While I think this is a very clever idea, it's also somewhat dishonest. In the game world, pirates cause studios to go bankrupt. In the real world, the causal link is not as clear.
People arguing that piracy is ruining gamedev routinely ignore the fact that those who pirate don't necessarily have the means to buy many games; their choice is purely between pirating and not playing. Of those 90% or more who pirate the game, it's probably less than 10% who can be persuaded to actually buy it.
Anyway, I'm curious to see how this attempt unfolds.
That's a common approach to using gameplay for rhetorical purposes; the fact that you can code causal processes as you want is one of the main ways you can get videogames to push a point.
As a more overt example, in the game Bacteria Salad [1], created after one of the E.coli scares, profits trade off directly against food safety: bigger farms are more profitable but also spread contamination more quickly. This may or may not be an accurate explanation of the causal mechanism (at the very least it's an oversimplification), but it's the causal mechanism the game's author has chosen to implement in an attempt to make a point. The author of that particular game also wrote a book about the use of games to make points like that [2], which this piracy mode seems like a good example of.
> People arguing that piracy is ruining gamedev routinely ignore the fact that those who pirate don't necessarily have the means to buy many games
And people who defend pirates routinely ignore that pirated products are also pirated by people who will take what they want for free if they can, because they can. Don't pretend to a higher level of intellectual honesty or moral strength. Your position can lay claim to neither.
This is actually true. I used to pirate games during my school and college days, since I couldn't afford to shell out 3000 INR on a single game. I still did buy a few original games (whenever my parents allowed me to), but 95% of the games I played was pirated. But, after getting a job and becoming financially independent, I switched to purchasing copies on Steam. Now, I have around 50 titles in my library.
It should also be noted that there's pretty much zero evidence that piracy actually hurts the sale of a game. Any research done by third-parties on the subject has shown that piracy generally helps the sales of the products being pirated due to:
A) Raising awareness of the product and giving the product exposure to a larger group of fans raising awareness of the product and studio responsible for the production.
B) Converting a minority of pirate-based customers with limited financial resources into paying customers for current and future projects.
C) Establishing in the player community's mind that the media being pirated is a worthwhile competitor to other forms of entertainment.
So fighting against piracy is a losing battle. DRM punishes paying customers and sure, some games might suffer as a result of piracy. It's just that if more people are pirating your game than buying it, then nine times out of ten, your product probably wasn't worth purchasing to being with, which is a cold reality that the data supports that indie studios really don't want to hear. No one wants to be told their baby sucks, especially when they see what they perceive to be a "large number" of people playing it.
"Of those 90% or more who pirate the game, it's probably less than 10% who can be persuaded to actually buy it."
True, and also one had even heard of this thing yet, which is a big reason why the major distro was all pirate. Some of these folks who pirate grab any and everything new to try. There's also a large population who refuse to purchase anything that's not on Steam. I'd like to see the numbers on this with current users in a few months once the Steam version comes out.
This is a good marketing ploy though, and a unique solution considering the content of the game. I'm guessing they will sell a lot of copies due to this publicity. I've never heard of it before this, but it looks like an improved version of Game Dev Story, which I really enjoyed on mobile.
Instead of making high quality games in the game, the pirates should make crap knockoffs of already popular games and then spend most of their effort on publicity stunts; that seems to be a better strategy.
I think this is a disingenuous argument that comes up all the time.
I was once a teen who was a heavy pirate and although I said it was because I couldn't afford games (I didn't have a job in highschool) I had a $400 modded Xbox, I had a 1800 gaming computer I had a few real games. I managed to afford these things by getting money and gifts from family and working odds jobs here and there.
Really the only reason I was pirating was because I needed games right away, I was entitled to have them on release day. I simply couldn't wait to get money to buy it. Unfortunately now that I'm a bit older I realize that a lot people have this mind set. Its not that they can't afford it, its that they need it right away.
This is certainly interesting but I agree that most pirates won't purchase anyway. When I was younger I pirated EVERYTHING. I downloaded music, pc/console games (modded every console I ever could), movies, software. There was no way I could afford to buy all these things at the time and neither could my parents.
Now I have a nice paying job. I buy all my games. I pay for software. A few days ago an artist I like released an album on iTunes and other sites for free. I paid the $9 for it.
I'm not saying that pirating because you don't have the means to purchase something is right, but I am saying it happens.
"People arguing that piracy is ruining gamedev routinely ignore the fact that those who pirate don't necessarily have the means to buy many games; their choice is purely between pirating and not playing."
Yeah. It's like these guys totally don't get that there are "individuals who either can’t make a legal purchase because of payment-issues or who genuinely cannot afford the game."
Yeah, and its more or less the same thing as Hollywood claiming piracy or copying destroys their industry. I think in general game developers miss the point about piracy:
- its free advertising. Just like radio is for music.
- maybe pirates will not buy your game this time but they may buy the next.
- simply your game is not attractive enough and most people dont want to spend any money on it. It's not because your game is cheap that it's worth buying.
If you complain so much about piracy, go in free to play mode and make your fans buy extensions or addons. This is known to work well if your game is designed around it.
I agree with you that piracy doesn't have to end in bankruptcy, however I don't have any evidence of it besides this survey [1]. Nevertheless, I think that the developer wanted to make a point and hi did it in a very powerful way.
[1] http://goo.gl/vagAt
A survey comissioned by Google for the American Assembly -research center at Columbia University- has been published recenetly where it basically concludes that users who download content from peer to peer sites buy 30% more than the ones who don’t.
My favorite are the people who pirate the game at release and then buy it when it's in the bargain bin for $5, as if that undoes the initial act of piracy: "See? I bought it!"
It's dishonest in that the paid-for version has a different model of piracy. Is that one accurate, or is the model in the for-free version correct?
The reality is that piracy does have some effect on game sales, but for the non-game designer it's not clear how much this effect is. Having a realistic unbiased simulation of the effects of piracy would likely do the most to convince those who can afford games to reconsider their choices.
One of the bigger tragedies of piracy, in my opinion, is that people get hung up on the pirates and work to reduce piracy, not increase their customer-base. I feel like, especially in this case, the number of people who might buy the game but have never heard of it is higher than the number of people who pirated the game but would have bought it if they couldn't pirate it.
Confession.... I own a modded Xbox and only use it to play pirated games, Why? I simply do not play it enough to justify cost, when buying it my consideration was simply hacked Xbox vs no Xbox. I last turned it on about 3 months ago for about 30 minutes. Games are way too expensive, I would gladly pay some money but not the crazy prices of most games vs my usage.
> "... it's probably less than 10% who can be persuaded to actually buy it."
Elsewhere in this thread I've seen other figures bandied about, ranging anywhere from 1-30%. Where are they coming from? Was there ever any actual market research performed, or are we collectively inventing figures that sound reasonable to us?
Care to cite where your stats on piracy affecting game developers came from? Or did you just hear it somewhere on the internet somewhere and it sounded good?
The irony is great. But I fear it is possible that wasn't such a good idea. Given the graphs, there were 4k people interested in the game. Over 90% of them now have the impression that the game is unplayable long-term because of the message-box. Maybe many of them get the hint, but those who don't might generate bad pr and prevent others from buying it.
But well, maybe that article combined with answers to the complaining players will spread the word wide enough. At least that now makes the game known.
This article is going to be covered by all major gaming press by the end of the day, it will have hundreds of thousands of page views and probably result in thousands of sales just from "that's so funny I'm going to buy it just to support you!" so while in isolation you might be right that it would reduce sales the marketing value of this post is going to be many orders of magnitude more than the negative experience reports.
My thoughts exactly. The pie chart towards the end should scare off anyone willing to try this: if 93.6% of users who played the game on the first day after release got a shitty experience, it means that at least 93.6% of feedback is going to be negative (or more, because people are more likely to provide feedback when they are unhappy than when they are satisfied).
Still think it's a great idea, and I love the irony (especially since it's a game dev simulator), but if I were them I would have put a timed delay on the pirate punishment.
Yeah the idea is pretty funny, is great to see people complaining about piracy heh.
But I do wonder if they were a little too subtle with the in game message. Agree some of those people just appeared to assume the game was broken, and probably struggled to make the link (while as obvious as it might appear).
I agree. Many of these first day players will be tweeting, blogging, facebooking, or whatever other cool social thing do to is. A majority of the people who played on the first day had a bad experience. That won't look good for the game.
This is just pure gold. When I was younger, I always pirated stuff because I didn't have the money nor the means. But today, my Steam collection is worth over a 1000 dollars and I buy more games I could play.
It hurts me when people my age (27) don't consider buying stuff they like. I mean, you are paying the creators of the stuff you like so that they can create more of it.
No one wants to work for free, why should we expect others to do it? Just because there is zero cost to digitally copy something doesn't mean that it was made with zero cost.
As your steam collection cannot be resold doesn't it now have zero monetary value?
I stopped buying games when I realized I don't actually play the games I buy. Some are still in their cellophane wrapper.. I recently signed up to Playstation+. Surprised I didn't do it sooner. £40 a year. Access to 10+ games a month to download and keep while subscription is active. Not going to buy another game for a long while.
> When I was younger, I always pirated stuff because I didn't have the money nor the means. But today...
That's a familiar story, and a win all-round. It is said to be a main reason why Microsoft was very relaxed about pirated copies of Windows - young people who run a pirated copy of windows grow up to be workers who know windows and the business buys a seat (as they say).
Cute. You may make sales due to the novelty of the idea getting blogged about, but you'll lose sales and PR due to the majority of your player base having played/used a faulty product.
I'm all for punishing pirates , but the unfortunate aspect of this is that you're punishing pirates & all of the possible legitimate customers that the pirate exposes to the game.
These people are potential customers , independent siblings, children who can beg their parents to buy the game, whatever, that are witnessing and at worst case experiencing a broken product, and having whatever faith they had in whatever company reduced.
I do like what it does to make you think twice about data legitimacy on the ether though. It's nice to be reminded that most of us don't know where that data is coming from.
Slightly unrelated to the original point of the article: has anyone heard of Kairosoft and Game Dev Story [0]? It's ironic the OP wrote an article about irony. Having said that, it looks like they have elements not seen in GDS, but the premise is similar enough.
I suppose I'm in the minority here, but I read most of the article, and was like, hm, I should buy this and support these guys.
Then I read:
We know this because our game contains some code to send anonymous-usage data
to our server. Nothing unusual or harmful. Heaps of games/apps do this and we
use it to better understand how the game is played. It’s absolutely anonymous
and you are covered by our privacy policy.
Mm. Actually, I don't really care if it's covered by your privacy policy, if your game has a cute little 'phone home' sending who-knows-what from my computer off to yours, you can go jump~
The problem as I see it, is that the dev himself uploaded the "gimped version" to the torrent site.
Most indie games (unless they're a hit) never make it to TPB or some other place because the game is only available through legitimate sources, and most indie-loving gamers care too much about the developers to casually crack a game and upload it onto some shady torrent site.
It's easy to blame inefficiency to piracy. Minecraft was pirated heavily, did Mojang go bankrupt?
Gaming has evolved, Games are no longer a product to be packed up and shipped off. Constant updates, content packs, etc (free or otherwise) keep a customer engaged. If someone really likes the game, the lore and whatnot they will pay to get the original game. Heck, I personally know a ton of my classmates buying CoD4 since they couldn't access various multiplayer modded servers.
Piracy in general(be it games, movies, or music) is a problem that the content makers need to solve. New and effective services, sources will conquer it - Online streaming music has to an extent, Bollywood has taken warmly to YouTube and uploads ad-supported official HD movies (barely months after they launch). As Gabe Newell said, Piracy is a service problem. It has always been and it always will be.
I don't even play games much these days, but I am about to buy a copy of this because the comedy alone was worth eight dollars (and because it runs on Linux!). Maybe it's just funnier to me because I know a few guys who work at an indie game studio.
Edit: Not just lauding them on HN, "about to buy" has become "have just bought".
update2, someone replied with a screenshot but non-working link to the comment. attempting to verify. so far could not verify links directly. will attempt to update if I am still within this comment's edit window, otherwise see responses below for the current status.
----
EDIT:
it also makes it seem likely to me that the screenshots of users posting on forums were fabricated. they seem a little too good (too ironic, too much like south park) to be true.
Those posts simply don't exist. (As of 11:39 CET on 4/29/2013.)
still, south park worthy, I laughed very hard.
OP, write satire: not hoax. good luck.
--
Original comment:
just out of curiosity, I wonder why "A minute after we uploaded it, my torrent client looked like this:" shows a screenshot with 3 torrents that were "Added a day ago" and "Added 18 hours ago".
it sure looks like this is a slight exaggeration :)
Is there any irony this game appears like a complete "remake" of Game Dev Story which I have bought and played a ton of? I do agree piracy is bad but I hope if they don't do well they don't just blame pirates. It's incredibly complicated and I don't want to knock their work but I hope they had some evidence there was demand for such a game, beyond the first one that already established some good market share.
Yesterday I bought some mp3s legally off amazon. They were 128 kbit/s. I deleted them out of rage/spite and ordered the CD, which is out of print and so all the money went to a second hand record dealer. If only I'd had recourse to piracy in that instance!
Since the devs uploaded the game on bittorrent themselves, isn't it now implicitly legal to share that copy? Obviously not the unaltered copy, but if you upload something to which you own the copyright to bittorrent, you must be either implicitly giving people the right to share it with others, or you're entrapping them into committing a copyright violation. Can the devs then be sued for knowingly tricking people into committing a copyright violation?
I try a cracked version, if there is no free demo available. This particular game does have a demo, though.
If you do not want to go down the DRM route, this approach of publishing your own cracked version is probably best. A at least you have a little control, since you can make subtly change [0] the experience for crack users (very punny ;).
I agree with the author that convenience is a big factor. If it easier to download a cracked version compared to paying the developer, there is a problem. Since we are on HN, how about a service which helps game devs to put their games on as many stores (Steam,Desura,Ubuntu,Play,Apple,etc) as possible? It is probably a lot of work for single person devs. A little fee upfront and a percentage of the income, so it is a pretty quick buck for the game dev.
Wow, this is brilliant. One of the biggest complaints that pirates have is DRM. If a game is DRM free then why not purchase it? Especially if you really like it and it's only $8!
It seems like they are missing a great chance to get some money from these pirates. DLC. The pirated version of the game offers a DLC to add DRM to your games. It doesn't stop piracy, and can occasionally cause boycots of your game, but it keeps the game playable.
Paid players get a game they enjoy, pirates who might buy, might buy a DLC so they can keep playing.
This is pretty amusing but it sounds like the piracy model in the game is pretty unrealistic. A high level of piracy is typical, and while it can hurt games it doesn't destroy them.
So, you just released a game after what was likely a big investment in heart, time, and money and you haven't pulled any money back out yet? Did you expect something different after such a short period of time?
Also, you created a game that has pulled in $1600 in revenue so far and you're thinking that $24k worth of revenue is just not coming in because you can measure the freeloaders. Those freeloaders aren't your customers and likely never will be.
Focus on why 214 people bought the game and make them so happy that they will support you and the extended marketing of the game.
Had you not spent the hours developing, testing, etc. these features and trying to trick worthless freeloaders into exposing themselves for the sake of rhetorical blog posts, you could have improved your bottom line. You COULD have added features important to paying customers.
Also, the sad freeloaders posts stink of fabrication. They may well not be, but my cynicism puts together a picture of a hacker-news-abuse viral marketing scheme. Every link in the chain has an unsoiled feel to it. The game is about a game dev company, not FPS gore. The freeloaders write in full sentences and precisely nail talking points as if they came from a game industry association. The dev has taken great care to handle freeloaders gently in the post. exposing everything. Even if this were a marketing scam, the backlash would be ho-hum because everything is just so meek.
AND... of course there's an actionable pitch and link thrown right in there. You were supposed to hold back and wait for the crowd to demand links.
This game always had a very limited audience. RPG of a gaming software development company? Plan the scale and scope of your project accordingly.
Page unavailabel for now. But here's a quote from a forum:
"""The cracked version is nearly identical to the real thing except for one detail… Slowly their in-game funds dwindle, and new games they create have a high chance to be pirated until their virtual game development company goes bankrupt."""
I haven't played the pamphlet, but it sounds like it's implemented by substracting money from player's in-game funds. This means whenever someone pirates a game in this pamphlet, player loses money. In other words, theft as opposed to a loss of a sale. How cute!
I remember a case where someone wrote a script to automatically download a pirated piece of software or a music album. It was linked to a website with a counter. The website owner wanted the developer/musician to bankrupt. The idea was that by downloading the thing enough times, he could make the copyright owner go bankrupt.
[+] [-] algorias|13 years ago|reply
People arguing that piracy is ruining gamedev routinely ignore the fact that those who pirate don't necessarily have the means to buy many games; their choice is purely between pirating and not playing. Of those 90% or more who pirate the game, it's probably less than 10% who can be persuaded to actually buy it.
Anyway, I'm curious to see how this attempt unfolds.
[+] [-] mjn|13 years ago|reply
As a more overt example, in the game Bacteria Salad [1], created after one of the E.coli scares, profits trade off directly against food safety: bigger farms are more profitable but also spread contamination more quickly. This may or may not be an accurate explanation of the causal mechanism (at the very least it's an oversimplification), but it's the causal mechanism the game's author has chosen to implement in an attempt to make a point. The author of that particular game also wrote a book about the use of games to make points like that [2], which this piracy mode seems like a good example of.
[1] http://www.persuasivegames.com/games/game.aspx?game=arcadewi...
[2] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262514885/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...
[+] [-] eropple|13 years ago|reply
And people who defend pirates routinely ignore that pirated products are also pirated by people who will take what they want for free if they can, because they can. Don't pretend to a higher level of intellectual honesty or moral strength. Your position can lay claim to neither.
[+] [-] Indyan|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sanjiallblue|13 years ago|reply
A) Raising awareness of the product and giving the product exposure to a larger group of fans raising awareness of the product and studio responsible for the production.
B) Converting a minority of pirate-based customers with limited financial resources into paying customers for current and future projects.
C) Establishing in the player community's mind that the media being pirated is a worthwhile competitor to other forms of entertainment.
D) Finally, the most important factor: The majority of pirates pirate material because they are the highest-paying and most discerning group of purchasers of media (Source: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Another-Study-Pirates-Are...).
So fighting against piracy is a losing battle. DRM punishes paying customers and sure, some games might suffer as a result of piracy. It's just that if more people are pirating your game than buying it, then nine times out of ten, your product probably wasn't worth purchasing to being with, which is a cold reality that the data supports that indie studios really don't want to hear. No one wants to be told their baby sucks, especially when they see what they perceive to be a "large number" of people playing it.
[+] [-] homosaur|13 years ago|reply
True, and also one had even heard of this thing yet, which is a big reason why the major distro was all pirate. Some of these folks who pirate grab any and everything new to try. There's also a large population who refuse to purchase anything that's not on Steam. I'd like to see the numbers on this with current users in a few months once the Steam version comes out.
This is a good marketing ploy though, and a unique solution considering the content of the game. I'm guessing they will sell a lot of copies due to this publicity. I've never heard of it before this, but it looks like an improved version of Game Dev Story, which I really enjoyed on mobile.
[+] [-] krichman|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Millennium|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] edude03|13 years ago|reply
I was once a teen who was a heavy pirate and although I said it was because I couldn't afford games (I didn't have a job in highschool) I had a $400 modded Xbox, I had a 1800 gaming computer I had a few real games. I managed to afford these things by getting money and gifts from family and working odds jobs here and there.
Really the only reason I was pirating was because I needed games right away, I was entitled to have them on release day. I simply couldn't wait to get money to buy it. Unfortunately now that I'm a bit older I realize that a lot people have this mind set. Its not that they can't afford it, its that they need it right away.
[+] [-] johnward|13 years ago|reply
Now I have a nice paying job. I buy all my games. I pay for software. A few days ago an artist I like released an album on iTunes and other sites for free. I paid the $9 for it.
I'm not saying that pirating because you don't have the means to purchase something is right, but I am saying it happens.
[+] [-] Garoof|13 years ago|reply
Yeah. It's like these guys totally don't get that there are "individuals who either can’t make a legal purchase because of payment-issues or who genuinely cannot afford the game."
People don't ignore that fact.
[+] [-] ekianjo|13 years ago|reply
If you complain so much about piracy, go in free to play mode and make your fans buy extensions or addons. This is known to work well if your game is designed around it.
[+] [-] soci|13 years ago|reply
[1] http://goo.gl/vagAt A survey comissioned by Google for the American Assembly -research center at Columbia University- has been published recenetly where it basically concludes that users who download content from peer to peer sites buy 30% more than the ones who don’t.
[+] [-] rrouse|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tbj3Y|13 years ago|reply
The reality is that piracy does have some effect on game sales, but for the non-game designer it's not clear how much this effect is. Having a realistic unbiased simulation of the effects of piracy would likely do the most to convince those who can afford games to reconsider their choices.
[+] [-] qu4z-2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] awesomeasfxxk|13 years ago|reply
Confession.... I own a modded Xbox and only use it to play pirated games, Why? I simply do not play it enough to justify cost, when buying it my consideration was simply hacked Xbox vs no Xbox. I last turned it on about 3 months ago for about 30 minutes. Games are way too expensive, I would gladly pay some money but not the crazy prices of most games vs my usage.
[+] [-] doktrin|13 years ago|reply
Elsewhere in this thread I've seen other figures bandied about, ranging anywhere from 1-30%. Where are they coming from? Was there ever any actual market research performed, or are we collectively inventing figures that sound reasonable to us?
[+] [-] chasing|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Poyeyo|13 years ago|reply
But less and less true everyday.
Today, we have Steam, the Indie Bundles, etc.
[+] [-] yaarrr1|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] onli|13 years ago|reply
But well, maybe that article combined with answers to the complaining players will spread the word wide enough. At least that now makes the game known.
[+] [-] citricsquid|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] micheljansen|13 years ago|reply
Still think it's a great idea, and I love the irony (especially since it's a game dev simulator), but if I were them I would have put a timed delay on the pirate punishment.
[+] [-] supercoder|13 years ago|reply
But I do wonder if they were a little too subtle with the in game message. Agree some of those people just appeared to assume the game was broken, and probably struggled to make the link (while as obvious as it might appear).
[+] [-] johnward|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shpiel|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] workbench|13 years ago|reply
No wonder PC gaming is dead
[+] [-] EvilLook|13 years ago|reply
http://torrentfreak.com/garrys-mod-creator-trolls-pirates-wi...
[+] [-] tpetrina|13 years ago|reply
It hurts me when people my age (27) don't consider buying stuff they like. I mean, you are paying the creators of the stuff you like so that they can create more of it.
No one wants to work for free, why should we expect others to do it? Just because there is zero cost to digitally copy something doesn't mean that it was made with zero cost.
[+] [-] bobsy|13 years ago|reply
I stopped buying games when I realized I don't actually play the games I buy. Some are still in their cellophane wrapper.. I recently signed up to Playstation+. Surprised I didn't do it sooner. £40 a year. Access to 10+ games a month to download and keep while subscription is active. Not going to buy another game for a long while.
[+] [-] SideburnsOfDoom|13 years ago|reply
That's a familiar story, and a win all-round. It is said to be a main reason why Microsoft was very relaxed about pirated copies of Windows - young people who run a pirated copy of windows grow up to be workers who know windows and the business buys a seat (as they say).
[+] [-] serf|13 years ago|reply
There are still gamers who think that 'Batman: Arkham Asylum' had legitimately broken mechanics, due to a similar action the developers of that game did ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94524-Arkham-Asylu... ).
I'm all for punishing pirates , but the unfortunate aspect of this is that you're punishing pirates & all of the possible legitimate customers that the pirate exposes to the game.
These people are potential customers , independent siblings, children who can beg their parents to buy the game, whatever, that are witnessing and at worst case experiencing a broken product, and having whatever faith they had in whatever company reduced.
I do like what it does to make you think twice about data legitimacy on the ether though. It's nice to be reminded that most of us don't know where that data is coming from.
[+] [-] kenkam|13 years ago|reply
[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Dev_Story
[+] [-] shadowmint|13 years ago|reply
Then I read:
Mm. Actually, I don't really care if it's covered by your privacy policy, if your game has a cute little 'phone home' sending who-knows-what from my computer off to yours, you can go jump~Sorry.
[+] [-] ameen|13 years ago|reply
Most indie games (unless they're a hit) never make it to TPB or some other place because the game is only available through legitimate sources, and most indie-loving gamers care too much about the developers to casually crack a game and upload it onto some shady torrent site.
It's easy to blame inefficiency to piracy. Minecraft was pirated heavily, did Mojang go bankrupt?
Gaming has evolved, Games are no longer a product to be packed up and shipped off. Constant updates, content packs, etc (free or otherwise) keep a customer engaged. If someone really likes the game, the lore and whatnot they will pay to get the original game. Heck, I personally know a ton of my classmates buying CoD4 since they couldn't access various multiplayer modded servers.
Piracy in general(be it games, movies, or music) is a problem that the content makers need to solve. New and effective services, sources will conquer it - Online streaming music has to an extent, Bollywood has taken warmly to YouTube and uploads ad-supported official HD movies (barely months after they launch). As Gabe Newell said, Piracy is a service problem. It has always been and it always will be.
[+] [-] chao-|13 years ago|reply
Edit: Not just lauding them on HN, "about to buy" has become "have just bought".
[+] [-] logicallee|13 years ago|reply
---- EDIT:
it also makes it seem likely to me that the screenshots of users posting on forums were fabricated. they seem a little too good (too ironic, too much like south park) to be true.
Googling seems to confirm:
http://i.imgur.com/TfxzkrA.jpg
This is a total hoax! :)
Those posts simply don't exist. (As of 11:39 CET on 4/29/2013.)
still, south park worthy, I laughed very hard.
OP, write satire: not hoax. good luck. --
Original comment:
just out of curiosity, I wonder why "A minute after we uploaded it, my torrent client looked like this:" shows a screenshot with 3 torrents that were "Added a day ago" and "Added 18 hours ago".
it sure looks like this is a slight exaggeration :)
[+] [-] mindstab|13 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Dev_Story
[+] [-] JonnieCache|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anonymous|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qznc|13 years ago|reply
If you do not want to go down the DRM route, this approach of publishing your own cracked version is probably best. A at least you have a little control, since you can make subtly change [0] the experience for crack users (very punny ;).
I agree with the author that convenience is a big factor. If it easier to download a cracked version compared to paying the developer, there is a problem. Since we are on HN, how about a service which helps game devs to put their games on as many stores (Steam,Desura,Ubuntu,Play,Apple,etc) as possible? It is probably a lot of work for single person devs. A little fee upfront and a percentage of the income, so it is a pretty quick buck for the game dev.
[0] http://thepiratebay.is/torrent/6617784/No_Time_To_Explain_Wi...
[+] [-] mokash|13 years ago|reply
Great post guys, good luck.
[+] [-] ripter|13 years ago|reply
Paid players get a game they enjoy, pirates who might buy, might buy a DLC so they can keep playing.
[+] [-] citricsquid|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xmjw|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dylan16807|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jack_trades|13 years ago|reply
Also, you created a game that has pulled in $1600 in revenue so far and you're thinking that $24k worth of revenue is just not coming in because you can measure the freeloaders. Those freeloaders aren't your customers and likely never will be.
Focus on why 214 people bought the game and make them so happy that they will support you and the extended marketing of the game.
Had you not spent the hours developing, testing, etc. these features and trying to trick worthless freeloaders into exposing themselves for the sake of rhetorical blog posts, you could have improved your bottom line. You COULD have added features important to paying customers.
Also, the sad freeloaders posts stink of fabrication. They may well not be, but my cynicism puts together a picture of a hacker-news-abuse viral marketing scheme. Every link in the chain has an unsoiled feel to it. The game is about a game dev company, not FPS gore. The freeloaders write in full sentences and precisely nail talking points as if they came from a game industry association. The dev has taken great care to handle freeloaders gently in the post. exposing everything. Even if this were a marketing scam, the backlash would be ho-hum because everything is just so meek.
AND... of course there's an actionable pitch and link thrown right in there. You were supposed to hold back and wait for the crowd to demand links.
This game always had a very limited audience. RPG of a gaming software development company? Plan the scale and scope of your project accordingly.
[+] [-] b0rsuk|13 years ago|reply
"""The cracked version is nearly identical to the real thing except for one detail… Slowly their in-game funds dwindle, and new games they create have a high chance to be pirated until their virtual game development company goes bankrupt."""
I haven't played the pamphlet, but it sounds like it's implemented by substracting money from player's in-game funds. This means whenever someone pirates a game in this pamphlet, player loses money. In other words, theft as opposed to a loss of a sale. How cute!
I remember a case where someone wrote a script to automatically download a pirated piece of software or a music album. It was linked to a website with a counter. The website owner wanted the developer/musician to bankrupt. The idea was that by downloading the thing enough times, he could make the copyright owner go bankrupt.