5punk

It's rare I read a story about piracy that makes me feel warm and fluffy, but this one does.

http://www.positech.co.uk/talkingtopirates.html

A dev, who has apparently been actively hostile towards pirates in the past, has done a survey of why people pirate his games. The shocking part is, he's actually listened to them. My personal bugbear, DRM, is in there and he cites that as actually causing more piracy than it prevents. Possibly an overexaggeration, but I'm more than happy for him to believe that. he's only a small developer, but if he can provide solid evidence of increased success after adjusting his policies in response to his survey then maybe the big boys will listen. Kudos to him, I say.

Story nicked from RPS.

edit: I think that covered it pretty well for me really.

I'll sweep games because it's (even with a fileplanet sub) usually quicker than getting the demo, and more indicative of the game than a demo is.

Hell, on more than one occasion I've swept a game, completed it and then bought it as soon as I could afford to.

Dog Pants wrote: Kudos to him, I say.

I SAW THAT! Bad mr pants, slipping a pun in there when you thought no one was watching!

Since I joined 5punk, I bought significantly more games than before, but even before 5punk, any game that matched my criterias got on the to be bought list for me. And it's basically what every gamer wants. A fine gameplay - and by fine I mean it's not like I start playing, and then 4 hours later my brother comes in, wakes me up and tells me that I just missed the handball match I've anticipated for a few weeks and it was actually the best of the past two millenias. Price - I just can't afford to buy every game and their dog if they all cost a fucking fortune. Direct download - I live in Hungary, a fallen back country. Inside a fallen back country, I live in a fallen back city. There is no way for me to spontaneously go out to the local games shop and buy something, double true for MMORPGs (I can't even sweep those, I just don't play them then) if they work with gamecards then triple. Finally, intrusive copy protection. Getting me to buy something with a copy protection such as Shitforce 3 is about as hard as getting me to stick a plugged in extension cord up my arse all the way up to my stomach.

On another note, as a sign of sympathy, I might just buy one of his games.

Baliame wrote:Getting me to buy something with a copy protection such as Shitforce 3 is about as hard as getting me to stick a plugged in extension cord up my arse all the way up to my stomach.

Eloquently put, sir.

Baliame wrote:On another note, as a sign of sympathy, I might just buy one of his games.

I considered this too, just to register my support. They're not expensive.

I'd download a demo/the game, then buy it if you like it.

Y'know, not just giving the guy some money because he stated the obvious?

I'd think of it more as supporting a business choice I, as a consumer, like. If he strips DRM from his game and I buy it, and that influences other devs to do the same then it's worth a fiver of my money.

I'd never heard of him or his games - I might now sweep some and give them a try.



It is good to see someone taking notice, and $10 is ludicrously cheap for a game - not sure if he's robbing himself there.

I don't have problems affording games, but do feel very ripped-off sometimes, when £40 translates to less than an hour's enjoyment. I also don't have a problem with demo length - in the main they're about right (although if they're an RTS I'm probably not able to complete them) and I've bought many games on the strength of them.

Copy protection is a pisser though, but mostly because it introduces incompatibility with Fista 64.

FatherJack wrote:[all the crap] Fista 64.

I've got a top solution. Do not use fista.

Dog Pants wrote:I'd think of it more as supporting a business choice I, as a consumer, like. If he strips DRM from his game and I buy it, and that influences other devs to do the same then it's worth a fiver of my money.

I don't think people are actually that strongly against DRM generally, Just bad DRM, stuff that's incompatible with stuff, breaks things, fucks shit up and fucks users over.

Everyone loves steam, which is DRM with a shop and server browser built in, but no-one really cares because it always works and there's no limits to how often you can install your games.


EA downloader and Direct2Drive on the other hand, do sucky, limiting DRM with other shit restrictions that help no-one at all.

Hell, I'll try one of his demos out later.
Might even buy a game off him.

Nice to see a developer open up to public opinion.

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:EA downloader

Especially that one. Buggers delete the game from your account after 6 months. It's like as if you went to gamestation, bought a game, six months later an employee knocks on your door, takes the data carrier, polishes it and resells it.

Baliame wrote: Especially that one. Buggers delete the game from your account after 6 months. It's like as if you went to gamestation, bought a game, six months later an employee knocks on your door, takes the data carrier, polishes it and resells it.

While fisting you and laughing.

FatherJack wrote: While fisting you and laughing.

Of course you can always pay them extra to allow you to access your own purchase for longer. Yeah, EA Link can fuck off, then when it gets to where it's fucked off to it can fuck off from there too.

Dog Pants wrote:Rare Pantsu rant

Blimy, EA Link sounds great, I must go and buy some games from there

Dr. kitteny berk wrote: Everyone loves steam, which is DRM with a shop and server browser built in, but no-one really cares because it always works and there's no limits to how often you can install your games.

Absolutely agree.

I think the mistake most devs and suchlike make at the moment is focusing their copy protection stuff on making it difficult to copy the game, rather than making it easier not to. Theres loads of games I've bought off steam that I wouldn't otherwise own because:

a) I couldn't be arsed to go to the shops/it was the middle of the night when I bought it

and

b) its easier to buy it off steam than to pirate it.

The issue with starforce etc is that its easier to pirate it than not.

Except that the Steam version of Bioshock still (initially) had the limited installs, and TrackMania has some sort of copy thing in as I can't run it at all.

Some devs either don't get the point of Steam, don't trust it to do a sufficient job of securing their game, or more likely simply use Steam as purely a delivery mechanism for the identical code as their retail boxed version.

Also it's not perfect - if your account was compromised, or used in some way to hack in an online game then they are very firm about closing it permanently, and you lose everything you've ever purchased through it - but it's better than anything anyone else is doing.

I never got why TMN had Starfarce. It's free for God's sake.

Dog Pants wrote:I never got why TMN had Starfarce. It's free for God's sake.

Probably because it's easier to leave it in, assuming the freeware versions are modifications of Sunrise - perhaps the protection is coded very deeply into the engine. Also it reduces the chances of someone using a version of the unprotected game engine with the data files of the retail releases.

FatherJack wrote: Probably because it's easier to leave it in, assuming the freeware versions are modifications of Sunrise - perhaps the protection is coded very deeply into the engine. Also it reduces the chances of someone using a version of the unprotected game engine with the data files of the retail releases.

I believe this was their rationale, the code was largely similar between the two, so hackers could use the knowledge from one to crack the other.