Tiy: Pirate it, like it? Buy it, if not, delete it!

I pirated, I approved, I bought. A developer who condems the testing of a product probably doesn't have faith in said product, so Im glad to hear that Tiy stands behind this game.

 

The problem there is that you, in the vast majority of cases, can't support the devs without also supporting the publisher. With indie games, small studios, and small publishers such as Chucklefish, that is no bad thing and I doubt anyone would have anything against supporting Chucklefish. The larger publishers who have no respect for their customers, coders, or product, however.. them I have a problem with supporting. Supporting them, even if it means supporting the devs behind the products they sell, also supports their bad practises and terrible customer service.

To truly support game devs (those actually creating the games and coming up with the decent ideas to put in them) you'd have to find a way to get your money directly to them, bypassing the big publisher. Since this often is not possible (unless you can email one of the devs privately or something and trust that they'll share the money with everyone) you are left with only one other method of support: kill the publisher.

With the publisher gone those devs can make the games they want instead of the games the publishers want, they can make sure they aren't rushed out for release, and they can do the right thing when it comes to DRM. This isn't to say that all big publishers are bad, but if they have a consistent record of ruining game franchises, lying in their marketing, not supporting customers, overriding the devs and treating them like slaves, deliberately adding restrictive DRM, etc then they as a company deserve to fail. The only way to make that happen is to not pay for the games they publish. You don't have to pirate them either of course, but either way they shouldn't be paid for their disgraceful behaviour.

 

LOL Hmmmm... Well, if STEALING doesn't work, maybe MURDER will solve the problem.

I like your thinking.

 

I've only pirated 3 games so far. Two of the games, Gunpoint and Hotline Miami, I ended up playing all the way through and then purchasing on steam because I really enjoyed them. The other one I pirated was cube-world, I played for 30 minutes saw that it wasn't going anywhere at this stage and then deleted it. I still might buy cube-world if it gets some decent updates though.

 

We must not allow.. a game development gap, Mr President.

 

All of his cases are intensely subjective and revolve around morality, usually with some form of strawman argument. He accepts that there are many points at which piracy hurts no one, but states it is often still wrong, and presents odd ethical reasoning. Pretty much nothing in the video is any more informed or well explored than anything found in this forum thread.

For instance, do you believe that charity is morally wrong unless someone is specifically blessing you with it? Is there a such thing as self imposed charity? One argument in the video is that the concept of self charity, the concept of being able to give yourself a better life without harm to anyone or cost to yourself, is wrong. He argues this complex issue by simply dismissing it, stating that there are cheap options for people of every economic class, insinuating that we must only live as we can afford to, any other option is theft (also poor people are liars because they have a PC and thus $$$). Effectively, if I stumble upon an opportunity to experience a good steak, at no cost to anyone else and without someone explicitly giving me permission, I must turn it down because it is wrong, and society dictates that it isnt my place to enjoy a nice meal (mostly because no one else is losing a meal, a subjective argument of the concept of "fairness"), besides, McDonalds sells burgers for $1 and thats more up my alley.

This is an odd moral argument with no foundation outside of the authors own moral compass. The same can be said about my desire to pirate games before I buy them. Pretty much an interesting video with some interesting opinions and perspectives, but not much else, although I do thank you for posting it.

 

Correct. The more honest way to have an affect is to boycot, protest, generally make a lot of noise to draw attention to the practices that these greedy bastards are using. Another way is to support independent funding through Kickstarter, Early Access, etc. Although, I see the possibility of big companies pretending to be small companies to get the public to fund games instead of their own wallet, but that's another debate.

I agree that it would be awesome if we could send money directly to the developer that is under the big publisher, BUT you have to agree that without the funding from the greedy fat cats, their would never have been a game to be pirated in the first place and they do deserve to get back what they put into it, with that model anyway. It's just sad that there are so many big publishers now that care more about profit than content.

I miss Interplay.

 

Ethics and morality is how society survives. It's how people agree to exist with eachother so that we don't all kill eachother. Without them we may as well just kill, rape, and steal whatever we want.

Lemme ask you this.... if you spent years learning how to program and then getting good enough at it to go work somewhere doing it, wouldn't you want to get compensated fairly for all the time and money you put into learning how to be good enough to do what you do? If you only got paid minimum wage for the hours you spent working a specific piece of software, wouldn't you feel like you got cheated? If you spent all that time doing what you do only to see 100 torrent sites with work on them, that you'd never see a dime from, wouldn't you feel violated?

Ethics and morality is about treating people the way that you want to be treated by others.

 

I like Tiy's attitude here. He knows people will pirate it. He's self-aware enough to realize he's not going to outsmart all the thousands of hackers out there, so why waste the time and resources? Embrace it.
I'll be honest: I've pirated games before. Old ones, though, simply because I couldn't find a place to pay for them. Ok, and yes a couple because I was too cheap to pay for them, but they were still old games. Personally I think when a game is more than 10 years old it should be made freeware. If a studio remakes it or re-releases it with updates or new content, start the clock over again. That won't ever actually become the law, but it's a little dream I have.

 

Wow, I have a mountain of respect for Tiy after reading this. A mountain packed to the brim with diamonds.

 

That's a good thought from a developer.

In another point, i think piracy has many shades of grey.
I pirated the game don't gonna deny that, the only reason why i did it is because I don't have the money, here in my country (Venezuela) is so difficult found a job even more is you don't have experience and if you are lucky enough to have a job you should put so much effort and money only to have 1 ****ing dolar.

My feelings right now are this:
Can play the game.
Don't Have a job and not being too smart because that cuts all my work opportunities.
when I think that I can not give them the money they deserve.

in case you were wondering the only reason why I have a PC is because my brother gave it to me to buy a new one but it was a few years ago when he was working.

and yes this is my selfish and honest opinion.
Sorry for my bad english.

 

Another example of great development mentality. This game is great and it feels better to support such honest devs. Keep on truckin' Chuckle.

 

Definitely a buncha cool points in my book.

 

I'd highly recommend a demo when the final product is out.

I pirated Starbound, 2 days later I bought it. Fantastic game, WELL worth the money.

 

"Try before you buy" is not a new concept and gaming shouldn't be exempt from it. I'm an indie game dev (one man show, I only outsource music) and I wouldn't dream of putting a game out there without some kind of demo. I would except players to pirate it if I did. Why not? It's silly to expect others to just take your word that your game is good, or that it's going to work on their system, etc. If it's a good game, enough players are going to support it that it doesn't really matter if a few players download it and never pay for it.

DRM is also a huge waste of time and money. The proper way to stave off piracy is to provide continued support for your game, frequent updates for registered buyers and to have a good relationship and good communication with your playerbase. Big publishers make their money by pushing sales above all else and taking restrictive measures to prevent piracy, indie devs survive off making quality games that players love and respecting their audience.

 

Try before buying is not the issue.

It's the same as test driving a car before you buy it. All I'm saying is that paying for it, and letting the sales person out, before you take it home and keep it is the moral and ethical to do.

 

Demo is important when you do not have a lot of money, pirated Tropico 4 loved it and bought the 4 tropico games with all dlcs. Pirated saints row 4 hated it saved a lot of money not buying it. Devs lie about their games as a consumer i have to protect myself, i probably would not download a car but i sure would take it for a test ride.

 

President of what? He's from England, so I suppose he should be king or something!

 

Pirating may not be allowed, but seriously, how will anyone know if you pirate?
lol.
i pre-ordered already.
SO WORTH THE MONEY
If people pirate it, and don't like it, they throw it away.
if people pirate it, and like, they keep it, and look for a newer version
if a newer version never comes out, they buy it.
but if a newer version just keeps coming out, thats a loss of profit.
but seriously, what can ya do about it? pirates are pirates, you know?
<.<....
>.>....
*looks at pirate clan*

 

Uh, what? Sim City was cracked already. Also, word of advise. ALWAYS pirate EAs games. They constantly rip people off.