Game Developer Asks To Hear From Pirates

[wraggster]

Indie game developer Cliff Harris has long waged war against games piracy, but has issued a call to pirates to tell him why he is wrong. Assuming that developers are missing out on potential sales from disgruntled pirates, Cliff wants to hear specifically from people who have pirated his games. Not to criticize or lecture them, but to answer a simple question. Why? The reasons people give for copyright infringement/piracy are many and varied, but much of the debate has centred around music and movies, with big 'Triple-A' games an occasional consideration. With specific application to the world of small budget 'indie' games like those Cliff makes, he wants to know the thought processes behind people pirating the games. What puts people off buying? Is it quality, cost, DRM, ease of access? Is there anything that can be done to convert those people to buyers? While many pirates often make good general points about the reasons for the widespread pirating of PC games, it's unusual to get a chance to address specific developers with specific reasons. If you knew 100% that the developer would read your email explaining why you pirated their game, what would you say?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/10/1553224

[that1guywiththeface]

I am under 17, and quite often cannot get my parents to allow me to legally purchase a UMD/Disc copy of the game (when it is M-rated). Or because the games are simply near impossible to obtain new without paying the collector's price (retro/ps1 games). Or because I simply cannot find the games in stores. I think that covers it.

[masterchief929]

i wouldn't email them becuz they would just get my name using my email address.

[Sketchy]

I still believe that most ppl will use the 'price' reason. I mean buying 2 360 game brand new will cost ya like £80 here in the UK.

Unfortunatley not everyone can just wait until they can afford it, I used to feel like that as a kid, new games were like as often as winning the lottery!

For me though i dont spend as much time online anymore, I purchased UT3 3 days ago and still haven't played it, thats probably why i dont pirate games. meh

EDIT:
ease of access?

Hmmpphhhh, pirating the 360??? ease of access?? More hassle than its worth.

[JushinLiger]

Well there are several reasons I pirate games.

1. The console is no longer available - Most people have a Mega Drive or SNES emulator on their laptop of chosen console to play all the awesome classics. If they say they don't, then they're a liar!

2. The game is impossible to get hold of - In my case Final Fire Pro Wrestling. The original game cartridge on GBA is like golden monkey balls, so I downloaded and stuck an English patch on it. I've even e-mailed the developers (SPIKE) asking for a digital copy of the manual, when I explained that I had a pirate copy they seemed really impressed with my commitment to attempt to learn enough Japanese to play it (I'm a pretty big fan of SPIKE, Shinobido is awesome!)

3. Games are Poo - On most consoles, smaller companies release games that are complete shit. We've all gone out and bought that game we liked the review of only to find it was a piece of poo. I download games like this to make sure I'm not wasting my money. If I like it, I delete it and buy it. Sometimes I pretend it never exisited.

[myuusmeow]

My parents do not buy me games often (not that I need them to, I have $300 in cash I can't spend because they don't think I should envy others? wtf kind of reason is that), and as I am under 16, I can't drive myself to the store, so I have no other choice.

Downloading older games: Buying them used doesn't give the developers a cent.

[firedragon_jing]

Well there are several reasons I pirate games.

1. The console is no longer available - Most people have a Mega Drive or SNES emulator on their laptop of chosen console to play all the awesome classics. If they say they don't, then they're a liar!

2. The game is impossible to get hold of - In my case Final Fire Pro Wrestling. The original game cartridge on GBA is like golden monkey balls, so I downloaded and stuck an English patch on it. I've even e-mailed the developers (SPIKE) asking for a digital copy of the manual, when I explained that I had a pirate copy they seemed really impressed with my commitment to attempt to learn enough Japanese to play it (I'm a pretty big fan of SPIKE, Shinobido is awesome!)

3. Games are Poo - On most consoles, smaller companies release games that are complete shit. We've all gone out and bought that game we liked the review of only to find it was a piece of poo. I download games like this to make sure I'm not wasting my money. If I like it, I delete it and buy it. Sometimes I pretend it never exisited.These are the best reasons I can think of, about the only reason I would ever, let me add one more option, and this is for mainly handhelds only.

4. Too many games to carry around - On handhelds you don't want to waste pocket space carrying the device and a handful of games to go along with it. With back-ups you can have only your system with one card, and depending if it is a PSP or DS, you can have a good amount of games to a whole collection with you at all times.

[that1guywiththeface]

Downloading older games: Buying them used doesn't give the developers a cent.

I didn't even think about that one. Good point man!

[mooseknuckle2000]

My parents do not buy me games often (not that I need them to, I have $300 in cash I can't spend because they don't think I should envy others? wtf kind of reason is that), and as I am under 16, I can't drive myself to the store, so I have no other choice.

Downloading older games: Buying them used doesn't give the developers a cent.

although, buying used games from game resellers keeps them in business and allows them to buy more new retail games to sell....so in a way, buying used games does/can help the developer

[osgeld]

what ever happened to demos and shareware

im not about to plop down 50+ bucks for a shitty dreamcast reject (psp simpsons game im looking at you)

i dont pirate, and i rarley buy, give me a reason to

[MicroNut]

I use quality plus price.
I hate getting burned on a hyped title that I cannot stand.
Its like throwing money in the trash.

Reviews seem to mean less than they did in the past.
The reviewer always seems to be someone who just loves the particular genre.

I don't have a single pirated game that I play on a regular basis that I didn't pay for.

I do have lots of pirated games that I never play...
all doomed to pass into digital oblivion on a regular basis.

[firedragon_jing]

I didn't even think about that one. Good point man!
This is how I feel, for like really old games where the prices are ridiculous. I'll buy used PS2 and GCN games cause they're cheap and they're really not worth pirating. But with the VC games on the Wii, I feel they are really overpriced for games that old, and they're the publisher and they're getting all the money for them, the developers still get nothing, maybe royalties but I doubt it, probably just licensing fees if that.

[Aryn]

I pirate for one of four reasons:

1. There is no accesible demo for the game (or at least I am unaware of it) and I would like to try it before purchasing it. I do purchase it if I like it.

2. The game disc/cartridge is broken or lost. I do not have the excess cash to replace it.

3. I owned a copy of the game before on another system and the game was not improved adequately when ported to a more current system. No sense in paying repeatedly for the same thing.

4. In the case of the PSP, running it off a memory card loads faster and uses less battery life than using the original UMD.

[stevo11185]

i have 43 words for you

Do you want cos a pirate is free
You are a pirate
Yar Harr, Fiddle dee dee,
Being a pirate is alright to be
Do what you want cos a pirate is free
You are a pirate.

[kamanashi]

I only pirate certain things. Like, if I can't find the game anywhere, I download it.

If the game is on an old system, i will download it if I want it.

And, since there aren't very many demos for ds, I download the rom, try it, and if I like it, I buy it. Flash carts are to much of a chance of will it work or not, so I use it for homebrew and gba games I can't find anywhere. So, testing ds games is like a demo to me.

[____anders____]

i pirate everything i can find useful or fun..

movies, games, music and apps.

just because i don't want to pay for it, the movies is so outdated when they come to sweden that the DvDrip has been out for weeks, and that's when i see the commercials, add a month and it'll come to my town..
but wait, that's when the sequel is out.

the games does come faster to sweden than movies, but i don't want to pay for it..

i got more reasons, but not enough for You..

(cracked steam is fun cus steam have most of the major games to download.. i got a very long "my games" list)

[pibs]

so what do developers want to hear from me *woops* i mean them ;)

my main reason was pointed on the first post. now that I am of age I can purchase away which brings forth another problem.....crappy sales people who annoy you to the brink of insanity.

people will pirate anything, their is no escaping it. the thing is how easily accessible the product is and how easy it is have it put to use. anyways that is the way I see it.