Game Developer's Response To Pirates

[Heinz68]

Interesting read about About PC Games pirating

Talking To 'Pirates'
A few days ago I posted a simple question on my blog. "Why do people pirate my games?". It was an honest attempt to get real answers to an important question. I submitted the bog entry to slashdot and the penny arcade forums, and from there it made it to arstechnica, then digg, then bnet and probably a few other places. The response was massive. This is what I found:
Read on....

[Revs]

Yeah, cheers for that. I've not played any of his games but it was still an interesting read.

[Zeus666]

smart guy, nice marketing strategy.

[CaptNKILL]

Very good read. Not really all that surprising.

[nemecb]

I think that was actually somewhat encouraging to read. From what he said, the really hardcore pirates who would pirate things no matter what devs do are a very small minority of the people doing this. The price and quality issues seem to be much bigger, and I think they make for more interesting discussion.

I would actually say that $20 for a game is very reasonable, assuming it's not some simple little casual game. I can easily see how people balk at $50-$60, but apparently even $20 is too much. I wonder if they would say the same thing about AAA titles? Maybe it was just the fact that he's an indie developer that resulted in this response.

As to the quality, I have to wonder if games are becoming victims of their own technology. The engine required to make a good 2d platformer is so much simpler than the engine required to make a good 3d game of pretty much any sort. Just consider the huge increases in the physics and graphics needed when you go 3d. As technology opens up even more in those areas it just makes the engine even harder to create. Then consider that this is just the engine I'm talking about and we haven't even gotten to the gameplay, which in the end is really what makes a game worthwhile.

I look at the rise of casual games even among the hardcore crowd as further proof of this. Sometimes a simpler game with more polished gameplay is actually more attractive than a hugely complex one that might be more inconsistent in its quality. Of course, that type of game also has the lower price point so it's probably not possible to look at any of these things in complete isolation.

Like CaptN said, maybe nothing earth-shattering, but it's a nice confirmation of what a lot of people have been thinking all along.

[NarcissistZero]

Nice blog... I enjoyed reading it.

I don't think he has to worry about price, though. People who complain about pricing on casual games would complain no matter what the price was, they just like to complain or are total cheapskates. Yes, I spent $20 on Peggle, and you know what? I've probably played it for 100 hours. Where else do you get that kind of bang for your buck? Yes, I spent $15 on Braid, and even at 4 or 5 hours it was worth every penny.

It's like music pirates... they complain about the cost of CDs, when CDs are actually, in my opinion, extremely cheap. If you buy music you actually like, rather than a catchy single, you pay $10-15 for an album you could easily listen to 1,000 times in your lifetime. That's value, people! And now a single costs $1... and people complain about price?

Some people just love to complain about price and justify their theivery.

The group he calls minor, the "I'll do illegal and immoral things when there's no or very little chance I'll get caught" group, is actually large, in my opinion. I think most of the other reasons, from price to availability, are spin-off excuses and B.S. justifications. Every pirate is rooted in this basic idea, that people will do illegal and immoral things when they know they won't get called out on it.

That fundemental truth is the reason most companies go for the "make it harder and make it possible to get caught" method. It just makes sense, given the human condition.

[ViN86]

i totally agree with the price thing. if games were $20 on average, i would have sooo many more impulse buys. and i think that goes for a lot of people. maybe even enough to see some increases in sales.

instead, i have to save money and compare games before i buy one. or i just buy em a while after theyre out or used (ie GoW PC and Bioshock PC)

[ahheadlock]

i've never heard of his games, but i like his attitude.

instead of just saying "screw piracy, it kills pc gaming, thats the reason we didn't all sell millions, etc" he actually made an effort to find out about why people do it.

although i agree with this statement above:

The group he calls minor, the "I'll do illegal and immoral things when there's no or very little chance I'll get caught" group, is actually large, in my opinion. I think most of the other reasons, from price to availability, are spin-off excuses and B.S. justifications. Every pirate is rooted in this basic idea, that people will do illegal and immoral things when they know they won't get called out on it.

while people CAN do something, they will. reason piracy is less of a concern on consoles, is because it's harder and there are some consequences (eg. being banned from live). I mean console games cost a lot more than PC ones do (at least in AUS they do) - but are pirated less. Just cause it's harder. PC piracy is easy as hell. Download game, get crack, play. Sorted.

[WeReWoLf]

I do like how he mentioned Australia lol

Rather easy to understand when we're paying $80 and upwards for a PC game, and $100 and upwards for a Console game. (New release that is)

Thankfully i found a small store in my town here that imports by the bucketload, then sells them at US prices, and still makes 10% profit on top. COD4 for $45, Metroid Prime 3 for Wii, $30 etc...

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by ViN86

i totally agree with the price thing. if games were $20 on average, i would have sooo many more impulse buys. and i think that goes for a lot of people. maybe even enough to see some increases in sales.

instead, i have to save money and compare games before i buy one. or i just buy em a while after theyre out or used (ie GoW PC and Bioshock PC)

yap, i bought few games just because they were cheap. few days ago i grabbed UT3, game that many people say is horrible.

I would never buy it for full price. in next 4 weeks there will be 5 new games, would be nice to get all of them. but i can't.

even at $40 that is $200. i'm sorry for all the console folks that have to pay $60.

[XDanger]

I think he's trying to push his soccer mom games, Kudos and Kudos 2