Space Empires V Pirated!

Atrocities · #1 December 19th, 2006, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Imperator Fyron said:
Well, to be honest, active torrents are a sign of popularity. If it wasn't popular, it wouldn't be actively pirated.

A valid point but still it doesn't excuse this violation of trust.

frightlever · #2 December 19th, 2006, 04:46 AM

Meh. Hardcore pirates don't buy games anyway. Casual piracy, if anything, can help a game's popularity by spreading the word. How many reading here pirated IV and either went on to buy a legit copy of it or V when it came out? I read an article somewhere years back that suggested for every legitimate copy of SEIV there were at least 5 pirate copies in use. (and to avoid the inevitable I bought my copy of SEIV from a specialist UK wargaming store for about the equivalent of $90 at the time having got hooked on the demo.)

The truth is publishers are probably the biggest cause of independent developers going out of business so if there's the need for a childish tirade perhaps that's where it should be getting directed. (and for what it's worth as far as I can see Shrapnel isn't a bad publisher. Or Stardock or, for that matter, Steam.)

Fyron · #3 December 19th, 2006, 06:22 AM

Probably very few.

frightlever · #4 December 19th, 2006, 10:12 AM

Ahhh you could be right. However it's definitely true that a pirated game does not equal a lost sale.

AminMaalouf · #5 December 20th, 2006, 03:54 AM

It is illegal to pirate software. The outcome can be expensive and it hopefully helps funding SE 6.

frightlever · #6 December 20th, 2006, 04:47 AM

SE6 is going to be 100% funded by Strategy First since they now own the Space Empires property. When it's getting built by the Brigade E5 team you remember what I said about publishers being the worst thing to happen to independent developers.

AminMaalouf · #7 December 20th, 2006, 06:07 AM

Stolen is stolen. A piece of software is not a leaf of bread or a glass of fresh water.

Danipenn · #8 December 20th, 2006, 06:30 AM

Yes...IMO the majority of the ppl who download pirated copies never planned to buy the original in the first place...many of these ppl, however, are likely to buy the original version sooner or later.

Of course this does not make it right...it is illegal...end of story...but...

Lets take Dom3 as an example...a persona might download the demo, play with it, and decide to buy it...HOWEVER, the price they ask for Dom3 for some ppl is really too much regardless the game quality, the small dev team and so on...it is still too much no matter the reason.

People earn their money in this World so they choose carefully where to allocate them...they are called customers...u can ask as much money as u want for a game but have to face the consequence of ppl not buying it because it is too much.

I don't know what kind of market research they have carried out but still...for many potential cutomers it is still too much no matter what kind of arguments anyone is going to put through.
And also the point which states that there are worse games aout there, that the game is worth the money...bla...bla...bla...it's still not enough.

For a lot of potential customer it will still be too much.

Said that...a lot of this potential customers who are not willing to buy the game they tried are probably going to download the game illegally...this is inevitable.

I was going to be one of those potential customer because i seriously wanted to buy...but when i saw the price i just decided that it is really too much for me.
Of course i'm not going to download it because i think that it is not good for the two ppl who developed the game...HOWEVER, how many ppl are going to be honest?

So, the price of the product helps againsta pirates IMO.

rdouglass · #9 December 19th, 2006, 01:20 PM

Quote:

frightlever said:
... How many reading here pirated IV and either went on to buy a legit copy of it or V when it came out? ...

Not me. And regardless of how many did, it still does not make it right nor does it invalidate AT's position nor does it validate the pirates position.

IMO that is a very poor arguement. It's kinda' like saying that stealing cars is OK cause you'll increase their popularity and that you can 'try it before you buy it'. Hey, that's what the demo was for wasn't it?

Atrocities · #10 December 19th, 2006, 01:33 PM

Good point about the demo. I hadn't thought of that for use in a response.

It isn't really the pirating aspect that angers me, its that someone pirated THESE games knowing full well that they were independantly developed by small one to two man operations who depend upon the income from the sales of their games to help cover the cost of developing other games. They basically stoled from these people, people whom I admire and respect greatly, and that is what pi**es me off so much.