For them the opportunity to talk with someone that worked on their favorite game is incredibly exciting (something we are occasionally reminded of when we get to meet the creators of our favorite games!).

As a creator myself that’s not a culture I would want to encourage.
I don’t see myself as any different to the people who buy my work. Why would they be ‘incredibly excited’ to meet me? It’s a kin to a rock star complex.
I thought the idea behind ‘sharing’ was that we are all equal, not that some people ‘incredibly exciting’ because they code a game.

” Why would you deny your fans the ability to try out your game, music, book or movie?”

Quite simply, a demo of a game (ie, not the full version, limited, controlled, limited levels, whatever) is different from giving someone the full movie, the full book, or the full album / CD / music release. One is a taste to get you hooked, the other is the full product with no real reason to pay.

“The best way to gain that affection is to put yourself out there and communicate with your fans”

The best way is to put out a product that is entirely superior to everything else around, and which sells itself through word of mouth. Social media can help, but the best product should be your real goal, not twitter updates on your crappy, “same as everyone else” first person shooter.

“This desire to reshape and make our own the entertainment we consume is something that should be embraced by successful creators.”

There is a huge difference between having a gaming engine that permits extensions (think new levels, etc) compared to making the source code available for modification, or having your whole project lifted and re-used by someone else. There is a fine line here again.

“Piracy is a symptom of far larger problems”

Yes indeed. Piracy is a symptom of a generation who feels no need or desire to pay for anything, and thinks of payment only as an optional TIP, not a purchase.

Great story!

The last part of comment 9 of course

“The best way to gain that affection is to put yourself out there and communicate with your fans”

The best way is to put out a product that is entirely superior to everything else around, and which sells itself through word of mouth. Social media can help, but the best product should be your real goal, not twitter updates on your crappy, “same as everyone else” first person shooter.

He said communicating, not PR-through-social-media. Communication is a two-way street.

There is a huge difference between having a gaming engine that permits extensions (think new levels, etc) compared to making the source code available for modification, or having your whole project lifted and re-used by someone else. There is a fine line here again.

True enough, and the modders very much prefer the source code. In fact, many modders will bypass an API or even mod a game that doesn’t carry an API. For example, there was an extensive modding community around Minecraft before the game was even completed (no API, source code not available, decompiled). This community was successful enough to influence the development of the base game.

Having the whole project lifted and used by someone else almost always dampens the ability to suceed due to fans of the original directing people back to the source (people would rather support the person who’s going to generate the next awesome thing). Sufficient modification can and does overcome this effect. Further more, many similar products can actually quite peacefully coexist, so long as each has sufficient depth.

“In case you missed it, this blog has a very strong message about ways to convince fans to pay rather than pirate. A lot of it works too.”

I see a lot of chatter, but not much else. The real message seems to be “ignore piracy” or “pander to pirates”. That seems to be the siren song for those willing to work for 10 cents on the dollar (hi Red Hat!).

“You can make the absolute best game in existence, but if people don’t know who you are and/or don’t like you, you will be hard pressed to sell any meaningful number of games”

EA sports. They are possibly the most hated gaming company out there (if I use Techdirt as a barometer) and they sell like crazy.

“And no one is arguing that people should be able to lift and re-use the game engine through infringement.”

Those people who set up their own game servers, or who bypass the “must be online with us” requirement of games are effectively lifting the game engine and leaving with it. At that point, the piracy crosses the line from “trying” to “taking over”. It’s a big deal.

“Again, you personal biases are showing. You completely ignore all the case studies we have shown in which companies and creators succeed despite piracy solely because they fill those needs that other have left.”

No, I don’t ignore them. What I look at more is the social morals, what is discussed out there. Sure, some people come back and pay, but many of them do not, they enjoy the product, play the game to death, and then walk away to the next freebie. As long as gaming companies keep feeding their people, they will keep showing up at the door for the free food. Cut them off, even for a second, and you will be branded the worst company ever.

Yes, some can succeed despite piracy, mostly because they are selling things other than their product. It’s no better than giving gallons of beer away for free at a party, and then charging people $20 to use the bathroom. Don’t be surprised when they are all lining up to piss in your shoes instead.

I only have one answer to you: Valve Corporation.

It pretty much annihilates whatever point you were trying to make (they have mods, they give stuff away for free all the time, they don’t care about piracy, they are swimming in cash).

Let me add this: What are they making money on?

Is it selling games? Or is it in being a gatekeeper and selling limited access to their community and shared game servers?

You have to pay attention to what their business model is to understand what is going on, and why in many ways it isn’t relevant.

“perhaps 2-3 songs from an album”

The problem of piracy is that it’s an all or nothing sort of thing. People don’t pirate a “sample”, they take the whole damn thing – and in as good condition and as high quality as the original. Why would they buy it after that, except perhaps as some sort of tip jar morality play?

” No one said completely copy or re-use source code. “

There are those who rip games apart, change things, and so on (see the post above yours). Things don’t stop at just pirating the game, some feel the need and desire to re-engineer it, or to use the technology to their own ends. None of which contributes to selling anything or moving the main company forward.

“No, piracy is a symptom of a failure to meet the market’s demands/wants.”

Sort of missing it, aren’t you? If the market is demanding something that is not realistic, and the company chooses not to meet it, why does it justify piracy? Does your boss not paying you more the mimimum wage justify robbing people so you have enough money to party? Does it justify you forcing your way for free into a theater to see a movie? What you are doing is stating the common justification for piracy. If a company doesn’t meet your desires or wants, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE – it’s not a permission slip for piracy. Once you get over that mental block, the rest of your post makes so much less sense, really!

“Payment isn’t an optional tip. “

This is key: if you have the full product already, full use, without restriction, then payment is but a tip. It’s a way of saying thanks.

“You’re talking about a purchase while at the same time telling us we haven’t purchased a thing,”

Is that willful ignorance on your behalf, or are you just trying to be misleading? You purchase RIGHTS. Stop looking at the shiny disk or whatever, that is just a carrying medium. What you are buying is a license, you are purchasing a collection of rights. Yes, they are sometimes limited, mostly in the manner that doesn’t allow you to bang out 50 copies for your best friends.

Steam isn’t relevant? You have no idea what you’re talking about, do you?

Puts them in a position to see real numbers and raise their eyebrows from time to time.

I see a lot of chatter, but not much else. The real message seems to be “ignore piracy” or “pander to pirates”. That seems to be the siren song for those willing to work for 10 cents on the dollar (hi Red Hat!).

Of course the message is to ignore pirates. You’ll never recoup the money spent on DRM from pirates. It is not a economically sound practice.

No, I don’t ignore them. What I look at more is the social morals, what is discussed out there.

Expounding on the virtues of a moral system doesn’t solve anything, it merely causes intelligent people to succumb to emotional outbursts instead of engaging in rational discussion.

Those people who set up their own game servers, or who bypass the “must be online with us” requirement of games are effectively lifting the game engine and leaving with it. At that point, the piracy crosses the line from “trying” to “taking over”. It’s a big deal.

Typically, this behavior is actually carried out by and for people who already own the game and the money goes to maintaining the server. It is, essentially, merely the equivalent of modding for online games. Further, few players are actually siphoned off to these servers, feeling more comfortable with the service guarantees imposed on the moderators of the official servers.

Yes, some can succeed despite piracy, mostly because they are selling things other than their product. It’s no better than giving gallons of beer away for free at a party, and then charging people $20 to use the bathroom. Don’t be surprised when they are all lining up to piss in your shoes instead.

One can’t make an infinite number of copies of a gallon of beer for free. Further, the charge isn’t on the bathrooms, but the front door. People are there for the party, the free beer is just an enabler.

Again, love how you ignore, literally, almost everything I said and nitpick at a handful of things to continue on your tirade about piracy, which has almost nothing to do with the actual article.

“The problem of piracy is that it’s an all or nothing sort of thing. People don’t pirate a “sample”, they take the whole damn thing – and in as good condition and as high quality as the original. Why would they buy it after that, except perhaps as some sort of tip jar morality play?”

NO ONE BUT YOU IS TALKING ABOUT PIRACY. The original point was about demos. You went off on full copies. I made a valid comparison for a game demo to the equivalent “demo” of a movie, book and album.

“There are those who rip games apart, change things, and so on (see the post above yours). Things don’t stop at just pirating the game, some feel the need and desire to re-engineer it, or to use the technology to their own ends. None of which contributes to selling anything or moving the main company forward.”

Modding contributes to selling a game and moving a company forward. They see what some want from their game, per the mods made available, and incorporate them to the next iteration of the game or add them to the current version themselves making them “official”.

Again, get over piracy. Not relevant to the article at all. Focus on the article.

“Sort of missing it, aren’t you? If the market is demanding something that is not realistic, and the company chooses not to meet it, why does it justify piracy? Does your boss not paying you more the mimimum wage justify robbing people so you have enough money to party? Does it justify you forcing your way for free into a theater to see a movie? What you are doing is stating the common justification for piracy. If a company doesn’t meet your desires or wants, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE – it’s not a permission slip for piracy. Once you get over that mental block, the rest of your post makes so much less sense, really!”

No, the one missing the point, as it pertains to the article and proper discussion at hand, is YOU. As for the market, what is unrealistic about their demands? Reasonable prices? No DRM? No windowed releases? You consider all that “unrealistic”? If a company doesn’t meet people’s desires they will go somewhere else. Whether that somewhere else is legal or not is irrelevant. That you don’t like it, also irrelevant. Someone will meet the demand, if you’re not willing to then that’s on you.

And again, no one is justifying piracy or discussing piracy, it’s all you.

“This is key: if you have the full product already, full use, without restriction, then payment is but a tip. It’s a way of saying thanks. “

That’s if you have the full product already. But in order to get it, you must pay first. The only people getting it that way are people pirating it, which again, is not what the article is about. Why you insist on essentially repeating yourself over and over is beyond me? Try and stick to the topic at hand. I know it’s tough when you want to stand on your podium and bitch, but try and get off your cross, okay? You just might learn a thing or two.

“Is that willful ignorance on your behalf, or are you just trying to be misleading? You purchase RIGHTS. Stop looking at the shiny disk or whatever, that is just a carrying medium. What you are buying is a license, you are purchasing a collection of rights. Yes, they are sometimes limited, mostly in the manner that doesn’t allow you to bang out 50 copies for your best friends.”

No, that is not willful ignorance on my behalf. I know how things work and I know that I am purchasing certain rights and the limitations included. However, I am not the majority. And most customers aren’t aware about purchasing “rights”. They think if they pay for something they can do with it as they please. “Yes, they are sometimes limited”. That is the key point I made, and it’s not “sometimes”, it’s “always”. And it’s not just to prevent you from sending copies to 50 friends, it’s to limit your usage and to force you to spend more money to get the same product again in a different format or be accessible on another device. Essentially, taking advantage of your position and feeling entitled to take more money for what should already be possible/allowable but for which you have had certainly laws to prevent.

Now, again, who’s the entitled bunch? Because from a consumer perspective, it’s you and your type. If you want to be up front about the “rights” we purchase, by all means go for it. Put it on each and every dvd, cd, and book in standard and easily understandable terms, no legalese (which only confuses people and thus leads to problems). Then let’s see if people still want to buy your stuff knowing full well what they can and can’t do with it, what limitations it may or may not have, what features are (un)surprisingly missing or cost extra and so on and so forth.

” if you are not serving your customers, they will go elsewhere, either to your competitor or through illegal means. It really doesn’t matter how moral it is or not – it’s a simple fact of reality.”

I think you miss the point – if a company is not meeting your needs, then go somewhere else. There shouldn’t even be a tacit acceptance or approval of piracy as an option. The only reason we have the current piracy issue is because so many people don’t feel the need to pay anymore. Look at PaulT, his justification for piracy is that he moved to a non-english country, and is pissed off because people won’t sell him stuff in english – so he pirates. The reality? he pirates, the language thing is just a misdirection.

Personal responsiblity, it’s a wonderful thing – and something that the current society seems to lack.

” I am well aware of the software industry’s efforts to undermine the First Sale Doctrine”

No first sale doctrine issue here – you are buying something, “rights”. When you stop thinking you bought something else, your life is much easier to live.

“I think you miss the point – if a company is not meeting your needs, then go somewhere else. There shouldn’t even be a tacit acceptance or approval of piracy as an option. The only reason we have the current piracy issue is because so many people don’t feel the need to pay anymore. Look at PaulT, his justification for piracy is that he moved to a non-english country, and is pissed off because people won’t sell him stuff in english – so he pirates. The reality? he pirates, the language thing is just a misdirection.”

I think you miss the point, people are going somewhere else. Whether you want to admit it or not, piracy is another option. It is “somewhere else”. You’re problem is that it is illegal and you don’t approve of it. Morals and justifications are irrelevant. If you aren’t willing to sell them your product, then you have no right to complain that they get it elsewhere.

That is relevant to PaulT. He cannot legally purchase said products, thus complaining about him pirating them is irrelevant. The fact that he lives in a mostly non-English speaking country is irrelevant. Their should still be some kind of a market there, as their should be for most of the world, for English speakers to legally purchase products. That there isn’t, for whatever bizarre reason, is thus a problem to be laid at the feet of the industries. As such, they have no right to complain about PaulT. Nor do you. Blaming people for not living where your products are accessible is pretty pathetic. “Live in America or fuck off,” is essentially what you’re saying.

As for “tacit acceptance or approval of piracy as an option”, no one is saying any of that. We’re being realists. Piracy exist whether you like it or not. The smart people accept this and move on to focus on more important issues, like I don’t know… their paying customers and offering superior, non-DRMed products. The stupid keep stamping their feet and acting like children.

“No first sale doctrine issue here – you are buying something, “rights”. When you stop thinking you bought something else, your life is much easier to live.”

Again, be up front about this. Tell people and make it absolutely clear, but don’t trick them into “buying” something and then tell them after the fact that they only “licensed” it or purchased specific “rights”. And if you’re going to do that, don’t be a cheat by making your products non-refundable as well. No other industry does this but the entertainment one. In every single other industry and product available, you can return products or ask for refunds if they do not meet your satisfaction or are in some way defective. Which is yet again, an example of how you and your type are cheating the consumers. Be up front about it is all we ask, especially to the average customer who isn’t aware of such things. Which you seem to be laying all the blame on, which is ridiculous since they don’t even know about any of this.

Two words, Tim Schafer.
http://twitter.com/#!/timoflegend

He does not put out the aura of a rock star, he’s a normal guy who talks and listens to his fans. His new game will be written with the input and LARGE amount of money from these fans who will be taking an active part in it’s creation, creating the “ownership” that was mentioned in TFA.

This is why you want to talk to your fans, and the above are the reasons people are excited about him coding a game.

they do this for legal reasons NOT because of company policy, I have worked for a few big tech support sites and more then a few times we got legal notices from random companies over posts made by random members about piracy.

they claimed we condoned it(we didnt) they claimed we contribute to it(We didnt) on and on, guess what, we got so we would just give people a vacation for even mentioning it in any specific way.

your fault for not reading the forum rules, I guarantee they mention piracy and warez as reasons for banning.

Mind you, this comes from a guy who downloads and demo’s alot of games before he buys them…..(or del them and pat myself on the back for not wasting more money on shitty titles)

best advice is that on most major forums you never talk about piracy in any specific way that way your less likely to get banned.

3d-Coat is a program I recently purchased. The only copy protection it has, besides being closed source, is that a serial number is required. There is no invasive DRM of any kind. The demo is completely unlimited. You can do everything the program can do, even save files, for 30 days. Then you can buy either the educational version for $100 or pro version for $350. The only limits in the EDU version is maximum texture size and number of layers. Otherwise it does everything the pro version can. It’s not limited to students either. Cash strapped hobbyists are welcome to buy the EDU version too.

The author of 3D Coat is very open to new ideas and is fairly quick to fix bugs. He often posts on the official forum and actually replies to people when they have questions and suggestions. Updates are frequent and anyone who owns a copy is allowed to use the latest beta version if they so wish.

All of these add up to a radically different experience as a consumer and one that is tremendously pleasant. I feel fiercely loyal as a result and plan to eventually upgrade to the pro version when I can afford it, not because I actually need to, but because I want to. He deserves it, and this is all in spite of the fact that there is a pirated version freely available online.

Earning the admiration and loyalty of your customers is something a lot of businesses don’t seem to understand anymore, despite the fact it has always been essential for long term viability. How can one possibly expect repeat business, or even new customers though being highly recommended (aka word of mouth), when you treat your “fans” like crap, completely ignore them most of the time, and view them with nothing but utter contempt, even going so far as to treat them like criminals? Why is it so hard to see such an obvious connection between this and success?

You say the secret is to simply put out a superior product, but I know from experience that this is way off the mark. There are better programs than 3D Coat for example, but none have what makes it so special. An author who understands people. An author who “gets it” so to speak. I’ll take that over a superior product any day. Why? Because there is nothing to stop it from becoming the superior product some day, which is more likely to happen when there are steadfast supporters standing behind you, willing to help out (not just bug testing and suggestions, but acting as free tech support for instance).

A business cannot possibly hope to stay afloat when it refuses to build a strong, loyal community. Going out of your way to make people hate you can only lead to your eventual downfall. After all it’s exceedingly difficult to feel sorry for anyone whom merrily digs their own grave, exactly what the entertainment industry has been doing for a while now.

Oh, and one more thing, guess what Autodesk provides with their software? A license transfer tool. Which requires, obviously, an always on internet connection to utilize. Guess what tool doesn’t work (like at all even with an always on internet connection and following the steps included with said tool)? Which I found out and thus resorted to transferring the software the old fashioned way (manually) to get it installed/licensed. Yep, the provided (DRMed) “License Transfer Utility”. They just find all kinds of ways to f*ck you.

Modding is perhaps what draws me most to some games. And it really, dramatically increases the longevity of a game.

I’ve personally put over 800 hours into Left 4 Dead 2. I’ve written my own mods. My wife’s put in almost 2000 hours. I guarantee there’s no way we’d be able to put in that kind of time if we couldn’t tweak the game to our liking, run our own server, etc. It makes me feel like I really do own the game.

In fact, I recently started playing another game called Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. It was released in 2004. It’s been fan-modded and patched ever since; the latest unofficial patch was just released a few weeks ago. EIGHT YEARS and people are still playing and hacking at this game. Amazing.

Please continue to imagine ….