I'm actually just about to buy this (thanks for letting us know about this, by the way) but this is insane. You know, I have always said people will only stop pirating when things are free and this just proves it.
Who Would Pirate the One-Cent Humble Indie Bundle?
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
I cannot believe this. I just... I can't believe you're even suggesting such a thing. The thought that there isn't some high-minded principle, some dedication to a higher justice, behind piracy? Scandalous!John Funk said:
I don't agree.Baby Tea said:
Let me start by saying that I did purchase the Humble Indie Bundle, and for a lot more than $0.01. There are some great games in there and I'm happy to support them. I also wouldn't be surprised that some people pirated it anyway, despite the low cost, just because they could. And that's pretty sad.
But I don't agree that piracy is never the right option. Maybe these are just "games" -- something we have no need for and can do without -- but let's consider many other situations in life where we can't or shouldn't, but do anyways.
Did you ever drink before you were legal age? Or have a cigarette? I'm willing to bet most people have. I bet a smaller, but still significant number of you have tried marijuana, despite it being illegal. We don't need these things, and we aren't allowed to have them, but we do so anyway on a regular basis and it has become largely accepted by society. Is this really different from people pirating games that they can't legally procure?
Let's consider the reasons somebody might not purchase these games:
* They want to stick it to the man
* They can't afford it
* They don't have access to a credit card
* It's more convenient than paying for it
I'm sure there are probably a few deluded individuals who think they are screwing over corporations or something by pirating this, and if they read this, hopefully they realize how wrong they are. And as we've established, nobody who is in possession of a computer is too poor to pay one cent for a collection of great games.
But I do know a lot of people who don't own a credit card or refuse to use them online (especially when they are left responsible for any fraud that might occur). Does this give them the right to pirate it? No, but if it leaves them with no other way to obtain these games, do we really expect them to just go without? Human nature says otherwise. Just like the kids and adults alike who smoke marijuana, we all do things that we're told we shouldn't, because we still want to do them. Forget the justification for a moment: we should expect and accept the fact that this will always occur.
There are probably also many people who find a link to download them, or have one sent to them by a friend and pass it around, who never even consider it piracy. Willful ignorance is no excuse, but they likely don't see any harm in what they are doing.
Psychologically, there can be several reasons for this. When something is far removed from money (like a video game), or given an arbitrarily low value (the game is already basically "free"), we don't feel like we've done any harm by not paying for a copy. This is even more true if we can't easily see the effect of us not paying for it: would you feel bad for taking a pencil home from your office? Or reading your personal email on work time? (See Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational" for more examples).
But more than anything, where's the harm? I'm sure you would immediately say, "These people worked hard to make these games, and the developers and charities are both deserving of the money. They have a right to sell their wares and the pirates who copy them without paying are just as bad as thieves." If you're talking about a person with the means to purchase it, who knowingly and willingly pirated it, then I agree with you totally. But what about the people who didn't have the means (kids or others without credit cards)? Or the people who were sent a link from a friend and told to check out these cool games? Though they didn't purchase the games and are now enjoying them, have they caused hardships to the developers and charities?
Aside from the cost of bandwidth, no, they haven't. We can say what the various industries do about the cost of lost sales, but we all know the retort: these people weren't going to pay in the first place.
And that's why I don't agree that piracy is never an option. If a person has no legal means of procuring it, and doing so illegally would cause essentially no harm, then why should we be so quick to denounce them for it? We should be grateful that these people are so interested that they would go out of their way to enjoy these works and hope that they may indirectly drive further sales through an increase in popularity.
This argument has been peppered with many conditionals: that people are otherwise unable to do things legally or that they may not even realize they are doing something wrong, and that they are causing a negligible amount of harm by doing so. This undoubtedly leaves out many people who were fully capable, but chose to cheat because they could. There is no excusing these people.
But I wouldn't doubt that a great number of people in the world do fit under this exception. In fact, I bet we've all been there at some time: drinking alcohol under age, taking extra napkins or packets of ketchup at a restaurant, or using the "for customer's only" washrooms without making a purchase. We all cheat at times, either because we don't have another way to do it (ever try to find a free, public washroom? Even the "public" washrooms in malls are technically for customers only), or because we don't think it's doing any harm (an extra mint from the cashier at a restaurant).
'Always' and 'never' are serious words. There are exceptions to everything. We rarely consider them, or their effects, but they can be significant.
That said, we should all do the best we can to show thanks for these games. If you downloaded the games free, let the developers know why. Thank them for the games, send them a cheque, make a donation elsewhere in their names -- anything you can to show that you aren't just an ungrateful, cheating bastard.
PS: As somebody else mentioned, the statistics could easily be biased. There are many possible legitimate reasons for the number of downloads to be greater than the number of sales; piracy isn't the only possible answer. Statistics can be misleading.
So how do they differentiate between a pirated download, vs someone redownloading it that paid legitimately for it?
Granted, some folks have exactly the problem that they don't have a credit card with which to pay. To some the internet is a game to see how much you can get for free, and often times the answer is damn near everything. But there's a mix of good reasons for the downloads and donations numbers to be different too. People reformat, downloads get cut off, folks use download accelerators that open multiple connections... etc.
Granted, some folks have exactly the problem that they don't have a credit card with which to pay. To some the internet is a game to see how much you can get for free, and often times the answer is damn near everything. But there's a mix of good reasons for the downloads and donations numbers to be different too. People reformat, downloads get cut off, folks use download accelerators that open multiple connections... etc.
Too bad I already have World of Goo and Aquaria. Still, I love those other 3 games too, so I'm going to try and raise the average by paying... 5 EUROS!
EDIT: I like how you can see what users (in terms of OS) pay more. Linux people ftw!
[sub]Not that I have Linux installed...[/sub]
EDIT: I like how you can see what users (in terms of OS) pay more. Linux people ftw!
[sub]Not that I have Linux installed...[/sub]
I'm not so sure these people are evil pirates. I suspect the answer has way, way more to do with the inconvenience of paying 1 cent rather than the actual financial cost of paying 1 cent. Add on security worries, and (as identified) the number of people without credit cards or who just aren't in the habit of using them on the internet, and I'm surprised only 25% are identified pirates.
Disclaimer: I paid. But I can easily see why others didn't. It's not because they're mean, or evil.
It's because they're lazy.
Disclaimer: I paid. But I can easily see why others didn't. It's not because they're mean, or evil.
It's because they're lazy.
I think it's kind of shitty people do that. However, there is a silver lining to everything. I was looking at the top 10 contributors and to my amazement, someone had given $1000. In fact, all top 10 contributors combined gave almost $4000, which is pretty cool IMO. At least there are someone people willing to go above and beyond.
I bought it for 15$ because I'm a cheap bastard. But my friend bought it for 85$ so... There are some good people in the world 
.
Also most pirates are just full of shit with their "I'm poor and I can't afford games, that's the only reason why I don't play them"... FFS! Kids in Africa are really fuc*ing poor and most of them never stole a thing in their life. So don't give me shit about "I can't afford it that's why I pirate it", games are not food or water. You don't need them to live, so if you can't afford it THAN YOU JUST DON'T HAVE IT!
What's so hard to understand about this? Only situation in which I might accept downloading a game is:
A) When it's freeware
B) When it's so old it's unreachable by any means of retail or electrical purchase.
AND ONLY THEN.
.Also most pirates are just full of shit with their "I'm poor and I can't afford games, that's the only reason why I don't play them"... FFS! Kids in Africa are really fuc*ing poor and most of them never stole a thing in their life. So don't give me shit about "I can't afford it that's why I pirate it", games are not food or water. You don't need them to live, so if you can't afford it THAN YOU JUST DON'T HAVE IT!
What's so hard to understand about this? Only situation in which I might accept downloading a game is:
A) When it's freeware
B) When it's so old it's unreachable by any means of retail or electrical purchase.
AND ONLY THEN.
This ^^ Right now I think that the indie developers are the only ones that actually deserve my monies. And since this was so awesome, I bought all these games again, this time instead donating their full cost to charity and giving my wonderful friends a chance to love the indie gaming crowd. =D GO INDIE GAMES AND THEIR AWESOME COMPANIES!LiquidGrape said:
Actually, you only need a bank account.GiantRedButton said:Note that only people with credit cards can purchase the bundle.
For some kids its simply easier to download it from somewhere else than steal there moms credit card, which are quite rare in some countries.
I'm sure there are some hard workarounds, but those are rather...hard.
More important, what a great deal, alot more interesting than the piracy discussion so thanks for that info
too
I'll try to buy it really hard, but note that i don't have a credit card. I'll edit the results.
Maybe the pirates had no other possible option then to pirate.
Edit: Up to now, no possibilty to buy the games. Has anyone an idea to cirumvent the creditcard requirement?
In germany 22.7% of people own a credit card, none of the in my family or me.
So i can't pay for it even if i wan't to.
I guess thats the reason then, the pirates CAN'T buy the bundle, they aren't cheapskates.
I decided to pay $1 for the pack and it is awesome. I fail to see why anyone would pirate something you can get for a cent, other than them being cheap, morally bankrupt gits. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play some World of Goo.