Indie game developer strikes back at pirates

[Prag]

Snap, you're right! What was I thinking? So blinded was I by my ignorance and naivety that I couldn't even foresee this thorough and damning dismantling of my case.

There was nothing for him to dismantle. You agreed that they should be compensated but you don't think you should be the one to pay. You then demand a company be responsible for funding the project and securing the profits, as if that's possible on the Internet.

You put out a list of demands that you know cannot be met and are as archaic as the physical products you reference. Come back with fewer words to try and excuse stealing a product, which you still think requires a physical component in 2013, and perhaps people won't greet your wall of text with short responses.

Edit: Oh, and that thing about monetizing pirated material made me laugh. "Hey guys who reverse engineered our software to re-distribute freely, spend some money on us now that you have the game you refused to pay for!" Lol, what?

[Deleted]

I like how this "strike back" was pretty much 100% replica of another indie game with far more options and 5 euros cheaper on iOS devices. I only hope it was self ironic attempt in manner of "pirating games is alright but ideas not!"

Typical example of how to create buzz marketing with zero effort and then huge income based on it while offering little substance for relatively high cost.

The original game dev story was created in 1997 and then ported to iOS in 2010, id say its ok as its for a different platform then the more recent version and over 15 years later then the original one ( Which is in japanese and do not exist in english ) along with having differences between the two brands, but i guess we simply have a different idea of what making a 100% replica is but i wont argue over the definition of a word as everyone is free to have their own opinion.

[Deleted]

Meh, if game devs released more demos then i wouldnt have to pirate every game that comes on the bay.

As this gen has shown, most games are sold under a huge cover of lies and marketing hype that almost always turns out to be BS and nothing like what its advertised as.

Im not going to drop £60 every time some games marketing sounds like it has something im into, only for it to turn out to be watered down or just a blatant lie.

£60 is too much just to test if the marketing hype is a lie so 90 mins torrenting is more sensible in these hard times, especially when you cannot return games to the shop here if only issue is false advertising.

IF they are going to rip me off with marketing lies, im going to rip them off 1st due to their dishonesty..

[Konker]

Actually the truth is that even if all games were absolutely great and cheap, people would still steal them on the internet because they can. There's no way to sugarcoat or excuse that. It really is just stealing and getting stuff for free. People are trying to pass the blame on the companies and developers, in a half-assed attempt to morally justify theft, but at the end of the day, let's be honest, that's pretty much BS.

There is no excuse or justifications for software piracy, but there are explainations for it's existence beyond "getting stuff for free". Loss/damage/defect of game disks, copy-protection media (remember those games that had decoders for random questions on startup?), file corruption, unofficial bug fixes, theft, ect...

I guess depending on how you legally define "piracy", nobody should with no reason other than to get something for nothing. The issue where companies and developers are the cause is with overzealous DRM, trojans and false statements. The situation has improved greatly over recent years, but probably 6-8 years ago I stopped consuming protected media altogether. Years of legitamately purchasing volumes of music I cannot listen to, movies I have never been able to watch, and software that won't run - all a direct result of excessive DRM. And believe me it was extremely tempting to "pirate" what I had already purchased, but ultimately decided it did not want to be caught in the crossfire between publishers and pirates at all anymore.

I like the idea by this publisher though. It will annoy those who play for free without intent to ever buy, entice those who try before buy, and not affect those who buy legitmately. That is how DRM should be. Heck, it's a great idea. Software publishers should spam "free-trial" versions (posing as full versions) of their games all over the torrent sites and probably end up all the better for it.

[Kelimbror]

unless you put in some fuckhuge DRM like the always online bullshit from Diablo, your game is going to get pirated

DRM doesn't prevent pirating.

Meh, if game devs released more demos then i wouldn't have to pirate every game that comes on the bay

Whatever excuse helps you sleep at night. All of the excuses used have debunked. The only remotely close to acceptable reason for thievery is to prevent your imminent death via starving or lack of medicine. Even then there are things that can be done, they just require more work than being lazy.

Ultimately stealing a game because you are so entitled you think they need to let you play it before you buy it is laughable. I understand the game industry has a lot of unacceptable practices and seem like they take advantage of customers, but there are plenty of sources to find accurate information before you spend the money on a sham. It's no excuse.

[Deleted]

Thats pretty funny actually, can't see it really working to stop piracy but it's a pretty funny way to raise awareness.

[Xothic]

DRM doesn't prevent pirating.

Not definitively, but it does to an extent. Even if its only a matter of time till some hacker cracks the DRM, thats just more time that the person has without the game, and they may eventually just cave and buy it.

Ultimately stealing a game because you are so entitled you think they need to let you play it before you buy it is laughable. I understand the game industry has a lot of unacceptable practices and seem like they take advantage of customers, but there are plenty of sources to find accurate information before you spend the money on a sham. It's no excuse.

I don't subscribe to the whole 'I just torrent it to use it as a demo', if I am torrenting a game its because I don't want to pay for the fucking thing. I'm a uni student, I need my entertainment on a budget, and in the grand scheme of things its basically completelyfuckingimpossible to get caught, so why would I pay for something I could get for free with no repercussion?

[Deleted]

Well out of the 100+ ive torrented this year i only played 3 or 4 more than 20 mins as they mostly turned out to be market hyped scams.

I bought every game i kept and for all the rest, if there was a demo then the hype fraud would be obvious and i wouldnt have wasted the cash on the rubbish.

I buy the games i keep as online is just as important as offline for me but im sure as hell not going to get ripped off of £60 a time to demo some hype fraud scam that if advertised honestly that i wouldnt have touched at all.

Why should i behave when the game companies are ripping people off all the time with hype fraud? It goes both ways.

[Kelimbror]

I bought every game i kept.

Sure. And Mother Teresa was just a jobless hippy. Whether you did or didn't really doesn't matter, though your credibility in the situation is as low as it could be. Rationalizations for incorrect behavior don't change the incorrect behavior.

[Verdugo]

DRM doesn't prevent pirating.

For Diablo 3 it does. So far everyone working on it just said "fuck this shit, not worth it".

[Nerraw]

For Diablo 3 it does. So far everyone working on it just said "fuck this shit, not worth it".

There's a difference between Ubisoft-DRM and Diablo 3-DRM. Ubisoft's just requires you to be online. The games themselves still run on your computer. Diablo 3 doesn't.

[Remilia]

Not definitively, but it does to an extent. Even if its only a matter of time till some hacker cracks the DRM, thats just more time that the person has without the game, and they may eventually just cave and buy it.

Mentality of a lot of crackers is not to "crack it to use it", but to "crack it cause we want to see if we can". Obviously not all, but a lot are like that.

There's a difference between Ubisoft-DRM and Diablo 3-DRM. Ubisoft's just requires you to be online. The games themselves still run on your computer. Diablo 3 doesn't.

For Diablo 3 it does. So far everyone working on it just said "fuck this shit, not worth it".

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.

[Deleted]

Sure. And Mother Teresa was just a jobless hippy. Whether you did or didn't really doesn't matter, though your credibility in the situation is as low as it could be. Rationalizations for incorrect behavior don't change the incorrect behavior.

Yet its ok for the devs to lie and commit fraud with all the hype lies they sprout? Its ok for the devs to rip us off but not the other way?

[Verain]

Okay, that's cool. It's still illegal.

So is adultery in some places. So is cannabis in some places. So is alcohol in some places. So is speaking out against communism in some places. Lotta bad laws.

Unlike "stealing", which has always been illegal in any civilization, copying of data is a very different, and much more modern, dilemma. So saying piracy is theft is an attempt to equate it to something that it isn't- something that NEEDS to be illegal, without debate. Copying of information is a very different topic, with very different moral issues, entirely unrelated to theft.

[Nirawen]

Sure. And Mother Teresa was just a jobless hippy. Whether you did or didn't really doesn't matter, though your credibility in the situation is as low as it could be. Rationalizations for incorrect behavior don't change the incorrect behavior.

I don't torrent many games, due largely to online modes and trusting my friends recommendations, but the ones I do torrent I basically do use as demos. If I dont like it I wont play more than a few minutes and if I do I'll buy it, which often means waiting til it's in a sale but I'm fine with that. I'm under no illusion that my actions aren't wrong or 'criminal' though, but I can honestly say I haven't torrented a game and kept it. Again not a rationalization but just an example that some people do use it with semi-decent intentions. TV shows on the other hand I'm as a guilty as can be.

If demos were as common as they used to be I doubt I would ever torrent a game again, the amount of games I bought as a result of demo CD's in PS1 and PC magazines easily made up the majority of my purchases.

[Kelimbror]

Yet its ok for the devs to lie and commit fraud with all the hype lies they sprout? Its ok for the devs to rip us off but not the other way?

Let me just quote myself

I understand the game industry has a lot of unacceptable practices and seem like they take advantage of customers, but there are plenty of sources to find accurate information before you spend the money on a sham. It's no excuse.

---------- Post added 2013-05-03 at 01:27 PM ----------

*snip*

The problem is that you are a rare individual that makes up a very small percentage of the people doing this for a couple of reasons.

1) You admit that even though your intentions are good, your actions are wrong. I already respect your opinion more than someone else trying to find excuses and blame someone else.

2) You actually buy what you like and wouldn't pirate if demos were readily available.

Most people are not like you at all.

[Deleted]

Let me just quote myself

Would you buy a car on review only without test driving it?

[Kelimbror]

Would you buy a car on review only without test driving it?

Would you steal a car to test drive it?

[Orange Joe]

Would you buy a car on review only without test driving it?

Depends on who wrote the review, and how many people reviewed it.

---------- Post added 2013-05-03 at 01:39 PM ----------

Would you steal a car to test drive it?

Maybe.

[Deleted]

Would you steal a car to test drive it?

No id just go for a test drive at the shop like you can do with most expensive stuff you buy these days.