• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Pirates react to their games being pirated in Game Dev Tycoon

beril

Member
Not really sure what the point of the of debate on whether it's actually piracy or not is.
They're not threatening to report those who downloaded the "cracked" version to the police, it's mostly a bit of a social experiment and yes an opportunity for some clever viral marketing. The people who downloaded it thought they were pirating it, they played what they thought was an illegally acquired complete copy of the game, and went on to complain about in-game piracy. There is an irony there, whether it would hold up in court or not.

I don't think uploading the cracked version themselves really had much of an effect on sales or on how much it got pirated either; it would have been uploaded sooner or later anyway, unless it would have been completely ignored.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
So here's the real question: is the game any good? Eight bucks is a good price if it's fun.

I asked a while ago whether the game has micro payments, since the trailer looked like it. That would be an important tidbit of information for me at least.
 

usea

Member
That seems more similar to the case at hand here, yeah. I still dont see how anyone should be judged for downloading that version. I mean are we agreeing on that its not a clear cut case at least? I see downloading THAT version (with the intent of treating it as an extended demo) as perfectly fine.

What if I download that version with that intent? Will people call me a pirate? My intent is clearly not to pirate the full version since I know its not the full game, so the argument of "intention" is out of the window.
I don't think this case is any different from every other game people pirate.

I don't have a very strong believe in IP laws in the first place. I don't like copyright all that much. I don't strongly judge people who pirate games, although it depends a lot on the circumstances. Some 14 year old kid who is in a situation where they have no way of obtaining games legally? Not a big deal. A person who makes plenty of money and has easy access to pay for games? That's different. What about a person who has a compulsion to collect cracked games for no reason other than to collect, organize, archive, whatever? I don't care that they're violating somebody's copyright. Go for it, weirdo. Enjoy yourself.

Whatever reasons you have for judging pirates, I don't see how this case is any different.
 
That's a cute story and a great piece of advertising. I wouldn't have known about this game without this stunt. Game Dev Story is one of the three most addicting games I've played in my life so I'll probably need to get this.
 

JDSN

Banned
They should make a version in which they get sued for being thieving unoriginal sons of bitches by Kairosoft and an epic trial occurs, they could steal the game system for Phoenix Wright.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Not really sure what the point of the of debate on whether it's actually piracy or not is.
They're not threatening to report those who downloaded the "cracked" version to the police, it's mostly a bit of a social experiment and yes an opportunity for some clever viral marketing. The people who downloaded it thought they were pirating it, they played what they thought was an illegally acquired complete copy of the game, and went on to complain about in-game piracy. There is an irony there, whether it would hold up in court or not.

I don't think uploading the cracked version themselves really had much of an effect on sales or on how much it got pirated either; it would have been uploaded sooner or later anyway, unless it would have been completely ignored.

I never said the initial reaction by the gamers wasnt ironic and funny. I just felt the need to discuss whether these people are rightfully labelled as pirates (see thread title), despite doing something that seemed very legal to me.

On your other point, it definitely had an initial impact on sales. Small Indies usually arent very fast pirated and people checking out a game and not finding a pirated version can still decide against it and buy the full version. They definitely led "some", though in no way the majority, people to pirate a game which they might have bought if it werent for the pirated version. However, it will turn out good for them overall via the marketing they get through this PR stunt, so I am sure they'll do fine.
 
I'm a huge fan of Game Dev Story and it kind of rubs me up the wrong way seeing these guys unshamefully ripping it off and then complaining about piracy.

It's like a thief telling people not to steal.

are you all trying to say people should not be able to create their own take on a subject because it's been done before?
 

Delio

Member
Got the demo to download. Yeah it's game dev story but I really enjoyed it. Shockingly my highest selling game that launched me over 1m was Halo an Action/Military game on this game's version of the Gameboy. I'll prob pick this up as I liked all the little things that unlocked as I went along.
 

Pachael

Member

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
are you all trying to say people should not be able to create their own take on a subject because it's been done before?

It depends on how similar the games actually are I guess,but thats hard to judge without playing the game. If its basically the same game, then yeah, it seems shady.
 
Not really sure what the point of the of debate on whether it's actually piracy or not is.
They're not threatening to report those who downloaded the "cracked" version to the police, it's mostly a bit of a social experiment and yes an opportunity for some clever viral marketing. The people who downloaded it thought they were pirating it, they played what they thought was an illegally acquired complete copy of the game, and went on to complain about in-game piracy. There is an irony there, whether it would hold up in court or not.

I don't think uploading the cracked version themselves really had much of an effect on sales or on how much it got pirated either; it would have been uploaded sooner or later anyway, unless it would have been completely ignored.

Basically this.

People that downloaded the game on a torrent wasn't aware that it was a handicapped version distributed by the devs. They thought that it was the full free game, hacked by someone. Is really not different to the "batman AA anticheating protection".

They knew that the game were going to be hacked (and succesfully hacked), so they made that experiment to generate knowledge of the game, force some of the people that got that torrent copy and liked it (but got frustrated by the piracy in the game) to buy the full game (the irony was so good that probably made some of the "pirates" to think about that is worthy to pay for what you play) and also to get some stats of piracy that they won't get if the version was hacked by a third party.
 

Duster

Member
What's wrong with using the same idea as Game Dev Story? There can be more than one entry in a sub-genre, for example there have been loads of football/soccer management games.

Anyway I'm torn on this kind of anti-piracy measure, on the one hand it's a great way to expose pirates without inconveniencing legit customers. However I'd hate it to become the norm when many games aren't available legitimately due to them not being released in certain countries or only having small print-runs (interestingly that applies to a few games mentioned in this thread).
This example is fine though as it makes an almost artistic statement.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
What's wrong with using the same idea as Game Dev Story? There can be more than one entry in a sub-genre, for example there have been loads of football/soccer management games.

The football management games are drastically different. I played a lot and I have NEVER played a football management game that was basically the same as one of the others. Not even the free online ones.
 
The football management games are drastically different. I played a lot and I have NEVER played a football management game that was basically the same as one of the others. Not even the free online ones.

Yeah, Ultimate Soccer Manager allowed you to bribe refs!
 

usea

Member
What's wrong with using the same idea as Game Dev Story? There can be more than one entry in a sub-genre, for example there have been loads of football/soccer management games.
There's nothing wrong with it, as long as they're not directly stealing any assets or code. You cannot and should not be able to have some monopoly over rules in a game, "similar" aesthetics, themes, whatever. That's just bull.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
There's nothing wrong with it, as long as they're not directly stealing any assets or code. You cannot and should not be able to have some monopoly over rules in a game, "similar" aesthetics, themes, whatever. That's just bull.

It is morally questionable (funny how the tables turned now) since these devs basically stole the design concept. Its less work to just take a game and rebuild it using different art assets, than building a completely new game or creating their own take on the genre.

Remaking Mario with different art assets is still basically "stealing" the thoughts, the time and money that went into making considerations about physics, level and overall game design. Not "illegal", but definitely morally questionable.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Eh, it seems they only allow you to play the demo once : /

I heard there is a longer demo out there that allows you to play for longer and gives you a funny joke at the end.
 

Gatombre

Neo Member
What's wrong with using the same idea as Game Dev Story? There can be more than one entry in a sub-genre, for example there have been loads of football/soccer management games.

It's just very convenient for the developers of this title that everybody's talking about how those Poor Devs Had Their Game Pirated. That's the kind of conversation that reflects kindly on the developers and makes people likely to buy those games because oh, those poor devs, how will they feed their children?!

Now, what if this piracy thing wasn't happening? What would people be saying about this game instead? It would probably have something to do with the very suspicious similarities to Game Dev Story. That kind of discussion probably wouldn't sell games. It definitely wouldn't make the developers look like victims and encourage game sales that way.

It benefits the devs to keep people talking about piracy instead of the actual game - hell, it benefits them to release the "cracked" version of their game on torrent sites so that conversation gets started at all. It's the same reason we're seeing more and more AAA developers talking about social justice in games; it's a hell of a lot less expensive than doing something about game prices, online passes or other anti-consumer policies.
 

Ducarmel

Member
That's pretty funny, but not as funny as that one hentai game that took pictures of pirates and publish their photos online.
 

VARIA

Member
This is genius.


EDIT: I thought this was a sequel to Kairosofts game, not some blatant ripoff. They even stole the title. Very deceptive.
 

Majukun

Member
well if it's the same as game dev story i'll pass..i already have the game on tablet..

i would really like some more serious "game industry simulator"...like what lionhead did with "the movies" but with the videogame industry..is there anything like that on the market?
 

usea

Member
It is morally questionable (funny how the tables turned now) since these devs basically stole the design concept. Its less work to just take a game and rebuild it using different art assets, than building a completely new game or creating their own take on the genre.

Remaking Mario with different art assets is still basically "stealing" the thoughts, the time and money that went into making considerations about physics, level and overall game design. Not "illegal", but definitely morally questionable.
Taking less work to do something doesn't make it wrong. It usually makes it smart.

You can't steal thoughts, and it's definitely not stealing their time or money either. It's taking advantage of work already being done.

There's no line that can be drawn anywhere where games on one side are clones and games on the other are simply draw inspiration. Or rather, than line is when you start actually taking assets.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Taking less work to do something doesn't make it wrong. It usually makes it smart.

You can't steal thoughts, and it's definitely not stealing their time or money either. It's taking advantage of work already being done.

There's no line that can be drawn anywhere where games on one side are clones and games on the other are simply draw inspiration. Or rather, than line is when you start actually taking assets.

Its true that this line is hard to draw, so we are getting into subjective territory again, but some games are OBVIOUSLY ripped off from other games with the exact same mechanics and similar names.

As I said, I havent played it, but considering the name and others reporting about it being a 1:1 version, it seems rather fair for someone to judge it as a rip off. Others may not see the issue (like you) and are perfectly fine with it. Thats fair game too of course. There is no right or wrong on that matter.

->

Oh it's not? Not sure if I should buy it now.

See? They are even misleading customers since the game seems to be so similar in type and name.
 
So they steal the concept and style of Game Dev Story, and come up with a transparent gimmick to sell their cheap knock-off.

And, judging by this thread, it's working a treat. Good job guys.
 

squall23

Member
Everybody should just wait for Game Dev Story 2. Kairosoft already has it made, they're just holding it ransom and haven't translated it yet for some stupid reason.
 

Majukun

Member
Everybody should just wait for Game Dev Story 2. Kairosoft already has it made, they're just holding it ransom and haven't translated it yet for some stupid reason.

isn't game dev story 2 jap basically the game dev story we got in the west,while the first never got outside of japan?
 

shandy706

Member
Sooo...we're ok with DRM now...if the games are good?



(Sony and Microsoft are reading this) lol


Those pirated #'s are amazing though. Wow...and the game is less than $10. I can't believe people are pirating something so cheap.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Sooo...we're ok with DRM now...if the games are good?



(Sony and Microsoft are reading this) lol


Those pirated #'s are amazing though. Wow...and the game is less than $10. I can't believe people are pirating something so cheap.

Unrelated to the rest of the discussion, but in the Indie game space $10 isnt cheap. I bought 10-15 Indies for my Indie Game thread last month and none of that was over $5. You can get plenty of great PC Indies for $5, so $10 is already quite a bit in comparison. Other than that "cheap" is highly subjective and also based on perceived value, so for others (like you) it may also seem cheap, which is fine, but its definitely not a given to view a $10 game as cheap.
 

Mr Swine

Banned
So they steal the concept and style of Game Dev Story, and come up with a transparent gimmick to sell their cheap knock-off.

And, judging by this thread, it's working a treat. Good job guys.

Well Kairosoft has never released another Game Dev Story after the one on PC in Japan/iOS. So this is better than nothing I guess
 

Haunted

Member
haha


But I fear this will be the only thing the game will be remembered for (it doesn't look that great otherwise).
 
I can't help but wonder if this game would have even received a torrent if they hadn't uploaded it themselves, to be honest. Those percentages sound nasty, but when you look at the actual raw numbers....a couple of thousand people total playing your game isn't exactly the big leagues. I would've never heard about the title if they hadn't promoted the hell out of themselves with this stunt of theirs.

Also, this has nothing on the Vuvuzelas from Michael Jackson: The Experience. ;)
 
Someone once told me its all about the intention:
http://www.gamerankings.com/browse.html?search=game+dev&numrev=3&site=

The intention was pretty clearly to ride on the success of the original game.

it could very well be, actually. I just find it it hilarious to consider that a title was copied when it's a common way of calling developers. We could argue that the are banking on the success of past tycoon games for using the tycoon word too.

But then it should be called:

Maker of games simulator

but then it'd be banking on the successful "X simulator" series

I can't help but wonder if this game would have even received a torrent if they hadn't uploaded it themselves, to be honest. Those percentages sound nasty, but when you look at the actual raw numbers....a couple of thousand people total playing your game isn't exactly the big leagues. I would've never heard about the title if they hadn't promoted the hell out of themselves with this stunt of theirs.

Also, this has nothing on the Vuvuzelas from Michael Jackson: The Experience. ;)

One day though, and from a studio that was completely unknown to me.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
it could very well be, actually. I just find it it hilarious to consider that a title was copied when it's a common way of calling developers. We could argue that the are banking on the success of past tycoon games for using the tycoon word too.

But then it should be called:

Maker of games simulator

but then it'd be banking on the successful "X simulator" series

Tycoon games are sort of accepted by now as a genre categorization though. Sort of like how the first few games riding the "craft" games seemed shady and uninspired, but now its sort of a nominator of its own subgenre, which makes the naming convention seem a bit creatively bancrupt at least. But in the case of Game Dev Story Tycoon, where its copying name/content and gameplay mechanics?
 
Top Bottom