Games Dev Gives Tech Support To Pirate Bay Downloaders

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What do you guys think about a game developer that is offering free tech support to people that pirated his game?

It’s not uncommon for content producers to go crazy when they discover their work is being made available via The Pirate Bay. But while the big movie and music studios think the answer is to legislate and then sue everyone into submission, there is another way. Games developer Jonatan Söderström aka Catcus went into the comments section of The Pirate Bay and started giving free customer support to pirates. Has this Swede gone mad or does it just make better sense in the long run?
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Developers should see pirated games as shareware more then piracy. Remember shareware games that gave rise to games like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D? If your game is good, the pirates may become customers. Of course this only works if your game is good.
 
Demonstrating good will and making headlines? No, I don't think this is going to have a positive effect on sales at all.
 
Notch from Minecraft suggested to someone that if they couldn't afford Minecraft to pirate it and pay for it later when they could.

Some game developers aren't huge on attacking or blaming possible future customers.
 
It's when people DON'T want to pirate a game at all is when developers should be worried. Piracy = Demand.
 
For a small title like this the approach is probably good ... it helps build awareness about your title and gives you some free advertising ... however, I doubt all pirates are just financially strapped and will eventually become customers ... especially in gaming ... I actually like the approach in Serious Sam 3, I think it was, where they gave you an unbeatable foe if the copy was pirated

Since I think MP player games are at higher risk of pirating than single player games usually I think they should all just move to authorized online servers ... single player games could use techniques like that developer or like CD Projekt or like the Serious Sam folks to deal with pirates ;)
 
Most pirates aren't really customers anyway. There are a lot of people out there with no jobs, and leeches (just ask the Republican party).

I usually buy most of my games, but occasionally I will pirate something if it isn't a huge hassle to try it out first. DLC, online interaction, etc. are great ways to motivate people to buy your games as opposed to pirating them.
 
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Only total surveillance can stop this totalitarian nightmare :D
 
Lets see article comes out that shows those who download pirate actually buy more than those who don't

Free beta testers making sure the game is good, a good game is one that people end up buying later or giving you business if you come out with other products
 
I don't know why they need all this drm. Don't you need a valid key for online play anyways. You can't really pirate that.
 
Someone who f'ing gets it. We need more, many many more like him.
 
If a developer were really anti-IP/anti-DRM, wouldn't they just give away the game for free on their website and give a way for people to give them a donation if they like it? That's easier - less work - for the developer than trying to sell it through Steam/GOG/their own site and then saying "don't buy it right off, go pirate it in a torrent and then buy it if you like it".

The pay wall - however trivially it may be breached - is a form of DRM.
 
GaryJohnson said:
If a developer were really anti-IP/anti-DRM, wouldn't they just give away the game for free on their website and give a way for people to give them a donation if they like it? That's easier - less work - for the developer than trying to sell it through Steam/GOG/their own site and then saying "don't buy it right off, go pirate it in a torrent and then buy it if you like it".

The pay wall - however trivially it may be breached - is a form of DRM.
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That's different. When you make a product to sell, it's different then making a product to give away and hope for donations.

The way people who do it like this where they don't actively pursue is a way to say... "We think our product is worth a price, but we don't aim to tear your life down just because you didn't pay 40 bucks."

And yes, he's helping people who pirated it, but that's more like he want his product to be appreciated in the way it's supposed to be.
 
Serpent said:
"We think our product is worth a price, but we don't aim to tear your life down just because you didn't pay 40 bucks."
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That's a convenient form of altruism because it would end up costing them more than 40 bucks (actually $10 for this game) in time & money to try and reclaim their "loss" in our legal system.
 
I was giving an example, not using this as one. But even more so, it would be wise to get your company in a good light, rather than trying your hands at submission, it hasn't worked really well, and it pretty much won't unless they can literally get everyone in on it.
 
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