(April 29th, 2013, 13:42)darrelljs Wrote: The next logical step is to release a cracked version of the game with a nasty virus or seven.
Darrell
That gets a torrent downvoted, not upvoted. Someone downloads it, runs their virus checker over it, then reports that it is a virus filled torrent and flags it down. This is a far smarter and more effective way to do things. The crack looks legitimate, runs fine, prevents other pirated copies from being gaining popularity, but is essentially just a weird demo. Smart, effective and funny.
Rowain Wrote:And how many have you bought after you have gotten your hands on the full (free/pirated) version?
I don't understand what you mean? Where is the connection between trying a free iOS game and buying a game after using a cracked version?
What I am saying is that I am willing to download and test a game like "Tiny Tower" simply because the devs offer it for free on the official appstore. If Tiny Tower would cost 10 Euros I would not play it at all.
So if the devs of "Tiny Tower" came out and said: "Oh look, 1.000.000 people have downloaded our free game. If we would have charged 10 Euros per game, we could have earned 10.000.000 Euros" then that's obviously wrong. Same with normal games: If the devs of game X say:"Oh look, 1.000.000 people pirated our 10 Euro game. We just lost 10.000.000 Euros worth of income" then that's a wrong assumption as well.
Rowain Wrote:And how many have you bought after you have gotten your hands on the full (free/pirated) version?
I don't understand what you mean? Where is the connection between trying a free iOS game and buying a game after using a cracked version?
I think he's referring to gamers in general doing that practice. I can say that I've played cracked versions of games before, and roughly 1/3 I never play again, and 2/3 I end up eventually buying the legit copy. Civ is actually included in that latter category.
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Now wearing the content creator's hat, this has me very concerned. It is going to be a lose lose situation for the public and creators all. Seems the only solution is to put watermark all over the images or only upload unusable, barely view-able thumbnail size pix. All my Sunday afternoons in the near future will be spent taking down my images off line, and forced to send out thousands of dmca take down notices. oh the joy!
Quote:UK.Gov passes Instagram Act: All your pics belong to everyone now
Everyone = Silicon Valley ad platforms tech companies
By Andrew Orlowski • Get more from this author
Posted in Media, 29th April 2013 07:27 GMT
Free whitepaper – Hands on with Hyper-V 3.0 and virtual machine movement
Have you ever uploaded a photo to Facebook, Instagram or Flickr?
If so, you'll probably want to read this, because the rules on who can exploit your work have now changed radically, overnight.
Amateur and professional illustrators and photographers alike will find themselves ensnared by the changes, the result of lobbying by Silicon Valley and radical bureaucrats and academics. The changes are enacted in the sprawling Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act which received Royal Assent last week, and it marks a huge shift in power away from citizens and towards large US corporations.
….the U.S. is also considering this law…
“The draft law is intended to ease the reuse of misleadingly named “orphan works” – misleading because most orphan works are actually recent digital images that have been stripped of their attribution, rather than old black-and-white snaps festering in library vaults."
But why even make games if you aren't going to get any money from it? Its just pure entitlement to think that because something exists you can use it and exploit it.
I will of course agree that it is a lesser offense when it does not directly impact others, but the indirect impact is quite significant.
I wouldn't be surprised if the only two types of games in the far future are money sucking social games and 'charity' games that were made for the purpose of being free ... no one will make a quality game for the purpose of making money, therefore unless it becomes a hobby of the super rich, good games will become much more rare.
(April 30th, 2013, 11:32)KingOfPain Wrote: All Your Pics Are Belong To US
Now wearing the content creator's hat, this has me very concerned. It is going to be a lose lose situation for the public and creators all. Seems the only solution is to put watermark all over the images or only upload unusable, barely view-able thumbnail size pix. All my Sunday afternoons in the near future will be spent taking down my images off line, and forced to send out thousands of dmca take down notices. oh the joy!
Quote:UK.Gov passes Instagram Act: All your pics belong to everyone now
Everyone = Silicon Valley ad platforms tech companies
By Andrew Orlowski • Get more from this author
Posted in Media, 29th April 2013 07:27 GMT
Free whitepaper – Hands on with Hyper-V 3.0 and virtual machine movement
Have you ever uploaded a photo to Facebook, Instagram or Flickr?
If so, you'll probably want to read this, because the rules on who can exploit your work have now changed radically, overnight.
Amateur and professional illustrators and photographers alike will find themselves ensnared by the changes, the result of lobbying by Silicon Valley and radical bureaucrats and academics. The changes are enacted in the sprawling Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act which received Royal Assent last week, and it marks a huge shift in power away from citizens and towards large US corporations.
….the U.S. is also considering this law…
“The draft law is intended to ease the reuse of misleadingly named “orphan works” – misleading because most orphan works are actually recent digital images that have been stripped of their attribution, rather than old black-and-white snaps festering in library vaults."
that sounds ... absolutely terrible ;_;
this is of course completely independent of the ethics of pirating, but is, perhaps, one of the reasons why we truly NEED pirates within the upcoming struggles, even if we have some small arguments/disputes with them.
(April 30th, 2013, 11:42)Tasunke Wrote: I wouldn't be surprised if the only two types of games in the far future are money sucking social games and 'charity' games that were made for the purpose of being free ... no one will make a quality game for the purpose of making money, therefore unless it becomes a hobby of the super rich, good games will become much more rare.
I disagree. I still believe people are willing to spend money on games if they have the feeling they are taken seriously. I believe things like crowdfunding will become more popular than ever.
And you know why? Because one of the problems is that there is no direct honest contact to the devs anymore, instead some PR person gives you a bunch of outright lies and other bs.
Take the new SimCity for example where EA/Maxis repeatedly lied to the community about various issues. Will you trust them again? Now compare that to some forums on Steam where players are in direct contact with small indie dev teams and you soon start to notice that gamers are actually quite patient when a dev comes out and says: "Sorry for the bugs, we are a small team and it may take a week, but it has high priority for us" and starts to address people with problems personally.
Yes, there will be the AAA titles from EA with an incredible amount of DLCs and microtransactions and on the other hand simple casual 99 cent games for phones/tablets. But on the other hand there will always be a niche for good games through indie developers and crowdfunding. And every new Kickstarter record will prove that players are willing to pay for good games, even in genres that are seen as unprofitable by major companies. And after all, every gamer can vote with his wallet and spend his money on good games with decent dev/PR teams.
