are breaking by downloading pirated content.

Beyond that, the fact that people, in the same argument, both admonish a company for using the Internet to market and then use it as a shelter for piracy is stupid. Refusing to accept software as a product with value isn't an argument, it's a quote for ignorance. It's 2013 and a billion micro-transactions occur every minute across the globe. The definition for tangible goods changed in 2002. Grow up.

[Rennadrel]

Which, from a developer's/publisher's perspective, is a losing game. As much as you may like them demos almost always hurt sales, making it more profitable to not create one

Says who? Do you have any idea how many great games came out that had demo's years and years ago? God I remember getting PC Gamer magazines with a plethora of demo's on a single CD, and many of the games on them were great. Usually those demo discs released with a magazine months before the game was about to hit the market, whereas most demo's these days are released a couple of weeks before the game actually hits store shelves and digital retailers, so there is very little opportunity for gamer's to sit down and play a demo for a steady period of time to gauge whether they will buy a game or not.

[Kuntantee]

I am neutral on pirating and I think it's kinda boosting game industry. Most of people who pirate the game won't buy it anyway.

[Prag]

I am neutral on pirating and I think it's kinda boosting game industry. Most of people who pirate the game won't buy it anyway.

How exactly is that boosting the industry? Reliable reviews come from people who buy the game too. Friend says "I downloaded this game from PirateBay and it's awesome", their friend isn't going to ask where to buy it, they're going to ask where to download it.

[Powerogue]

Absolutely beautiful. I like the idea that the developers wanting to discourage pirating let the game be somewhat functional, but cripple it in some subtle way so that it can't be beaten. It still gives the people who want to see the game before buying it a glance at the gameplay, without handing out the game for free. It's easily the best compromise here.

[RickJamesLich]

It's like uploading a DEMO... gosh people get so moved by the idea of it being uploaded...

Easy advertising for a game that isn't on steam and wasn't even known before this whole "Drama", the game is a flagrant copy of an iOS-Android game.

What are you talking about? lol, the idea of being uploaded? I'm talking about the piracy being in the game. Did the guy get a lot of advertisement out of it? Yeah, that's not really a bad thing tho.

[Deleted]

semi related, wasn't there some jap erotic game that if pirated came with a trojon that published you were using porn games or something rofl.

[jakeic]

They only created skeleton, GLHF playing a game where nothing happens.

same could be said about non-pirated D3.

[barackopala]

What are you talking about? lol, the idea of being uploaded? I'm talking about the piracy being in the game. Did the guy get a lot of advertisement out of it? Yeah, that's not really a bad thing tho.

The whole news, the whole topic revolves around the idea of a developer releasing this "version of the game" which ended up with a lot of counterpoints found in reddit, for example the seeds for the torrent a few hours later was 0, nobody gave a single fuck about the game, the data backed by the dev is not entirely true... The game is a ripoff of an iOS game that is fairly known, but his isn't, in fact, it isn't even in steam but this "issue" made him a fuckton of free publicity.

[Verdugo]

same could be said about non-pirated D3.

Oh how witty of you. Like you could do anything in D2.

[mag07]

Good games sell well, they get pirated, then they sell more. Bad games often sell as well, they get pirated, then don't sell anymore simply because the quality is not worth a penny. When you buy a Ferrari, you know the level of quality you will receive, when you buy an X publisher game, it's a gamble. Studios should focus more on releasing polished games, less on counting potential lost sales they would never have made in the first place.

There were industry people mocking Valve for taking a plunge into the Russian market, voices saying they will never make money there as piracy is strong. Well guess what, Steam in Eastern Europe is growing rapidly. It's a vibrant market that's on the roll. What a lot of Western companies don't seem to take into account, is the fact that people often pirate games/films not available for sale in their country.

I remember when Apple first started sellingipods/iphones in Eastern Europe. All great, yeah? No, you could download iTunes, but you had no access to Itunes music. No matter how much money you tried throwing at the screen, you'd get a big ZONK, you're iTunes store currently doesn't support selling tunes in your country. So you wondered off to get the phone hacked so you can use the features you have already paid few hundred dollars for.

Similarly to XBOX launch in that very same region. Got yourself a brand new console? Well guess what, you can't access Xbox live from your country. Want to play that multiplayer game with your buddy? Tough luck. Thank you for your money. You can't.

It's a two way street. If you want to be respected, you should return the courtesy. When all you do is try to rip people off launching half finished products and/or services, you get what you deserve.

Piracy thrived feeding on the greed of industry tycoons. They are the ones that caused it and it is only a problem for subpar games.

The war against piracy hus turned into a money grabbing fest trying to prevent people from even owning what they pay for, preventing second hand sales. I'd like to see X company CEO being told he can't sell his 300k $ car, cos he doesn't own it really, he just paid for a license to drive it lol.

I'm glad Europe is a bit more rational with the outlook on what piracy really is, with several governments seriously considering laws that allow people to return games within a certain period of time, should they not live up to it's marketing foo. In couple of countries it's already possible, and I am really hoping that tendency will spread to more.

Pirating is stealing, no doubt about it, so is marketing something in a way that doesn't reflect the real quality of the final product/level of service.

[lavafoxx]

Most of people who pirate the game won't buy it anyway.

I feel that the people who claim this are either confused or flat out lying.

[Kuntantee]

How exactly is that boosting the industry? Reliable reviews come from people who buy the game too. Friend says "I downloaded this game from PirateBay and it's awesome", their friend isn't going to ask where to buy it, they're going to ask where to download it.

That friend does not value enough to buy it anyway. If he/she don't find a cracked version. he/she won't play it.

[Deleted]

That friend does not value enough to buy it anyway. If he/she don't find a cracked version. he/she won't play it.

I get that a lot of people posting here are college kids, but if a game isn't worth your money, how can it possibly be worth your time?