Lol, apparently this game was almost a direct copy of Game Dev Story, a mobile game created in 2010 (a sequel is out but only in Japan). It's funny that a dev who completely rips off a game has the audacity to make a point about piracy. He is a bigger pirate than anyone who illegally downloaded his game.
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Best copy protection ever
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I am not so sure about that. The majority of posts on the Steam greenlight forum are similar to this:
Quote:I've played both Game Dev Story and Game Dev Tycoon. In their core concept they are the same. Make games, make money, become more successful repeat. Beyond that however; the mechanics are entirely different.
Drawing a line between inspiration and ripping off is a thing that is impossible to neutrally define, it's something we all have to decide for ourselves as individuals and take into account when we choose whether we want to support the company who made the game in question.
That's an absolutely terrible idea to take. Is Warcraft not legitimate because of Warhammer? Does League of Legends not deserve to exist because of DOTA? Does Empire Earth not deserve to exist because of Civilization?
Don't weasel out of that statement with "ooh I can define 'ripping off' as absolutely anything that I can personally decide as An Individual".
When some people see a game that is too similar to another game, they will not buy that game. Some other people will buy that game, because not everyone has the same idea on when a game is too similar to another game, and some people don't even care about it. There's no universal high council of gaming that decides when a game is too similar to another. We all decide it for ourselves, which was my point. Has nothing to do with whether a game "deserves to exist". Neither we nor anyone else (except law in very extreme cases where law is broken) decides whether a game deserves to exist.
If I downloaded anything from a torrent or etc. I would *assume* it had a virus or was munted in some way. That's not from lack of past experience.
Remember Pandora? In 2005/6 I could access this in Australia, put up with shitty but unobtrusive ads in the free version (somewhat US things, but stuff I could buy online internationally too) and used the service with great relish, found out about a heap of great bands and bought CDs, went to concerts etc. In 2007, I think, they revoked access based on country. Emailed time and again asking for the best part of 5 years when they would get it back up for Australia - their explanation was international licensing issues. Eventually I gave up. Unsubscribed from the taunting emails telling me I should access my station which had x, y or z music included now. (Log on = sorry not available in your country). Long story short, now it's back and Wikipedia at a glance doesn't even acknowledge the 5-year hiatus. For that entire 5 years I would have paid for the service just to have it, with *no* additional functionality. Instead I pay for a shitty Zune music pass that the smart DJ doesn't even work properly for (yeah I prolly shoulda got the iTunes one). My long, rambling point is that piracy, or the availability of 1:1 duplicable media and the tendency for people to pay for it or not, has way more to do with ease of accessibility and notional restrictions (eg international IP and trade rules, delays to having your hands on the product, overprice unfinished products, trite etc), outside of the actual value of the product delivered on that media. We used to pirate stuff because diskcopy a: a: when a mate was over was a hell of a lot easier than going out and buying the game (not to mention cheaper), although in hindsight I wonder if the hassle of deducing the answer to every 'read page 57 in the manual' reference in Phantasie was actually time-efficient compared to the price of the game. These days most of us reasonable folks use the imperative-advo-clients like steam to buy stuff cause it's easy (dubious as they may be on their own merits). Well I do, unless it's otherwise in front of me in a shiny box in K-Mart. The other part of society tells me gleefully about the torrents they're downloading and then paradoxically and incessantly complains about how their computer is constantly slow and crashing. Duh!
Well I bought it. I think its fun. I've read their blog about it too. Similar idea, different implementation. The amount of work they've done to put their game out should not be diminished and considered less deserving simply because it shares a similar idea.
“The wind went mute and the trees in the forest stood still. It was time for the last tale.”
(May 3rd, 2013, 09:14)teleh Wrote: My long, rambling point is that piracy, or the availability of 1:1 duplicable media and the tendency for people to pay for it or not, has way more to do with ease of accessibility and notional restrictions (eg international IP and trade rules, delays to having your hands on the product, overprice unfinished products, trite etc) Yup. Piracy is about convenience, not price. There's a small minority who will pirate anything, but average joes will pay if that's easier. iTunes, Netflix, and Steam have succeeded as digital delivery platforms because they make the purchasing experience more convenient than piracy. This is well known in the media industry. For the counterpoint, the famous The Oatmeal comic says it all: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones |
