Piracy: Game developer wants to hear from those who pirate his games

motivez · 08-13-2008, 07:00 AM

"Indie game developer Cliff Harris has long waged war against games piracy, but has issued a call to pirates to tell him why he is wrong. Assuming that developers are missing out on potential sales from disgruntled pirates, Cliff wants to hear specifically from people who have pirated his games. Not to criticize or lecture them, but to answer a simple question. Why? The reasons people give for copyright infringement/piracy are many and varied, but much of the debate has centred around music and movies, with big 'Triple-A' games an occasional consideration. With specific application to the world of small budget 'indie' games like those Cliff makes, he wants to know the thought processes behind people pirating the games. What puts people off buying? Is it quality, cost, DRM, ease of access? Is there anything that can be done to convert those people to buyers? While many pirates often make good general points about the reasons for the widespread pirating of PC games, it's unusual to get a chance to address specific developers with specific reasons. If you knew 100% that the developer would read your email explaining why you pirated their game, what would you say?"

Slashdot | Game Developer Asks To Hear From Pirates

Link to the guys site: Cliffski’s Blog » Genuine call for emails from pirates

I have to say at least in my personal experience, it's about the money. When I don't buy stuff, it's because I don't have to in order to use it.

The games I have bought have been primarily because I knew of the hassles of fake cd keys when trying to do competitive online play, and then secondarily because I wanted to support the developer (Half Life, Quake, etc).. or because I couldn't play without an active, purchased account, like World of Warcraft or EverQuest.

I can't wait to see him post a summary of the information. I don't think I've ever pirated any of his games, so I haven't bothered emailing him.

Kytro · 08-20-2008, 07:17 AM

Seems like there were a number of replies, he even categorised them.

Slashdot | Game Developer's Response To Pirates

Personally, I am anti-copyright and IP, but then again I am anti-society-as-it-stands. I think the money system is a joke, and I am not socialist.

In terms of the arguments presented, DRM would have to be the biggest, who in there right mind would make a paid-for product harder to use than a pirated product.

motivez · 08-20-2008, 02:56 PM

Looks like he has a political game up there: Democracy 2

Might be worth checking that out

C4Casey · 08-20-2008, 11:23 PM

I really admire how video game designers used pirates and hackers to better their product, instead of just taking them to court. The music industry saw that their customers were pirating music, so they sued them. The gaming industry saw people were doing the same thing to their product, and they asked them how to make it better. That's probably why the gaming industry has had such an explosion in popularity in the past decade.

Stylerod · 08-22-2008, 01:39 PM

Like Mot, I pretty much purchased games because I wanted the online play. I would download a game to see if I liked it and if it would be worth playing online. If it was I bought it. If it wasn't, I rarely plated it again.

I gotta say I really like Steam. Being able to buy games online, get demo's, movies, automatic updates to games, is so convenient. And it has to be cheaper for them to market software that way.