Stardock CEO: Demigod Beats Piracy

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Stardock CEO: Demigod Beats Piracy


Demigod [http://www.stardock.com/], despite rampant piracy and a botched launch, is all the proof he needs that heavy-handed copy protection is a waste of time.

Demigod's woes began shortly before the game's scheduled release date of April 14 when GameStop GameSpot [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90959] lavished praise on Demigod but nonetheless gave it a score of only 6.5 because of "major online connectivity problems."

Despite all that, Wardell recently posted an ever-so-slightly smug forum message entitled "Demigod: So much for piracy." In it, he notes that the game debuted at number three [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23381] on PC game retail sales chart, a figure that includes a partial week and doesn't count digital sales, which he claims accounts for the majority of Demigod's sales. All of which happened while the DRM-free game was being pirated like mad.

"Piracy pisses me off. If you're playing a pirated copy right now, if you're one of those people on GameRanger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi] playing a pirated copy and have been for more than a few days, then you should either buy it or accept that you're a thief and quit rationalizing it any other way," he wrote.

But he added that as much as he personally dislikes piracy, fighting it isn't what he's here for. "My job, as CEO of Stardock, is not to fight worldwide piracy no matter how much it aggravates me personally. My job is to maximize the sales of my product and service and I do that by focusing on the people who pay my salary - our customers," he continued. He attributed Demigod's performance to its overall quality and Stardock's reputation for standing behind its products, although admitted that there are still "many lessons" to be learned from its launch.

"For example, if I had to do it over again, I would be inclined to require a valid user account to play LAN even if it only has to be validated one time. That way, we could also make it a lot easier for a legal user to have a LAN party with a single license," he wrote. "When the focus of energy is put on customers rather than fighting pirates, you end up with more sales. It seems common sense to me but then again, I'm just an engineer."




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Anachronism

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Apr 9, 2009
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I don't know whether to be happy about this or not.

On the one hand, I think it's brilliant that the game's been successful in the face of piracy; and it's proved that everyone who claims they pirate games in protest of DRM is a massive liar.

Brad Wardell said:
If you're playing a pirated copy right now, if you're one of those people on GameRanger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi] playing a pirated copy and have been for more than a few days, then you should either buy it or accept that you're a thief and quit rationalizing it any other way
Couldn't have been put any better.

But, on the other hand, the fact that it was pirated to hell and back is likely only going to convince other developers to continue putting heavy-handed and ineffective DRM in their games.
 

DamienHell

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Oct 17, 2007
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"All of which happened while the DRM-free game was being pirated like mad."
Very similar to Spore which had every security feature, TWICE.
 

Sevre

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Apr 6, 2009
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Gamespot is an anagram of Gamestop. I hate them both. Stardock gets major kudos though,its up there with Valve in my most important companies on the PC list.
 

Baby Tea

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Sep 18, 2008
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Anachronism said:
I don't know whether to be happy about this or not.

On the one hand, I think it's brilliant that the game's been successful in the face of piracy; and it's proved that everyone who claims they pirate games in protest of DRM is a massive liar.

Brad Wardell said:
If you're playing a pirated copy right now, if you're one of those people on GameRanger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi] playing a pirated copy and have been for more than a few days, then you should either buy it or accept that you're a thief and quit rationalizing it any other way
Couldn't have been put any better.

But, on the other hand, the fact that it was pirated to hell and back is likely only going to convince other developers to continue putting heavy-handed and ineffective DRM in their games.
Good post.
Brad did say it exceptionally well, and I'm glad to see they have been successful in sales. Stardock is a good, customer focused company and I wouldn't want to see them suffer or fail because of the blatant selfishness of others.
 

DeadlyYellow

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Jun 18, 2008
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Anachronism said:
On the one hand, I think it's brilliant that the game's been successful in the face of piracy; and it's proved that everyone who claims they pirate games in protest of DRM is a massive liar.
Good to know there are still some honest gamers out there in the target demographic. Less heartening that a good majority of them still do not believe they should pay people for their effort.

Anachronism said:
But, on the other hand, the fact that it was pirated to hell and back is likely only going to convince other developers to continue putting heavy-handed and ineffective DRM in their games.
Or worse yet, start making it exclusive to consoles.
 

tk1989

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May 20, 2008
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You would have thought that they would have had some sort of online authentication system in order to play online! Much like every single other online game i can think of...
 

vede

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Thus, I will never pirate a game from Stardock. They're too nice for me to play their games and not give them money. Same with Valve and GSC (not so much about being nice, but about listening to their players; the snork was the result of a "make-a-baddie" contest, and they had a quest-making contest on their forums for Clear Sky so members could give them quest suggestions).
 

KBKarma

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May 14, 2008
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tk1989 said:
You would have thought that they would have had some sort of online authentication system in order to play online! Much like every single other online game i can think of...
They did. Problem WAS, someone broke the algorithm. Hence why the servers shat themselves: 160000 people trying to authenticate simultaneously, at a time when they didn't expect anyone to be trying at all. That was Gamestop's mistake. As a result, GameSPOT rated them badly.

I'm really interested in this one, though I'm only passing good at RTS games (I have grand strategies, but never pull them off; I believe I lack practise).
 

Clashero

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Aug 15, 2008
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tk1989 said:
You would have thought that they would have had some sort of online authentication system in order to play online! Much like every single other online game i can think of...
They do. You need an Impulse account to play, and then you need to "Verify" your game.
The problem is: if you're a pirate, you can still "touch" the servers, and too many people touching it can cause the server to be overloaded with connections. Which is exactly what happened, word for word.
 

TsunamiWombat

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Sep 6, 2008
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Most of the poor reviews about Demigod have been about it's rough start. They say when it's working, it's very polished and fun.
 

scotth266

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Jan 10, 2009
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I have to say this: Stardock is full of win. Even after they had such high piracy levels, they're still going strong in sales... And this is a awesome thing of them to do. Blame the pirates, not the consumer!
 

Syntax Error

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tk1989 said:
You would have thought that they would have had some sort of online authentication system in order to play online! Much like every single other online game i can think of...
That was what I was wondering with this. If they had some form of online verification, they could easily expand the game for only the legit people. Offer all upgrades/patches to only the ones with a legit copy who verified their game. This not only encourages customers to buy the game, it also rewards them for being honest.
 

Lord Krunk

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Mar 3, 2008
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Baby Tea said:
Anachronism said:
I don't know whether to be happy about this or not.

On the one hand, I think it's brilliant that the game's been successful in the face of piracy; and it's proved that everyone who claims they pirate games in protest of DRM is a massive liar.

Brad Wardell said:
If you're playing a pirated copy right now, if you're one of those people on GameRanger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi] playing a pirated copy and have been for more than a few days, then you should either buy it or accept that you're a thief and quit rationalizing it any other way
Couldn't have been put any better.

But, on the other hand, the fact that it was pirated to hell and back is likely only going to convince other developers to continue putting heavy-handed and ineffective DRM in their games.
Good post.
Brad did say it exceptionally well, and I'm glad to see they have been successful in sales. Stardock is a good, customer focused company and I wouldn't want to see them suffer or fail because of the blatant selfishness of others.
Very this.

I'm not too sure what to think of his attitude, but what he said is bang-on. Good job.
 

RooksEye

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Mar 17, 2009
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Stardock has always been an awesome company. Sins of a Solar Empire is an amazing game, so I may have to get Demigod.