Game Development Sim, Pirates get screwed

Raven

Happy Shopper Ray Mears
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Nothing wrong with DRM if it works. Most of the time all it does is annoy legitimate buyers, pirates still get the game without the DRM a couple of weeks/months later.

Steam and Origin work fine on the whole and show that you don't have to screw customers.
 

LordjOX

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Yeah very sad. 8USD for a DRM-free game. It even has a free demo/trial.

Although we may be a bunch of hypocrites, most of us have pirated games in the past and had our own justification for it.
 

Aada

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93% of players running a cracked copy is just disgusting.
 

Gwadien

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I might buy it.

Edit - Bought it
 
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Raven

Happy Shopper Ray Mears
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Yeah very sad. 8USD for a DRM-free game. It even has a free demo/trial.

Although we may be a bunch of hypocrites, most of us have pirated games in the past and had our own justification for it.

Most of us still download TV shows and movies so having a pop at games pirates is a bit daft, though personally my TV show/films downloading has plummeted due to the industry starting to wake up to the internet age and more and more being available legitimately. I don't pirate games and haven't done since half life 2 - which I bought a couple of days after downloading it anyway.
 

Athan

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Why do so many people seem to automatically equate 'pirated' with "would have paid the full asking price for a copy if they'd not been able to 'pirate' it" ? Not all pirated copies are necessarily lost sales.

Not that I'm saying those who pirate and enjoy a game shouldn't feel guilty about not supporting the devs that created that enjoyment for them.

Disclaimer: Whilst I have pirated games in the past I haven't for over 5 years now, and all the software currently on my computer is free, paid for or trialware (i.e. unregistered BandiCam with the 10 minute per video limit).
 

Athan

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I also wonder, in this specific instance, if some of the high piracy rate is because people wouldn't have heard about the game otherwise, but spotted it in 'new uploads/torrents/whatever' so grabbed a copy, i.e. it's dangerous to equate the observed piracy rate in this instance with what a game from a mainstream publisher would experience.
 

Gwadien

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I think it's the idea that it's a £6 game (and tbh it's pretty addictive although it's pretty simplistic) and a vast majority have the balls to torrent it (then go to their forums to QQ about bugs, lol.)

I live in a house where we pay for Sky and stuff, and when there's a series I haven't seen, it's usually 'pirated' but is that *so* bad?
 

Zenith

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That's a brilliant move. Pure irony. Well done.

I've been the fucking Captain Blackhair of pirating in the past, due to getting 100mbit fibre in Sweden early on. Three brother's in a household with mediastreaming and dedicated server for downloading. A lot of TB's of media. Mostly movies, music and series. Some games.

I've always 'justified' downloading movies and series due to the horrible service and availability online. It's just SO much easier. It's still true, but to a lesser degree. Some people have realized the need of better availability to the customer. I applaud Netflix and House of Cards in that regard.

Never been much of a gamer, as singleplayer games never been my niche. Mostly played Counter-Strike and DAoC, so there havent been a need to pirate.

I download less and less, as I have more means, and a will, to contribute to the artists I enjoy. This applies mostly to music.

Regardless of what you think of pirating, I believe it have surely contributed to the shift we're currently seeing in online media right now. It's getting easier and more affordable to legally stream and listen to music/movies/series online.
 

Aada

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Why do so many people seem to automatically equate 'pirated' with "would have paid the full asking price for a copy if they'd not been able to 'pirate' it" ? Not all pirated copies are necessarily lost sales.

Not that I'm saying those who pirate and enjoy a game shouldn't feel guilty about not supporting the devs that created that enjoyment for them.

Disclaimer: Whilst I have pirated games in the past I haven't for over 5 years now, and all the software currently on my computer is free, paid for or trialware (i.e. unregistered BandiCam with the 10 minute per video limit).

Hi I would like you build me a extension on my house for free of course because I wasn't thinking of buying from you anyway so it's not a lost sale is it? I'm sorry did you expect to be paid for the WORK you just did?

That logic you stated in the first sentence is a typical pirate response, it's garbage just a really poor excuse.
 
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Wazzerphuk

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Yeah, thanks to the vastly improved catchup services I now no longer need to torrent a UK show if I missed it; I can viably catchup with it legally. A couple of years ago that wasn't possible for lots of stuff. So it was a case of miss out altogether, or illegally torrent. Given that there was no purchase required for these shows, and I pay my TV license/Sky bills I had no problem doing so - surely the makers would rather the audience actually get to see their work rather than missing out, especially when there's no upfront cost.

US TV still has to be downloaded thanks to farcical scheduling. For example, the series of Futurama that aired LAST YEAR in America is only NOW being broadcast on Sky. Until stuff like that stops and scheduling is fairer then it leaves many fans with absolutely no option. Some great shows don't even get a network over here and don't get aired at all (hello Breaking Bad).

It is gradually getting better for TV, movies and the like. The music industry are still well, well behind though. Which is really sad.
 

Xandax

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Without going into their line of thinking that a pirated game is a lost sale or "stolen" (which it is not, digital copies, nothing removed from the owner etc.) - it's still a funny thing to do for sure.

However - I must admit that I mainly see it as a marketing ploy, because with this move, they've got a lot of awareness on social medias that they otherwise wouldn't have gotten. It's a brilliant marketing trick to be sure.
 

Aada

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The PC crowd are constantly saying how they want DRM free games a developer gives them a DRM free game at £6 but 93% download it anyway, is there really any excuse for this?

I wasn't going to buy the game so I didn't and didn't download it either surely that makes more sense then the people using that same excuse everytime.

If you weren't going to buy the game then why have you bothered to download and install it?

93% is inexcusable.
 

Access Denied

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I torrent movies/games/music and if I like them I buy them. There is not a single song on my phone or my computer that wasn't paid for. The only movies on my computer I haven't paid to download are those I previously owned on DVD and had to sell to pay bills.

By most peoples logic the fact that I torrent them at all makes me a scummy pirate. I have to wonder how many people who download games/movies/albums do so because like me, they don't want to spend x amount only to find out they don't like it. This is especially true of games.

I also torrent TV shows as they air but that's because I refuse to pay £150 a year plus Sky for the privilege of watching the relatively few things I watch.
 

Aada

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I torrent movies/games/music and if I like them I buy them. There is not a single song on my phone or my computer that wasn't paid for. The only movies on my computer I haven't paid to download are those I previously owned on DVD and had to sell to pay bills.

By most peoples logic the fact that I torrent them at all makes me a scummy pirate. I have to wonder how many people who download games/movies/albums do so because like me, they don't want to spend x amount only to find out they don't like it. This is especially true of games.

I also torrent TV shows as they air but that's because I refuse to pay £150 a year plus Sky for the privilege of watching the relatively few things I watch.

What about those who download and never buy? even though they spent 30 hours on the game finished then thought well I have completed anyway why should I spend £35 on steam to have it?
 

Raven

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Do you pirate TV shows, movies or music?
 

Aada

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Do you pirate TV shows, movies or music?

TV shows, I usually wait for the DVD release as I like to watch all the episodes back to back, movies I go to the cinema but not so much these days so I get the Blu ray when it releases.

For example on our Virgin Media package we don't have the channel that shows Walking Dead so have to wait for the DvD and yes we only just watched Game of Thrones season 2 in march on Blu ray because we don't have Sky Atlantic.

I barely listen to any music these days only really have the radio on in the car.
 

Xandax

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The PC crowd are constantly saying how they want DRM free games a developer gives them a DRM free game at £6 but 93% download it anyway, is there really any excuse for this?

I wasn't going to buy the game so I didn't and didn't download it either surely that makes more sense then the people using that same excuse everytime.

If you weren't going to buy the game then why have you bothered to download and install it?

93% is inexcusable.

Of course '93% is inexcusable'.
In practice 1 % is inexcusable.

However that does not mean that pirated games are lost sales or stolen or any such nonsense. It also does not mean that the developer would have made the money in otherwise. The funny thing is how producers make up the 'lost profit' from piracy and comes up with numbers that dwarf the industry's in total. For an example just check out TED Talk about 'the 8 billion dollar iPod'.

However in this example it's also a matter of how many of those who pirated the game actually knew about the game until the developer deliberately baited them?
Would 93% have pirated the game if they didn't know it existed and would the game have gotten more than those 7% legit customers?
And in this example it's also a marketing ploy and such actions skew the result very badly.

People need to separate the issues in question.
 

Zenith

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Whether or not pirating is 'excusable' or not is a moral (and by extension, a legal) question that's been done over and over. Personally, I believe the motivation of piracy as a whole has been a blend of availability and capitalistic reasoning.

First, for a very long time, legally purchasing and downloading music was pretty much nonexistant. Same for streaming/downloading movies and series (ESPECIALLY series). When I grew up, the only way I could watch Lost was to download (well, or wait for the TV broadcast, a one time thing). It wasnt AVAILABLE outside of DC++. A HUGE motivation to downloading it. Movies was more available, albeit with added downtime until it actually hit the shelves, and the availability of more obscure movies were downright silly as well. Music? Same thing, good luck finding obscure music if you're not in the capital.

Added to this, if you have such a easy, extensive service that is not only BETTER than the legal alternative, but also free, it aint really a choice anymore. We've been raised to maximize our profits, after all. For me, it wasn't a purely monetary decision to download. I could, somewhat then and entirely now, afford most content I really wanted.

However, as been said, I think the whole landscape has and is rapidly changing. Better, legal, services are available.
 

Fafnir

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Dunno when i pirated a game last, since then i know most pc games come out cheap after a few months of release and i buy them then. Or some games i just have to buy at release. Think it was Sid Meyers Pirates for PC, alread had a copy for the Amiga.
 

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