I'd never even entertained the idea that people would even pirate it. And i felt like a cheap bastard for only paying £2 ($3) for the bundle.
Some people are just fucktards!
Some people are just fucktards!
Who Would Pirate the One-Cent Humble Indie Bundle?
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
So much for the excuse that "greedy corporations over-charging consumers" to justify piracy.
It's like i've said before... People will gladly steal games because it is convenient and most importantly, FREE.
It's like i've said before... People will gladly steal games because it is convenient and most importantly, FREE.
Hmm when I saw 1 penny and that it was being pirated, I thought "Because they can, and because what's the point in a frigging penny"
I suspect that many of the pirates lack the ability to purchase the games normally- i.e. no credit card.
Given that Paypal takes the first 30 cents off a transaction there's not much of a difference between pirating and purchasing.
I'm not defending the pirates; I simply don't see why there's all the hubbub.
Given that Paypal takes the first 30 cents off a transaction there's not much of a difference between pirating and purchasing.
I'm not defending the pirates; I simply don't see why there's all the hubbub.
The devs wouldn't have done something like this if they thought pirating was going to be an issue. We can beat the topic over the head for the next 10 years, but it's not going to make any difference. There will always be that small minority that are worthless and think it's okay to take food out of others' mouths because they feel intellectual property is different than physical property.Flipscore said:
Anywho, look at the bright side instead of the inevitable drab side. The more you dwell on something that will never go away, the worse you'll always feel. That's why I say celebrate 10 people spending a total of $4000. It's much more proactive.
Yeah, I think an address where you can send physical mail may have helped at least in tracking the effects of the offer.
People (especially kids) who can't pay by card, could put a few bucks in an envelope and mailed em in, or mailed in to say that they couldn't pay online but they dropped $5 in a local charity collection as a gesture.
In fact, if you couldn't buy it online, but have aquired any of the games, maybe chuck some money into a charity box, and drop them a mail to say you paid for it in your own way as you couldn't pay online, they'd probably be pleased to know that one less unpaid download at least added to the charity total.
I also have to say I'm very pleased to see that the average payment was nearly $9, when I imagine most people expected the average payment to be just over 1 cent. with any luck most people had the sense to realise they'd lose maybe 50c from each sale in bank fees, so if you're not dropping a couple of bucks in you're costing the charity money. (actually that's a scary thought, that the people paying 1 cent are actually worse than the pirates, heh) I agree that if you're going to download it, grab it from torrents tho, save the indie guys some bandwidth
I'd have bought it, but I only have 35 pence in my account for another week, heh, and I'd feel worse only paying that than if I had pirated it.
If only they could have got Steam on board for this, and offered it there for say $5-10 for the duration (with an option to add extra cash as donations). I imagine Steam could have taken the hit in terms of bandwidth and fees, and it would have been a great piece of publicity for all concerned.
People (especially kids) who can't pay by card, could put a few bucks in an envelope and mailed em in, or mailed in to say that they couldn't pay online but they dropped $5 in a local charity collection as a gesture.
In fact, if you couldn't buy it online, but have aquired any of the games, maybe chuck some money into a charity box, and drop them a mail to say you paid for it in your own way as you couldn't pay online, they'd probably be pleased to know that one less unpaid download at least added to the charity total.
I also have to say I'm very pleased to see that the average payment was nearly $9, when I imagine most people expected the average payment to be just over 1 cent. with any luck most people had the sense to realise they'd lose maybe 50c from each sale in bank fees, so if you're not dropping a couple of bucks in you're costing the charity money. (actually that's a scary thought, that the people paying 1 cent are actually worse than the pirates, heh) I agree that if you're going to download it, grab it from torrents tho, save the indie guys some bandwidth
I'd have bought it, but I only have 35 pence in my account for another week, heh, and I'd feel worse only paying that than if I had pirated it.
If only they could have got Steam on board for this, and offered it there for say $5-10 for the duration (with an option to add extra cash as donations). I imagine Steam could have taken the hit in terms of bandwidth and fees, and it would have been a great piece of publicity for all concerned.
To summarize the conversation I had with [user]John Funk[/user] over twitter...
We can all agree that pirating is just plain wrong only in certain very, very, very rare situations can pirating be condoned.
Pirating a free thing like this, especially since part, or all (depending on which you choose) goes to charity you are officially a complete and total douchebag.
Pirating something like this only proves Ubisoft right in their decision to have the DRM.
If you people like seeing developers do this you shouldn't be a dick about it and pirate it.
We can all agree that pirating is just plain wrong only in certain very, very, very rare situations can pirating be condoned.
Pirating a free thing like this, especially since part, or all (depending on which you choose) goes to charity you are officially a complete and total douchebag.
Pirating something like this only proves Ubisoft right in their decision to have the DRM.
If you people like seeing developers do this you shouldn't be a dick about it and pirate it.
The only time anyone should pirate is when it is absolutely necessary i.e. you NEED it to pass a class, or complete a job.
I pirated a program so I can finish college and make the kind of money to pay for the latest edition, hell I'm already saving up the cash to pay for the latest edition.
Only pirate if your grades, or job depends on it, and if you'll pay for the program later down the line.
I pirated a program so I can finish college and make the kind of money to pay for the latest edition, hell I'm already saving up the cash to pay for the latest edition.
Only pirate if your grades, or job depends on it, and if you'll pay for the program later down the line.
Interesting. This is an interesting situation considering the potential price of the bundle. What is means, exactly, will take time and hopefully further data. I do know that simply dismissing those who downloaded the bundle illegally as a bunch of jerks does absolutely nothing to understand much less solve solve the problem.
There are no excuses. If you have no way to pay for it, if you can't get it in your country, you just don't get to play it. Big whoop, life isn't fair. It's just some recreational games. This is absolutely sickening, but on the plus side, once word gets around enough I'm sure their donations will go up.
Wait up, John. That doesn't work.John Funk said:
This is in the same line as the Radiohead "In Rainbows" album. While you could get it legally for free, people still pirated it more than got it legally. 1c is, yes, more than free, but c'mon.
If anything, this proves that the old line that pirates just want free stuff doesn't hold up. They could have had free legally, they chose not to do so. That means the reasons for piracy must be otherwise. Convenience (for example, the 'not having a credit card' suggestion below) or maybe even simple conditioning. They're so used to it that they can't imagine doing otherwise.
Now, this doesn't rule out their being ungrateful, self-entitled dicks. But it suggests their reason for dickery is otherwise than 'wanting it for free'.
I think people who pirated this thought that 1c doesn't make a difference and it's actually free with only a symbolic price that they don't have to pay. People are fuckin' stupid. You know, the smaller the theft is, the more pissed off I am.
Crap, I just realized I already have most of these games from a previous Steam deal. Also PayPal sucks, but not nearly the same amount of Donkey cock as those who pirate the game worth $0.01. But the contributions are quite substantial from what I can see, the average donation on the site says roughly $9 out of 90,000+ contributors.
I am so glad this was the first post. Part of me expected someone to pop up and claim that "appx 90% of pirates couldn't afford the game anyway".John Funk said:
I think the bigger problem here is even though they didn't pay the 1 cent for it, they essentially stole 1 cent from the charity it was going to be donated from.BlindChance said:
When something is this cheap, and especially since it's a pass time/leisure thing there isn't a rock solid excuse to stand on for pirating this.
See my above post for my only reason why someone should pirate.
and I thought I was cheap. C'mon its a freaking penny, A PENNY! Not to mention its for a good cause
Sure, some people are jerks, but I think this is kind of a blanket statement here.
First, 25% is very small compared to World of Goo's 90% piracy rate. Although that rate was gotten by entirely different means (comparing the number of people connected to WoG's leaderboard vs. the number of people who had bought the game) so this may not be a very good comparison.
But what jumped to my mind is that I'm using a download accelerator, and while I'm quite illiterate on how precisely it works my understanding is that it downloads the same file five times, and this somehow makes the process faster. I couldn't download these games without it - Aquaria, the largest one, takes over 4 hours to download this way, so I'm guessing I'd need at least 6 hours, ininterrupted to download it normally. So while I'm just one guy downloading, I may be popping out in the system as five guys sharing a download.
Although I think the number 1 thing here is convenience. If you're used to pirating it's much easier to do it again rather than going through the hoops of, uh, remembering your PayPal password.
First, 25% is very small compared to World of Goo's 90% piracy rate. Although that rate was gotten by entirely different means (comparing the number of people connected to WoG's leaderboard vs. the number of people who had bought the game) so this may not be a very good comparison.
But what jumped to my mind is that I'm using a download accelerator, and while I'm quite illiterate on how precisely it works my understanding is that it downloads the same file five times, and this somehow makes the process faster. I couldn't download these games without it - Aquaria, the largest one, takes over 4 hours to download this way, so I'm guessing I'd need at least 6 hours, ininterrupted to download it normally. So while I'm just one guy downloading, I may be popping out in the system as five guys sharing a download.
Although I think the number 1 thing here is convenience. If you're used to pirating it's much easier to do it again rather than going through the hoops of, uh, remembering your PayPal password.
Well, they're not crying themselves to sleep over the people who want to pay nothing. Which I love by the way - it's such an accidental guilt trip. But seriously? Even if they don't want to give the devs anything for their stellar work, they could at least drop some loose change on the charities.dogstile said:
Wow, this really sucks. I just can't get over how cheap some people are, won't spend $2 for a charity for 6 great games. [For those playing at home Samorost 2 was added to the bundle]
At least I know that I made a donation and helped a good cause, and I'm sure that plenty of Escapist forum members did the same thing. =)
At least I know that I made a donation and helped a good cause, and I'm sure that plenty of Escapist forum members did the same thing. =)
Fixed that story.Chipperz said:
Okay but seriously: Yes.
What's the problem in quickly asking your parents in giving you their credit card? C'mon worst case they come to your computer and type the numbers in themselves, it shouldn't be a problem. No excuse here for pirating this amazing offer. It's almost a slap on their cheek, let's hope they'll turn their head for more offers in the future.
The only way I could see piracy sort of legitimate here is if only one kid has access to a credit card and pays more than he would have for himself and then shares his download link with his friends. That would sort of be okay, but still sort of cheap.