9 ms·

On a similar note, here's what the devs of Game Dev Tycoon did with pirates of their game. http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-

On a similar note, here's what the devs of Game Dev Tycoon did with pirates of their game. http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/ http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-... Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5624727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5624727 Interesting article that after reading it made me go out and buy the game (so a solid marketing effort too!)

throwaway2048 11y ago
These sorts of things are silly revenge fantasies at best, they are just as easily cracked and removed as any drm features.
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  That's not the point.
  - throwaway2048 11y ago
    If its shown to be ineffective what is the point exactly?
    - kbenson 11y ago
      I think the point is that unless evidence is shown otherwise, there's little reason to believe that a significant portion of the people that pirated it got his purposefully seeded cracked version, as it was prior to it being possibly cracked otherwise, and there's little incentive for some cracking team to crack it if it appears it has already been done. That is, it's not that it's hard to work around his change, but that many people that could or would have done so may not have known it was needed. Of course, I'm sure that situation didn't persist.
  - deelowe 11y ago
    For a dose of reality, I recommend browsing r/piracy. The mental gymnastics people go through to justify their actions is mind boggling.
    - over 11y ago
      Maybe, but for the silent majority it's pretty straightforward: 1) we view information as fundamentally different from currency, goods, and services; 2) we don't want to pay for information if we don't have to and we're not going to get caught. The gymnastics are mostly about just trying to figure out whether we're bad people or not - because everyone else's favorite game is Shame the Pirate - but once you realize you're not a bad person and that you're okay with doing something illegal then it all just sort of fades into the background.
      - bitJericho 11y ago
        Well you probably are a bad person though. A good person by definition tries to do good by other people.
        scotty79 11y ago
        I prefer people that try to not do bad to other people. Those that do good can be risky.
        over 11y ago
        I think quietly doing good is okay, it's the people who talk about it that are risky.
      - manigandham 11y ago
        > but once you realize you're not a bad person and that you're okay with doing something illegal then it all just sort of fades into the background. Doing illegal things makes you a bad person. This isn't some fight against tyranny, it's theft (or illegal copying, more specifically).
ChrisDutrow 11y ago
Just read through the Game Dev Tycoon article: http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/ http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-... I was on the edge of my seat waiting for him to say something like "We used the pirated version that we released to communicate with all the people who pirated the game and we were able to convert 30% of them into paying customers!" But it didn't happen... It sounds like he just used it to really subtly hint that the people should have bought the game. Seems like a wasted opportunity. I feel like a popup that said something like this would have converted a bunch of people and turned the pirating problem into a marketing opportunity: "Haha, you are playing a pirated copy of this game, that's why you are losing all your money to game pirates. Its all good, but if you upgrade to the paid version this problem will go away, here is a link to buy the game. Happy gaming!"
- supermatt 11y ago
  If they knew they were using a doctored copy, they would go and pirate an undoctored one. Anecdote: This reminds me of the anti-griefer mechanism I put in to heyreddit/reddit roulette back in the day. If you received a verified report (following a forced match with myself), you would only got matched with other griefers. No-one realised why the penis-to-chat ratio was so low, but its because eventually all the penis flashers would only be exposing themselves to each other. Of course, if I had told people that they would have actively tried to get around it :) Yes, the downside was a manual verification step :(
  - ChrisDutrow 11y ago
    Cool anecdote, sounds like an elegant way to deal with the griefing problem. I think there is more to this pirating scenario though. A lot of people probably pirate games because because they aren't sure if they will like them. Once they are at the point where they are losing the game because of the pirated version, they already know they like it. Some of the people who get to this point will want to pay the $8 because they won't want to risk putting more effort into the game and losing progress again because of the pirating. Other people will be more comfortable paying because they no longer have to worry about paying for a game that they won't play. Even if they convert only 10% of the pirates, they will have increased their sales more than 33%, making them over $800,000 more money.

throwaway2048 11y ago

These sorts of things are silly revenge fantasies at best, they are just as easily cracked and removed as any drm features.

PhasmaFelis 11y ago
That's not the point.
- throwaway2048 11y ago
  If its shown to be ineffective what is the point exactly?
  - kbenson 11y ago
    I think the point is that unless evidence is shown otherwise, there's little reason to believe that a significant portion of the people that pirated it got his purposefully seeded cracked version, as it was prior to it being possibly cracked otherwise, and there's little incentive for some cracking team to crack it if it appears it has already been done. That is, it's not that it's hard to work around his change, but that many people that could or would have done so may not have known it was needed. Of course, I'm sure that situation didn't persist.
- deelowe 11y ago
  For a dose of reality, I recommend browsing r/piracy. The mental gymnastics people go through to justify their actions is mind boggling.
  - over 11y ago
    Maybe, but for the silent majority it's pretty straightforward: 1) we view information as fundamentally different from currency, goods, and services; 2) we don't want to pay for information if we don't have to and we're not going to get caught. The gymnastics are mostly about just trying to figure out whether we're bad people or not - because everyone else's favorite game is Shame the Pirate - but once you realize you're not a bad person and that you're okay with doing something illegal then it all just sort of fades into the background.
    - bitJericho 11y ago
      Well you probably are a bad person though. A good person by definition tries to do good by other people.
      - scotty79 11y ago
        I prefer people that try to not do bad to other people. Those that do good can be risky.
        over 11y ago
        I think quietly doing good is okay, it's the people who talk about it that are risky.
    - manigandham 11y ago
      > but once you realize you're not a bad person and that you're okay with doing something illegal then it all just sort of fades into the background. Doing illegal things makes you a bad person. This isn't some fight against tyranny, it's theft (or illegal copying, more specifically).

ChrisDutrow 11y ago

Just read through the Game Dev Tycoon article: http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/ http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-... I was on the edge of my seat waiting for him to say something like "We used the pirated version that we released to communicate with all the people who pirated the game and we were able to convert 30% of them into paying customers!" But it didn't happen... It sounds like he just used it to really subtly hint that the people should have bought the game. Seems like a wasted opportunity. I feel like a popup that said something like this would have converted a bunch of people and turned the pirating problem into a marketing opportunity: "Haha, you are playing a pirated copy of this game, that's why you are losing all your money to game pirates. Its all good, but if you upgrade to the paid version this problem will go away, here is a link to buy the game. Happy gaming!"

supermatt 11y ago
If they knew they were using a doctored copy, they would go and pirate an undoctored one. Anecdote: This reminds me of the anti-griefer mechanism I put in to heyreddit/reddit roulette back in the day. If you received a verified report (following a forced match with myself), you would only got matched with other griefers. No-one realised why the penis-to-chat ratio was so low, but its because eventually all the penis flashers would only be exposing themselves to each other. Of course, if I had told people that they would have actively tried to get around it :) Yes, the downside was a manual verification step :(
- ChrisDutrow 11y ago
  Cool anecdote, sounds like an elegant way to deal with the griefing problem. I think there is more to this pirating scenario though. A lot of people probably pirate games because because they aren't sure if they will like them. Once they are at the point where they are losing the game because of the pirated version, they already know they like it. Some of the people who get to this point will want to pay the $8 because they won't want to risk putting more effort into the game and losing progress again because of the pirating. Other people will be more comfortable paying because they no longer have to worry about paying for a game that they won't play. Even if they convert only 10% of the pirates, they will have increased their sales more than 33%, making them over $800,000 more money.