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Kotaku 
10/27/09
11/04/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
The first one's pretty easy. You go to see a movie. It's not a full showing (you went during the day because you don't have a job), so you're not taking a paying customer's seat. You didn't take anything physical from the theater either, so obviously, you don't need to pay. The cinema isn't out anything, and if you liked the movie, you'll make it up by pirating the DVD when it comes out. You leave a penny in the theater to cover wear and tear on the seat (it rolled into some gum and you don't want to touch it anymore).
Later, you see the doctor. He diagnoses you with inflamed doucheneys and prescribes some crazy hoojum medicine. You sneak out the back door without paying, because come on, you didn't get anything tangible from the doctor. It's not like he's missing any of his doctory smarts now, and besides, doctors are rich, right? You're like a friggin' modern day Robin Hood. If his advice works, you'll pay him back by referring your other freeloading friends his way.
In the afternoon, your mom is totally on your case for no reason (Usually you shut your room door and play loud music so you can't hear her, but this time she barges in. God, so rude.) and makes you go run some errands. You park at a parking garage, but when it comes time to leave, do you pay? Of course not! You didn't get anything physical out of the deal, so why would you even consider it? The parking lot wasn't full anyway--wait, check it what I just thought of. Even if it was full, you were probably blocking another non-payer from parking. See, no problem! You're totally off the hook, awesome! You did accidentally hit a post when trying to avoid the gate on the way out, but you didn't get anything out of that either. Besides, it's their fault for trying to block you and make you pay. In fact, thinking back, you decide you hit that post as a matter of principle. Plus, it was your mom's car, so serves her right for nagging you about getting a job.
There's this pair of sweet Lanvin kicks that you've been eyeing for a while. You've decided that you want--no, you need--no, you deserve--no, the world totally owes you these shoes. It's your Goddamned right to have a pair of these shoes. But you don't have the seven hundred bucks to get them (see the no job part above), and they're a physical item, and dude, you've got morals and shit. No problem! You walk into the store and announce that you're paying $20 for them (that's all your mom had in her purse) because that's the cost of the raw materials. Sure, some old Italian dude had to stitch it together or glue it or whatever (you're an expert on shoemaking because you read that thread on Digg) but unless he got a hair got stuck in the shoe, he didn't add anything physical. No need to pay him! The salesman nods his head at your sage words, and gives you the shoes for $20. Whoops, you need to save $4 for coffee later (you pay full price there to impress the cute barista). Well, the materials were probably only $16 anyway.
When you finally get home, though, there's some bad news. That guy on eBay you sold your old computer to (you need money because the idiot people at Nordstrom won't listen to your brilliant raw materials logic) is trying to screw you because it wasn't an "authentic" Alienware or something. You type an angry email explaining how your computer is just as good as an Alienware and a brand isn't a physical thing and it's meaningless and you can put whatever images you want in your auction because it's all bytes and ones and zeroes and stuff and logos and branding are evil and worthless (your friend has a copy of "No Logo," so you're an expert on the subject) and after all the logo is just a picture so it's okay to copy and you did tape an Alienware logo to the computer and the idea of manufacturer is intangible metadata anyway.
Wait, put that on hold, your mom is calling you for dinner. You've gotten a lot done today, so you reward yourself by playing computer games (pirated of course) the rest of the night. You'll get on that job search tomorrow. #piracy
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
Brilliant!!!! #piracy
10/27/09
10/27/09
I wont act like I know how to stop it or anything like that, but if piracy continues to grow at the rate it has, and the used game market continues to grow, more and more studios are going to close, and large studios that churn out sequel after sequel and minigame collection garbage will continue to make their money (afterall, 10yr olds cant pirate... can they?).
So yea, I for one cant wait when I have the choice between Wii3's shake your left leg minigame collection or Generic Shooter 266.5. #piracy
10/27/09
10/27/09
But if I don't... it's not like they lost a sale, right? I was never going to buy a ticket anyway. #piracy
10/27/09
I will, however, mention that the piracy on iPhone can really take a beating, because of a new possibility: free apps with in-app purchase.
What does it mean? Basically, it means that now, a developer can release a free demo without creating a second application. Also, more importantly: in-app purchases are not crackable at the moment, at least not as easily as paid apps.
I think we are going to see a LOT of these sharewares soon, to counter piracy. I just hope that the devs will use this feature wisely.
10/26/09
Sorry to burst their bubble but in my experience people only pirate games they weren't going to buy in the first place. #piracy
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
Either way: if someone isn't going to buy a copy, fine. But don't play it then. Games are a luxury, not a right. #piracy
10/26/09
Truth is games are a luxury and like all luxuries they are in fact unnecessary. No one has any more rights to them as anyone else.
I mean, just because you see Billy with a shiny new ball doesn't mean you need to have a shiny new ball as well. It just means Billy has balls.. unlike you. #piracy
10/26/09
Of course people make games for fun, as a hobby, and of course people would still do it without getting paid, but not as often. Basically, when you pay for a game you're paying a developer's salary, so they can eat, so they can make something awesome for you.
You want to know why people like me who buy games legitimately hate pirates? Simple. It's because we're subsidizing your playing. We pay these developers, but you reap the profits, and don't put forth a dime. I don't care what you say about Open Source or New Media or that they're "Changing the Paradigm". Bullshit. Look, Open Source is awesome. That some coders are willing to give away their time is great, but that doesn't make it right for you to steal from someone who isn't giving their time away. And that's what your doing. Taking their intellectual property without their permission. Period. #piracy
10/26/09
An indie game developer is doing the same thing: devoting lots and lots of time to a project, which they may or may not see some money from. However, because it's a simple hobby, should they release it to the public and make any money, isn't that a good thing?
Basically, what I'm getting at is the difference between creating something with one person in mind, versus creating something with the mass public in mind. Just because a lot of time is put into something, doesn't mean it will appeal to the mass public. People should be aware of who their target consumer market is, and hopefully thus will appreciate them the most. As such, if it reaches out to more people than originally intended, they should feel happy.
Again, example: a person buys a one-of-a-kind piece of art, takes a picture, and places it on Facebook, etc. Now other people want it but they can't have it. They may commission the original maker, they may ask for different photo shots, or they may simply try to buy the original for a higher price, among other options.
If you're banking everything on something that may only appeal to a select few people, truly think of what your purpose in creating it is vs. what you expect to get out of it, regardless of what.
Basically, consider the options of what an indie dev is doing and going through.
Also, don't place all of your eggs in one basket. #piracy
10/26/09
What I do see from a lot of commenters here is that people are associating indie games with people who are doing this for the love and nothing else. You refer to it as a hobby. There may be some people out there like that, but most of them with high production values, I can assure you, are not hobby projects. They're actually trying to make money believe it or not.
I am working on my first indie title right now and I can tell you that I love what I do, but I'd be a moron to do it for the love when I could be spending time with my wife. No, I do it so that I can provide a better tomorrow for us and hopefully the rest of my extended family in some way. I don't always enjoy coming home after coding all day to code all night.
I'm thankful I saw early in my project cycle what these developers are just now seeing. You need a free to try, then add on marketplace model that requires authentication on a service to cover yourself from a lot of the piracy.
Here's a great solution. If you can see that they pirate, as these devs have stated, then put a big green rectangle over the game when they've verified the user didn't purchase the game. That's even what I would consider bending over backwards from someone who has already stolen from you. #piracy
10/26/09
My family is in the art business, so it rubbed off. ^^ #piracy
10/27/09
What I mostly wanted to get at was that indie devs need to take a different approach to creating/selling/marketing games, and understand what their place in the industry is (that they typically can't have the sort of blockbuster success that other console games usually have). When an indie dev finally finds the right approach (e.g. couple of free releases to create a name/market, then modest price game, then reasonable priced game; perhaps also donations for the first few games), then I'm sure they can have success.
Also, what you say about anti-piracy is more than reasonable and is rather strange that developers don't take a more similar approach.
Seriously, if nearly every developer knows about piracy, why don't they go to the torrent sites and try to stop it. Or better yet, upload their own corrupt torrent that's a giant Rickroll or something. #piracy
10/27/09
10/26/09
Until we find a way to duplicate food without loss as we can with games there's a problem.
And, while we're at it, please send me a copy of Megan Fox. Please and thank you. #piracy
10/27/09
10/26/09
I can't afford it and some heroes of the internet provide it for me for free. God bless them. God bless Utorrent.
Not everyone is rich, maybe you people should get off your pedestal.
No lie, I'd say 75% of everything I pirate I'd be pissed off if I'd of payed for it. If I payed 10$ to go see Transformers 2 I would have been pissed off. Almost every Ipod game I've downloaded I've deleted because that suck, like tap fu game. I have a total of 2 games on my ipod that I downloaded and kept because they don't suck that much.
I waiting 9 hours to download and play sims 3 and then deleted it because it sucks. If anything companies steal from me when they put out crap and trick me into buying it. Like Fable 2, I payed for that and now I'll never pay for it again because it was terrible. I downloaded spore, played it for about a week and never touched it again except to uninstall. You get the point.
I'd say for all the crap media I have payed for makes up for all the things I have downloaded and again, it's free. I've never even heard of someone going out of business over piracy. You people probably applaud big business when they sue an a old woman for downloading nursery rhymes for $50,000
I do what I want cause a pirate is free and I am a pirate. YARG YARG Yippidy dee being a pirate is so fun to be, I do what I want cause a pirate is free. I AM A PIRATE! #piracy
10/26/09
You say that now, but... would you really work a second job for the jollies? Finishing a game project, even as small-scale as an iphone game, takes quite a bit of commitment. Independent or not, most of the people in the game industry have bills to pay. A lot of us do quite a bit of personal work, but that's low-stress, low-commitment stuff that keeps our skills sharp and up-to-date on the latest techniques.
Game projects require several people with extremely varied skill sets and matching levels of commitment. There are people who do that for free, mostly working on mods, but given the chance to get publisher funding for their mod or stay free-to-play, nearly everyone would take the funding.
You say you feel like the companies are the ones doing the stealing when you buy something shitty. No, my friend, what you are doing is passing the responsibility for being an informed consumer onto the company. If someone is on the corner selling shit pies for five bucks each, can we really sympathize with the people who pony up expecting that everything sold for five dollars is worth five dollars? No, because they are being goddamn morons.
You just don't want to take responsibility for ensuring that your money is spent in a worthwhile way, and companies pushing inferior products make for an easy enough target. #piracy
10/26/09
If you genuinely have faith that you are creating a good product you will be able to build up a fan base and a reputation, giving you an awesome platform from which to launch a career.
Sure getting a few sale might be nice but gaining a reputation is much more beneficial in the long run.
The same way that if i was in a band i wouldnt give a shit if i never sold a single CD if it meant i could tour the world playing to kids that had stolen my music. I spoke to a guy in a relatively small band a few years ago and he knew they had sold only a handful of CDs in the area but he was playing to a packed out room of fans singing along, something that was only possible because of piracy. #piracy
10/26/09
Like I said, I'm not just talking about video games. Movies and music too.
If I had payed to see Wolverine, I would have been depressed.
Everyone I listen to is still making music or is retired rich and Wolverine still made a crap load of money. Underground music I listen to puts their albums online for free most of the time.
Companies should make sure my money is spent worthwhile on their product regardless. #piracy
10/26/09
However, put it simply, pirates are awesome, and Aaron Baggett knows this. Here's the proof. #piracy
10/26/09
It takes years to become proficient, and either quality training or exceptional dedication and ability to self-teach. The former doesn't come cheap: to graduate from a school like Full Sail as a 3D artist you'll need educational loans to the tune of around $65,000 last time I checked.
I'm guessing you're the kind of person who asks all their artist friends to make artwork for your own random ass project, always unpaid, telling them "this is an opportunity for you, you know, to get your name out there." The truth is, any project that can get you more attention by being attached to it than you can on your own will have the capability and motivation to pay you for your work.
Regardless, although there are a lot of people working on free game projects out there it doesn't really make sense to use that as an excuse to bash the people working on paid projects. The vast majority of incredible games we have to play today would not be even remotely possible in an industry composed only of hobbyists.
Your "band touring the world" analogy is deeply flawed as well -- for popular musicians that's actually where the money's at. So many middlemen get a slice of the CD sales pie that many musicians make most of their money off live performances. But game developers have no live performances to help pay the rent. #piracy
10/26/09
Come one, come all. Watch me perform for free. Just fucking be there. I would kill to have someone make a boot of one of my sets and distribute it.
In fact, I will go as far to say that I invite everyone to watch me perform for free, record what I do, copy it, and give it to all your friends. Please. For god's sake, please!
So I don't have a lot of sympathy for anyone who makes something popular and complains about piracy. #piracy
10/26/09
No. So long as they have not outright lied to you, the burden of determining what is worth your money is up to you.
"I've payed for lot's of games that I end up never touching after a week and feel ripped off after paying 60$"
That's your own fault now, isn't it? Rent more games, check more reviews, ask more friends. There is a reason that creative works like music, games, and movies don't come with "satisfaction guaranteed" stickers. #piracy
10/26/09
Don't you think products should come with that sticker though? Why should I be expected to be honest, but companies don't? #piracy
10/26/09
Don't quit your day job! #piracy
10/27/09
Here's the thing. I do comedy, because I love it. If I could pack a house full of freeloaders every time I go on stage for the rest of my life, I would die happy. #piracy
10/27/09
My point was mainly that i feel that for people starting out the best way to get exposure, and create some kind of a fan base, is to submit your product as widely as possible; and that is easiest if the product is free.
I never meant to suggest that someone give away their work free forever. I just think if i was in that position i would be willing to take a hit on a couple of early projects so that in the future i could release a game "From the team that brought you....." and actually have that carry some weight as I allowed as many people as possible to play my earlier work.
But then this really has nothing to do with piracy and is pretty much irrelevant to the topic at hand. #piracy
10/26/09
"There’s probably a few of these people that would have bought our game in the first place so it’s not really a big deal."
Many publishers and developers equate each pirated copy as a lost sale and tally up the figures to produce an extremely depressing account of the situation. The fact of the matter is, many of these jailbroken iphone/ipod owners are ONLY downloading the game because it is available to them at no cost.
Is this fair to the developer? Definitely not, but they should be clear that not every pirated copy is equal to one lost sale. In a TED talk I watched recently, the speaker discussed Microsoft's anti-piracy strategy (regarding china). It's effectively, "if they are going to steal software, we would prefer they steal ours." If nothing else, they are building a user base. I understand the rules are different for operating systems and there is no legitimate argument that people cannot afford appstore prices, but the kernel of reasoning remains valuable.
Piracy, by its actual or perceived damage, has single handedly changed the face of gaming on PC. We've traded immersive singleplayer games for the dribble of content that MMOs can spew out. All so that we are forced through the server authentication mechanisms and subscription models that so effectively combat piracy. The prospect of free, effective DRM is, in my opinion, the greatest advantage of the appstore over other distribution mechanisms. Apple should consider this issue seriously if it wants their jesus phone to continue being a contender in the arena of mobile gaming. #piracy