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[Fredrik]

Lol this is almost too funny to be true

 

[onQ123]

For some reason that seems fake to me & a good way to bring some attention to their game.

 

[Nealand Liquor]

I'm finding the scurrying around to find loopholes in definitions of 'pirating' so these poor gamers being unfairly called pirates can hold their heads high in the belief they unintentionally downloaded a demo and are not pirates *inhales* is hilarious.

 

[TheExodu5]

Normally I'd condemn these kind of tactics as they can spread negative word of mouth about a game...but the irony is too delicious not to applaud this. Looks like this will result in a lot of needed publicity for the game.

 

[The Technomancer]

I'd like a system where you get nearly to the very end of the game, then you get a "YOU HAVE BEEN PIRATED!" splash with a fanciful waltz on your screen, as the game wipes all of your saved data.

I'm pretty sure Earthbound did something like this. No joke.

EDIT: Beaten like a carpet

 

[Relix]

Wait... Game Dev Tycoon? Why did i not know this!

 

[Htown]

I'm finding the scurrying around to find loopholes in definitions of 'pirating' so these poor gamers being unfairly called pirates can hold their heads high in the belief they unintentionally downloaded a demo and are not pirates *inhales* is hilarious.

it's not a "loophole"

do you know what piracy is?

 

[Hemi-PoweredDrone]

Now that's just devious. Bravo to the creators!

 

[Soulhouf]

I had no interest in this game before but now the developer earned my respect and I will happily buy their game *bow*

 

[Tuck]

This is fantastic.

The irony is palpable.

 

[Toma]

I'm finding the scurrying around to find loopholes in definitions of 'pirating' so these poor gamers being unfairly called pirates can hold their heads high in the belief they unintentionally downloaded a demo and are not pirates *inhales* is hilarious.

You didnt get ANYTHING about the topic we discussed. Although I still dont agree with them, the "Piracy"-side made some valid arguments, but you didnt even understand those apparently.

 

[TheExodu5]

I don't know why there's so much discussion going on about whether this is piracy or not. Unless the devs aren't intending on pursuing pirates in court, it doesn't matter.

Pirates intending to pirate the game are getting a legitimate (in the legal sense), yet crippled, version of the game which is relaying the message that piracy hurts video game sales. The fact that the copy is legitimate does not hinder the fact that people that are unexpectedly seeing this message were intending to pirate the game.

 

[Delicious Waffles]

That's pretty funny. Well done by them.

 

[Jake Tower]

But if the devs release a version of the game for free, would you actually be pirating the game if you download it?

If the definition of piracy is copyright infringement, but the copy of the game that is being distributed was created by the copyright HOLDER, and distributed by them, the people receiving the game would not be guilty of copyright infringement.

It's not the delivery method that makes a game pirated, it's the fact that the copy is unauthorized.

So the funny thing is that people playing this version of the game, made and distributed by the developers of Game Dev Tycoon, are NOT pirates.

Correct. And, they have distributed a borked version of their game on top of that.

Real pirates still get to play the real game for free.

 

[Froli]

Seems like a poor man's version of game dev's story. And nice viral marketing

 

[kuroshiki]

Can I research a DRM or something....


man that's flawless line.

 

[Toma]

I don't know why there's so much discussion going on about whether this is piracy or not. Unless the devs aren't intending on pursuing pirates in court, it doesn't matter.

Because they are judging people by what they seduced them to do? Sure, people downloading with the intent of pirating, didnt have the best of intents, but the dev uploading a version to trick people into pirating is also not the best course of action. Say what you will but a game WILL be less pirated if there is no pirated version up. And some of those wanna-be-pirates would have translated into game buyers too if they cant find the pirated version online.

 

[TheExodu5]

Because they are judging people by what they seduced them to do?

There was going to be a pirated version out there regardless. They simply pre-empted a pirate release with a modified version of their own. It's not a sting, and they are not pursuing these people in court, they are simply using this avenue to spread a satirical message as well as advertise their game.

So the funny thing is that people playing this version of the game, made and distributed by the developers of Game Dev Tycoon, are NOT pirates.

The fact that they intended to pirate the game is enough. Whether the game is legally pirated or not is irrelevant. They could have included DRM is all versions of the game that may have triggered this "bug" and then you could say that the pirated version was actually pirated, but the end result is the same.

 

[Weltall Zero]

This is one of the coolest uses of poetic justice I've seen in my life. People saying this is nothing new or that this will not actually help them against piracy are entirely missing the point, I think.

To be fair, some of the posts linked in the OP almost seem like they were made by the game company under an alias to prove their point, they're just way too perfect.

Thanks for sharing this, and indeed, this put the game on my radar, so objective accomplished.

Edit: Didn't know this was actually a ripoff of an earlier game; would this make this poetic injustice? In any case their possibly dubious honesty makes the aforementioned possibility that the posts and other information is manufactured more likely... and I fell for it.

 

[Toma]

There was going to be a pirated version out there regardless.

Not true. Check the monthly Indie Game threads and get back to me when you find a torrent for every single Indie game in there. Now they got LOADS of PR, so I am sure there will be a proper pirated version now. But without this, not many would have bought the game, as the day 1 purchases show.

 

[Jackben]

Fun way of dealing with piracy, too bad the game itself is extremely derivative to the point of borderline plagiarism.

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.

.

 

[Nealand Liquor]

it's not a "loophole"

do you know what piracy is?

Very much I do.

You didnt get ANYTHING about the topic we discussed. The "Piracy"-side made some valid arguments, but you didnt even understand those apparently.

I got it. What didn't you get that led you to misunderstand my post was simply having a laugh at the 'they are not pirates!' argument presented?

 

[Barkley's Justice]

This is so briiliant.

 

[Barkley's Justice]

I hope they're willing to constantly upload new copies of their broken version of the game, it'll be flagged as dodgy in no time and 10 other copies will take its place.

You tell em!

 

[inky]

Can I research some DRM? L-O-L

Spoiler

that's not answer dude, that only pisses off your real customers

 

[Coffee Dog]

Stupid idea. Considering they only sold 214 copies, deliberately pissing off potential customers isnt going to help at all.

I think the idea is amusing, even though the effects of piracy is greatly over exaggerated, but its damn stupid for an indie dev to not embrace piracy.

 

[SkyTurnsRed]

Stupid idea. Considering they only sold 214 copies, deliberately pissing off potential customers isnt going to help at all.

I think the idea is amusing, even though the effects of piracy is greatly over exaggerated, but its damn stupid for an indie dev to not embrace piracy.

Tell that to the 80% that pirated Football Manager 2012.

 

[Subitai]

The irony is palpable.

I broke down and loled at, "Changing platfrom won't help."

Just absolute brilliance.

 

[Stuart444]

Some of those posts are pretty hilarious.

I may try out the demo for this at some point when their site is working properly again. I loved game dev story...

but like someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, I wish there was a proper 'serious' (or whatever you want to call it) take on this similar to "The Movies" (which I had a lot of fun). But ah well :/

 

[rrs]

Apparently the game has DRM on it's own with a 3 install limit. I think we may have been all suckered into advertising some dodgy Game Dev Story clone.

 

[eroots]

Can anyone tell me if this is any deeper than GameDevStory? Would be great if it is.. I played the heck out of that game.. Downloading the demo now..

 

[tamaster92]

Didn't know this game existed - bought.

Fantastic way of highlighting pirates

 

[Basch]

lol nice

 

[Codeblue]

Stupid idea. Considering they only sold 214 copies, deliberately pissing off potential customers isnt going to help at all.

I think the idea is amusing, even though the effects of piracy is greatly over exaggerated, but its damn stupid for an indie dev to not embrace piracy.

Potential customers are people who downloaded the demo, not the ones who are stealing from you.

 

[btkadams]

is this made by the game dev story guys?

 

[Cronnie]

Oh the sweet irony!

 

[partyphone]

So they made a Game Dev Story ripoff that's only sold on their site that, which no one has heard of, and they're blaming piracy for poor sales? That doesn't add up.

 

[Mithos]

So they made a Game Dev Story ripoff that's only sold on their site that, which no one has heard of, and they're blaming piracy for poor sales? That doesn't add up.

And they themselves put that "pirated" version out there (making it not piracy) but no one seem to care that that's the case.

 

[Toma]

And they themselves put that "piracy" version out there (making it not piracy) but no one seem to care that that's the case.

I think I heard of someone who cared.

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

Very clever little meta joke at the expense of some pirates who thought they were getting a free ride with that copy. I'm not really interested in arguing the merits on if it is truly "Piracy" or not, I know where I stand on this. Can't speak on it being a 1:1 clone of another game just with a side dish of humor since I haven't played the other one yet but I can say this: I am extremely disappointed that none of these games have adapted the JPod attitude yet.

 

[NoirVisage]

For some reason that seems fake to me & a good way to bring some attention to their game.

I thought i was the only one who was thinking that..

 

[Meier]

is this made by the game dev story guys?

No relation at all. They just stole the concept and the title and were disappointed that this didn't lead to immediate success.

And from an earlier post, they had the audacity to trademark the "Game Dev" name.

 

[test_account]

They may have put some sort of script in the "cracked version" to send a signal of "+1" to pirate version, probably ip based or something.

Yeah, that might be the case, although it would be registered at people's firewall when the game wants to connect to the internet. That might be a bit suspicious, although i'm not sure if the game have any other online features though, then it wouldnt be very suspicious.

 

[dutchguyjack]

It's not really a technicality. It's the heart of what piracy is: downloading and/or distributing a copy of a title that was not authorized by the owner of the copyright.

If you download a copy made for you by the people with the right to make copies, you're not pirating.

When you buy a game, you buy a license to use it, not the disk or the files. Without that license you have no right to use it, even if you download a copy that's put out there by the developers themselves. Hence it's still piracy.

 

[jay]

The next Game Dev Story should have a feature where you lose sales because other companies clone your games.

 

[Jake Tower]

When you buy a game, you buy a license to use it, not the disk or the files. Without that license you have no right to use it, even if you download a copy that's put out there by the developers themselves. Hence it's still piracy.

False. You're buying a copy. Not a license.

 

[whatevermort]

I wonder if there's an amazing message that pops up about when you copy the mechanics of Game Dev Story and make your own game from them and then sell it?

 

[CambriaRising]

The next Game Dev Story should have a feature where you lose sales because other companies clone your games.

A game released in 2011 that hasn't had an update since is suffering because of a pc game in 2013?

What.

 

[partyphone]

When you buy a game, you buy a license to use it, not the disk or the files. Without that license you have no right to use it, even if you download a copy that's put out there by the developers themselves. Hence it's still piracy.

bittorrent is just a means of distribution. using a torrent tracker is not automatically piracy. the owners of this particular file seeded it themselves onto a service designed to make copies. making a copy of that file is very clearly not piracy.

but you're both missing the point. they just wanted to see how many people would download their game via bittorrent.

which wasn't a very wise thing to do no matter how funny it is(and it is pretty funny). look at what the Anodyne devs did:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/20/anodynes-the-pirate-bay-promotion-made-them-lots/

 

[Bedlam]

For some reason that seems fake to me & a good way to bring some attention to their game.

I certainly get that vibe as well.