Pixel Piracy Creators Pirate Their Own Game

[infohippie]

I hope they track their website traffic, sales, and "endorsed" torrent downloads and publish those numbers for the rest of us to see. I am particularly interested in seeing if their legal-sales-to-total-download ratio improves because of this marketing campaign.

So am I. I have never actually heard of this game before, and with this bit of news I am tempted to buy it just because I think the devs are trying to do right by their customers.

 

[AnnaIME]

I read the article and decided I wanted to learn more about this game. I followed the link to the developer.

There is very little information about the game, except that it is rogue-like. I don't think that means that it sneaks around, steals things and excels at backstabbing, but I can't be sure.

I still wanted to encourage this developer by buying the game, not pirating it. I think it's wonderful that there are voices of reason and pragmatism. I wanted to, in some small way, help them stay in business. I couldn't find a way to buy the game. It's "Coming to PC/MAC/LINUX in a future". Is the only way to get the game to pirate it?

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Here's the cold, hard logic. I pirated it today. Why are my sales 5x what they were yesterday? Why are greenlight votes through the roof? Piracy in itself isn't BAD, it can be channeled in a DECENT way, and many of the people who would otherwise not have taken the plunge do so thanks to the optional download!

Welcome to The Escapist, Mr. Poysky. Please feel free to enjoy the warmth of the forums, avoid low content postings (generally more than a six word sentence) and do not, under any circumstances, inquire about the basement. At all.

Now then, onto the topic at hand: I have a general theory regarding piracy and I'd wonder if you'd be so willing for a bit of your time. Please give your opinion on the accuracy of this statement:

"Because there are no readily available demos for me to play a game, I am more likely to pirate the game outright than purchase it."

The reason I say this is because recently my uncle started cleaning out his storage areas and we found a cache of old Playstation Underground disks with loads of demo games among them. Then I recall today's current atmosphere in the industry regarding demos and, to my perspective, it is a very stark contrast. I'd like to see from a developer's perspective if this theory holds any merit whatsoever.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

...but the message that a vote on Steam Greenlight is just as good as a purchase isn't particularly helpful to anyone who relies on money in order to eat, pay the rent and continue making games.

Though the sentiment is sound, Steam Greenlight *isn't* an avenue for income. It's an avenue to get listed on Steam, after which revenue can come in from sales. At the point a game is on Greenlight, it isn't yet providing an income for food or rent and a vote has no (direct) bearing on sales either way.

What it does do is afford the developer a chance to succeed on Steam, as did Cthulu Saves the World [http://www.gamesradar.com/cthulhu-saves-the-world-6-days-on-steam-outsells-18-months-on-360s-indie-games-channel/]. The point is that the game isn't being sold en masse as yet and a vote is free marketing, paid for with goodwill.

 

[Alexander Poysky]

Hey there everyone. Thank you all for the great feedback. Regarding the links to the purchasable product on our site. It's on the site DESURA or INDIEDB and you can search it there. Regarding the views on piracy in general. Well, I'm neither condoning nor supporting it, nor am I lashing out against it. I simply believe that in this particular case it was going to happen, and we started seing shady russian torrent sites cropping up like wildflowers.

Instead of rolling with a negative attitude towards pirates, and saying they'd be getting their comeuppance for it by downloading that link. I figured there MUST be some way to put that piracy to GOOD use. Now ONCE AGAIN, I am not saying PIRACY is a good thing or a bad thing, I will remain neutral on the subject, but in this case something that generally IS negative (I.E cirumventing sales by downloading a shady torrent) has turned into a few things.

1. Positive word of mouth
2. A safe place for people to actually give good feedback about the game
3. MORE SALES

Why? Because MANY more people know about us now due to the fact. Let's be logical here, as an indie title I was currently faced with around a 5-10 thousand MAXIMUM userbase, it's just how it is.

I release it for free and suddenly we get 5 times that in a day. Of those people that would have pirated it anyways, MANY are now purchasing it because they like the game.

At the end of the day one could argue this wasn't even piracy, as it is my own product. On the other hand I am messing with people who otherwise would have turned a profit from traffic to their site on MY game.

My two cents, that's all

Anyways, if you want to discuss it I'm on twitter @alexpoysky

Have a good one guys!

 

[Nielas]

If the developers are giving the game away then why are they calling it 'piracy'? Isn't it like a used car salesman telling me that I am 'stealing' food from his children's mouths because I negotiated a good deal on a car?

I believe the correct name for this is Freeware.

 

[Entitled]

Fuck 'em. If you wanna steal or cheat your way to a privilege, you can fuck right off. I'm not interested in the business. I simply detest people that think they have the right to access something. "Oh but I want a demo." "Oh but games are expensive." "Oh but I might buy it later." Excuses made by people that have a false sense of entitlement and a severe lack of ego check. I've no time to sit down with assholes and ask them to stop being pricks. Make a good game, charge reasonably, give people a reason to come back. Let the pirates die in a fire.

There is no false sense about people feeling entitled to freely receive and impart information. Hell, that's not even ANY kind of entitlement.

A free lunch is an entitlement. Free heath care is an entitlement. Wanting an extra free seat on a bus is asking for an entitlement.

Free speech is not the same thing as wanting "stuff for free", it's a freedom. A libre, not a gratis.

If you have a problem with "a false sense of entitlement", why aren't you complaining all the other publishers than this guy, who feel entitled to receiving a monopoly grant from the government over controlling other people's communication of data, solely to preserve their preferred business model, and then call this privilege their "property"?

Edit: and yes, username is an intentional reference to that nonsense.

 

[Two-A]

Hey there guys. Thank you so much for the comments. I apologize if I misconstrued things here. I'm not implying that a steam green light vote in ANY case is better or as good as money. Mind you, I don't NEED the money at this point. If I DID I would be much less candid about offering the game out for free. I am attempting to help those that are suffering through the economic recession as much as the next, and giving those that are "on the fence" about the title AMPLE time to test-run it before buying. Would you buy a Ferrari based on word of mouth alone or would you rather drive it for a while?

Hey, I like you! I would buy your game if I had a way to pay for it, but Venezuela is in a very crappy state right now (we don't even have exchange houses, what the hell.)

I will buy your game if/when me and my family move to Peru, promise.

I read the article and decided I wanted to learn more about this game. I followed the link to the developer.

There is very little information about the game, except that it is rogue-like. I don't think that means that it sneaks around, steals things and excels at backstabbing, but I can't be sure.

I still wanted to encourage this developer by buying the game, not pirating it. I think it's wonderful that there are voices of reason and pragmatism. I wanted to, in some small way, help them stay in business. I couldn't find a way to buy the game. It's "Coming to PC/MAC/LINUX in a future". Is the only way to get the game to pirate it?

I'd suggest you watch a playthrough. I watched one of this game by Mangaminx and it seemed fun, for what little gameplay I saw, anyway.

I'd describe it as a 2d pirate simulator, you control a crew and you can build a boat. It seems you also have to keep your crew happy, but I haven't seen what happens when they get angry (I assume mutiny).

To be clear, I haven't pirated the game, just watched a playthrough.

 

[Risingblade]

It's not really piracy if they themselves are giving it out for free...

 

[Enizer]

This reminds me of the game gentlemen!, the devs put a code in the game that reports when the game is installed
when they compared that with a number of copies sold, the numbers look horrible.
After three weeks, 144 copies sold, 50030 pirated,
that makes this development time wasted for those programmers.
However, the developer behind gentlemen! also mentioned this attitude, there will be pirates, no matter what you do.
The question for developers is not how to stop it(that part has not really worked for anyone),
but rather, how do we convert those pirates into paying customers?

However, when they looked at where the pirated copies were being activated, 95% of those were in china and russia
most of the pirates were in places where they could not easlily afford the game, and i think china cant actually access the store, so they CANT buy the game.

This leaves about 2350 people out of those pirates that could have bought the game but chose to pirate it instead
but the media just loves to quote that 144 vs 50030 number, and the number that actually matters(pirates who probably had money, and android store access), ignored.

Makes you think, how accurate are those piracy number quotes you hear in the media?
Source: gamasutra article named "Gentlemen! Or, how our most successful game is also our least profitable."


I hope more developers try this method, i'm pretty tired of annoying DRM in my games.
I hope they find a good solution for DRM that isnt this bloddy annoying for paying customers.
Then again, this method is more attractive to little indie devs then it is to big companies, the main problem the indie devs have is hardly anyone knows they exist..

 

[IceForce]

Man, attitude towards piracy on this site is a bit bipolar
On one hand moderators issue warnings for everyone who dares imply that piracy isn't invented by Satan when he refined soul of Hitler.

Hilariously, the mods in this thread are banning people who are ANTI-piracy.

I have to agree with you though. The moderation here really needs to be more consistent.
At the moment, it seems to swing wildly from one extreme to another, and back again.

On the other hand we have topics like this.

It's actually a well-known fact that the contributors/staff here actually don't have to follow the same rules as everyone else.
There's even a clause in the forum rules that says so.

 

[Strazdas]

Man, attitude towards piracy on this site is a bit bipolar
On one hand moderators issue warnings for everyone who dares imply that piracy isn't invented by Satan when he refined soul of Hitler.
On the other hand we have topics like this.
I almost want to enter troll mode and start reporting anyone who says anything neutral or positive about piracy here.
But I won't.
I only wish crew of Escapist would make their mind about their policy regarding piracy.
Either
A)It is worse than rape, murder, Justin Bieber and genocide combined (like moderators often treat it)
OR
B)It is extremely gray concept that can be both good and bad. and there are circumstances when piracy is justified (like it actually is)
I can roll with both of these attitudes, just not at the same time.

You see the problem is that they have to follow the laws and do not endorse piracy in any way, and yet the story itself endorses piracy thus any comment agreeing with the news story would automatically be agaisnt the rules. Also its not worse than JustIn Beaver. Nothing is worse than that thing.

I believe the correct name for this is Freeware.

No. The game is not free ware. you have to pay 7 dollars for it to get it legally. Even if the author itself is giving links to pirated copy, according to laws that is not legal.

 

[blackrave]

It's actually a well-known fact that the contributors/staff here actually don't have to follow the same rules as everyone else.
There's even a clause in the forum rules that says so.

Oooh delicious double standards
On the other hand if staff tends to stick for a long time, so if they would be held up to same rules, they eventually would get permabanned (just inevitable fact that during 5+ years of regular posts one will definitely post 8 posts worth of warning)

 

[blackrave]

You see the problem is that they have to follow the laws and do not endorse piracy in any way, and yet the story itself endorses piracy thus any comment agreeing with the news story would automatically be agaisnt the rules. Also its not worse than JustIn Beaver. Nothing is worse than that thing.

But isn't rape or murder also illegal? Or piracy somehow is less legal than genocide?
And don't start with excuse that piracy is much easier. You know how easy is to kill average person? Especially if you are armed. Under certain circumstances you could kill someone even by accident.
One might argue that media pirate could evade consequences much easier than murderer.
But again how that makes piracy much worse crime than every other crime out there?
For example
Two statements
A)Killing person A would be justified, because xyz
B)Pirating game B would be justified, because qwerty
Statement A would rarely cause a warning (unless I write something so obscene that nobody can ignore it)
Statement B however would definitely earn me a warning even if reasoning behind piracy advocacy is right
There might be a reason for such strange attitude on this site, but reason!=excuse

 

[Strazdas]

But isn't rape or murder also illegal? Or piracy somehow is less legal than genocide?
And don't start with excuse that piracy is much easier. You know how easy is to kill average person? Especially if you are armed. Under certain circumstances you could kill someone even by accident.
One might argue that media pirate could evade consequences much easier than murderer.
But again how that makes piracy much worse crime than every other crime out there?
For example
Two statements
A)Killing person A would be justified, because xyz
B)Pirating game B would be justified, because qwerty
Statement A would rarely cause a warning (unless I write something so obscene that nobody can ignore it)
Statement B however would definitely earn me a warning even if reasoning behind piracy advocacy is right
There might be a reason for such strange attitude on this site, but reason!=excuse

Legality is not a single line. There are appropriate punishment for appropriate crimes (unless were talking piracy, where according to law it deserves more punishment than murder by rape).

You are looking for logic in regulation created by monopolistic content holders for thier own subjective gain. There is no logic behind antipiracy laws. The tendency is for them to get even more crazy as time goes by (as proven by the "we havent made enough money of mickey mouse yet" act that extended copyright to life+95 years.