Comment thread for http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/
20 Likes
Here’s the answer to these mysterious problems with piracy 
6 Likes
I’ll be upfront and admit that I downloaded your torrent when it was first put up. That said, I also bought the game from the Windows Store the day it was released, I think even within the first few hours it was available. Even before I knew about this though, I found myself gravitating back to the Modern UI version of the game, primarily because I don’t like having to press Esc to access to menu.
Ultimately, I think I just got impatient waiting for the game to get cleared on Greenlight, which I really hope happens. Your post made me feel really bad though, so I’ve uninstalled the pirated version. 
5 Likes
Is the feature of a game being pirated every now and then caused by having a pirated version or is it a random feature in the regular game. I ask because I am playing on a legitimate version and have received the message about piracy and the choice to warn or sue twice over the 30 year game.
that’s a different message. the one in the pirated version has no options. just a sad face. you have the real version!
1 Like
Ah right thank you. I didn’t realize there were no options for the pirate version. I think this really sheds some light on this post by akaflaze. He hadn’t actually bought the game and yet he was very rude and arrogant with you. I love what you did and its great to see a company that isn’t afraid to stand up to the pirates.
3 Likes
Do not blame me. I used a pirated version because I can not buy a legal version. Your shop is not convenient to me the payment method. I’ll just wait for Steam Greenlight or other payment methods.
God bless Google Translate.
1 Like
Why is it not a valid payment method? With it you’re supporting the dev directly.
also, honestly I have the pirated version ATM but I don’t have $8, but as soon as I get into money I’m purchasing it directly from your site <3
1 Like
Hi,
I’m a French indie video game tester and I bought the game to make a review. I buy all the video games that I test in my show (or I use the demo version).
I admit that I download the big games to test them but if I want to go further (like to have more content or the possibilty to play online), I buy the game to support the developers.
BTW, you have developed a very good game guys ! And this is a very good idea to give yourself the craked version.
4 Likes
I thought the pirate meta-game idea was pretty funny. It might not be my favourite kind of game but that is too good not to support, purchased 
2 Likes
So, I think you’re saying that you’ve managed to come up with a very clever way to make sure that 93% of your game’s players will never consider buying a future game from you because the game they did try is broken.
Thinking of my own behaviour, I may be introduced to a work (book/music/software/whatever) by borrowing it from a friend, but then I’ll go on to buy the next one to be released. Of course, I wouldn’t do this if the work wasn’t very good, say, for example, if it was a game that just got frustrating rather than fun in the higher levels.
Are you sure this is a good idea?
I wasn’t going to buy this one at first but after I had read the story about that pirates joke I was sold.
1 Like
Say what? If you want to legitimately try the game then you don’t need to pirate it:
- there is a test version on the website - a demo version, which you can try.
- the windows store has a “Lite” version available for free
- on top of that, the paid version of the game also comes with a trial mode.
All these things allow you to be introduced to the game by your friend (by getting the download links), trying it out if it is any good and then going on to buy the full version.
Plus, the torrent version of this game is not broken but rather altered; you get the full experience, but face the piracy challenge that real life developers face, too. And it is not that unheard of, either - maybe you heard about the feature alteration in Batman Arkham Asylum…
6 Likes
Well I’ll be honest and say that even though I’m a fan of Tycoon type of games, your promo video failed at triggering clicking the buy button for me. But that blog post did the trick. It was genuinely smart and harmless to do what you did. So I bought the game. If I don’t like it, well at least you got a bit more of (well-deserved) support.
<3
I’m going to raise myself some money ( Had some severe money problems lately and i have big problems recovering myself from it ) and buy the game just for that post ( No, i wasn’t going to pirate it anyway ). Congrats for this nice laugh.
Your spiffy pie-chart makes the same flawed assumption (the MPAA,RIAA,BSA etc like to regurgitate) that the people who pirated the game would have purchased a copy if said torrent wasn’t available.
Personally, I purchased a copy of this game from the Win8 App Store … admittedly because at the price of a fast-food-value-meal, the game genre peaked my interest - but mostly because of a lack of any decent content to play on the tablet platform as yet. Certainly not because “I sought it out” or it was a “must have” thing.
Since we’re conjuring up motives; I would estimate 93% of that 93% just grabbed it out of sheer curiosity and TPB is probably just their default forum for ‘discovering’ new software. This paradigm (of casual browse and purchase) is why I must have poured hundreds of dollars in to Steam over the years on small casual indie games.
5 Likes
This has to be one of the most self-righteous arguments from a developer I’ve seen in a while. So you’re basically saying you decided to put the game up for free on torrent sites, then people saw it and said “hell yeah, I’ll download that for free” and then you realized people weren’t going to pay for it because you had posted it on the torrent site. But hey, you included a section in the game where they were guilt tripped for pirating it. And I’m sure that really ruined their day.
Because you know what makes someone resort to piracy? Ease of access and lack of customer loyalty. If your fans do not have an easy, safe way of downloading your game where they feel that game will be safe and secure, they won’t want to buy it. And if you have not established a strong connection with your fans through community development and prior quality of your work, your fans will not be likely to purchase your game.
So please. Go ahead and generalize gamers as being filthy pirates who will ruin the game industry. We ruined your chance of breaking even making this game, so we certainly deserve to get thrown under the bus on this one. After all, you are making a video game for gamers to play, but there’s so many of us that maybe we won’t notice you’re using generalizations to insult us all for something that perhaps a few hundred thousand people did.
And regarding the “irony” of this situation. The irony is not that people pirated this game and then played a game where a game company failed because of piracy. The irony is that you posted your game to a torrent site, watched in horror as people downloaded your game for free when they were given the option, and then got self-righteous when you didn’t make enough money to get that kitchen remodeling your wife has been begging you for.
1 Like
Came across a link to your blog post, and thought it was an interesting approach you’ve taken. I’ve just passed on a link to a popular games news/blog site that I frequent. Here’s hoping it doesn’t kill your bandwidth if they post an article, and generates some interest.
As for me, I’ve downloaded the demo and going to give it a go. If not for your unique approach I likely wouldn’t even have considered giving it a look. I’m kind of keen to enjoy it so I can show support with a purchase and greenlight thumbs up.
1 Like
I hadn’t even heard of this game until I saw the blog post regarding piracy.
Props to you guys for finding a creative way to send a message!
I have just bought the game to support you guys based on this and hope that you guys will get the support you deserve!
They would’ve anyway sooner or later got the option to download it from TPB or where he posted it, that’s for certain, but in the way he did he enabled himself the possibility to see a possible statistic. Though it will never be 100% accurate because of the reasons posted by the dev + the reasons of getting it only to try it out, you can get an idea of how likely it is to lose possible money. He didn’t throw us all under the bus, he thanked that small percentage of supporting people and lightly accused the pirating section. He didn’t threw that much mud since he seemed to understand that there are people who can’t afford the game or having difficulty in paying for some reasons. Though i don’t agree 100% with their decision to make that piracy “feature” since it’ll scare off the possible buyers.
1 Like