Dynamite Shikoku
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Pirates react to their games being pirated in Game Dev Tycoon
- Thread starter usea
- Start date
blitzcloud
Banned
well played. Funny to see how pirates are such hypocrites and whine about their "game" being pirated.
Boss, boss! We had another stupendous idea! We've gotten Timmy, the producer's 13-year-old son, to use his middle school PowerPoint skills to make a graph displaying how many people pirated our game! We were able to pay him using the money we saved on buying bulk crates of innovation from OfficeMax.
What, boss? You want to know where the source of our data is? Well, that's the beauty of it: these are gamers! They aren't going to ask where the source of the data is, they'll just accept that Everyone Pirated Our Game Because We're Developers and We Said So. Gamers aren't capable of skepticism! It's a perfect plan, boss! Woe is us, being a game developer is so hard!
A raise? Thanks!
Bomber Bob
Banned
just tried the demo.
its like an uncharismatic version of game dev story
pretty wonky/bland too
its like an uncharismatic version of game dev story
pretty wonky/bland too
They didnt pirate it.
Again:
Thing is... THEY uploaded a version of the game that is restricted and obviously not the full version.
Honest question here, isnt it technically a demo as well? As I see it, they now have 2 different demos out there. I dont see any reason to call it a "pirated" version instead of a demo. Super quick non-academic look up of the definition of pirating:
Doesnt apply here. People downloaded it with the INTENTION of pirating, but that doesnt make it pirating if its actually legal.
blitzcloud
Banned
Their intention was to pirate it. The fact that the devs outsmarted holds little value in the context.
PS: In other words, you can't think this is the only game they ever "tried to pirate".
Wrong. Just the intention to do something illegal doesnt make it illegal. If a shop offers free biscuits and a thief is stealing it thinking they werent free, then he didnt do something illegal.
The person is question is certainly not a morally good one, but he did not do something illegal in this particular case.
Sure, they are pirates, but downloading THIS particular game is apparently perfectly fine.
Copyright infringement is a legal construct. So whether the actions of a person who downloaded the cracked version from a torrent were breaking the law, depends on arguments that would have to be made by lawyers in court. It's pointless to try and have an armchair discussion about that here.
Piracy, especially around here, is usually considered more of a moral crime separate from what is legal. So there is no "technically" because morality is subjective.
There is no moral crime here. People downloaded a free version offered by the dev that is basically an extended demo (as in: not the full game). Some guys saying that the INTENTION is making it morally bad is quite the stretch.
It was a mistake by the devs itself. They uploaded a second demo and called everyone downloading it pirates. They basically tempted people to download a version of the game and now complain about it? lol?
Steverulez
Member
How long can it take for stuff thats up under Greenlight to be actually added to the Steam store? Want to buy it (played demo, its very good, similar to Game Dev Story but, can you really make the game that different from it?) but would rather do it through Steam.
Yeah, I understand what the game is, but this:
Doesn't sound like someone trying to get help with the game so much as it does a game developer trying to make a point about the true cost of piracy. Again, I may be cynical but it just seems phony to me.
What killed it was outside of the first rut of games that had anti-piracy that many of the games seemed to have the same idea for protection, so once the first batch was broken (and this took a few weeks), it literally only became a stop-gap for only a few more moments.
blitzcloud
Banned
if I take something that I believe to be a knife and try to stab someone only to find that it was actually a flexible rubber prop knife, I didn't try to commit murder?
It really is too bad that they already revealed this.
SE also had some creative anti piracy measures. For example, in Dragon Quest V you couldn't get off a boat at the beginning of the game and in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates a thank you message would pop up and the game would freeze.
Radiant Historia did it in a clever way, wherein pirated copies for stuck in an endless time loop using the games time travel machismo a.
Assuming that they're distributing the "cracked" version through whatever means pirates typically distribute and download pirated software, I'd say it's fair to assume that the people playing this version are pirates. They aren't pirates because they're playing a "cracked" version of this game; they're pirates because they've probably downloaded other games in this manner if their first impulse was to download the game in this manner.
Attempted murder is a crime, sure. Havent heard of "attempted piracy" yet, but feel free to find the judicial case of someone being legally judged for "attempted piracy" and get back to me.
That's your opinion. Each person will have their own opinion about what is right and wrong. You can easily find varied opinions on morality and piracy even without this complication.
Personally, as far as the downloaders' morality is concerned I don't think the identity of the torrent's uploader matters since they were unaware of it. Police do this all the time with stings of various sorts. If you attempt to commit a crime and it just so happens that what you did turned out to not be a crime, does it make what you did OK? (forgetting that committing a crime in and of itself is not wrong)
Vampirolol
Member
This time piracy works like marketing. Very clever, now I want this game
blitzcloud
Banned
yeah, but I couldn't even physically harm the person and they can't prove my intention was to kill them, right? As it was a prop, it can't be determined. Same here because the version was altered and released by the devs.
Can you give me an example of what the police is doing exactly? They are usually trying to see whether someone is commiting a crime, dont they? I cant see them arresting someone for doing something legal (like "stealing" a biscuit offered for free).
Delusibeta
Banned
I would question if he got 20 sales from the Windows 8 store so far, never mind 200.
[Edit] Also, put me down for "it's an official torrent, it's not piracy" party.
KefkaPalazzo
Member
blitzcloud
Banned
it's because your analogy is a biscuit. Even if the biscuit had a price, the police wouldn't be involved.
There's a moral crime, maybe not a legal one. Now if I downloaded it to check how clever their antipiracy version is, I wouldn't be doing a moral crime. But those who expected to have the actual game for free were trying to pirate the game... therefore doing something morally wrong.
Steverulez
Member
Website says if you buy it through them or Windows store then they get accepted to Steam they'll offer free keys.
But their website is up for maintenance, so I can't buy it (it says maintenance but also wasn't really working for me)
But their website is up for maintenance, so I can't buy it (it says maintenance but also wasn't really working for me)
They have people pose at prostitutes. When a person offers to buy sex from the undercover officer, they are arrested. Because soliciting sex is a crime, even though no sex takes place. Soliciting is not wrong in their eyes, sex for money is wrong. The only reason soliciting is a crime is so they can catch people doing it.
Police will place a wallet or purse on the ground somewhere (train station, subway, sidewalk, etc) with money in it. They watch. If a person picks up the wallet and takes out money, they arrest them. In some cases they will arrest a person who simply picks up the wallet, even if the person simply intended to try and find the owner.
Here's an article discussing some particularly egregious methods that police use. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/critics_bash_nypds_anti-theft.html
Attacking a person is a crime in itself no matter with which weapon, and that is what you get judged for. Just downloading a program that is freely offered is not a crime by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, the people might be pirates overall, but just them downloading a free demo (I mean it IS a demo. The game is limited to not be the full version) is not making that one deed illegal.
Doesnt change anything about the opinion on these people, but the question here is whether its perfectly fine to download that version of the game. Which it seems to be.
This is sheer genius. These guys release a free demo, their main game is DRM free and only $8 dollars, can be installed on any platform, and yet over 90% of all players of their game are pirates.
It's clear that people will always try and get something for free, rather than paying for it.
What the devs did is ingenious though.
It's clear that people will always try and get something for free, rather than paying for it.
What the devs did is ingenious though.
"When a person offers to buy sex", that person did something illegal because soliciting sex is a crime, didnt he? So he gets arrested for actually doing something illegal. Dont see the comparison to the case at hand here, where people actually didnt do something illegal.
If you read my post, it contains more than that. I was simply answering your question about how police conduct sting operations.
Placing a wallet on the ground is very analogous to placing a torrent on pirate bay. Just because it's sitting there with nobody around doesn't mean it's free to take.
Photolysis
Banned
This is hilarious. Both that the intended pirates are getting screwed over, and that ironically they're not actually pirating (in this case).
BassForever
Member
Brilliant, best anti piracy drm ever
Reminds me of how often people just pirate stuff like humble indie bundles. They'd literally rather pirate the game than pay a single penny.
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.
blitzcloud
Banned
how do you determine i was attacking if the knife is a prop? Am I attacking you if i blow air to your face? For all we know it could be a joke. maybe if done on public it would be a disruption of safety but that's about it.
PS: Toma, we're not arguing that it's pirating on the legal level, as the definition of piracy is country based. In Spain it means to provide the game and make income out of it. But on the moral side of things, it's pretty much piracy
Okay, how about changing the intent. What if I downloaded the version of the game with the intent of treating it as it is (as a demo, which it is since its not the full version of the game). Would you still call me a pirate?
they go third party after the dreamcast
Sho_Nuff82
Member
Think of it as a cheeky demo that lets you play through 50% of the game. If you can't appreciate the irony and chip in a few bucks ti the devs after the big reveal, you probably have no sense of humour.
I would send this game to actual developers:
1. My game is pirated ! lost "50% sales"
2. Inclusion of DRM
3. My game is still pirated and i lost 1mln$ on DRM
DRM doesn't work your game needs to be online only or online only to not get pirated which means only several types of games can be online only.
1. My game is pirated ! lost "50% sales"
2. Inclusion of DRM
3. My game is still pirated and i lost 1mln$ on DRM
DRM doesn't work your game needs to be online only or online only to not get pirated which means only several types of games can be online only.
blitzcloud
Banned
If you downloaded it now that it's known, i wouldn't consider you a pirate at all. Just someone curious to see how they implemented this antipiracy method.
we still gotta give the devs props. They know going after pirates is ineffective as a whole, so they tried to render those with the intention of piracy as huge hypocrites. Maybe the message actually changed the heart of some people regarding what they were actually doing to a game company when they mindlessly torrent stuff, by having a parody of the time needed to create a game rendered useless because people prefer not to give you the money you need to keep afloat.
Portugeezer
Member
More like PC Dev Tycoon.
Dave Meltzer
Banned
Wow I just assumed this game was a sequel to Game Dev Story. They just straight up stole that idea, huh? There goes my sympathy.
Trying to steal something that is free is attempted theft where I live and, yes, the intent matters.
I wouldn't even try and get into US copyright law if I was paid, though.
Such DRM schemes are entertaining, but if I was a dev I wouldn't do it because of the "this game is fucking broken" backlash.
Thats sort of a small consensus I guess, but it still seems very dubious and weird to judge people differently for DOING (not thinking) the EXACT same thing.
So weird.
That's what I thought was the genius part about it. Amazing! If they made the process a bit more expanded, man it could easily go for game of the gen just for that bit alone.
Kudos for real
Glass Rebel
Member
It's Game Dev Story all over again. Create massive hit which reaches cult status.
Forget to give it a name.
"CONGRATULATIONS GAME #10 IS YOUR MOST SUCCESSFUL GAME"
Oh, I definitely agree with you.
Forget to give it a name.
"CONGRATULATIONS GAME #10 IS YOUR MOST SUCCESSFUL GAME"
Oh, I definitely agree with you.
Wickerbasket
Member
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.
It's like a thief telling people not to steal.