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General / Re: Aquaria hit the P2P
« on: February 14, 2008, 09:12:41 am »
You can't do anything about piracy. Adding ads might be acceptable depending on situation, but it shouldn't be seen as a mechanism to recuperate "lost" sales. The fact is, the market is changing, trying to stop people intent on "stealing" your game is vain and an enormous waste of time, and you're going to have to count on the downloaders to buy it if they like it.
I have associates who don't think it's fair to only have a demo for this kind of thing; these goods do not collect damage, they are not consumable. They can be copied instantly and exactly and spread over millions of machines in seconds, all of this at no loss to the developer. You pay for bread before you eat it because if one wants to be evil and consume your bread without paying, you've lost money and have no way to recuperate the expense. It's a blind gamble to give bread first and collect pay last (although restaurants operate this way and they seem to function relatively well). If patron has a problem with the bread, or it is not as advertised, he returns it for a refund.
Is it really that much different for someone to download the full version of your game as an evaluation than it would be if he downloaded just the demo? Those who acquire from P2P technologies actually save you bandwidth costs, and in the circles I run if a game is deemed worthy it is purchased. We understand that there are real people behind these products and they need to make a living and we are more than happy to subsidize that; just don't see any point in taking our chances on a demo instead of the actual product in such a situation.
So, it boils down to this: you have to believe in people. You don't have a choice anymore, really. I actually see this as a good thing; it's quite corporatist to expect one to buy a whole product based on even a small selection when there is no harm whatsoever in evaluating the real deal, and there is no harm in doing so with software. There is benefit, even if guy decides he shouldn't buy your game: the community grows, word-of-mouth gets going, people contribute content (guides, mods, fan art/fan fic).
Just takes a small paradigm shift to think of ways a proprietor can exploit these new delivery systems to his great advantage; get past the "what if they don't buy it!" and embrace the manifold positive aspects that come from simply trusting your user. Most people do have a conscience, and if they have the money and they appreciate my game, it is my firm belief that as long as the developer didn't use up the customer's investment by forcing him/her to waste hours circumventing DRM and copy protection, and developer treats end-users like grown-ups, fans are more than happy to pay a fair price.
You have to believe that they'll do the right thing and support your game if they like it. It's inevitable that your data will appear on unauthorized networks; you should beat the pirates to the punch so that you can control the distribution. Someone with a grudge might load in a trojan, or other bad things, and this would impugn your reputation. You can add a text file in the torrent that states that you're a very small company, a license is very reasonably priced, and you'd greatly appreciate a vote of confidence in the form of financial support. You should add an about screen to the actual binary, imo.
: )
I have associates who don't think it's fair to only have a demo for this kind of thing; these goods do not collect damage, they are not consumable. They can be copied instantly and exactly and spread over millions of machines in seconds, all of this at no loss to the developer. You pay for bread before you eat it because if one wants to be evil and consume your bread without paying, you've lost money and have no way to recuperate the expense. It's a blind gamble to give bread first and collect pay last (although restaurants operate this way and they seem to function relatively well). If patron has a problem with the bread, or it is not as advertised, he returns it for a refund.
Is it really that much different for someone to download the full version of your game as an evaluation than it would be if he downloaded just the demo? Those who acquire from P2P technologies actually save you bandwidth costs, and in the circles I run if a game is deemed worthy it is purchased. We understand that there are real people behind these products and they need to make a living and we are more than happy to subsidize that; just don't see any point in taking our chances on a demo instead of the actual product in such a situation.
So, it boils down to this: you have to believe in people. You don't have a choice anymore, really. I actually see this as a good thing; it's quite corporatist to expect one to buy a whole product based on even a small selection when there is no harm whatsoever in evaluating the real deal, and there is no harm in doing so with software. There is benefit, even if guy decides he shouldn't buy your game: the community grows, word-of-mouth gets going, people contribute content (guides, mods, fan art/fan fic).
Just takes a small paradigm shift to think of ways a proprietor can exploit these new delivery systems to his great advantage; get past the "what if they don't buy it!" and embrace the manifold positive aspects that come from simply trusting your user. Most people do have a conscience, and if they have the money and they appreciate my game, it is my firm belief that as long as the developer didn't use up the customer's investment by forcing him/her to waste hours circumventing DRM and copy protection, and developer treats end-users like grown-ups, fans are more than happy to pay a fair price.
You have to believe that they'll do the right thing and support your game if they like it. It's inevitable that your data will appear on unauthorized networks; you should beat the pirates to the punch so that you can control the distribution. Someone with a grudge might load in a trojan, or other bad things, and this would impugn your reputation. You can add a text file in the torrent that states that you're a very small company, a license is very reasonably priced, and you'd greatly appreciate a vote of confidence in the form of financial support. You should add an about screen to the actual binary, imo.
: )
