Does piracy mean we have no future in game dev?

[edh]

I was reading this blog about How Piracy can Break an Industry - the Brazilian Case

What do you think your future is in game development? Do you pirate games, yet hope to sell your own? Do you use pirated tools, in hopes of earning enough to buy them later?

I can't help but wonder, GE pirated? Is that why Makslane must work to pay his bills, instead of dedicating himself to GE?

What does everyone else think?

[makslane]

Always will have space for game dev.
Here, in Brazil, the game development is hard, but there are many success cases.

The online games are a good example of how fight piracy.
In the other hand, the mobile market is great.
There are a lot of people thats not buy software for PC, but buy for you mobile device!

[edh]

I guess we need lots of mobile support in GE, then, Makslane. New iphone sdk is out.... BTW, did you ever support Palm OS? Motorola SDK? There are several other C/C++ sdks for mobile. I'm sure you are aware.

Anyway...

I still can't help but wonder, let's say Bee-Ant finishes his walkaround demo into a full game (Go Bee-Ant!) and releases a PC version and a Windows smart phone version. He uploads them to click gamer and waits for the big checks to come rolling in. If it's worth playing (which I'm sure it would be), someone is bound to upload it to a torrent somewhere. He's not going to get paid for it. What's his future? Go work for a bank writing code for their internal systems all day and write games for fun all night, only to give them away for free?

Web games look better. Xbox looks better (but you need some real money just to get on the platform). Neither of these is GE related, though.

Mobile is the only other option, but still, if I could get a .exe or .cab of Bee-Ants future game for my Treo 750w from a torrent I wouldn't need to pay for that, just like PC games.

[Game A Gogo]

I agree, piracy just gets bigger, and it seems that they can crack anything.
Decompiler are getting more and more popular as well.

There are so much ways to crack something that it is incredibly easy! anyone could do it if they do the proper search...

[edh]

This is a big concern. But, apparently not a very popular subject. I wonder what everyone plans on doing with their games?

[Game A Gogo]

I know. all I can do is sell them and wait until people who doesn't crack/hack buys it or something.

[edh]

OK, there was an awesome entry on Shamus Young's Twenty Sided blog Five Ways to Fight Software Piracy: The Publishers vs. The Pirates, Part 2.

A lot of good observations.

[Game A Gogo]

ah, in other words, this mean to the most humanly as possible, makes perfect sense! thank you a lot for sharing

[stevenp]

{

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6186307.html

}

http://www.pcgamingalliance.org/en/index.asp


check this out

[edh]

It's cool that they are getting together to try to save their hardware from becoming obsolete. It would suck for Nvidia (and others) if everyone stopped gaming on PC and the only users were business users. Sounds like they will just be advocating for the platform, though.

[DST]

I think that piracy means that there are many who do not have a future in game development. But there are
also many who do.

This is the change we are going through as a society, and there's not even a guarantee we will survive
to reach the next level of civilization. The unlimited information that the internet offers is preferrable
until the point is reached where creating data becomes so unprofitable, that no one wants to do it...
sorta like teaching in our public education system.

Imagine that information is the typical mold on the sandwich; it must grow or perish, but if it grows too fast, it eats up the sandwich before another sandwich comes along, and the whole thing dies. I think that's what's happening now on the internet. Its not that I can download a game instead of paying for it, its that I can download EVERYTHING without paying for
it. This internet is so large, and boasts so many forbidden pleasures...its kinda like a stripper is to a man who's wife has become fat. Irresistable. Only this stripper plays games with you, costs very little, and knows more than your entire family, and even shuts up when you push a button.

So the gaming industry isn't by itself, the same problem affects all data creators, whether artists, writers, musicians,
programmers, inventors...heck even porn stars don't make as much as they used to!

What it means is that some will adapt, and some won't.
What it means is that you can't give second best.

You have to give your best. You have to try harder, again and again. WOW is a solution to piracy, but sooooo
expensive. The servers, staff, and programmers for such a project cost millions....compared to your 30$ copy
of GE and 500$ desktop. Being the best is HARD! So you have to try Harder!

Not only in your work, but even moreso in your relations with others. You have to give up your foolish pride and join forces with others. Its not an option, it's a requirement.

And if we could do that....then we wouldn't waste so much time learning what's already known, use up so much oil, raise
the cost of living, and basically all the things that we're doing that make our country divided, and really send the religious message of terrorists home: That they would rather die, and live in poverty in the desert, than become what America has become: a land of strangers, isolated by their lawns, suspicious of everyone they meet, buying junk food and soda but in debt at the same time, and living in large cities surrounded by people on every side, yet completely alone.

If we cannot solve these problems, fate WILL solve them for us. If our society degenerates until it collapses, then LOTS of people die, and, in the absence of all things good, people will give up their pride and band together again. But do we have to let it go this far???


Here's a question for all of you: If a guy is 30, and lives in his parents' house, is that guy a loser?
If you answered yes, then YOU are part of this problem.

Ever since man started building, a man's home has been his castle, and more important, the family castle. And it was respected, and passed down from generation to generation, and always full of people.

But nowadays I see talented artists and musicians, living in ramshackle apartments, working at Best Buy to pay rent...when their parents have a nice house...with only two old people living in it, trying to entertain themselves now that their children are gone. What a waste of our time, to work for rent money that we don't even need! All so that people won't call us losers. lol.

WE CAN'T GET ALONG AND IT'S DESTROYING US!

Adapting means banding together, it means creating something new, it means not letting our software write things for us, but rather, determing for ourselves how it should be written.

If you can adapt, and you don't give up, YOU CAN MAKE IT!

The articles cited in this thread were good choices, and explained a lot.
They're right. There isn't any protection you can use that can protect you.
Yet you can't do nothing either.

There is an old saying...."All a lock will do is keep an honest man honest".
Its very true..... a lock won't protect your house from thieves. But an honest neighbor will. A dog will. Why? Because the dog is your FRIEND.

Now you know why Nintendo always put out fluffy kids games....instead of Grand Theft Auto. And that's why piracy, even though it can hurt them, it will NEVER destroy Nintendo. Not until every Mother and Child in the world has become a criminal, too, and no one in the world gives christmas presents anymore. (imagine giving pirated games to your 4 yr old kid for christmas!)

GRAND THEFT AUTO...."Don't steal this game that's all about stealing". Now that's exactly what I'm talking about!

[Freddy]

Wow.
--Was that all about the same thing?
Dont get me wrong, you did have some good points, like the one about the kids games. (lol)

I never knew about this issue, but it seems pretty much unavoidable if your game is targeted.

[DST]

Wow.
--Was that all about the same thing?

Yes, it was.

[platformkid]

Hi

Nice interesting answers here.

Edh, I'll try to answer with honesty to your question.

===> Yes I download stuff, a lot of stuff. It doesn't mean I don't buy
anything. I tend to buy almost the same amount of stuff I used to
buy before the whole Internet P2P crazyness. The products I'm willing
to put money into are things that are really cult to me.

I would say that the games I buy (sometimes quite compulsively)
are often cult to me when a lot of soul and heart are put into those
games, and when it depicts something quite personalized, with
strong characters and stories, and solid gameplay. I don't care for
a game without a twisted concept, without humor, or with faceless
characters with no spine.
For example, the last game I fell in love with was "Conker's bad
fur day" (N64), emulating it on PC ; man when you play that game
you really feel the pleasure and passion the creators must have !
That funny squirrel and his opponents were loved from day one
by his creators, and you can feel it at any time.

So now I have an urge to possess the original conker in its box,
complete with manual (well first I have to find a used N64 ),
and as I recently bought an Xbox, I'll have to buy the remake
"Conker Live and reloaded"... (and why not find conker's pocket
tales on gameboy ? ). Other games I tend to buy and collect
are graphical adventure games and specific action/arcade stuff.

I may be from the old school, but I have to possess the material
thing with the goodies, that's why buying a virtual software/music/etc
without a physical support, box, cover, is not really for me. I'm not
sure the new generations are different on that level.

===> I wouldn't be that pessimistic about the industry... Just look
at sales figures for games like Halo, GTA, etc., those games are
certainly a lot pirated, but at the same time they break sale record
after sale record.

About mobile games, as I feel it's the goal most of the people have
in here, I think most of mobile gamers would be willing to pay. The
problem is making sure to reach the people (find a way to be distributed
by phone companies in their games portals, be well referenced, online
shops, etc., tease well the potential buyers with an accurate and tempting
description and screenshots, etc.), and make it really easy to buy and
install, without a hassle.


My opinion on how to not be killed by piracy, for a developer:

- Put a lot of your heart in your game, let it have soul and character, so it will
get enough cult polish that shows, and a lot of people will be willing to buy it, after
viewing a demo or trying it.
(why should gamers care about the same game done and re-done again without much
change... why wanna possess "PES #12.5 remix" or "Toca Racing #26 ultimate revenge" ?)

- Provide good support for bugs, improvements, and porting of the game on newer
platforms, why not make it free after a good time of commercial exploitation ? (let it have
a long life and give to the enthusiasts a way to still be able to play it through time, without
being ripped off by buying the same game again and again).
Letting the game have a long life time and visibility, will open the opportunity to make
sequels.

- Find a way to render the selling more "material".
Why would someone care to buy a virtual product, if in the end it's just a file, just like
the file that can be found on a P2P network ?
Something like a shipped 8cm printed CD, with a nice cover, would make it more real, and
would answer the urge of possessing, in the buyers mind.


That's my two eurocents.
Best wishes.

[DST]

This Is A Horse.

At one time, a horse was the most valueable possession a man could own. No one could be considered to be a functional member of society without a horse in the family. Back then, horses were so important that a family would save for years to buy one. In the wild west, horse-thieving was even punishable by death. A horse, back in pioneer days, would run you anywhere from 50$ to several thousand (for a nice one). Given the rate of inflation, by today's standards, that's anywhere from 750$ to 10's of thousands, which is about what you pay for a car today.

This is a car.

Cars are as important to people now as horses were in the 1800's. Instead of saving for years to buy one, most people make payments for years instead. The effect is the same.

When the car became widespread, it definitely hurt the horse market. Big time. Many horse breeders went out of business, and many switched to raising cattle instead. Certainly, in the early 1900's, the question was often asked:

Do Automobiles mean we have No Future in Horse Farming?

The role of the horse has changed in the modern world. Instead of packing goods and transporting people, a horse is now a recreational purchase. People buy ponies for their children, fancy horses for shows, advertising, and racing.
But most buy them just for fun.

Lets take a look at how well they're doing today. (see next post)