And a pirate.
Yes, that’s clearly exactly what jostly is saying. Because that’s the only possible thing you can take away from that statement. But you’re obviously right - everything should be free to try, only asking you to pay if you enjoyed it. Next time I’m at Disney, I’ll make sure they let me wander the park and try a few rides for several hours before they ask me to pay for a ticket. I mean, I may not enjoy myself.
Or I guess I could take your lead, and just sneak in.
Believe what you want. I’ve seen talented developers do amazing things that got no recognition whatsoever, I’ve seen them meet impossible deadlines.
Still, those were MY developers, just as some of those shit games had THEIR developers. That failed.
Or you could keep charging entrance fees for a movie EVERYONE hated just because the only way to see it was through you. And you’d still feel good about yourself.
No, that is not what I’m saying.
Yes. That’s how theaters work.
Yes, and next time out you’d make no money because word of mouth. That’s how the market adjusts itself.
Eh, I can tell already that reading your posts will just give me a headache and make me irrational on the internet, which I hate. So I’ll probably have to stop replying, because this isn’t fruitful discussion. It’s a complete discord between viewpoints, with likely no ability to find a common ground. Ah well.
Sorry guys, I think you lost your argument somewhere. You’ve turned to mocking sentences.
All right, how about this counterargument then.
At this point in time, games are easier to get hold of than ever before (Steam and GoG being two examples). Games have never been less expensive, adjusted for inflation, than now (GoG and mobile games in particular). Add to that the fact that there is a return policy on Steam where you can actually install the game, make sure it runs properly on your machine, and try it out for a little while, before deciding if you want to keep it, no questions asked. That’s also unique in my experience, getting a refund for an “opened” game without any argument.
With all these things, it seems a really cheap argument to claim you are forced to get an illegal copy of a game before you buy it, just to make sure you really like it. Read reviews, and if still unsure, give it a pass. There are plenty of other games out there. The lack of demos has never been and will never be a moral justification for downloading illegal copies of games.
I’m not going to get into the argument about whether “piracy-demos” are justified.
I do want to second the motion stusser made that it be an industry norm for the publisher to patch out DRM a year (or two at most) after the release of a game. By then its purpose has been served. Paying customers should not be hampered by DRM, and if they can remove it themselves and want to take the attendant risks, more power to them, but not every customer wants to swim in those waters, and they shouldn’t be unable to play their purchased copy just because the latest OS revision doesn’t play nice with the DRM the publisher saddled the game with, or because the authentication server for the DRM has gone away.
So we shouldn’t have gotten Witcher 3 then, considering it was DRM Free?
It is possible to release games and not be a CUSTOMER unfriendly business wise. (i.e. think of those buying your products as Customers and not Consumers – maybe you’d treat them better).
Removing DRM after a time period is a nice feature, I believe some games developer used to do this in the past… Think X2 did this for example.
Edit: Found this, a few months old but still fun.
I’ll go right to “thief.”
Saying you steal stuff because you’re afraid it might not be worth buying says a lot about your ability to rationalize, and also your ethics. If you don’t like how a dev handles their business, your remedy is to avoid their products. Not to steal them.
I am so sick of this argument.
Several independent developers removed DRM after a year, yep. They should all do it. Only upside.
I will add my voice to the cacophony calling you out as a dick pirate (did I get that right?)
There isn’t an argument to lose. You steal a game so you can try it. You can choose to either play by the Steam refund policy or live with the risk of buying a bad game. Instead you choose to steal. There are ways to mitigate your risk - don’t preorder games, wait until plenty of people post impressions, etc…
Buying a crappy game sucks. Pretty sure we’ve all done it. There are games that don’t totally suck that I regret buying because there are so many better games to play. I’m also pretty sure that if you manage a team of software developers that you make enough money to live with the loss of $60 on a game. That would probably be about an hours worth of work.
If it makes you feel better to tell yourself it’s not stealing that’s up to you, but it is what it is.
There are lots of other game devs here, and it’s simply rude to try to justify piracy in front of them. Similarly, it’s rude to talk about blocking ads here too. Nobody can control what you do, just don’t expect to have a conversation about it here that isn’t met with outright hostility.
Hey guys, so what are you… WHOA.
When has this ever been about the money? It’s about someone screwing me over because I go in with good faith and get shafted. The people building Empire: Total war and R6: Siege KNEW that their game wasn’t ready. They KNEW they had a turd on their hands, could they fix it? Probably, given 6 months or so. You can make the argument that the actual creators didn’t have a say in the matter and that’s probably true, but as a customer you could care less when you’ve already been treated to a shitty experience. I’ve haven’t bought a game by the creative assembly since and will continue not doing so. It’s not that complicated. You’ve got a 60+ hour game, great! let me play 5 hours of it to get hooked. I can’t? Why not? Does it suck?
That’s just it. I listened to reviews, I watched Youtube channels and then I bought R6:Siege. I would be happy to never play that game again and get a refund, but I can’t. It’s not about the measly dollars. It’s about supporting people who don’t deserve the support.
So: R6:Seige wasn’t ready! It’s plain to everyone that the game was not in a fit state to be released! Those responsible should be ashamed!
…but somehow not one of the many reviews you consulted seemed to mention this? Hmm…
This is obviously another game journalism conspiracy. That, or maybe the game just wasn’t to your taste and your first quote there is self-rationalizing bullshit, who can say?