Indie game developer strikes back at pirates

[Clockworks]

If i find interest in a game thats lets say bellow 40 - 50 usd i buy it even if i have not tested it.
If it cost more i get it in non intended ways to test out and if i like it i buy it, and if its shitty i uninstall it.
If it is a expensive game that i know is decent i buy it anyway.

[Speedlance]

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

I believe the solution lies with lower prices, better products (not the kind of milking we got with most devs nowdays) and more focus on easy and userfriendly games. Having games that is as troublesome as far cry 3 was is not going to work in the long run.

[Joey Ray III]

not impressed. i pirate games all the time and i buy all i play for more then 3 hours (=until i feel them out). one exception being orcs must die1 which i played for about 200h until i bought it. i also bought all the dlc's straight after and pre-ordered omd2 (and then i bought all dlcs for that one too).

if they think that if piracy goes away everyone will all of the sudden start buying their stupid shit, they're sadly mistaken. just quit it and accept piracy. it ain't going away anytime soon anywho.

[RickJamesLich]

This is brilliant!

[Aquilesmagno]

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

Not illegal in my country

Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTybKL1pM4

[Shakari]

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.

And I have lost count of the number of genuine purchased DVD's that will not run correctly on one of thr 3 dvd players in my house...

DVD's suffer from the same stupid issues as DRM with games the only people it really hurts are those who buy the actual products.

[Thelxi]

I will gladly start giving them 60 dollars per game again when they stop milking me for my last dollar with online bullshit, cash shops and downloadable content.

[Shakari]

I believe the solution lies with lower prices, better products (not the kind of milking we got with most devs nowdays) and more focus on easy and userfriendly games. Having games that is as troublesome as far cry 3 was is not going to work in the long run.

Exactly, look an minecraft and the developers "notch" laid back view on piracy if you could not afford the game, certainly didn't harm the game infact I know 4 people who obtained a pirated version played it for 2 days then went and bought it as it was such a good game. It can work for the game not against it but only if the product is actually good and worth it in the consumers eyes.

[Maximus Testiculos]

I will gladly start giving them 60 dollars per game again when they stop milking me for my last dollar with online bullshit, cash shops and downloadable content.

Most games do not do that. That is just your excuse.

[kakihara]

Yeah and then i buy something and it ends like sim city :l
most indie games are shit anyway. yay another totally innovative platformer or mobile game rip off.
some games i buy some games i pirate... i cant buy them all anyway. and there are many games which i pirate, but if that wouldnt be an option wouldnt buy them either.
oh and btw... its much more comfortable to pirate a game with jdownloader then search for the cheapest website hope they dont want a credit card (which i dont have), watch out for shady things like limited download options etc.
steam is the one platform that makes it at least nearly equally easy to get games.

[Thelxi]

Most games do not do that. That is just your excuse.

Welcome to 2013

[Deleted]

So you're okay with pouring all your time and money into making something and then people just take it for free?

You should be if you choose to create software for market that is already heavily saturated, not controlled at all and at the same time you chose worst possible bussines model for games.

[Pull My Finger]

I believe the solution lies with lower prices, better products (not the kind of milking we got with most devs nowdays) and more focus on easy and userfriendly games. Having games that is as troublesome as far cry 3 was is not going to work in the long run.

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.

[Belize]

I like that, the irony is well noted ^.^

[PizzaSHARK]

I love the irony of someone who obviously pirated the game trying to research DRM in the game

I really hope that's not an authentic help post. No one can be that stupid.

[Flaks]

I wouldn't pirate a game/show unless it was ridiculously overpriced or a blatant money grab or the company's clearly swimming success.

I pirated Oblivion way back in the day. I went ahead and bought it a few years later as a game of the year edition. I also bought Skyrim for both PS3 and PC. If the company is good at what they do they'll net returns for double what they lost.

I think the only game I ever regretted purchasing was Diablo III. Every other game has ended up being worth the price.

[Phookah]

That is the best thing ever. Makes me want to buy the game just to support their awesomeness.
Wait for it, the people who will try to justify piracy should come outta the woodwork anytime now...

---------- Post added 2013-04-30 at 10:35 PM ----------

Yeah and then i buy something and it ends like sim city :l

You mean that awesome game that had server issues for like 4-5 days, then worked perfectly fine (and still does?)
oh and E.A gave you a free $50-60 game to make up for it...
Damn, I wish more games would turn out like sim city. Free stuff!

[Aerai]

You should be if you choose to create software for market that is already heavily saturated, not controlled at all and at the same time you chose worst possible bussines model for games.

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.

[IRunSoFarAway]

That's pretty funny, I would actually buy the game just because of that if I had any interest in it.

[Deleted]

Funny idea and good marketing.

But at the end of the day, people who share files would never have bought your product in the first place without accessing it. In fact, there are far more likely to buy the product both for themselves after having tried it out, or in places and contexts where they require a license (like work, school, other platforms, etc). In addition, if the product is any good it would get a recommendation from file sharers to all who know them, which is not just other sharers obviously.

Thus, there is no net "lost sales" from "pirating". If anything, the exact opposite is true. This has been proven time and time again over history. Did you know Bill Gates complained of the exact same thing in a public letter when MS-DOS was first released and a mere handful of hobbyists got hold of a physical copy (yes, in the days when floppy disks really were floppy). Look at what Microsoft, Apple, IBM (these guys practically invented databases and everyone mimiced their code), inventors of UNIX, etc. grew into...

There is only one situation, outside of commercial theft, where unlicensed distribution of art results in damage to a content owner. That is where users of the unlicensed art, in this software, continue to have access to resources of the content owner, e.g. servers of an online game or direct support. That situation can be severely damaging for startups and indie artists, of course, as the cost of resource usage spirals way beyond that paid for by licenses.