Piracy

[Thursday Next]

I'd be all for people finding security holes if their reaction was to quietly inform the site owner of the hole so that it could be plugged with minimum fuss. What happens instead is that the flaw is exploited and shared which leads to kneejerk reactions from publishers to make more onerous systems next time around.

 

Also, don't see why you think getting something for free and early is any worse than getting something for free. If you agree that it shouldn't be downloaded until Ubisoft say you can download it, then it stands to reason that you should abide by their other requirements, like paying for it, not cracking it, and not sharing it on torrent sites.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

In this case there's no legal way to otherwise obtain it at the moment and unlike music you're less likely to re-use the game (and thus buy it once there are level venues) and there's no equivalent of going to see the band live to support them in video games.

[deanb]

I'd be all for people finding security holes if their reaction was to quietly inform the site owner of the hole so that it could be plugged with minimum fuss. 

 

That used to be how it was done, but companies tended to ignore security holes, or even occasionally get people done for computer hacking under whatever local computer misuse laws there are. So these days exploits are posted publicly to force a companies hand. I'm to understand there's a bit of a gentleman's agreement/honor among thieves aspect in certain companies getting a 5 day head start or such. Something tells me Ubisoft aren't quite in the good graces of folks as Google might be.

[Hot Heart]

Dean, there's no honour among thieves.

[Eleven]

Magical Fruit Trees!

 

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/04/first-sale-digital-music/

Edited April 11, 2013 by eleven

[Thursday Next]

Lots of holes that I could poke in this analogy. But it's a place we've all been before.

[deanb]

For example that tree doesn't grow pears.

[deanb]

http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/

 

So an indie developer clones Game Dev Story. Then they tweak the game a bit to create an unwinnable scenario of piracy, then upload this to TPB. Pirates grab the broken version of the game, play it and find it is unbeatable. They then post on official forums about it not working and the dev then makes a post bemoaning that 93% of the players are using the pirated version he made and uploaded himself. Which also means 93% of players are having a bad time and passing that word of mouth on. On top of that this blog post will likely come across as a "Challenge" meaning it's just going to end up pirated harder.

 

It's like they tried to combine the Batman anti-piracy feature with the "indies <3 tpb" stuff of Hotline Miami devs. And they've cocked it up. 

[Thursday Next]

Cloning Game Dev Story is a bit distasteful. I don't see what else you think is wrong with this. It's a social experiment, there would have been a cracked version anyway and the guy is obviously not pursuing the people who downloaded the cracked version.

 

It just helps to illustrate how many people will pirate where there is an option to, with a humorous little lesson thrown in.

[deanb]

If you're the person that uploaded the game, don't be upset when people download it. It's mostly a no name game, if he hadn't uploaded it it'll likely have just say with the 200 or so buyers and that's it (There's always going to be those folks that just see a new torrent and give it a spin). Their own forum and steam forum wouldn't have complaints about the game having unwinnable scenarios too (especially as there is also piracy in the main game which was causing confusion in the forums).

 

Of course now they've made a post about it, it'll likely hit the various blog networks and they're probably now working on plying the "Oh well I'm going to buy it just to show those pirates what for!" crowd. Which is pretty cruddy technique, but a fool and his money.

 

Also I doubt they've the means to chase down the pirates, and how could they? They willfully uploaded the game, they committed the original piracy themselves.

[Thursday Next]

I think you're missing the point that it would have been cracked and uploaded anyway. 

[deanb]

It's DRM free, wouldn't have been needed to be cracked at all. And maybe it would have ended up on tpb at some point. 200 sales would suggest it's a bit of an obscure blip on the radar to draw the interest of "the scene". Only about 10% or so of games, and those primarily being AAA titles, end up on tpb. A no name indie clone of a phone game is likely considered not worth the effort or bandwidth to upload. The dev had to get in help of his mates to seed it to make it look worth downloading.

[Thursday Next]

Ok so it would have been uploaded anyway. The guy is just making the point that people will pirate a game and then when they are told that piracy is affecting their in game game sales they will moan about piracy.

[madbassman39]

I think its clever. Like you said Dean, chances are that many of those people wouldn't have even considered purchasing the game as it stands. Their sales may have made no more if they didn't upload the game, but they are pretty much bringing the point that pirated games have an effect on a developer.

 

To make things even funnier, there are people asking if they can research DRM for their games in the game, to stop the pirates. This is coming users who have a pirated copy. I've said it before, I don't care if people pirate media, it has almost no affect on me, but to claim that it doesn't effect people at all is asinine. That is their point in the pirated version of the game. Its ironic that users are upset by the piracy ruining their game when they them self are running a pirated copy.

 

I never heard of this game or Game Dev Story, but I can tell you right now I'm now interested in both because they look fun. For $8 I'll pick this game up, and I'm doing so because this stunt made me aware of its existence.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Game dev was worth the $3.50 I paid for it.

 

You know. After I initially pirated it. They wouldn't have had my sale if I couldn't do that in the first place.

[Hot Heart]

It's a publicity stunt, that's all.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Not even worth my time if you have to resort to something like that. I'd sooner buy another copy of some garbage like . . . 30 Flights of Loving.

[deanb]

Ok so it would have been uploaded anyway. The guy is just making the point that people will pirate a game and then when they are told that piracy is affecting their in game game sales they will moan about piracy.

We might be reading the wrong words. Without the developer themselves uploading the game to the pirate bay it would never have ended up there, before today there was zilch interest.

Once it'd dropped from the New queue there was no interest even once it was up there.

 

And it's the developer, that uploaded the game to a pirate site, that is complaining about the pirates. The (2000) people that pirated the game are complaining about an unwinnable scenario, so there's 2000 people that've played a game that's to their understanding broken. (and crap enough to not bother seeding)

 

Also Madbass has pretty much proven my point, despite the games merits or lack there of, people will buy it just because of this stunt. It's worth noting if you are wanting to buy a Game Dev maybe pick up the original Game Dev Story on iPhone/Android instead of the Game Dev Tycoon these guys have put out. (which there was fun comment on r/indiegaming with a "Out of interest, does this game have the ability to take another developer's concept and make your own game based on it?").

[Mister Jack]

People might buy it in the short term but these kinds of stunts don't engender a lot of good will with consumers.  I feel like this is going to make it difficult for any future games made by this developer to achieve much success.  When you're an indie developer, you live or die on word of mouth.

[deanb]

*blows the thick layer of dust off the thread*

 

https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-builds-the-ultimate-piracy-machine-151219/

 

Kinda neat conceptual use of a RPi. It copies "Crazy" over n over generating a theoretical loss of $10million for music industry each day.

 

Also my pirating has really dwindled of late. I guess cos of job + lack of time = not pirating much. Only recent one is Fallout 4 due to the late delivery (n tbh I was super surprised to see it cracked within hours of release, but I imagine it's same method as Skyrim). I'll grab something if it seems interesting now n then, but usually never even end up touching it.

[Mister Jack]

If I got sent to maximum security for piracy charges I guess I'd be pretty pissed off too.