6 ms·

I'm not sure I follow, how do early access games reduce piracy?

by jiggy2011 13y ago

chongli 13y ago
They don't reduce piracy (or if they do, it's not relevant). What they do is mitigate the effects of piracy by lowering the risk of development. If your Kickstarter or early access game is successful enough, you may end up paying for the entire development of the game long before you finish developing it. And if it's not successful then you stop development and move on to something else.
- jiggy2011 13y ago
  That makes sense, crowd sourcing etc can be used to take risk out of development. I'm not sure I'd go as far as to say you don't need copyright though. Most crowd-funded games are still under proprietary licenses. Part of the appeal is getting a game earlier / cheaper than you would at release. If you allow unlimited redistribution you remove much of that incentive.
  - chongli 13y ago
    If you allow unlimited redistribution you remove much of that incentive. I disagree. The vast majority of games developed today do not have a hope of paying for their own development, copyrighted or otherwise. It's only a very small proportion of games (so-called AAA) that are developed with the expectation of profit.
    - jiggy2011 13y ago
      I'm not sure what you mean, surely all games are produced with an expectation of profit otherwise they would not be made. Discounting small games that people make for gamejams etc.
      - chongli 13y ago
        Take a look at the IndieGaming subreddit (over on Reddit). Every single day I see half a dozen new games pop up. People are making thousands and thousands of new games all the time. Do you honestly believe they all do so with an explicit expectation of profit? No, the basic premise that people do not create without an expectation of profit is false and frankly deeply insulting to humanity. http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/
        jiggy2011 13y ago
        Most indie games are built with a profit motive to some degree, at the very least they need to cover their costs but I am guessing that most aspire to more than that, so that they can fund their next game.
      - cosarara97 13y ago
        Maybe lots of them but certainly not all. Lots of games are made for fun and if they are later sold or made free depends on how well they turn out to be and what the devs want to do. It doesn't really have to be just small games, you can take Dwarf Fortress and Cave Story as examples of "big" games which are both free.
        eropple 13y ago
        Calling Dwarf Fortres "free" is mostly accurate but it doesn't really help your argument. Tarn Adams keeps ahold of Dwarf Fortress pretty tightly so that his donation stream doesn't dry up so he can continue working on it.

I'm not sure I follow, how do early access games reduce piracy?

They don't reduce piracy (or if they do, it's not relevant). What they do is mitigate the effects of piracy by lowering the risk of development. If your Kickstarter or early access game is successful enough, you may end up paying for the entire development of the game long before you finish developing it. And if it's not successful then you stop development and move on to something else.

jiggy2011 13y ago
That makes sense, crowd sourcing etc can be used to take risk out of development. I'm not sure I'd go as far as to say you don't need copyright though. Most crowd-funded games are still under proprietary licenses. Part of the appeal is getting a game earlier / cheaper than you would at release. If you allow unlimited redistribution you remove much of that incentive.
- chongli 13y ago
  If you allow unlimited redistribution you remove much of that incentive. I disagree. The vast majority of games developed today do not have a hope of paying for their own development, copyrighted or otherwise. It's only a very small proportion of games (so-called AAA) that are developed with the expectation of profit.
  - jiggy2011 13y ago
    I'm not sure what you mean, surely all games are produced with an expectation of profit otherwise they would not be made. Discounting small games that people make for gamejams etc.
    - chongli 13y ago
      Take a look at the IndieGaming subreddit (over on Reddit). Every single day I see half a dozen new games pop up. People are making thousands and thousands of new games all the time. Do you honestly believe they all do so with an explicit expectation of profit? No, the basic premise that people do not create without an expectation of profit is false and frankly deeply insulting to humanity. http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/
      - jiggy2011 13y ago
        Most indie games are built with a profit motive to some degree, at the very least they need to cover their costs but I am guessing that most aspire to more than that, so that they can fund their next game.
    - cosarara97 13y ago
      Maybe lots of them but certainly not all. Lots of games are made for fun and if they are later sold or made free depends on how well they turn out to be and what the devs want to do. It doesn't really have to be just small games, you can take Dwarf Fortress and Cave Story as examples of "big" games which are both free.
      - eropple 13y ago
        Calling Dwarf Fortres "free" is mostly accurate but it doesn't really help your argument. Tarn Adams keeps ahold of Dwarf Fortress pretty tightly so that his donation stream doesn't dry up so he can continue working on it.