Indie game developer strikes back at pirates

[PizzaSHARK]

No, but they should be prepared for consumers to duplicate it without removing the original product from the company's possession

I feel like this is just a cop-out to justify what is essentially theft. You aren't removing the original product, but you are removing potential sales.

You can say what you'd like about the business model being complete garbage - who wants to spend $60 on a game that may or may not turn out to be worth the money? - and I'd support that, but I also don't support piracy.

Both sides need to stop casting the other side as the bad guy because neither side is blameless.

---------- Post added 2013-05-01 at 12:16 AM ----------

regarding the developer in the op, pretty hilarious.

Croteam did one better with Serious Sam 3. If you're playing a pirated version of the game, shortly after you begin the game a very fast, very strong, immortal, bright pink scorpion chases you everywhere and repeatedly kills you.

[Verdugo]

Croteam did one better with Serious Sam 3. If you're playing a pirated version of the game, shortly after you begin the game a very fast, very strong, immortal, bright pink scorpion chases you everywhere and repeatedly kills you.

Should you progress to next level, camera starts to spin up constantly.

[Mandible]

Croteam did one better with Serious Sam 3. If you're playing a pirated version of the game, shortly after you begin the game a very fast, very strong, immortal, bright pink scorpion chases you everywhere and repeatedly kills you.

The game Lost Patrol had an interesting one - if you managed to get to second part of the map your team mates would blow you up.

[domwindle]

This wouldn't be the same company that came up with

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Dev_Story

If not then it almost seems like a direct copy to me and deserves to be pirated

[barackopala]

Best thing about the indie game striking back at pirates? The game copied an already existing game.

Oh and btw this ends up being a glorified demo version uploaded on a torrent, the title of all of this is was just a creation of the dev to limit the "experience" of the full game, thus making it a demo, it's a clever tactic (extremely clever may I say) but it seems no far from what other game developers used to do back in the 90's, trials and demos but now with better PR.



PS:
This topic was brought up in /r/gaming and one of the users showed the actual game torrent, it had 0 seeds.. sometimes people download stuff just by sheer curiosity.

[Lillpapps]

I feel like this is just a cop-out to justify what is essentially theft. You aren't removing the original product, but you are removing potential sales.

No you are not. You have no evidence that people who pirate games would buy the game if they could not pirate it. You cant lose something you never had in the first place. The pirate was never a customer of yours in the first place.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

This is truly beautiful and I wish more developers are willing to fight piracy without having to resort to DRM. The way the game makers handled it (and the demo) has made me want to buy this game at once.

However, I'll be waiting for it to come on Steam so I can buy the 4-pack (if there is one, if not I'll just buy 4) and share them with my friends.

[Wiyld]

This game didn't retail at $60, so your point is moot anyway, but gaming is not as mainstream as you'd think. Movies have a MUCH larger audience; they can afford the $10 costs. Do you also know how much they make at the box office?

Regardless, stealing something because it's "too expensive" is a stupid excuse.

Actually, that is untrue now. The game industry is MUCH bigger then the movie industry now.

Since the movie industry is much older we simply assume it must be bigger but it isn't. Not by a long shot. LOT more money in game these days, prolly why we are seeing so many movies and TV shows trying to connect with a game as well.

[Deleted]

You know which markets are also saturated? Cars, video game consoles, electronics of practically every category, hell even food. Every company involved in those industries should just be prepared for consumers to just steal their product?

Exactly, if you choose very poor bussines model you should expect a huge portion of players to be pirating the game. This applies for any industry in the world - bad bussiness model equals bankruptcy.

[Deleted]

This wouldn't be the same company that came up with

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Dev_Story

If not then it almost seems like a direct copy to me and deserves to be pirated

Couple of things thats not in Game Dev Story
other than that, yep pretty much the same game

[Wiyld]

You know which markets are also saturated? Cars, video game consoles, electronics of practically every category, hell even food. Every company involved in those industries should just be prepared for consumers to just steal their product?

Stop trying to justify it. You're stealing the productivity of another human being trying to make a living. Whether it be illegal in your home country or not; that is exactly what you're doing.

Food eh?

So when I go to a hotdog shop and see how they prepare the dogs, and then go home and make my own hotdogs the same way, thus 'stealing' the idea and no longer buying them from that shop, I've become a pirate?

If I go out and buy my own steaks and grill them just the same way as I learned to do it as a cook way back in high school, instead of going to that restaurant to buy one, I'm a pirate?

Its the same thing. I'm not selling it for money, I'm using it myself.

I'm going to the store and buying a couple tools to cheaply fake a creation that came from another persons mind.

[glowpipe]

Gamemakers only got themselves to blame for piracy.

Always on DRM, Shitty ports from a aged console, not able to utilize a decent gaming rig at all. Shitty rushed games with hardly any content. Watered down cod games every year, same crap in "new" packages

The only ones able to deal with piracy is the ones actualy making the games. If they start giving out quality products. People will actualy start to buy them.

The new f2p wave we got going now isnt going to work and is not the future.

I hate the way the gaming industry is going because as a paying customer. I am the one that getting shafted.

Another thing with f2p games. How are they going to deal with the increased amount of cheaters and shitlords ? a steep game price put many off after they get banned. Aint exactly hard making a new email and get a new account on a free game.

Back on topic. Its kinda fun to read all those complaining about piracy in a pirated game

[Deleted]

Always on DRM, Shitty ports from a aged console, not able to utilize a decent gaming rig at all. Shitty rushed games with hardly any content. Watered down cod games every year, same crap in "new" packages

While I get DRM as a reason, I feel that saying, "Oh I pirated this game because it's shitty and not worth the money." is moronic. If the game is shitty why would you even want to play it? If your answer is that it's not that bad, you can waste a few hours on it, then why do you need to get it right on release? The price of PC games decreases very swiftly, so you could easily just wait a few months and the game just might be worth the lowered price.

I feel that piracy is a service issue, not about money and quality. Then of course there are asshats who will pirate regardless, but those aren't potential customers to begin with.

[Beat5beat]

While I get DRM as a reason, I feel that saying, "Oh I pirated this game because it's shitty and not worth the money." is moronic. If the game is shitty why would you even want to play it? If your answer is that it's not that bad, you can waste a few hours on it, then why do you need to get it right on release? The price of PC games decreases very swiftly, so you could easily just wait a few months and the game just might be worth the lowered price.

I feel that piracy is a service issue, not about money and quality. Then of course there are asshats who will pirate regardless, but those aren't potential customers to begin with.

Maybe they pirated it because they THOUGHT it would be good, found out it was shit by pirating and demoing it and then decided not to pay because they realized it was garbage. This whole issue IS actually caused by the software industry. If they don't provide a way to try their product and don't provide a way to return the product (if it is shit) then piracy is the natural result. Since you can't return software for a refund if you don't like it, and the game dev doesn't provide a way to test their product, and most people can't afford to simply throw away $60 on the off chance a product might be what they are looking for. End result? Pirated product. I feel like most responsible adults WILL pay for a game that they find is up to quality. Of all my gamer friends, they will ALL without fail pay for a game they feel is worth the money. You can try and blame the customer all you want, but this is a developer/industry created problem, and if they want to actually fix the problem, they need to address the root of the problem, not try and fix symptoms.

[Deleted]

-snip-

So we are in agreement that it's a service issue?

[Capt Froggy]

If a game company posts their game on a torrent site, it is not pirating when you download it.

I think its kind of funny, but its not piracy.

[the1seth]

I hope their site gets flooded by people who downloaded it from torrent sites, after all THEY released it on the torrent sites, so they have to support it.

You idiot... They are only obligated to support the version of the game that is paid for. If someone "stole" it off pirate bay then the developer has no obligation to support the "free" version. If you stole a car and it broke down while you were getting away would you take it back to the dealership for repair?

[Zogarth]

I find no good excuse to pirate this game at all, and i find it sad that people do it... First of all, it got no DRM. It got no stupid DLC. Its only 8 dollars. It's from a small indie team releasing their first game. All the normal excuses does not really count here. I saw Totalbiscuit stream and found the game interesting from what i saw so i bought it. And i have played it for 7-8 hours now and i find it awesome. I find it so sad that more than 90% of the games downloaded have been the pirated copy, but kudos to them for fighting piracy with piracy. Don't get me wrong, i don't really hate piracy. I do it sometimes myself with expensive games that i am not quite sure if is worth it just to try out the game. And piracy is not theft, it is the same as stealing someones car, but the car is still there in the morning. But with an 8 dollar indie game i see no good excuse to pirate it. And the game is even good (If you enjoy that kind of game).

[Beat5beat]

So we are in agreement that it's a service issue?

Yes, we are in general agreement on that point. Of course there are additional reasons. But I agree with you that service is the primary reason. Sorry if it mostly seemed as though I disagreed with your thoughts, I only disagreed with a slight adjustment to the beginning of your post.

[Deleted]

No business works by guilting or legislating customers into behaving in such a way that the business can profit. Business is meeting supply with demand using a profitable business model. It's on them to find a way to make money respecting that once released, information can freely be copied and shared (whether it's legal or not). There are models that can do this.

Businesses keep selling games like the internet doesn't exist, like they're physical products (which before the internet existed, they basically were). Then they cry foul when the wondrous benefits of the internet bite that model in the arse- they expect the internet to be restricted, curtailed, and to accomodate their obsolete business model. Sorry guys, but the information revolution means people in the information business need to adapt, not that innovation needs to be halted.

I'm not saying artists and creators shouldn't be compensated for their work- I'm saying securing profit is their responsibility, and doing so in light of the internet isn't impossible at all, it just requires new approaches (obviously, I mean who honestly thought we could sell records and video games in the same way we used to in the 80's once something like the internet came along?).

With the right model 'Piracy' needn't even be a liability, but merely the asset of virality. Indeed, that the industry is even leaving it up to pirates to distribute their game, and not including some way for pirated copies to bring in revenue, is absolutely mind boggling. I can't believe studios see their game getting downloaded onto millions of people's computers and think "Someone has to stop them" rather than "Fuck yeah, ok how do we monetise this?". Are they that afraid to try something new that they'd rather alienate their entire user base with DRM and prohibitively obstructive distribution models? Imagine if the Sims, Spore, or Simcity responded to widespread piracy with an optional online store from which goodies could be purchased and downloaded? What if by subscribing to for $5 a month to EA you get a premium copy of every free-to-play game they release (with subscriber bonus content), early access to betas, and access to a special subscriber's community? <- that right there is the patronage model, and is hardly a new shocking innovative model. 19th century explorers crowdfunded their expeditions, subscriptions are as old as print, Universities have used the patronage model for centuries, how different are microtransactions for convenience from paying for (essentially free) bottled water for convenience?

No, the reason the industry resists the internet is because they had access to an obsolete kind of super profits- by selling an intangible service as a product, they were basically selling plastic discs at a huge mark up from a single static initial investment that did not increase as these discs continued to sell in perpetuity. Information publishers and distributers were essentially a technologically necessary supply cartel- and like all cartels they extracted superprofits at the expense of consumers. Now the internet is here, and these cartels are no longer viable. The industry is fine, better than ever, actually (more people watch movies, listen to music, and play video games than ever- more money changes hands in this industry than ever- just decreasingly so with old-big-media). The industry is shifting to be one which is cheaper and friendlier to smaller independent producers, and consumers- but not as wildly profitable. It is now easier than ever to make a modest profit making music, games, or movies, but harder to 'make it big' by being 'the chosen one' of a massive content cartel. Times are just changing, and it's exciting, not worrying.