Indie development sim Game Dev Tycoon gives pirates a taste of their own torrenting

[Fletcher]

Yet another great example of how to screw with pirates, wonderful!

Article Link - PC Gamer

DRM is a constantly tricky balancing act between deterring piracy, however briefly, and not upsetting every one of your legitimate customers. That’s why it’s always great to see copy-protection measures that specifically target, and hilariously mess with, inveterate torrenters. Whether it’s Batman’s uncontrollable cape in Arkham Asylum, or Serious Sam 3′s immortal pink scorpion, pirate-specific hijinks provide the best kind of schadenfreude.

This specific example from Greenheart Games, creators of the Game Dev Story-like development sim Game Dev Tycoon, might be one of the best – if just for the hypocrisy at the heart of its piraception. The game’s developers uploaded their game to “the number one torrent sharing site” with one key difference: As players built up their development studio, they are told that not enough people were buying legitimate copies of their games – leading to a slow and unavoidable financial collapse.

“Initially we thought about telling them their copy is an illegal copy, but instead we didn’t want to pass up the unique opportunity of holding a mirror in front of them and showing them what piracy can do to game developers,” explains Greenheart’s Patrick Klug.

“Slowly their in-game funds dwindle, and new games they create have a high chance to be pirated until their virtual game development company goes bankrupt.”

And some of the “customer” responses highlighted by Greenheart are amazing.



Key quote: “I mean can I research a DRM or something…”



Greenheart estimate 93.6% of the game’s players were using a cracked version of the game at the end of its first day of release – roughly 3,104 users. Of course, it’s worth reiterating that there are many nuanced caveats around the piracy debate – specifically that one pirated version does not equal one lost sale. You can read Greenheart’s full analyses of their experiment here.

Thanks, NeoGAF.

This was simply hilarious to me, people on forums blatently, yet unwittingly admitting they acquired a pirated version of the game that is deliberatly 'tweaked' to mess with them. I don't condone pirating, though I do use it to test games before I buy them on my rig. (I weep that Homeworld: Cataclysm isn't compatible on my rig )

I love it when game companies develop a sense of humour like this

---

"Oh chuffing blimey, another day, another person being whiney!"
Fletcher's Feedback and Stories Thread

[sindroms]

I admit, I pirate games. If I like the game, I buy it even if I finish it. Spent around 1000 eur on games so far.

---

--------------
PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
----------

[Omicron]

---

[Anaximander]

Yeah it's funny, there are a few games like that that won't let you progress past a certain stage or won't let you save your game when/if pirated.

That being said, the media industry have a poor grasp on piracy, how much they actually lose in sales and so on; and the price on games is too steep in general. Moreover, a lot of games suck a whole lot more than what the developers and publishers promise. I think I can only come up with 5 or so games that are actually worth the full retail price to me. I buy those games, and other games I like when I find them on sale. Also it seems that in most cases (not counting indie games, where the developer is very vulnerable) the lost profit doesn't affect the devs themselves, but rather publishing companies that are already rolling in money.

In Sweden, there's a new religion that got acknowledged that swears to media piracy. Their faith is that knowledge is poorly governed by the capitalistic system, as there is an inherent interest in keeping knowledge in the hands of the few (basic supply/demand theory), whereas this religion believes that knowledge is worth more to mankind overall in the hands of the many. That's true when you think about it.

[Luke.]

Heh, that's pretty neat.

Personally, if I like it enough then i'll buy it but really ISP's can't block everything and so therefore it'll carry on slipping.

I can't afford a decent computer to run high spec games though so my pirating is limited to music. If you buy an album most of it goes to the record label and they're money-grabbing douchebags so i'm reluctant.

---

[space.dust]

People still think it's ok to pirate if they do it to "try" then if they like it, they "buy" it?

I'll try that line the next time I'm in the supermarket and I'm not sure if I like the taste of some fruit. I mean if I don't like it then I won't buy what I've already "consumed"

Reality: Everyone who does it is a thief and there is -NO- legal excuse for it no matter how unfair you or anyone makes it look. Trying to justify it is just outright silly, don't get me wrong however I'm not saying publishers play fair with our best interests I'm saying it really just doesn't matter in the end, once you take something that is being sold without paying for it.. your a thief

---

- Dust

[Anaximander]

Not really, it's semantics but media piracy cannot be theft (as the original owner is still left with his product intact). It's something else altogether - still illegal for a good reason though.

Don't know how it is in other countries, but interestingly enough it turns out that here in my country the people that pirate the most music and software are also the same people buying the most music and software. That's a bit of a dilemma.

[Luke.]

People still think it's ok to pirate if they do it to "try" then if they like it, they "buy" it?

I'll try that line the next time I'm in the supermarket and I'm not sure if I like the taste of some fruit. I mean if I don't like it then I won't buy what I've already "consumed"

Reality: Everyone who does it is a thief and there is -NO- legal excuse for it no matter how unfair you or anyone makes it look. Trying to justify it is just outright silly, don't get me wrong however I'm not saying publishers play fair with our best interests I'm saying it really just doesn't matter in the end, once you take something that is being sold without paying for it.. your a thief

I never said I was in the right for doing that, that's just how I (and thousand of others i'm sure) roll.

Reality: Welcome to the 21st century internet

---

[Fletcher]

Reality: Everyone who does it is a thief and there is -NO- legal excuse for it no matter how unfair you or anyone makes it look. Trying to justify it is just outright silly,

You sound like my old college lecturer, I do it if there isn't a demo for me to test on my rig. I refuse to spend upwards of £40 GBP on a product that I cannot return if it is not compatible with my PC due to certain driver issues some games can have. Remember when RAGE came out a few years ago? Abysmal nVidea compatibility, horrible tearing and what not.

Piracy is wrong, its not theiving as said, its copying, but it COULD, repeat, COULD be a lost sale. But its very difficult to get solid numbers since its practically impossible without interviewing everyone who does it.

Piracy can help, by being a free 'word of mouth/meme' method of advertisement and its FREE for the company. But as said, possibly less income.

Its a question been going around for decades.

---

"Oh chuffing blimey, another day, another person being whiney!"
Fletcher's Feedback and Stories Thread

[AeternusDoleo]

I've not seen a single game since Sins of a Solar Empire that has replay value enough to warrant the price companies are asking for it. And they have shot themselves in the foot by no longer releasing demo versions so people can get a taste of what is what (a few select titles being the exclusion here). I think that's one of the reasons piracy is such a problem - companies focus on quantity, regurgitating the same concept in different skins/settings over and over, and expect the consumer to pay through the nose for each title as if it was original. Recent example: Bioshock Infinite. Same gameplay as Bioshock 1 and 2 (and to an extent, the predecessor System Shock). Regurgitating the same "shoot grunt, brawl with heavies, few act bosses" theme common in nearly all shooters. Interface dumbed down so consoles with only a few buttons can handle the game too. Playthrough time: Roughly 12 hours.
Replay value: 0. Game cost: 60 euros for the basic version. So you're paying 5 euros per hour of gaming fun for a game that's going on the "done" probably not long after the first run. Seem a bit much to anyone?
Price determination by supply and demand is skewed in the gaming business. There is more supply then demand, but the prices are being kept artificially high. As a result, the demand is being filled by criminal means (piracy). This will not stop, although I am seeing slow changes now that crowdfunding is becoming more popular - giving talented developers the chance to break away from the big gaming studios. Like Chris Roberts is doing.

---

Wide awake in a world that sleeps, enduring thoughts, enduring scenes. The knowledge of what is yet to come.
From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.

Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.