Piracy a huge problem for casual game devs
by Justin McElroy 
{ Feb 12th 2008 at 9:15PM }
Carroll goes on to weigh the various causes for the problem as well as possible solutions, but he also mentions that his company handles digital rights management in-house rather than outsourcing them like most of the industry. ... Are we the only ones that look at that fact and think that just maybe we've cracked "The Case of the 92 Percent Thefts"? Just saying.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Vegnagun bwf @ Feb 12th 2008 9:22PM
Exactly how many people play Ricochet Infinity?
Chris @ Feb 12th 2008 9:27PM
25. Only 2 paid for it, and one of them uploaded it to Pirate Bay.
Sora267 @ Feb 12th 2008 9:27PM
Hmm, 25? That means 23 of them pirated it. Which means one of the other two leaked it! >_>
Sora267 @ Feb 12th 2008 9:28PM
Chris, we must have read each other's minds.
rom @ Feb 12th 2008 10:41PM
It is my belief that Chris and Sora267...are clones.
Either that or they both subscribe to the Ricochet Infinity "We be Pirates!" newsletter.
I vote clones.
Shawn @ Feb 13th 2008 2:06AM
probably a few million. Not sure how many paid for it though. It's an awesome game, and there's no way in telling how many pirated a game, it's an offline game to begin with.
KeenCommander @ Feb 12th 2008 9:26PM
I actually might believe this statistic. Casual games are so easy to steal that there's very little incentive not to, though I suspect most of their target audience wouldn't even know how or where to look.
VedicHymn @ Feb 12th 2008 10:11PM
A small developer is even more likely to be hurt by this than a big company. I was just reading a post elsewhere from a Mac developer whos latest game is cracked and up on The Pirates Bay 5 days after it was released.
catcherr @ Feb 12th 2008 9:43PM
Guybrush Threepwood (the mighty pirate): "...Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game".
Elaine: "A what?"
Guybrush: "I don't know. I'm not sure why I said that".
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-3CGA9kSX0)
KnightRicer @ Feb 13th 2008 11:39AM
It's not like non-casual games are hard to pirate.
James @ Feb 12th 2008 10:06PM
There's no point in posting news like this. Pirates like Mike don't really care about harming the industry.
It's like how everyones getting big on "going green" since our planets dying out. Pirates aren't going to stop still devs and their good games start dropping out. Only to be left with EA and the other big studios who can afford to keep going.
James @ Feb 12th 2008 10:10PM
And FFS. And unless you buy 360 and PS3 games from the high street games are cheap. Wii for £27 (Sainsbury's), 360/PS3/DS/PSP from import online retailers for about 30-50% less than high street and PC games from Steam.
Or screw that and stick with older, cheaper consoles if you can't afford that.
rv @ Feb 12th 2008 10:17PM
????
What does that have to do with going green?
James @ Feb 12th 2008 10:31PM
I've no idea but they keep telling us we're all doomed.
Gaming's going to be pretty crappy if piracy forces out the smaller studios.
mike @ Feb 13th 2008 11:45AM
when developers go bankrupt and stop producing games im not going to stop pirating lol.
You see james, im a pirate because I have a brain. Why pay when I get it free? If I have no choice but to pay, then ill pay. But if I know for a fact I can play without paying, I would be an idiot just to pay for it anyway. Do I care about developers? No I dont and im sure they dont care about me. What happens the day no quality games are made anymore because of piracy? Well thats not gonna happen, but lets say it did, I wont game anymore. Sorry but I look at life on a grande scale. Nothing bothers me, nothing offends me. Sure I enjoy being kind hearted generally, but im no saint. Life Is short, im living it. Not a care in the world. people like james however care a little too much. getting all rilled up about people like me who dont even effect him personally (assuming your not a game developer).
99.9% of pirates like me have no intention of taking the time to crack games copy protections and drm schemes. If it where not for those crackers out there, Piracy wouldnt exsist. So blame them. I dont blame you for poluting the enviroment with you gas guzzling car, I blame the manufacture for making it possible for you to do so. And actually I dont really care about that either. now ive gone off topic.
FidliousWong @ Feb 12th 2008 10:10PM
I find this entire issue hilarious. mainly because, of the people I know in the industry and the people outside of, I find more rampant piracy in the developers than the consumers...
Seroth @ Feb 12th 2008 10:24PM
This surprises me. I didn't think casual gamers knew how to pirate games.
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Feb 12th 2008 10:27PM
Seriously, what's Ricochet Infinity?
I think this guy just penned that piece to get publicity.
mcatrage @ Feb 12th 2008 11:09PM
It's basically breakout on steroids.
Kujel @ Feb 12th 2008 10:43PM
The problem here is simple: most casual "gamers" are girls and thus don't understand the importance of the medium and so don't care if they steal or not. Real gamers understand that the only way to have more games (and good ones at that) is to buy them so Devs can stay open and make more.
Anticrawl @ Feb 12th 2008 10:55PM
That's a moronic and stereotypical statement. Everyone knows girls don't use the internet and even if they did they aren't gamers and certainly don't understand the **vast complexity** involved in pirating software.
** = aha.. ha... ha
But seriously I'd say statisticly speaking more males pirate software (casual or not) than women while there are more female shoplifters (which was true in recent years via statistical reports). Honestly I may sound sexist but the most your average woman is pirating is music, and even then they may not realize what they are doing is ethicly wrong (but that goes for males and females). I base this last statement off of what is considered socially standard or acceptable of girls in american society and most people conform to said standard more or less. It is a culture thing.
Anticrawl @ Feb 12th 2008 10:47PM
Do you mean developers of casual games or casual game developers? The two are different and the later makes sense entirely while the former sounds moronic. Who the fuck would pirate casual games? You pirate shit you can't afford and generally something that you intend on getting a great deal of use out of.
I'd say the majority of people who pirate don't do it for the hell of it, there is some risk involved in stealing so generally anyone with any sense would go for something with benefits that outweight the risks.
Kujel @ Feb 12th 2008 11:00PM
Pirating is as simple as downloading music, though it does take someone with a little know how to upload it first.
I'm sure though the vast majority of those pirating casual games are women, men don't really like that crap and as I said before women don't understand the medium.
Anticrawl @ Feb 12th 2008 11:26PM
You know buddy, I really can't tell if that is sarcasm or you're just a jackass. Perhaps it's neither and you're some sort of deeply disturbed closet case.
In any case you're creeping me out dude, go back and beat your wife, scream loudly at sports games and get drunk when you aren't doing the other two so you can feel like a man.
I'll go over here and have fun being secure in my masculinity while enjoying "gay or feminie" games such as Solitare, Tetris, Guitar Hero, N, Rez, Viva Pinata, Lego Star Wars, Ecco the Dolphin and anything on the Wii/DS.
PiratePete @ Feb 13th 2008 3:13PM
Umm, add Peggel to that list please.
Anticrawl @ Feb 13th 2008 6:32PM
I'd add Peggle to the list but the overdosing of pachinko has left me in a vegetative state.
nealpro @ Feb 12th 2008 10:48PM
Galactic Civilizations II says "hello".
buzzbean @ Feb 12th 2008 11:00PM
all this story did for me was make me scream "Need more monkey island." actually i did not read the story it was the pic that made me do that!
Joseph @ Feb 12th 2008 11:01PM
Be honest here people. If you pirate a game, what were the chances of you actually buying it if it weren't available to download? I'm going to guess 0%.
jake @ Feb 13th 2008 12:39AM
From article: "Put another way, for every 1,000 pirated copies we eliminated, we created 1 additional sale."
This pretty much supports your argument. That is why DRM really has to make sure it is not so bad as to put off customers as you can stand to lose more customers because of really crappy DRM than if you didn't have DRM in the first place. Of course, it is always best if you come up with DRM that doesn't intrude on paying customers while also being effective.
[.sm0ke.] @ Feb 12th 2008 11:14PM
Well, of course nobody's going to pay for Ricochet. $20 for what has to be the MILLIONTH Breakout clone is absurd.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Feb 13th 2008 10:19AM
Exactly right. People pirate casual games so much because they don't see getting that much value from the purchase. You'd have a lot less pirates if the game cost 5 bucks instead of 20.
[.sm0ke.] @ Feb 13th 2008 12:34PM
I wouldn't even pay $5 for Breakout. It's Breakout. I made Breakout myself in Visual Basic a few years ago.
wootman @ Feb 12th 2008 11:21PM
meh, the only reason i would pirate a game is if i didn't really think they needed any money, like CSS, Final fantasy, mario, etc.
i WOULD buy a game like audiosurf, hl2, the ship, etc, because i thought it was a worthy game.
and seriously, i dont get why they just dont freaking drop the price to 3$, its a old ass game.
you can buy HL1, quake, or GTA vice city on steam for 10$.
capt_carl @ Feb 12th 2008 11:52PM
The Monkey Island screenshot makes this post automatically win.
Red Leader @ Feb 13th 2008 2:48AM
I've spoken with apes more polite than you!
hvnlysoldr @ Feb 13th 2008 12:01AM
The situation doesn't seem nearly as hopeless since we haven't seen ninja lawyers after Depp at the moment.
Matthew Harrington @ Feb 13th 2008 12:05AM
Secret of Monkey Island? AWESOME! PLZ BRING TO XBOX LIVE!
Red Leader @ Feb 13th 2008 2:45AM
I once owned a dog that was smarter than you!
Anticrawl @ Feb 13th 2008 12:16AM
I've got it. The answer is so simple. All these people who apparently pirate said casual games are simply men posing as women. It happens in every other possible situation so why would it be any different for stealing games.
Also how did they determine the gender? Did they send out a survey to all the people who stole from them after getting a name by pestering ISPs for personal information attached to an IP address? Even then who the fuck would incriminate themselves? So many questions, but thinking about it may force me to take evolution into my own hands and start killing people in ways to weed out all these idiots.
Shawn @ Feb 13th 2008 2:20AM
While I haven't the slightest clue how they determine the gender, what's up with you and getting all worked up about it? Profiling is everywhere in society, everywhere. You can't turn on CNN nowadays without hearing about women voters or black voters in the primaries. Most of that is bunk, since most of those polls are done by small samples. I'm sure they can easily twist the info to give a more favorable result as well.
Personally, I think most of these stories are just BS, much like how the IRS puts out huge amounts of press releases, in the months before April, about people getting caught for tax evasion, it's all about molding the public's perception or opinion.
Anticrawl @ Feb 13th 2008 3:09AM
@Shawn
Oh I agree with you dude, I'm not getting worked up with that. I was just attacking the fellow above for being ignorant. Don't usually specifically attack people but it felt appropriate. As for my "excitement" regarding this topic is how absurd it is, not because of my distaste for how they may have gone about getting said figures. In fact I was doing a bit of profiling myself in a manner of speaking, I'm mad at this company for their absurd statements and the fact that they think we'll buy into this or believe it in the slightest, and of course not taking responsibility for their current situation and the outcome of their business ventures. Then when I realize how many people have/do go along with it further fuels the passionate hate burning within me.
But yeah, if you've ever seen me around you'd probably get the general idea of how I post. I've been a vocal and frequent member of the Joystiq community since its conception in the summer of 2004. Though I've changed handles once and my e-mail for this name after finally getting a Gmail account and ditching client based e-mail.
AudioSpaghetti @ Feb 13th 2008 8:16AM
god i miss monkey island, i love that series!! zach mckracken, d.o.t.t, maniac mansion, hugos house of horrors... those were the days!
Red Leader @ Feb 13th 2008 2:42AM
You fight like a dairy farmer!
hvnlysoldr @ Feb 15th 2008 3:23PM
How appropriate. You're a cow.
Zoesch @ Feb 13th 2008 12:37AM
And people wonder why most casual developers are moving towards XBLA and PSN?
And to echo de sentiments expressed in this thread... the world needs more Monkey Island and at least another Grim Fandango
Shawn @ Feb 13th 2008 2:22AM
casual developers are 99 percent on PC, and will always be on PC. It's where the overwhelming majority of casual gamers are. Releasing games over XBL/PSN has nothing to do with piracy. Popcap makes an insane amount of money with their titles, it's disgusting.
Synner @ Feb 13th 2008 5:56AM
We buy all the casual games we play.
But then I bought Galactic Civ 2 just BECAUSE it featured no copy protection, came from a small developer, and I wanted to support that business model. The game kicking ass was an extra benefit for me.
I do pirate a lot of stuff, but usually after I try it, if it's bad, I delete it, if I enjoy it, I go out and buy it.
don't agree with me for whatever reason, I really don't care, just putting it out there.
AudioSpaghetti @ Feb 13th 2008 8:19AM
how appropriate, you fight like a cow!
PiratePete @ Feb 13th 2008 3:57PM
lolz