Aquaria hit the P2P

[chiablo]

With X³ and X², Egosoft did something rather unique...

They would release updates and patches, but you could only download it if you registered your copy with your forum account.

[Lim-Dul]

Oh, c'mon people. Let's not overdramatize the issue. I regularly use P2P to download "all kinds of stuff" and I always buy everything that proves to be worthwhile. OK - in Aquaria's case I bought the game on day 1 without even having played the demo but that's another story.

OK - there may not bee too many "honest pirates" out there but like someone said before the people who download games instead of buying them wouldn't have bought them in the first place. However, they contribute to the buzz surrounding the game so they can be considered as "free advertising" and nothing spreads the word better than viral marketing. =)

I remember a lecture by some serious economist who claimed that e.g. the music industry doesn't lose money because of illegal downloads but rather makes quite a bit of profit off it.

Of course this would be a problem if MOST people were software pirates but the fact of the matter is that most people are honest buyers...

[Alphasoldier]

Well, don't know where to start, but I guess the beginning would be good.
Since Christmas was coming I had to go look for gifts so I thought, Let's do some searching for some nice games and things that i could buy or request for christmas, it's how we, my family and I, do that.
I opened up Gamespot and IGN and the first thing that showed up at the Gamespot PC Section was this, Aquaria, the demo.
At first sight I was already astonished, even from the first small picture. Not having seen these kind of graphics in a long time for a actual game. As so I decided for the first time in a long time I immediatly downloaded the demo, while I normally never download demos because i simply hate them (I never like incomplete games, which are usually demos). I played the game and enjoyed it ALOT, the artwork is awesome and the story so far I have seen it is intriguing.
Me being me, having alot of money wasted on alot of games that were NOT worth their money I started trying to search it on the p2p, I found it, downloaded it and found out it needs a key that was nowhere to be found.
At this time I actually wondered why I did this while I knew that the game actually is worth it's money, even the demo would be worth money.
As so I came here. First, to actually apologize for trying to torrent this game. Second, being willing to help to fight against p2p at least for this game. Third, that I will buy this game, when i figure out how.

Once again many compliments on this game.

Greetz, Alphasoldier

P.S. Can't wait 'till i can get to start modding. 

[Crizzle]

Glad you decided that buying the game was the right thing to do. If you don't already know, you can buy the game on the Aquaria website:

http://www.bit-blot.com/aquaria/buy.html

[Alphasoldier]

Heh, I already found it, but thanks anyway. Ordered it and hope to play the game tomorrow after a good rest!

[Szoltomi]

Doh... just a few days and it looks like they made a crack,

[Don Andy]

Doh... just a few days and it looks like they made a crack,

I'll try to act surprised

[realyst]

Let's look at it this way.

Big company like Sorny or EAikes spends 15 million dollars to make something that hooks into your registry, dials home, disables your burners ability to burn, bogs down Windows, installs 3 services, 'rootkits' five other executables, phones elderly people maliciously and kills your dog:  all in the interest of stopping you from pirating the game.

History has shown this to work for maybe 3 days after release(3 days before release if the release itself was 0-day), which is why DRM models are flawed in the first place.

Small indy group, two people and a voice actress.  No 15 million dollar budget.  Not likely to stop the cracking.

So really, all you can really do is factor it as inevitable, write it off(though not necessarily like it) and hope more people wish to buy it for the peace-of-mind/support they'll get from buying it and hope those who didn't pirate it keep buying it.

[Crizzle]

Yeah I think everyone knew it was inevitable I mean, everything goes up on torrent sites these days. It's just unfortunate to see when it's something made by an indie developer, especially when the game is so good.

[Don Andy]

Well, if we are lucky the game is so good that they will actually feel bad about pirating it and buy it anyway xD

[wesley]

Well, if we are lucky the game is so good that they will actually feel bad about pirating it and buy it anyway xD

Hah, yea, but that's not a very likely scenario

Anyway. For me personally the biggest reason to download music and video's (I never download software; and downloading music and video for personal use is actually legal where I come from) is because it is so much easier than having to fill in a form, transfer the money, and hope that it all works out and that you get the game soon.

[ZCaliber]

Aquaria is easily worth the 30 dollar admission price.

You won't see something like this from the game giants after all. =\ 'Course they'd just make it 3d and inject it full of  'teh suck'.

But I digress, I'm happy t'show my support for a game of this quality.

[Crizzle]

I'm still posting a sort of "disclaimer" on torrent sites with the new cracked version. As long as any downloaders are informed that it's an independant game and are directed to the official site, there is a chance that they'll have the good conscience to buy the game.

[Don Andy]

I'm still posting a sort of "disclaimer" on torrent sites with the new cracked version. As long as any downloaders are informed that it's an independant game and are directed to the official site, there is a chance that they'll have the good conscience to buy the game.

Depending on the site it's on, they'll either laugh at you or ignore you :/

[jacobtf]

Yesterday, I was at a friend's place with my laptop. So I show him Aquaria and being an old-school guy that dates all the way back to the C64 (and before), he is mighty impressed. Now, he doesn't play many games himself, but he has got two sons. The oldest sees the game in action and goes "Hey, I want that" and the father goes "sure, dig out 30 bucks and you can have it". I let the boy play the game for a while and he ended up wishing it for christmas. So with a bit of luck, you might just have another customer soon :-)

Tell the story behind the project, show people the website and let them play the game. It all helps.