(happy picture included so when tl;dr this post, you’ll still feel good about it)
I covered this a bit back when Cliff Harris, the founder of indie game company Positech Games, asked the pirates, "y u take it?". I didn’t really buy into the idea then, if you didn’t get my drift, I basically said it was stupid to ask pirates why they steal. I think I was wrong. Well, at least partially.
You see, I still think it’s stupid to talk to people who are stealing your software. Not because you can’t learn from them, but because you can learn without dealing with them. They aren’t scum of the earth or anything, but they aren’t really that informed why they steal games as a whole either. It’s like asking people why they vote democratic or republican. Whatever the answers are, they won’t be the same across the board. And they may not even be true answers, just what people think is the truth at the time.
Whatever though. I was wrong in part by saying you shouldn’t ask… Because while I wasn’t for it, it changed how Cliff looks at pirates and how he’s developing his games:
As a result of what I found, I’m changing the way I make and sell my games. I already dropped some prices, and will keep future games cheaper, I abandoned copy-protection on all my games the next day, and resolved to work harder than ever before to make the best games that I can. I went from being demoralised and depressed by pirates to being motivated and encouraged by them. I asked them what they thought, then listened. Given the inability of big media companies to do either, I think I suddenly found my competitive advantage.
While I don’t know if it will work out in the long run for him, I can almost guarantee it won’t hurt. From talking with the bad guys he decided to keep his games cheap, abandon all copy protection and work harder on making the games even better. I can’t see a damn thing wrong with that.
Mr. Harris isn’t the only seeing that pirates aren’t the enemy many in the game industry think them to be. Wardell even created a gamer bill of rights that goes against everything we, the consumer, have had to deal with because of the potential for pirates.
Lets not short change piracy here either. Pirates steal any game that is published. You name it, you can go download it. I say so what. Pirates aren’t destroying PC gaming, PC game companies are destroying it. Pirates are just a symptom of the problem, not the actual problem.
The Problem
The problem is this…the PC gaming industry does the three following things wrong…
One, it doesn’t allow you to return a game. You buy it, it’s yours now. No matter how bad it is, how buggy, how much it’s not the game advertised, it’s your game and you can’t do anything about it. Returns ruin the industry because you can buy it, copy it and return it…well, at least that’s what they’d have you believe. That completely ignores the complaints of how rampant piracy is right now. If the big problem was people buying games and returning them after copying them, we wouldn’t have millions of people downloading new games. As a matter fact, this policy is outdated something fierce. It does no good to the consumer to say, "you can’t return it if it’s bad, but you can download it for free if you want." It’s a fucked up policy that is made to line the pockets of game companies and allows them to release bad games and still get sales on them.
Two, PC gaming is full of headaches and bullshit. If I buy Spore, I have to install DRM to play it. Ok, so now I’ve got a game I bought that I can’t return, but now I also can’t play my game without installing software on my computer that assumes I’m trying to steal from them. Plus, I have no idea if the game I’m buying will actually work on my system. It’s the nature of the PC system that everyone’s system is different and each and every game might need some tweaking to play. Now, to be fair, it’s not as bad as it used to be, but it’s still not pretty. Look at games by Troika for instance. Even with community patches, we still run into problems in those games. You just don’t know if a game is going to work. Will it die becaue of bugs in the game, or do you need new drivers, or will it be something else together (Company of Heroes required 4 gigs of free space on your boot drive to patch). PC games need to be much closer to console games in that they just work.
Three, game developers often don’t pay attention to the market. Pay attention to the lessons of Crysis and others. If you make a game that requires top level PC hardware, you’re drastically limiting your market. You’ve gone from a potential customer base of millions to maybe a million, maybe less (just talking US numbers here). Or if you’re releasing games that require extra hardware or don’t get along with most video cards or whatever. Game developers often aren’t paying attention to the wants of the market, but our instead trying to drive the market. That’s a hard boat be in and if you’re going to do that, could you at least skip the whining?
Ok, so now we have a good grasp on the problems, what should we do about it? That’s actually easier than it seems. Start treating your customers like reasonable adults. I know it’s hard for you to accept, but gamers are actually adults these days on average. Maybe you should start treating us like adults. Cliff has a good ideas about what game developers can do to start, the gamer bill of rights is also good. Basically, quit treating consumers like thieves. Start releasing higher quality products and make sure they work on most systems. QA games until they are ready to released, not release games that need to be patched a few times before they are any good.
None of this is new information, but it needs to be said again and again until developers/publishers really start to get it. I’m going to say it again, so that even the marketing guys in your company can get it.
If you make good games and respect your audience, gamers will buy them. It’s just that simple.
What Would Matt Do: You know what I’ll do? I’ll continue to buy Stardock games that are good quality because I like thier policies. I’ll continue to support game companies that release good game and respect me. I’ll stop supporting companies that release shlock and pretend I’m a thief that needs to be kept in line. It’s just that simple.
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