Cracked version of Game Dev Tycoon causes pirated game

[DrumsofWar]

So meta

Respect.

[Lavarinth]

Saw this. Bought the game to try it out. Liked it.

Also own Game Dev Story. Similar, very similar, but different enough to bother helping a startup.

[wibod]

Is there any game dev that's gone out of business due to piracy and not due to their stupid choices?

[Taeradun]

why the false dichotomy?

[IskatuMesk]

Is there any game dev that's gone out of business due to piracy and not due to their stupid choices?

Let me think...

... nope!

[DrumsofWar]

Is there any game dev that's gone out of business due to piracy and not due to their stupid choices?

It's the 10% rule. Sure, you might lose 10% of sales from someone who would've bought your game and then forgotten about it but you gain that back (and then some) from people who download the game then wind up buying it as diehard fans (who then tell others about it).

Enough game publishers (and HBO) are figuring out that it's pointless to spend millions to fight a hypothetical single-digit drop in sales (and lose). That said, if you like it and have the money, buy it.

[Hercanic]

Ha, that's hilarious!

As for piracy in general, it is a convenient scapegoat when sales don't meet shareholder's expectations. Now, to be clear, it is a real, actual thing, but it is not quantifiable strictly as lost sales, as there is no guarantee any significant portion of the piraters would have bought the game otherwise. However, if piracy were easy and risk-free, you can bet a lot more people would pirate games. It is those barriers, like a cow fence, that keeps many in line. So long as the most convenient and painless option is the paid one, you'll get most of your true audience.

Music, movies, and television especially hadn't kept up with the times, refusing to go online for far too long. It took things like Netflix and Southparkstudios to show them the way. Even the "mighty" music industry has started to buckle in their resolve, allowing Youtube videos to feature their music for a share of the ad revenue.

The weight of all those game CDs, easily misplaced CD keys, undisclosed rootkits, and other garbage made pirating far more attractive when cracks removed all the hassle. Just watch out for viruses! With services like Steam eliminating these problems, I for one feel far more comfortable investing in a game library.

[mark_009_vn]

Ha, that's hilarious!

As for piracy in general, it is a convenient scapegoat when sales don't meet shareholder's expectations. Now, to be clear, it is a real, actual thing, but it is not quantifiable strictly as lost sales, as there is no guarantee any significant portion of the piraters would have bought the game otherwise. However, if piracy were easy and risk-free, you can bet a lot more people would pirate games. It is those barriers, like a cow fence, that keeps many in line. So long as the most convenient and painless option is the paid one, you'll get most of your true audience.

Music, movies, and television especially hadn't kept up with the times, refusing to go online for far too long. It took things like Netflix and Southparkstudios to show them the way. Even the "mighty" music industry has started to buckle in their resolve, allowing Youtube videos to feature their music for a share of the ad revenue.

The weight of all those game CDs, easily misplaced CD keys, undisclosed rootkits, and other garbage made pirating far more attractive when cracks removed all the hassle. Just watch out for viruses! With services like Steam eliminating these problems, I for one feel far more comfortable investing in a game library.

People pirate games because they either:

-Felt uncertain about spending their money.
-Don't really have any money in the first place. (that's me!)
-Have regional restrictions. (again, that's me!)
-DRMs.

These people would never consider purchasing the game in the first place anyway, there is real point in trying to stop them. For people like me who can never, ever even have the chance to own anything legal in my entire life, shits like DRMs or the conception that "pirating is stealing" really does pisses me off...

And yes, This little "joke" seriously rubbed me the wrong way... Kinda felt like I'm being made fun off simply because I was born in the wrong side of the world.

[Lavarinth]

How many games have you pirated that you actually bought after playing them? I'm sure it's close to 100%, right? Wrong. When I didn't have a job, I didn't buy a single game unless some aspect of DRM or multiplayer was preventing me from playing it with other people. I could have said it was the best game ever made and I still wouldn't buy it.

How do you live day in and day out if you don't have any money? Clearly you're alive and on a computer powerful enough to play games with internet access. Someone around you has money and paying for your things if you're not. When I was a kid without a job, I did what other kids had to do: Ask to have a game bought for me in exchange for chores.

Regional restrictions? That's so old school. These aren't DVDs, console games, or YouTube. Here: http://bit.ly/11CAWxX

DRMs.. The "legitimate excuse to pirate games" that some people believe will break a company if they don't drop the anti-piracy measure. They've been saying that since DRM came out and it's still here. Now it's just evolving to Always-On measures. Can it be bypassed by pirating a game to avoid having to deal with it? Yes. Is it really that damaging to computers and your personal life that it's a legitimate excuse to pirate games? No. Maybe years ago, not so much these days.

Pirating is stealing. I've done it, and can say I had no interest in buying the game at any point in time. Personally, I don't see how anyone could have a different mentality while they pirate.

Since I got a job, I stopped. Why didn't I just ask for money from my parents like I gave as an example? Because pirating was just easier and free. Not a valid excuse.

I don't see how being born in "the wrong side of the world" has affected you relative to PC gaming, though maybe I'm just out of the loop as to how you are restricted with digital downloads.

[RazorclawX]

The thing is the 'cracked' version was deliberately uploaded by the developers. Although it's crippled, that doesn't constitute a 'pirated version'.

I've never heard of this game until this article, so that rant about how over 90% of the people would rather pirate the game doesn't hold water. That 90% happened because the developers ensured it happened; I don't think they gave much thought into the fact that nobody knew about the game.

[Lavarinth]

It is, indeed, pretty easy to just click "top seeded torrents" in the video game list and download the top games. Even just RSS a download automatically nightly.

I definitely agree that were it not for their pirated version, their "legit" version would likely only have those 10% sales as the only players of the game, simply because they are an unknown developer.

[IskatuMesk]

Almost any game I pirated that I enjoyed I ended up buying out of respect for the developers. I don't have to, but I do it because I'm a nice guy. It's not my fault game developers waste so much of their money on stupid shit and can't just make good games.

Adhering to manmade rules is silly. They were made to be ignored. I will pirate and no one will try to stop me. No, I don't think I can topple the Reich with Feminism just because of that, but I sure as fuck am not giving them my money.

DRM and other like-minded things are all the death echoes of a forgotten era. The kind of products who depend on those are already worthless in the eyes of anyone who has any standard of quality.

Do what you want to do. You are the system.

[wibod]

Bypassing regional restrictions can and will get you banned from Steam et al.

[Hercanic]

To me, as someone who has grown up with the freedom and neutrality of the world wide web, region restrictions are utter shit. Fuck nanny states, fuck price gouging, and fuck staggered releases.

On Steam here in Korea, it's kind of hilarious: I will see some games on the front page that I cannot click on (doing so does nothing despite still acting like a link), and when the page is refreshed the graphic splash for the game disappears. If I manage to navigate to it, I get a "Not available in your region." If I change my download location from Korea to US and restart, I can freely see and access the game. I suspect it has more to do with the Korean servers simply not having the game for me to download, and rather than redirect my client to a server that has it I just get that lazy-ass message. I suspect this is the case because, so far, most of the games that have given me this problem were smaller indie games.

[Mucky]

Pirating is stealing.

Define 'stealing'.