Why are so many Codexers like this?

[JarlFrank]

I usually pirate a game and try it out. If I like it a lot, I buy it. Still, I don't think less of people who only pirate. People don't realize that piracy is, especially for smaller studios, yet another vector of marketing. You don't get to capitalize on drawing people in through ads if you're a lone dev or a tiny team, so you're basically relying on word of mouth. If someone pirates your game and likes it, then even if he doesn't buy it, he is likely to recommend it to his friends, who might buy it, and so on.

Honestly, if I ever put out my own game, I'd probably e-mail some of the bigger piracy sites and ask them whether they could put my game on the main page or something – I'd know the lost sales are literally zero (I mean, I'd be shilling to pirates), yet the word of mouth effect could be big enough from that to draw more people in and boost sales that way.

Naturally, this doesn't work for AAA titles and the like – you don't need someone to inform you about the newest Asscreed because ads for it are everywhere, and far too often, the person telling you will also add 'don't play this game, it's awful shit' because that's what AAAs usually are. AAA studios thus naturally loathe piracy – not because of lost sales, but because the word of mouth effect is a net negative for them.

Yes.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/509253-when-the-web-started-i-used-to-get-really-grumpy

Neil Gaiman realized that ebook pirates actually help him broaden his audience and sell more books.

 

[catfood]

Actual good old game releases on gog were never particularly good when it comes to running out of the "box". And they are still patching them from time to time with some genuine improvements, it's just obviously not a huge priority for them atm. And there are still quite a lot of games there that are stated to work on different versions of Windows when they absolutely don't.

Windows 10 is not a useful system for people who enjoy old games, that is, good games. Windows 10 only runs popamole.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'd buy games on GOG if they actually put effort into fixing/updating old games beyond packaging them with dosbox. ATM it just feels like I'm being charged money for something that used to be abandonware, and I really don't see the benefit for me.
GOG forum users put more effort into this than GOG does.

GOG is built on the back of free software like dosbox, SCUMMVM, etc., When was the last time they contributed code to them or donated money to help fund their development?

 

[Lord_Potato]

Whoa! That must mean it has a LOT of content!

It has?

Not really. The game is nowhere as long as say, Baldur's Gate.

 

[Tyranicon]

People don't realize that piracy is, especially for smaller studios, yet another vector of marketing.

This is more true for some genres than others, but it is especially true for the niche I work in, which also happens to be one of the most pirated categories: sex games.

Personally, I don't mind people pirating games, including mine. Even if you price your games to be affordable, there are bound to be people who can't play your game because of price/platform, etc. Pirating is also a great way to demo a game, because demos don't really exist anymore.

Some devs get really bent out of shape over pirating, and I can see why. Contrary to popular opinion, pirating does have a significant impact even on smaller-mid indies. For larger studios/pubs, it's so significant they resort to dumbfuck tactics like Denuvo or other DRM just to stop day 1 pirating. People constantly scratch their heads over why, but the answer is simple: they do it because it impacts their bottom line. Stuff they won't usually say in public.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Some devs get really bent out of shape over pirating, and I can see why. Contrary to popular opinion, pirating does have a significant impact even on smaller-mid indies. For larger studios/pubs, it's so significant they resort to dumbfuck tactics like Denuvo or other DRM just to stop day 1 pirating. People constantly scratch their heads over why, but the answer is simple: they do it because it impacts their bottom line. Stuff they won't usually say in public.

I've yet to see any data that suggests denuvo actually improves sales.
e.g., Total War: Warhammer released without denuvo, the sequel released with denuvo. The sequel has a peak playercount ~30k less than the first title.

I suspect the overlap between "people who pirate games" and "people who would buy games [if they couldn't pirate it]" is actually much smaller than people think.

 

[Tyranicon]

Some devs get really bent out of shape over pirating, and I can see why. Contrary to popular opinion, pirating does have a significant impact even on smaller-mid indies. For larger studios/pubs, it's so significant they resort to dumbfuck tactics like Denuvo or other DRM just to stop day 1 pirating. People constantly scratch their heads over why, but the answer is simple: they do it because it impacts their bottom line. Stuff they won't usually say in public.

I've yet to see any data that suggest denuvo actually improves sales.
e.g., Total War: Warhammer released without denuvo, the sequel released with denuvo. The sequel has a peak playercount ~30k less than the first title.

I haven't either, besides the fact that big publishers still keep using denuvo. I think that in itself speaks volumes. Like I said, I doubt they'll ever release hard data on why they use DRM.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Some devs get really bent out of shape over pirating, and I can see why. Contrary to popular opinion, pirating does have a significant impact even on smaller-mid indies. For larger studios/pubs, it's so significant they resort to dumbfuck tactics like Denuvo or other DRM just to stop day 1 pirating. People constantly scratch their heads over why, but the answer is simple: they do it because it impacts their bottom line. Stuff they won't usually say in public.

I've yet to see any data that suggest denuvo actually improves sales.
e.g., Total War: Warhammer released without denuvo, the sequel released with denuvo. The sequel has a peak playercount ~30k less than the first title.

I haven't either, besides the fact that big publishers still keep using denuvo. I think that in itself speaks volumes. Like I said, I doubt they'll ever release hard data on why they use DRM.

I don't think anyone has ever accused big publishers of making good decisions beyond acquiring some good IPs and milking them for all they're worth.

 

[Morenatsu.]

I actually buy new games actually, actually. I just don't buy old games until I've played them already. Because chances are the new releases are broken pieces of shit that need a better version pirated to fix it anyway. And no one who deserves the money is actually getting it anymore.

 

[Berengar]

None of these companies died because of piracy, they died because nobody played their games. And mismanagement.

Why did Sir-Tech go bankrupt?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

None of these companies died because of piracy, they died because nobody played their games. And mismanagement.

Why did Sir-Tech go bankrupt?

It took them over 20 years to make a game worth playing and by then it was too late.

 

[KateMicucci]

I'd buy games on GOG if they actually put effort into fixing/updating old games beyond packaging them with dosbox. ATM it just feels like I'm being charged money for something that used to be abandonware, and I really don't see the benefit for me.
GOG forum users put more effort into this than GOG does.

GOG is built on the back of free software like dosbox, SCUMMVM, etc., When was the last time they contributed code to them or donated money to help fund their development?

GOG is a scummy business and the political support it gets is stupid.

 

[thesecret1]

I haven't either, besides the fact that big publishers still keep using denuvo. I think that in itself speaks volumes. Like I said, I doubt they'll ever release hard data on why they use DRM.

I think there was actually an EU study some years back on piracy that concluded that piracy harms big AAA studios, while helping the smaller ones (which makes sense if you think about it – if you've poured tens of millions into a marketing campaign, you don't really need word of mouth). Even so, though, I doubt the "bottom line impact" is in any way significant. More likely, it's just a tactic to shift blame for poor sales – why admit you made a shit game that sold poorly, when you can instead just say that the game was absolutely great, but those darn pirates ruined the sales? Piracy is an incredibly easy scapegoat to use, which then leads to stupid bullshit like Denuvo.

It's also funny in a way. The kneejerk reaction with DRM both fails to stop piracy, AND makes the product being sold actually worse than the pirated version.

 

[thesoup]

I had a "support the industry" phase when I tried to buy every game I wanted to play. Now I just don't give a shit anymore.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Everybody did their "five years before the mast" if they were a PC gamer in the late 90s - mid 00s, and if anyone claimed otherwise I wouldn't believe them. Sailing the high seas was how you discovered prosperous new worlds worthy of investment. My first I can remember was Icewind Dale, which was given to me by my older cousin when he visited over Christmas of '00. Played it to death and eventually bought the ultimate collection to go legitimate some years later. Did that with several games, but never anything particularly new past a point. If not for piracy, I wouldn't have even known these games existed, much less bought them.

The other way I'd discover new games I liked was by diving into the ten dollar software racks at Radioshack. Got to enjoy something new every week for my allowance. Stronghold, Stronghold Crusader, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2, Red Alert, Lords of Magic: Special Edition, Zeus: Master of Olympus, Tzar: Burden of the Crown, Riddle of the Sphinx, Driver, 1602 A.D. and many more I'm forgetting.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Oh great
A wojack posting newfag...

Spoiler

 

[Robotigan]

This is the most slav thread I've ever seen. Speaking of piracy, wish you slavs would emulate console games you missed out on so you're not completely blind to like 2/3rds of the industry.

 

[PorkaMorka]

The Codex actually has a huge problem with paying money for big budget RPGs that they know are bad, funding the decline.

If more people had pirated those games then the developers might have chosen to move on to other genres, preventing RPGs from declining as much.

 

[Robotigan]

The Codex actually has a huge problem with paying money for big budget RPGs that they know are bad, funding the decline.

If more people had pirated those games then the developers might have chosen to move on to other genres, preventing RPGs from declining as much.

Codex does not have enough influence to move big publishers. A few thousand units doesn't mean much to them in the grand scheme of things. Codex might have enough influence to enable smaller niche games. Pirating these games seems to undermine praise. I do not for a second believe everyone who claims "I pay for games I really enjoy!" Yeah, sure, 5 years later when it's 70% off on Steam sale.

 

[snoek]

I actually pay for all my games.
When I was younger I used to pirate a lot of stuff because I simply didn't have enough money.

I work in software as well now so I'm not very keen anymore on downloading and running executables and/or dlls coming off some shady torrent/warez site.

I usually check some footage on the game, quite often there's a demo and steam gives you a 2 hour refund window. Usually I don't regret my purchases.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

My conscience is clean after Fargo absolved sins of my "seafaring" youth.

You need to pay for at least one of those indulgences per piracy act committed. I would know. The Adventure's guild and First Bank of Tangramayne are subsidiaries of the Banker's guild and hence subject to Banker's guild rules.

 

[Gradenmayer]

I bought Vampire and it was so buggy, I swore to never buy a game for full price ever again.

 

[thesoup]

I bought Vampire and it was so buggy, I swore to never buy a game for full price ever again.

 

[Ravielsk]

Again with the "Muh Piracy"?

Spoiler

Putting aside that none of the games mentioned by OP failed because of piracy I have yet to see any actual proof that piracy ever harmed anyone but I have seen plenty of its obvious benefits. Take the anime industry that in recent years became mainstream worldwide and just one fucking manga was enough to outsell the entire american comic book industry. If the effects of piracy were even remotely as negative as many report it should be the exact reverse since up until recently over 90% of everything manga and anime related was almost exclusively distributed by pirates. Not long ago when searching for anime streaming on google the first result would be kissanime. Manga was no better and the first result was again some piracy site filled with fan translations.
Yet, here we are in 2022 where demon slayer is being played in cinemas and is considered mainstream by normalfags. Compare that to 2008 where even a behemoth like Pokemon was seen as a weird niche outlier and ask yourself: If pirates could kill or hinder anything how the fuck can a medium that for the better part of the last two decades was promulgated almost exclusively through piracy make any money let alone thrive?!