• Zoolander
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    725 months ago

    This is the right attitude towards piracy. Pirate it first, then pay if you feel it was worth it.

    • @[email protected]
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      475 months ago

      Literally never heard of it but the dev thinks if I get it for free I will want to give him money. It shows a level of confidence in the product that encourages me want to check it out.

      • @Squirrelanna
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        65 months ago

        It was good enough that I didn’t even wait for a sale. I pirated it, then found it worthy of my immediate purchase the moment I had the spare funds. And on top of that, my entire exposure to it was word of mouth from a friend. You can’t go wrong just trying it!

      • @[email protected]
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        45 months ago

        I saw some previous news coverage of the Devs saying they’d rather players pirate it than have it spoiled for them, and I went in blind and bought it full price. I don’t generally play this kind of game but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

      • swayevenly
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        45 months ago

        Their other game is on par or even better. Check that out if you dig Slay the Princess.

    • @[email protected]
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      185 months ago

      Also if the alternative was “no money, still can’t buy the game” then they are losing no money in the process anyway.

      • Zoolander
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        25 months ago

        That doesn’t entitle someone to their time and effort, though.

        • PlzGivHugs
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          65 months ago

          But it doesn’t cost their time and effort. Time and effort has already been spent, and as a result, the media exists. Someone playing a copy of the game has no effect on the developer (except maybe advertising).

          • Zoolander
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            25 months ago

            It’s not about cost. Their time and talent have value. They should be rewarded for that time and talent.

            • PlzGivHugs
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              35 months ago

              Yes they should. Unfortunately, we live in a very unequal world, so a lot of people don’t have any way to reward artists for their work. In those cases, the most they can give is attention and word-of-mouth advertising. Often, thats better than buying it, considering how frequently you have corporate owners who force the artists out and/or destroy the game shortly after its published. At least in those cases, the artist gets something rather than it all going to an already-rich investor.

              • Zoolander
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                15 months ago

                If I believed that even half of the people that pirated these games couldn’t afford them, I’d agree with you. The reality is that most digital piracy is perpetuated by people who are well-off and have lots of tech, access to broadband internet, and high-end gaming computers.

                • PlzGivHugs
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                  15 months ago

                  The reality is that most digital piracy is perpetuated by people who are well-off and have lots of tech, access to broadband internet, and high-end gaming computers.

                  Yes, piracy is for rich people who should just be buying games. Thats why we only see it in places like Western Europe and North America, whereas places like Brazil and Russia just buy all their games. Thats why in these places, they have N64s in every house to support companies making great games like Rareware, unlike filfthy pirates in the rich countries. If the rich first-worlders would stop being greedy and just pony up a few hundred in microtransactions a month during this economic crisis, then publishers wouldn’t have to remove games from your library as often.

                  • Zoolander
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                    5 months ago
                    1. I never said any of that so that’s a very robust straw man

                    and

                    1. We’re not talking about things that aren’t legally available. This thread and discussion is about games that are available for purchase but whose users feel entitled to play without paying despite enjoying the game.

                    They’re both very nice straw men, though. I especially love their little hats.

        • @[email protected]
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          25 months ago

          I don’t fully disagree with you. I personally don’t pirate things (I can afford to just pay up front, and if I don’t want to support a dev, I just fully don’t play the game, I don’t want to accidentally be lumped into any metrics that might show support), but the game dev themselves said “No skin off our back”.

          If I steal your car, you no longer have a car. If I steal your game, you’ve lost absolutely nothing. Code is infinitely reproducible. You’re only out the sale.

          This dev made art, and they care more about sharing the art they created with more people, than they do about getting every last transaction paid for.

          It’s usually the publisher that has strong opinions about this, because they didn’t make the art nor do they care about people seeing it. they only care about getting the money, but again, if you can’t afford it, they were never going to get your money anyway. It’s technically a victimless crime. No skin off anyone’s back.

          The issue is when enough people who CAN afford to pay use the “no skin off their back” logic to not pay, and a good game winds up not being profitable (or profitable enough to the publisher) and a studio suffers as a result.

          • Zoolander
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            15 months ago

            That’s not where I’m coming from. The “you’ve lost nothing” excuse is just an excuse. These people put their time, money, and talent into their games and people who are entitled and can afford to buy them don’t. My company made a game before and people played it for weeks and pirated it. Some of our top players by time were people who pirated the game. You can’t tell me that the game isn’t worth paying for if you’re spending that much time playing it. Some devs can get to the point of where Slay the Princess is and the actual sales can sustain the company and so the minimal pirating just encourages word of mouth sales. Most game devs don’t have that luxury. They’re trying to make a living and sustain themselves and entitled shits are leeching off their time and effort.

            If you enjoy something, pay for it. Otherwise, you’re voting with your wallet for the wrong things.

    • Tier 1 Build-A-Bear 🧸
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      105 months ago

      Demos are almost completely gone, so make your own demos :) but still feel free to actually pirate from ea, Ubisoft, Sony, etc

      • Zoolander
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        65 months ago

        Despite some of my objections, I almost feel like you have to pirate Ubisoft games. Their launcher ruins nearly every single Ubisoft game I’ve played and makes the games crashy, unplayable messes even when the games themselves are enjoyable.

      • @[email protected]
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        25 months ago

        Yeah there are a few games that you can try the demo on Steam but you’d think that’d be a more common thing. With full digital, it’s even easier then the old shareware methods

      • paraphrand
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        5 months ago

        “I already beat the game, why would I pay for it?” This must be especially common for big AAA games too.

        • Cadenza
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          45 months ago

          I know it exists, but I’m so happy to buy a game I’ve played and finish. Pyre, Transistor, A story beside and so many others. Just as a “Thank you”.

          P. S. : of you people didn’t know about it, check A Story Beside. One of the games I’ll never forget.

      • Zoolander
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        15 months ago

        Yes, and, also unfortunately, people here will bend over backwards to justify it.

    • @Squirrelanna
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      35 months ago

      That’s exactly how I did it. A friend of mine got me interested in the premise, but I just couldn’t afford to buy it. So I pirated it… And the moment I had the spare funds, this was one of the games I pirated that I instantly bought among a few others like Dead Cells and Halls of Torment. The devs of Slay the Princess know they have something good enough to convince folks to buy it even when they have it for free, no strings attached. And they’re right.