Necronomikro
join:2005-09-01
2 edits | Re: Must be a slow news day said by BIGMIKE  :Game Developer Asks To Hear From Pirates "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? »yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=···from=rss I recently re-purchased a couple of blizzard titles via their download store, and was pleasantly surprised by the lack of DRM in the new version. No copy protection, just the requirement of having a key to play on their servers. That works for me. (I, in fact, mostly play it lan or single-player).
For smaller companies, if I download it, its often due lack of availability of the game.
I prefer to download the games, and will sometimes pay for the download (a la steam, or blizzard's new download store).
So, my response? Allow for downloads of your game, direct distribution, and don't charge more for the download than it costs in a store. |
