Piracy prevention (or at least assessment)

[macdude22]

But there lies the point! If more people pirate the product that equates into less sales. If publisher cannot cover their costs at a lower price point they will raise the price to a point where they can cover their costs based on past piracy of a similar product. Example Madden NFL 2007 is published at $49.95 and 50% of the potential buyers pirate the product that means I must cover my costs and derive a profit from the 50% who actually buy the product. So for Madden NFL 2008 I will raise the price to $59.95 to cover the cost of piracy, production/development costs and a make a profit. For a large outfit that may be possible, but for smaller outfits probably not.

Please don't use Madden as an example....If anything deserves to be pirated it's that pile of 60 dollar roster update fees (anyone remember the awesome 20 bone sega sports releases until EA scooped up the exclusive so they could pump us for 60 dollar roster updates)?

The stone cold truth is some people aren't going to buy a variety of software products regardless of copy protection. Said person isn't a lost sale because they never would have purchased the software. They'll usually find a way around whatever DRM is put into place anyway. The key is to not punish paying customers with pointless DRM (which I applaud companies like Basilisk and Stardock for doing). Look at the Bioshock fiasco, It's easier to play the PC version of the game pirated than legit. Way to increase sales guys.

I think the standard serial method is fine (no phone home bullcock). It's a hassle enough to combat casual piracy (and if your product is good they'll probably go buy a copy) but not a hassle for legit customers. I think there is a point when it becomes too easy to pirate it so users will just copy it and give to their friends or something but I think a serial fights that enough, I might be willing to make you a copy of a game if there's no serial but maybe not willing to give you my serial if there is one, that type of thinking. And the folks that were not going to buy it anyway will find a way regardless.

The point is that there isn't a 1:1 ratio of piracy to lost sales contrary to what the MIAAfia want us to believe.

I liked the old games that made you look up something in the manual as copy protection, fun and probably effective on the casual piracy front.

[Necromis]

Realz and Thom I agree, piracy hurts the small business. No question about it. I agree also that you should not use pirated software, that you should pay for what you used. I agree that the small companies/indies, like Basilisk Games, programmers don't make a lot. However, on the other end of that, the established companies programmers DO make a lot of money. The people in my IT departmente here at entry level are making around 50K. Most programmers for large companies will normally bring in around 80K. There in lines also the reason why they mark up new release games at 50 bucks, where Thom marks his at 30 bucks. Not only arwe they making 20 more per game, they are also selling probably 100 times the amount of games that Thom is selling. If not more due to worldwide advertising. PLUS the cross-platform sales. Thom has PC/Mac/Linxus sales. EA has xbox, ps3, wii, mac, pc sales. Additionally they will get the Linxus people who run dual boot or virtual systems for Windows or mac. Piracy is wrong, but it truly only effects the indie/small company like Thom.

[BasiliskWrangler]

The stone cold truth is some people aren't going to buy a variety of software products regardless of copy protection. Said person isn't a lost sale because they never would have purchased the software.

Agreed 100%. I have a problem with the people who admit to stealing the game yet are actually enjoying it. There is my lost sale.

I most likely will not have copy protection on the next game either, but rather I will try to come up with incentives to buy the game. Perhaps an exclusive forum for owners of the game... send me your order number and get access to a private forum where I can give priority support, hints, beta patches, etc. As it is now, how much of my time goes to helping non-legitimate customers?

[macdude22]

Incentives are good.

[Necromis]

Thom I doubt much of the support here is to people who did not buy the game. I think also that old school style of typing in something from the game manual would be a good idea. Have it be something that is randomly generated at install. This would help for the casual, and be a pain for those who just list the serial. As Macdude said, you won't get those people who won't ever buy software and always pirate. I would say in whole you probably lose 1 per 50 to that. I could be wrong. Can always run a poll.

[realmzmaster]

Necromis and MacDude22,

You help to make my point. You mention advertising which costs big bucks, you mention cross platform sales which requires development cost for the different types of consoles, and operating systems. If you are talking say Madden you have license fees to pay. ( Macdude22, I only use Madden as an example. ) Maybe that extra $20 is being used to pay these costs. Maybe it is being used to pay programmers ( and if you think $50K to 80K is a lot of money try supporting a family of 5 (4 in college, wife had to go back to get extra degree to keep her job. ) ,a house note and all the other expenses. Not counting what the state and federal governments take. Yes , I do know all about it.), artists, designers, musicians, etc. Yeah if you are single $50,000 looks like a lot of money.

BW priced his game at $30 because if he priced it at $50, he probably would have sold much less. He priced the game at what he thought the market would bear. But, I am sure he would have loved more money for advertising. Getting the word out about the game would help sales.

And yes there are always people would will pirate no matter what. The problem is when they make it is easy for everyone else to do the same. I have a saying "Locks are made to key honest people honest." The best of locks will only at most slow down the thief. But a lock will keep an unskilled basically honest person just that honest. But put temptation (crack the software and put it up for download ) in some peoples faces and they will fall for it.

That being said, as I stated before, I am for using some sort of manual lookup for protection, or a code wheel whose use it built into the game and the use of incentives. I have no love for cd or dvd based protection schemes (most suck anyway). Product activation is a pain and sometimes a joke. But, piracy is not the answer whether the publisher is big or small. That is just an attempt at justification.

[realmzmaster]

Remember when you pass on a pirated copy to someone who would have bought it and now will not , because they have it for free that is a lost sale and lost income. Unfortunately it also speaks to both persons intergrity or lack thereof. IMHO. This is my two cents. YOMV.

[tiresius]

I have a saying "Locks are made to key[sic] honest people honest."

That's an old saying. I feel that truly honest people don't need locks to stay honest. But there are very few truly honest people left in the world. Some countries base quite a bit of their economy on patent and copyright infringement. It's become a social situation. Fighting piracy is like fighting the tide. Noble, but in the end fruitless.

As a developer it bugs the heck out of me how much people copy and share things they shouldn't share. Since 99.9% of computer users are consumers and not producers -- they've never tried to make something to sell. Therefore they never feel the wrongness in someone taking what they made and passing it around.

I am glad Basilisk is taking a stance of semi-nonchalance on this because you could lose a lot of sleep over it if you actually cared enough. It is sickening.

[realmzmaster]

I live in Chicago, we are use to fighting the tide. ( Otherwise Lake Michigan would reclaim its own ). You are right it is an old saying with a lot of truth behind it. Even honest people have their moments of weakness. The lock is there to keep them honest.

You are also right most consumers have no conception of what it takes to bring an idea to fruition. They fail to understand that you are maybe betting the farm to bring your idea to life.

Some people believe all software should be free. Where is the incentive to produce new software? Praise, glory self-fulfillment? Cannot eat it and cannot support a family on it. In fact just bringing your idea to life may require eating lots of ramen noodles. We do not live in a perfect world. The small software developer can only hope that there are more honest people than thieves in the world.

A PC game is not a necessity. People are suppose to buy them out of their excess disposable income. If you cannot afford it, you do without. A simple concept, lost on people with little morality or integrity.

[macdude22]

As a developer it bugs the heck out of me how much people copy and share things they shouldn't share. Since 99.9% of computer users are consumers and not producers -- they've never tried to make something to sell. Therefore they never feel the wrongness in someone taking what they made and passing it around.

Can I just say (I may have already) that as a consumer it also bugs the heck out of me when a developer/publisher won't take my money for a piece of software, ala they won't sell it anymore. I guess if it's not worth your trouble to take my money for it anymore then release it as freeware (I'm not saying open source it, or public domain, I'm not one of those software wants to be free people) but as freeware you maintain your hold on the IP and make folks like me happy.

I'm not accusing anyone here of this, just stating my thoughts on out of print software (which to me it's really not out of print if you can just download a "pirated" copy, if someone is willing to transfer it to me for free surely the owners of the IP should be willing to sell me a license for it, if not freeware it, then the market does your distribution for you and you maintain your hold on your IP).

Really in today's day and age there's no reason for a dev to not have their whole back catalog available as a download. Sure it's probably not profitable for whoever to do another print run of Cosmic Osmo or something, sell an image file download for 5 or 10 bucks.

[Necromis]

you can still download copies of The Elder Scrolls for free from Bethesda. Granted they would much rather you bought Oblivion instead.

[AstralWanderer]

The key is to not punish paying customers with pointless DRM (which I applaud companies like Basilisk and Stardock for doing).

Please don't applaud Stardock - they've just added a more obnoxious form of DRM (online activation on install). I purchased GalCiv 2 to support the lack of CD checks and felt like a bait-and-switch victim when I found the patches required this DRM (which also means that you can't pass/sell the game on without paying an extra fee to Stardock). This applies to Object Desktop too so I won't be renewing my subscription there.

A more praiseworthy example would be Shrapnel Games (Space Empires IV, Dominions 3, etc) who just need a serial number. Some mainstream publishers have removed CD checks via product updates (Larian, Bioware, Gas Powered Games) but for specific (and typically older) titles rather than as a general policy. Most software available online (shareware, utilities, etc) also uses a serial number only (the publishers include a blacklist of known warez keys, updated with subsequent patches).

As for typing in words from manuals or using code wheels for copy protection, I have to ask - are you people out of your mind? Do you really think that having to count words to find the seventh one on the fortieth line of page 102 is less hassle than having to insert a CD? And no thanks to code-wheels either - fewer things destroy game atmosphere than having to line up a set of low-contrast (to stop photocopying) labels to squint at a semi-legible code, only to find it doesn't work because some bright spark swapped their 0s and Os around. Plus both wheels and manuals tend to be more fragile than CDs (though they degrade more gracefully).

Both methods can be bypassed by patching (like CD checks) while increasing inconvenience and cost to publishers and legitimate consumers - these systems died for good reasons so no Resurrection spells here please.

I have a problem with the people who admit to stealing the game yet are actually enjoying it. There is my lost sale.

In my case, your lost sale is thanks to Plimus - judging by the number of views the Plimus thread has had (over 1,600 when I checked) I doubt I'm the only one.

To look on a brigher side though, given the seemingly disproportionate number of semi-literate, bottom-feeding, script kiddy l337 d00ds that inhabit the warez scene, would you really want to feel finanically obliged to wipe their noses and clean their bottoms?

[realmzmaster]

Copy protection can be either proactive or reactive. Proactive involves using CD checks. manual lookup. code wheels or serial numbers. Blacklisting known warez serial numbers in a patch is a reactive approach and only works if the person applies the patch. And that person will only apply the patch if the error found is a game breaker. Then they will go out and try to find a new serial number.

Unfortunately this approach is even less effective against a keygen program. The creator of the keygen has already dope out the way serial numbers are generated. The developer would have to change the serial number generation program in a patch to stop this abuse. But that means legitimate users serial numbers may stop working.

So what is a developer to do?

They can follow BW route or use a serial number and publish the software with no copy protection depending on the honesty of the buying public.

Put in CD checks, DRM or other copy protection schemes that can upset the buying public when they screw up the installation and performance of the software.

Require activation of the software which has its own problems.

Or chuck it all in, say to hell with it and leave the industry or go write custom business software in the employ of a large company. Give up the dream, because reality just kick you in the teeth. Dreams are nice, but we live in reality. Reality requires you be able to feed yourself and your family (if you have one). Which means the buying public loses out on many potentially great games. It is not a perfect world.