What game is this? Only 3104 users?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

What game is this? Only 3104 users?

Game Dev Tycoon, indie game.

I think the more interesting question is, how long were each of those users playing the game?

Jorpho wrote:

I think the more interesting question is, how long were each of those users playing the game?

And do any of the pirates represent lost sales.

Hater Depot wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

I think the more interesting question is, how long were each of those users playing the game?

And do any of the pirates represent lost sales.

There is a free demo/trial version available from day of release. Ofc all is not lost sales, but with a 93.6% pirated rate, even a 10% lost sales of those downloads would give over 100% increase to total sales. . The game is only 7.99 dollars, not exactly expensive.

I'm just personally shocked over the percentage.

It seems like it's been ages since I last played a demo. Legal issues aside, there isn't much incentive to bother anymore – the download size tends to be on the same order of magnitude as the full game, plus they're full of nag screens and other things meant only to tantalize and push you to part from your money rather than to enrich the gameplay experience.

Well, for one, the pirates and their associates got screwed with a non-functioning game uploaded by the developer himself. A fitting smack in the face for these heartless pirates. It's a real shame that these guys pirate something without DRM from indie developers, at a very reasonable price, while corporate bastar*s like EA and Bethesda are minting money by the second. Of course, pirates are already pirating these corporates' games, but stealing candy from a baby is loathsome. Of course, in due time, these pirates will get hold of the true copy of that game and the new torrent will have titles like "ORIGINAL VERSION - NOT PRANK -NOT THE BROKEN CRACKED COPY- THE REAL ONE!"

I'm more interested in how many of that 93% actually liked the game.
How many of them just downloaded it because they saw it available?
If they're now willing to buy it?
Things like that.

Edit: site seems to be down at the moment.

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

Edit: site seems to be down at the moment.

Yeah,this story went viral, like here on Eurogamer:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-29- … ail-from-piracy

So I think that explains why the site is down 😜

and that's counting only the naive pirates that don't use software firewalls!

It would be nice to see the average age group of today's pirates in a pie chart. I figure jobless school kids. It's easier to buy things if you have money.

Those are crazy numbers but can they really be trusted? I have bought many games but never played then for the first second. Maybe people who actually bought the game just haven't got around to playing it yet to show up on their chart.

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

I'm more interested in how many of that 93% actually liked the game. How many of them just downloaded it because they saw it ava […]
Show full quote

I'm more interested in how many of that 93% actually liked the game.
How many of them just downloaded it because they saw it available?
If they're now willing to buy it?
Things like that.

Yup. Sometimes people download something just because they can, without bothering to touch the game/movie/etc after they have it (well, maybe just looking at it for five minutes and then meh). So I really doubt if the 93% illegal download represents lost sales. Furthermore, the illegal downloads happen because the developer intentionally baiting it - they encourage people to download the "cracked" version of the game.

EDIT: wait wait wait, is the legit version of the game protected by DRM?

If that's the case, then no wonder majority of people would go for the cracked version, since DRM-free games have more value than DRM-protected games anyway. I have bought several DRM-protected games, and end up playing the cracked version of those games I purchased, because I don't want my computer being plagued by disgusting restriction management.

I guess what it shows is that there is much more awareness from putting it on a torrent site then from people buying it from their website considering the very small number of players of the game.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Yup. Sometimes people download something just because they can, without bothering to touch the game/movie/etc after they have it […]
Show full quote

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

I'm more interested in how many of that 93% actually liked the game. How many of them just downloaded it because they saw it ava […]
Show full quote

I'm more interested in how many of that 93% actually liked the game.
How many of them just downloaded it because they saw it available?
If they're now willing to buy it?
Things like that.

Yup. Sometimes people download something just because they can, without bothering to touch the game/movie/etc after they have it (well, maybe just looking at it for five minutes and then meh). So I really doubt if the 93% illegal download represents lost sales. Furthermore, the illegal downloads happen because the developer intentionally baiting it - they encourage people to download the "cracked" version of the game.

EDIT: wait wait wait, is the legit version of the game protected by DRM?

If that's the case, then no wonder majority of people would go for the cracked version, since DRM-free games have more value than DRM-protected games anyway. I have bought several DRM-protected games, and end up playing the cracked version of those games I purchased, because I don't want my computer being plagued by disgusting restriction management.

The legit game is DRM free, but with the difficulty modification included surreptitiously.

SquallStrife wrote:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Yup. Sometimes people download something just because they can, without bothering to touch the game/movie/etc after they have it […]
Show full quote

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

I'm more interested in how many of that 93% actually liked the game. How many of them just downloaded it because they saw it ava […]
Show full quote

I'm more interested in how many of that 93% actually liked the game.
How many of them just downloaded it because they saw it available?
If they're now willing to buy it?
Things like that.

Yup. Sometimes people download something just because they can, without bothering to touch the game/movie/etc after they have it (well, maybe just looking at it for five minutes and then meh). So I really doubt if the 93% illegal download represents lost sales. Furthermore, the illegal downloads happen because the developer intentionally baiting it - they encourage people to download the "cracked" version of the game.

EDIT: wait wait wait, is the legit version of the game protected by DRM?

If that's the case, then no wonder majority of people would go for the cracked version, since DRM-free games have more value than DRM-protected games anyway. I have bought several DRM-protected games, and end up playing the cracked version of those games I purchased, because I don't want my computer being plagued by disgusting restriction management.

The legit game is DRM free, but with the difficulty modification included surreptitiously.

I see.

But still, I don't think the legit version's lack of DRM can be blamed for the huge amount of illegal downloads. After all, it is the developer who baits the downloaders by using the word "cracked" on the torrent download they put, giving the impression that the legit game is copy-protected while the cracked version is not.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

But still, I don't think the legit version's lack of DRM can be blamed for the huge amount of illegal downloads. After all, it is the developer who baits the downloaders by using the word "cracked" on the torrent download they put, giving the impression that the legit game is copy-protected while the cracked version is not.

It just goes some way to prove that there is a decent percentage of game pirates that say they pirate because of DRM, but really just pirate because they're greedy assholes with inflated senses of entitlement.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

But still, I don't think the legit version's lack of DRM can be blamed for the huge amount of illegal downloads.

Agreed. The devs weren't trying to prove that DRM is needed; on the contrary - as they put it in the blog entry, "...any game can be cracked, so all you do is spend time on something [DRM] that in the end just annoys your real customers while only slightly delaying the inevitable."

plus their April Fools post further down makes their anti-DRM stance pretty clear. ;)

SquallStrife wrote:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

But still, I don't think the legit version's lack of DRM can be blamed for the huge amount of illegal downloads. After all, it is the developer who baits the downloaders by using the word "cracked" on the torrent download they put, giving the impression that the legit game is copy-protected while the cracked version is not.

It just goes some way to prove that there is a decent percentage of game pirates that say they pirate because of DRM, but really just pirate because they're greedy assholes with inflated senses of entitlement.

Not really. If anything, it proves the opposite. Doesn't the bait file have the word cracked on its description? Thus, it proves that people who download it do it because they're interested in a cracked version of the said game. How many people are aware that Game Dev Tycoon is already DRM-free to begin with? I, for example, would probably never know about the game if not fr this thread.

On the other hand, we've been plagued by DRM for years, so no wonder we we instinctively interested in cracked version. I, for example, always looking for cracked version of the games I've legally purchased, because I don't want the disgusting thing called DRM ruining my computer.

VileRancour wrote:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

But still, I don't think the legit version's lack of DRM can be blamed for the huge amount of illegal downloads.

Agreed. The devs weren't trying to prove that DRM is needed; on the contrary - as they put it in the blog entry, "...any game can be cracked, so all you do is spend time on something [DRM] that in the end just annoys your real customers while only slightly delaying the inevitable."

plus their April Fools post further down makes their anti-DRM stance pretty clear. 😉

I think this explanation is more likely.

My favorite part is where the players complaining on the forums ("My company keeps failing because of piracy! What gives?") are basically outing themselves as pirates.