90%
yes, that’s the approximate piracy rate for the pc version of world of goo. we casually mentioned that number recently and the news seemed to propagate far and wide, so we’d like to follow up with some more details, for those interested.
first, and most importantly, how we came up with this number: the game allows players to have their high scores reported to our server (it’s an optional checkbox). we record each score and the IP from which it came. we divided the total number of sales we had from all sources by the total number of unique IPs in our database, and came up with about 0.1. that’s how we came up with 90%.
it’s just an estimate though… there are factors that we couldn’t account for that would make the actual piracy rate lower than our estimate:
- some people install the game on more than one machine
- most people have dynamic IP addresses that change from time to time
there are also factors that would make the actual piracy rate higher than our estimate:
- more than one installation behind the same router/firewall (would be common in an office environment)
- not everyone opts to have their scores submitted
for simplicity’s sake, we just assumed those would balance out. so take take the 90% as a rough estimate.
this is in line with a previous estimate by russell carroll (director of marketing at reflexive) for the game ricochet infinity. russell estimated a 92% piracy rate and i found his analysis quite interesting (check it out here if you’re curious). one thing that really jumped out at me was his estimate that preventing 1000 piracy attempts results in only a single additional sale. this supports our intuitive assessment that people who pirate our game aren’t people who would have purchased it had they not been able to get it without paying.
in our case, we might have even converted more than 1 in a 1000 pirates into legit purchases. either way, ricochet shipped with DRM, world of goo shipped without it, and there seems to be no difference in the outcomes. we can’t draw any conclusions based on two data points, but i’m hoping that others will release information about piracy rates so that everyone could see if DRM is the waste of time and money that we think it is.
————————
UPDATE (and nerd alert): a lot of smart people have been questioning the accuracy of our 90% estimate, and with good reason, it’s a very rough estimate and the measurements are flawed. so we did some more digging to see if we might have missed the mark by a significant amount. here’s what we found:
- based on the number of unique IPs and unique player IDs, we found that on average, there are 1.3 unique IP addresses per player (there is 1 player id for each profile created on any installation that submits scores to our server)
76% of players have contacted the server from 1 IP
13% from 2 IPs
5% from 3 IPs
3% from 4 IPs
1% from 5 IPs
1% from 6 IPs
1% from more than 6
this tells us that the dynamic IP issue is a relatively small factor in this calculation - we also looked at how many players IDs were created (rather than used) from each IP address. given that the vast majority of player IDs are associated with only a single IP, this is a fairly accurate measure of how many profiles the average user created. on average, a player has 1.15 profiles per installation.
when we take the total number of player IDs (which is smaller than the number of unique IPs from which leaderboard entries came) and divide it by 1.15 (the average number of profiles per installation) the number of estimated unique installations drops by about 35% as compared to the estimate based on unique IPs. let us further say that the average user installs the game on 1.25 computers with different IPs (i.e. not behind the same router), which i think is a high estimate. that lowers the estimated unique installations by another 20%. after factoring both of these in, the piracy rate would still be 82%, and we should keep in mind that this number doesn’t include those who never opted to submit scores to the leaderboard (it’s an option that’s off by default). so while it’s possible that the actual piracy rate is lower than 90%, it’s unlikely that it’s significantly lower. 2d boy hopes this satisfies the more rigorous number crunchers out there :)
oh, and yes, these numbers are exclusive of the demo… those scores are submitted to a different server entirely.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:07 am
One out of ten people bought the game? Well, I expected much worse than that, although it’s still disheartening. For what it’s worth, anyway, if you hadn’t decided to ship without DRM I wouldn’t have bought it.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:08 am
While I still hope the 90% piracy rate is to high, I fear, it might be the reality.
Although you mentioned it, I just have to tell you, that at least in my case, you must have gotten lots of uniqe IP-Adresses from me, simply because my ADSL-provider gives out new IP adresses every 8 hours and my router is configured to automatically disconnect after 30 minutes of idle time… and I only bought the game once :)
November 14th, 2008 at 12:21 am
It sounds high indeed, though I have never heard the numbers on a computer game before and I’m pretty sure it’s indeed very high.
What I would like to see is if and in that case, how many games are sold because of piracy - I mean it helps spread the game. Even if it’s not many still there are people out there that pirate as well as buy games.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:25 am
Hello, like chrisis before, you have some IP’s from me. I installed it on my work computer (grin) and on my laptop. I connect my laptop with dynamic assigned IP’s via the mobile net and on different places with wlan. I guess i have 5 - 15 different IP’s in a week :)
BTW: i showed WOG everyone, thanks for such great game!
November 14th, 2008 at 1:29 am
1 Game; 1 computer 4 different Internet providers (It’s installed on a laptop :-) ) and 2 out of 4 with dynamic ip addresses. And this is quite common around my friends.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:37 am
I’m not convinced it’s really that high, but then, awesome games will tend to be pirated that much more often….
November 14th, 2008 at 1:38 am
The only place I managed to buy it from was a PayPal link on the 2D Boy website. Before this I had been denied buying it both at Steam and Direct2Drive “due to my region” (Europe). Buying it should be easier than pirating it. If you don’t have that, you have a problem.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:45 am
I bought the game because it comes without the DRM PITA.
BTW, my DSL ISP gives me a new IP address every 15 minutes.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:49 am
^^
Why would you want to buy it anywhere than straight from 2dboy anyway.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:56 am
The Steam version has achievements.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Ben: because I’m an ignorant consumer who doesn’t care where the money goes.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:09 am
I hope this Game will come to Europe and Germany as soon as possible. I’m only playing the Demo for now but that Game rocks everything out ! Fantastic. Will buy it for 100%. If you Buy that Game in Retail Store you gain 2 licenses right ? One for the Pc and the other for the Mac version ? Hope so cause i would like to install it on both Maschines and play whereever I will be =)
And @ Topic. Shame on you damn f****** Pirates. Those fantastic small indi Games need definitly more Support so go and buy that! ;)
so long..
November 14th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Sad to hear it, but…
“more than one installation behind the same router/firewall”, that’s like saying because one family member pirates it (or even bought it) and the whole family plays it, that it is somehow more than one pirated copy (in lost revenues).
“not everyone opts to have their scores submitted”, but then again, this is a percentage that should be somewhat equal on both sides, but perhaps slightly less for pirated copies.
And I would like to point out that I have dynamic IP-addresses, as well as many many others, and I get a new every time I reboot, meaning I could very well have tributed to a 50 or so IP-addresses (which you would consider to be pirates). This counts for the _entire_ player base, meaning that you could very well have a 66% pirate ratio with ONLY bought copies, if say 20% of the users have dynamic IP-addresses (and they changed IP-address 10 times).
It could very well be that those assumed 90% played 2 maps and then removed it, which I would consider an illegal demo rather than a pirated copy, most certainly not lost revenue.
I’m sorry, but due to the fact that only IP-addresses are used and as I see no correlation to actual playtime I can’t take this information seriously, regardless of similarity to other studies. For all I know, the actual value could be piracy 50% and actual lost sales could be 10%.
I’m a proud owner of WoG and I loved every minute of it, but I feel sad when I hear such flawed reasoning.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:32 am
FYI 2D guys, got WoG with Paypal on your site, installed in the office, on my laptop et netbook so two ips and three different machines for one game. I think it’s really hard to get accurate piracy numbers.
But man, I even saw well paid game developers not wanting to buy it for whatever the reason in any ways there’s none! Conservative views, lack of maturity jealousy I don’t know but that’s a deep problem and not the first time I witness it.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Well has for me I have installed in 4 places total. On my house, desktop and laptop and my room mate pc and on the office. And yes I have a legal copy.
It’s sad if those numbers are even close.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Perhaps it would be better to examine the IPs by region or by service providers if that information is accessable. What then would be the piracy rate via ISPs without dynamic IPs? that, then, would provide a better percentage to adjust the other ISPs by and might actually have some meaning.
Taking them all together and assuming that the number of people with multiple copies behind a router balances it out is horribley naiive.
Offices are likely to have a dedicated IP. Homes are not.
Several people have already posted that they account for more than 10 ip addresses alone. My current count is a minimum of 10 but I’m sure it’s quite a bit higher than that and covers, currently, two countries and 5 ISPs.
If each of the 14 posts in this thread represented a legal copy of WoG then we already have something near 80% piracy by current reckoning.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:06 am
World of Goo deserves every €uro spend on it.
It’s an AWESOME GAME and everyone who pirated the game should go to hell.
Come on, SUPPORT 2D BOY!!!
November 14th, 2008 at 3:32 am
I am very disheartened to see these numbers, if it’s any consolation our ISP gives us a new IP every hour or so here.
I spent the money on the game and I was hella proud to be supporting such an awesome devteam and such an aimaginative, creative and enjoyable game I have not played in many a year.
I also convinced 2 friends to buy it the second it hits the UK Wii VC.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:03 am
You should check the statistics for how much the game is played as well if you made such statistics possible. My guess is most pirates just downloaded it to check it out because its so easy and probably didn’t do much more than that either, as you said they did not even plan to buy it.
Of course there would be just as many pirates if the game had DRM because it would have been cracked, it always is, but you would have lost customers, at least this one. DRM only punish the customers while pirates get the better product.
The fact that you could not obtain it legally in about half of the world did probably not help either, but I’m surprised that the number is as high as 90%.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:06 am
I play the game from 3different connexion, which mean that I’m spotted two times as a pirate.
Seriously, how can you think that 2 ip adresses comes from two different account? I bought it, found it awesome, encouraged people to buy it.
If I don’t deserve painful DRM, I think that dumb people who can’t see they’re the cancer should be burnt on the city’s place.
Even if they pretend to love games, they have killed originality by destroying little game developpers.
Shame on you, I want more 2D Boy stuff, no ridge racer XCIII…
November 14th, 2008 at 4:16 am
I’m reasonably pissed at my friends about this.. they’ve all pirated the game, and all say it is really fun. Yet none of them can be bothered buying it now that they’ve played it. Glad I supported a developer in its infancy stages though :)
November 14th, 2008 at 4:38 am
You guys are right. DRM is a waste of time. Games can be quickly cracked with or without it, so I say the hell with it.
It’s a shame to hear such statistics. This game has glued me to the screen. I’ve finished it 3 times now, and I’m still at it. Piracy or not, I’m sure you’ve gained more than you lost. You have made solid names of yourselves in the gaming industry and have won the love and respect of many gamers out there.
I salute you 2D Boy, and I hope to see more of your products in the near future. We’ll be awaiting World of Goo 2.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:42 am
Guys, you know I have been big fans of yours since I first heard about your little project, and I will be honest that this makes me a bit sad.
I hope that the figures you have are out of whack due to people using dynamic IPs :(
November 14th, 2008 at 4:45 am
How…I don’t see how anybody could do that, let alone 90 percent of people. I’m going to buy it as a gift this holiday season for a girl at my school to help make up for this, even if it barely does anything.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Teams and companies like yours just need to be encouraged. That’s why I just bought your game, glad to support further developments.
I would encourage everybody to do the same. If you all, guys, (or 90% of you), download a pirated copy, then how would you pretend to get more games and versions from the company you are not supporting?
Enrico Foschi
November 14th, 2008 at 4:58 am
maybe your numbers would be more accurate, if you used the MAC-address of the network interface used to send the scores instead of the IP address?
(because, as has been said already, nearly everyone in Europe has dynamic IP addresses, US-Cable customers are indeed probably the only (notable) ones with static IPs…)
November 14th, 2008 at 5:26 am
[...] source, et factornews [...]
November 14th, 2008 at 5:27 am
@pascal: hardware addresses are not propagated by routers, so that information is not available to them.
I think counting distinct IP addresses is extremely flawed. Why not count distinct internet keys instead? You have that information and although it isn’t perfect, it’s probably better than counting IP addresses directly.
Then you still have to account for:
1. people legitimately using different slots on the same PC (the game offers three player slots), so divide by (at most) three.
2. people reinstalling the game after a format (or under a different user account) which erases their online key.
3. resale of the game: if I buy a retail copy of the game, play it for a month, get bored with it, sell it to someone else (or give it away) there are two distinct players with only a single sale for 2D Boy, but there is no illegal copying involved.
Admittedly, point 2 and 3 are less likely to be an issue so soon after the game is launched, so counting distinct player keys, divide by three, then divide by the total number of sales (online and retail), should give another rate, which isn’t perfect in itself either, but it would be nice to see if it’s in the same area.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:47 am
That is an interesting approach (obviously I bought a copy), but I’m curious to see what the ratio is total tales / usernames.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:49 am
People are greedy, selfish idiots. I hate them.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:09 am
I bought the WiiWare version but have played it (on my own Wii) in three different locations on three different wireless networks, each with dynamic IPs.
Since WiiWare piracy isn’t exactly burgeoning the way PC piracy is yet, do you have a ratio for WiiWare sales vs. IPs?
Looking forward to buying the Linux version when it’s released.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:20 am
[...] 2D BOY have posted about the piracy World of Goo has suffered since launch. After Ron Carmel mentioned the figure - 90% - in a comment on RPS this week, the story was picked up across the internet. And it’s shaken a lot of people. [...]
November 14th, 2008 at 6:30 am
I totally agree! I think it’s better to have 90.000 pirated copies and 10.000 sold ones instead of no pirate copies and 10 sold ones.
Pirates unintentionally make advertising for you and in addition they show you the success rate of your wonderful creation!
If a producer is calm enough to cope with that, he’s the winner in nowadays software business. All others using DRM and tell all 100% of their players that they are assumed to be criminals. This won’t stop the pirates, because they know they are criminals, but it will stop the legally purchasing gamers, because they get upset when falsely suspected. So these companies just bark at the wrong tree and cut themselves. For example I left out spore just because of the DRM.
I’m patiently waiting for the linux version of WoG and I will surely be one of the people who buy it legally, just because you, 2D Boy, don’t generally suspect me to be a criminal.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:37 am
I’m looking forward to the Linux version as well, as long as it works with Compiz.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:38 am
I’m in those 90%, I admit it and I’m sorry. I’ve watched development of WoG since this website’s start. I told about it to all my friends and wrote about it on some forums etc. I know that at least two of them bought this game (probably because of me), so I hope I undid my sin.
I love you 2DBoy, but in my country there are problems with paying via Paypal, banks aren’t supporting it, I can’t buy WoG in a shop and so on, sorry :)
November 14th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Sucks that it got pirated that much, but what you gonna do? I just hope you made enough money to continue making games.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:57 am
It is very sad that people would pirate a game like this. To be honest I probably would have paid just for the preview which had me frothing at the mouth for more goo. I stayed up until 3am on the release night checking my e-mail constantly for my download to arrive.
I’ve encouraged all my friends to check it out. One has bought it, one is waiting until his computer gets fixed, one is waiting until christmas and I know I’ll be buying at least two further copies for friends and relatives this christmas. 2DBoy deserves every penny of that and I commend them for producing such an imaginative and engaging game.
2DBoy has gained a lot of fans and garnered a great deal of good-will from us gamers so I would be delighted to see that this 90% piracy rate is a vast overestimation. It would restore some of my faith in humanity.
Maybe the preview chapter 1 should be left on sale for a quarter of the price to entice more players to buy the full game?
November 14th, 2008 at 7:18 am
I’d be one of those guys with a dynamically changing IP. I basically live off of Wi Fi. Sometimes I might have three completely different IPs in the same day because I start at home and then go to the library or college and then back home.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:19 am
World of Goo for iPhone = no piracy + big sales + happy customers + awesome gaming experience.
I have seen the future of gaming, and it’s sitting in my pocket right now.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Sad figure indeed.
I own a small dev company in the audio market, and my calculation was at least 70% of our audio plugins were indeed pirated.
I blogged about it back then. the post is not up anymore but I also remember using the exact same pirate flag ;)
I have a french version on my personal blog though :
http://www.cestari.info/2007/6/28/70-de-nos-utilisateurs-sont-des-pirates
Anyway you’ve already got my money and my support.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:38 am
I’m plating World of Goo from 2 different IP, home and apartment. But it’s on the same steam account.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:42 am
I don’t think that this percentage represents reality. I bought this game because he is not expensive and no DRM. I use it on my Mac and I probably use it on linux when it will be available. I have also a dynamic IP that changes regularly so I think this system mesurement is “wrong”.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:44 am
I love how rational you’re being about all this. I wish more people actually engaged their brains when discussing piracy. ;)
Hopefully, other companies will share their statistics too, so we might actually be able to estimate some more meaningful numbers.
I think the 90% figure is completely useless however. Dynamic IP’s in particular is not just some minor fringe issue that probably balances out with everything else.
I’d expect that alone to account for at least 3-4 IP’s on average per user within a couple of weeks. Then you can double that for people who play the game from multiple locations.
Based on the numbers you’ve shared above, I’d estimate a 30% piracy rate would be much more accurate. That’s still higher than it should be, of course, but it’s not 90%.
The 90% figure is still an interesting ratio, of course, in that it can be compared to other products to get an estimate of how many IP’s your average user actually goes through per month. But it’s nowhere near a meaningful estimate of the piracy rate.
Of course, a simple way to estimate the impact of dynamic ip’s would be to track this value over time. All your users, legit or otherwise, are going to *keep* getting new IP’s from time to time, so the 90% rate should grow over time. So by looking at how fast the ratio of IP’s to sales grows, we might be able to get an idea of the impact of dynamic IP’s, and so eliminate that from the piracy rate estimate.
November 14th, 2008 at 8:08 am
I bought it on Wiiware day 1 (and my only complaint is that I ran out of new levels so fast!).
I *ahem* “acquired” it on the PC just so I could get to the delicious .ogg audio files! I doubt too many others have the same motivation, but I do wonder how many bought one version and pirated the other…
also… soundtrack? pretty please? funny thing is I’d pay about as much for a soundtrack as I did for the game (so long as I get a real disc! I still haven’t warmed up to Job’sTunes)
November 14th, 2008 at 8:17 am
[...] Posted by aksthem1 http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/ Direct link to their article. And another interesting article from them. [...]
November 14th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Some people here with dynamic IP’s need to understand that they do NOT receive new IP numbers each time they boot their systems. The rate of dynamic address updating is decided by your ISP and is usually between 1-4 weeks.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:07 am
shame because for $15 World of Goo has a great bang/buck ratio
November 14th, 2008 at 9:09 am
I bet most of the pirates are Europeans, who couldn’t get the game on WiiWare. But things have changed now. I hope it sells well on WW EU!
November 14th, 2008 at 9:11 am
So.
I’m a pirate.
Because i downloaded the game through a torrent.
But since people are buying games at high prices without sometimes the satisfaction for buying something amazing, some people choose piracy and i legitimize that.
But i got a nice question for 2d boys.. I don’t want to buy the game at his high price but i can choose to donate some money as a reward for this great game. No?
So, how can i do that?
November 14th, 2008 at 9:23 am
i really think the way you calculate that ratio is REALLY flawled, but i know it’s surely an high rate.
For example There’s NO provider in italy that offers static IPs
November 14th, 2008 at 9:25 am
I bought it on steam, but never submit my scores. The way my internet works I end up changing IP’s every day at least three or four times…
And I also bought it to support your DRM stance and was surprised to find out it is probably the best game i’ve played since tetris :)
November 14th, 2008 at 9:25 am
First: I love you guys.
Second: If you want to spread the word that DRM is a bogus idea, please don’t use bogus statistics. The most important part of this is the 1 in 1000 conversion part. On the other hand, the joy of not having to deal with ridiculous restrictions gives you a 100% satisfaction rate for legit customers.
Now everyone is reading 90% and once again mourns the death of PC gaming.
Also do not forget about the magic 67.5%… that’s the most important number of them all.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:43 am
dynamic IP factor
I have my IP changed every day (it resets at night!) and I could submit 20 scores, which would look like 20 different people
I hope you`v done well anyway, nice game with some innovations
November 14th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Well, as has been said, pretty much everyone in the UK will have a dynamic IP address. It generally costs extra not to have one, and frankly very few people are going to want a static IP… Mine changes every time my router reconnects, this can be multiple times a day or once a month or less… So, it’s pretty random!
November 14th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Surely you’re all missing the point slightly?
Since most calculations of this type are going to suffer the same problems you’re pointing out, they’ll apply to both calculations for DRM-free AND DRM-containing games. So whatever the figure is, be it 90%, 45%, or even only 20%, it’ll probably be pretty similar between the two.
In other words, adding irritating DRM to your game really adds very little in the way of extra sales.
So there’s that.
The more important point is (irrespective of how much piracy has occurred): has World of Goo been sufficiently profitable to allow 2Dboy to survive? Or better, thrive?
Ultimately it doesn’t matter how much piracy occurs as long as there are enough legitimate sales.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Why does it matter how many downloaded your game without paying? You are selling your game, not trying to do something against “piracy”, right?
Why so negative, why not say “Woah, we sold xxx copies! Isn’t that awesome?”.
The “90%!!!!!!!!!!!!!” is complete hysteria anyways.
PS: People who downloaded your demo got to play a bit for free too! That’s TERRIBLE!
November 14th, 2008 at 9:58 am
I second the request for total sales vs. unique usernames. I think that folks are more likely to have one username per install than they are to have a static IP. I’m also assuming you’re excluding the demo users from the total, which you didn’t explicitly mention.
Regardless, this is really interesting information and you’re awesome to make it public.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:24 am
How sad but on the flipside I’m so glad I’m not in a position to a)not be able to pay and b)think it’s ok not to.
WOG is truly brilliant and I’m very happy that at least three of us here in the office have been infected by the joy it gives and have bought it.
Well done 2dBoy, you truly rock and until they realise what support is all about then the pirates cannot share in the joy of having helped you.
ROCK MORE!
November 14th, 2008 at 10:32 am
well i like the fact that it doesn’t have DRM (yes that was a contributing factor in me actually paying for it). I waited for it to come out then bought from this very site using paypal. Ive installed it at home on my computer and work computer a laptop and im going to try it out on a eee ive borrowed from work.
Ive downloaded the mac version, just incase i do turn to the dark side. (yes APPLE ARE EVIL! far worse than ms in my opinion)
I bought directly from you because i knew it wouldn’t need authorising in 3 years time (cos im sure ill still want to play it). I think i bought it at work then downloaded and installed it at home. Its interesting that its the same figure as the DRM enabled game. It only takes one person to post it with DRM removed for the rest of the world to use it, but then if it were not for the internet would you reach the sales you have as easily? It will be interesting to see how the Linux version affects sales, ive always wondered how many of them are really out there.
p.s. I’d be surprised if any of the people who say they get a new ip every 15 minutes actually do get one that quickly. but im sure you know alot more about networking than i do :)
November 14th, 2008 at 10:34 am
p.s. have you thought about releasing it on windows mobile with a pen interface? that would be cool :)
November 14th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Guys, you should not be that worried. I’m sure that most applications have this rates using complicated techniques to avoid piracy. For what I have notice you have a good fan bae that are happy to pay for the game (I’m waiting for the linux version).
Usually is better to have a good fan base than selling lots, you should be more worried about how many of your buyer share the game and offer deals to those who share it and paid for an other copy.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Please don’t be too disheartened - there are many like me who have bought the game legitimately, because it was DRM-free and reasonably priced, even though I have pirated other games in the past.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I think you are wrong in your calculation.
While static IP is standard in the US and Canada (well, maybe not standard, but very common) it’s extremely uncommon in other countries (like, say, Mexico :)).
Besides, most people play from at least a few different computers anyway. Specially simple games like World Of Goo, that don’t have steep requirements (simple in the computing-power sense!). If everyone is like me, they have 1 “main” computer that is a power-house to play games. Then they have a few other “family” computers, for internet/office/watchingvideo use.
I’ve played from 2 different computers, for example. One is in mexico (I live in Mexico and Canada) So I’m guessing everytime I use the computer in mexico I get a different IP. Not that I submit my score often, though…
But I think pirates and real gamers submit their scores as often.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Hello, interesting comment, I would like to argue a bit concerning this extrardinary game… i have for the time being a pirat version, since it seems IMPOSSIBLE to buy a full version in a box in France ! Neither Amazon nor any other site. I really don’t like not to have a CD of the game and a nice box… I am getting hard to find a way to get a box, while i am playing with my current version.
I really think piracy is a way to well spread the game. People that pirat will buy the game if they love it and have a little common sense.
Wish you all the best for the future, this game never ends creativity, it is a pure jewel.
Thus if someone knows a way to get a box version of world of goo and ship it to France with not so big cost, i would be happy to buy it.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I doubt Windows Mobile phones would be powerful enough… At least, most wouldn’t be. iPhone probably just about would be, but the interface would be an issue.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I’m buying additional copies to give as gifts (the retail version). It’s an excellent game and very accessible.
If you know someone who pirated the game and who’s going to get a gift from you in the future, buy them WoG. They’ll be indirectly supporting 2DBoy. With any complaints, say you heard they liked the game, but didn’t own it. After they get their gift, they would.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I bought twice, for Wii and PC (directly from 2DBoys). Delightedly impressed with your efforts on all fronts: gameplay, visuals, music. Props, gentlemen, and thank you. Best gaming money I’ve spent all year, and I’ve got it to spend - I’m boycotting several publishers over DRM (Securom specifically), so your choice to ‘go commando’ was absolutely a selling point and a very appreciated gesture.
I actually caught wind of this 90% statement on the G4TV scrawl last night and was heartsick. But after reading commentary on RockPaperShotgun.com and also here in your blog, it seems there’s still no true way to gauge piracy accurately. This is what I want as someone who always pays for digital media but is burdened with and even shut out of purchasing due to overzealous antipiracy/anticonsumer technology employed using such criteria as justification: there are no true facts, only conjecture or speculation.
And as you’ve shown with your Richochet comparison, using those presumed figures, those numbers mean very little in the end where DRM is concerned. The only true numbers are those in the till - actual sales - which I sincerely hope are good, fat numbers for 2DBoy despite the known fact that someone somewhere is playing a game they didn’t pay for.
I, for one, am a repeat paying customer and will definitely be supporting you in the future, as you have shown me the modicum of respect in fulfilling the vendor/customer bargain: you gave me what I paid for without making my life a misery with invasive DRM. It’s people like me that should be the focus of any vendor, and that’s what’s being lost by other publishers when they only see what they don’t have instead of what they do have.
Don’t let the bastards get you down - they won’t part with their money anyway.
I will, and gladly. And I have lots of company. :)
November 14th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Go on, believe on people… Everyone cries for no DRM, low prices, but also everyone is getting their part of the piracy.
Also I couldnt understand how GOO was set to 20 dollars…
A short game, no level editor, no competition over the net (unless you think that building a tower higher than others means competition… cmon)
OK… its a hell creative, excelent timing, very good game, but it has a LOCKED structure.
You cant develop and increase the game´s world by adding more puzzles, by competing over the net. Just play it, and forget it, cuz theres nothing more you can do once you get to the end.
Comparing to audiosurf, as a project… goo lacks value per package, which was explained above.
While on audiosurf you use thousands of tracks to build thousands of stages, and compete over the net, on goo you just play and go away.
Yet the balls sound funny, speaking that sounds, theres no aparent reason to love a black goo ball.
If the game was set to play only over the net, with updates, more scenes, more stages, a level editor and a REALLY functional interface that could connect and search people around the world, make friends, groups, battle groups, multiplayer stuff, would be a complete whole different story.
Instead 2d Boy got a very creative idea, took a lot of care on the graphic concept, music and animation, and forgot it´s future.
Why people would pay 20$ to play a game which not even in a million years meets the complexity of a Devil May Cry 4 and GTA IV, which can be bought by 30$ each, and doesnt have anything other to ensure a long life after you get to the end, and no multiplayer or level editor?
Answer is: because they like the game and decide its worth paying for, because they like you to know that your efforts were worth of their money, and they want you to develop more and more…
BUT the world isnt a perfect place, so the 90% pirate goo hit 2D Boy´s door.
I watched a friend of mine playin it to the end, and its a good game indeed, but I was commenting to him. You can have a longer fun on Team Fortress 2 (20$) or Audiosurf (9,90$). Two games for plus 10$, more than 2 times “value per package” than just goo itself for 20$.
Wouldnt be better to sell more for 15 than 20? How youll make an
Well thats my opinion. World of goo is excellent as “ingame”, but lacks a lot as “project”.
How to convert that people who got the pirated version into registered copies?
ANSWER > offer all things more just for those who bought and registered, and if you could set the price for 15$, you can get even more.
Maybe this you can throw out the “90% piracy” goo balls that lives in your desk.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
[...] 2D Boy: I love you, 2D Boy! » Blog Archive » 90% yes, that’s the approximate piracy rate for the pc version of world of goo. (tags: 2dboy.com 2008 mes10 dia14 piracy pirataria blog_post World_of_Goo) [...]
November 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
A 90% piracy rate is sad. There is one solution to prevent piracy for a potential sequel: release it only on WiiWare. As far as I know, there is no effective way to copy a Wii channel from console to console. Just a thought.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
It doesn’t sound like Ron’s point in this post is about how terrible piracy is (even though it is), or about how to combat it. Any kind of anti-piracy method only serves to hurt real customers (i.e., releasing a sequel only on Wii will only make PC users upset). The real point is that DRM is ineffective in its supposed goals (because it’s treating the symptom, not the problem, but that’s another topic).
November 14th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Dont give up! We want more great games!
My two only complaints: too short, or need a level editor. And need a worldwide release!
November 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Your method of determining piracy is incredibly inaccurate; as noted the majority of people in the US, at least, have their IP change every few days.
Also important is that the majority of pirated copies will likely have the checkbox unchecked.
Therefore your measurement adds legitimate and pirated counts, where legitimate will be severely inflated, and pirated will be severely deflated. You cannot estimate two parts of a whole that have widely varying factors like this; it’s just bad math.
As such, you are possibly measuring that, on average, users play World of Goo with just less than 10 different IPs (that number, which sounds very reasonable and likely, would make the measured piracy rate of users with the checkbox checked approach 0%.)
-[Unknown]
November 14th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Two things:
1) The metrics on your piracy rate may be way out of whack, since the demo allows one to post their score online. If others like myself did that, you could possibly be counting a large percent of people who are legally trying the game out.
2) Constructive criticism:
LOVE the game, but I kind of hate it too. The difference is in the control.
For example, I know what valid moves I want to make, but the game mechanics prevent me from it. Say I am trying to make a double brace (looks like a box with an X in it). If that is near the top of the structure and there are a lot of goo around, I have to wait for that fraction of a second when things are clear enough that the beam I wish to construct will light up. Add in building sway and that can get incredibly frustrating. This looks like a roughly open ended game in that there appear to be multiple ways to solve a given puzzle, I need predictable controls to pursue this, not something where I have to click and pray.
Also, for those of us with multiple monitor setups, draging the cursor beyond the edge of the game hoses me. In truth that may just be the way of things in those kinds of hardware setups, but I thought I would mention it in case you hadn’t considered multiple monitor setups.
Again, killer work guys :- )
November 14th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
My heart died a little when I read that =(
How can people’s consience be alive to play such a game as great as this without paying =(
–
As for the DRM vs No-DRM.
DRM gets raped off by pirates within hours of a game getting released, its really kinda useless now-a-days if you don’t completly program it yourself.
~DtD
November 14th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Thanks for the number-crunching update; just noting that the free demo isn’t a factor helps (was wondering about that).
You can still count on mah monies. :)
November 14th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Well, FWIW, your stats just got you one extra purchase. I read the article on the Escapist, which reminded me that I needed to check if you had a mac version out yet. You do, so I bought it. :)
November 14th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
VIX: “High price”? For World of Goo?
Really?
Weavious: There are torrents of the Wii version out there already, as with every (I assume) other WiiWare game. It’s just that a vanishingly small proportion of Wii owners are capable of using them (I’m pretty technically adept and I still haven’t Twilight-hacked mine), while virtually every PC owner can pirate the PC version of WOG.
I would say that this doesn’t demonstrate the effectiveness of DRM so much as it demonstrates the advantage of releasing for a device that’s regarded as consumer electronics rather than a computer: people regard it as an appliance on which to play things they’ve bought, rather than a computer on which to download games for free. The disadvantage, of course, is that there are way fewer Wiis out there than Goo-capable PCs and many Wii owners never connect to the Internet, but that’s offset by the promotion of WOG on WiiWare and the fact that everyone who owns a Wii uses it to play games, while the same isn’t true of PCs.
So while I enjoy the WiiWare version of WOG and would probably buy the sequel on it, abandoning the Windows/Mac/Linux versions would still cost them sales. Maybe not everyone will double-buy it like I intend to, but they say they’re selling plenty through Steam and through this web site, and I ran across boxed copies at a Sam’s Club last night. And as 2DBoy mentioned above, another developer who did spend the time and money on DRM discovered a 92% piracy ratio on his game, so the point of this article is mainly that DRM is likely not very effective.
Still curious as to whether there appears to be a large amount of “piracy” of the WiiWare version; even though the game is out there for pirating, most Wii owners can’t play the pirated copy.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Has anyone seen the comic on GU Comics that refers to this news post? : http://www.gucomics.com/comic/ Oh, and I’m an assface by the way ;) (Read the comic and you’ll understand…)
November 14th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
@Weavious: I wouldn’t be too certain about that. There definitely is a way, which does NOT involve a modded console, and which I’m NOT going to tell you guys, as I am not for pirating.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I actually bought the game after I tried it.
I tried it through a pirated version.
I would not have bought the game if I had not tried it first.
I love this game and thought you guys deserved the money.
Additional motivators: Steam.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Go to mininova, go to isohunt, read their copyright statements and send them an email. The End.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Well, at the end of the post you put: “oh, and yes, these numbers are exclusive of the demo… those scores are submitted to a different server entirely.”…
Is that like to say that the wole post is a joke, and that really 90% got the demo without pre-purchasing or something…
I’m confused about that sentence.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
no, the numbers are definitely not a joke. it just says that we accounted for the demos and they are not part of the piracy calculation.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
You’ve got 78 people who bought the game at minimum, in addition to those who bought it twice for several reasons, just from these comments. Might not seem much, but it shows that people still care.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
mohammad - oh, absolutely. I hope no one mistakes this blog post for complaining. We are very happy with our sales! We thought this statistic was fascinating and worth sharing.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I downloaded off bittorrent. I played through it in two sittings. I bought it.
Seriously, this game is terrific. After finishing it I was reminded of another great indie game, Gish.
Anywho, I apologize 2D boys.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I bought the game, and am responsible for at least 3 different IP addresses, and I’m the only one playing the game from those addresses.
Piracy makes me sad — I really don’t like people who want something for nothing… but in my experience those people don’t do well in life in the long run… with rare exceptions.
November 14th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I think it’s worth noting (if it hasn’t been noted already) that DRM isn’t really there to stop piracy at all. It’s really intended to help curb second hand sales (especially the form of DRM currently in use by EA — who also see huge piracy figures). Sure, some people make the excuse that they pirate due to DRM, but they’re just fooling themselves with a that lame justification. We all know they would have pirated whatever game regardless of whether there was any DRM or not.
DRM (as in the forms that limit installs) )is not a solution to piracy. I would suggest things such additional features available only to purchasers of the game as incentives to persuade people not to pirate. (You’ll never persuade everyone though, sadly). For example, the only features of this game should have required a unique code given on purchase (similar to a CD key), which should be verified before allowing the player online.
Do this using player accounts - the player creates an online account and enters the code to verify it - the code can only be used once, but the account can be used over more than one PC (although only on one PC at a time — similar in a way to how Steam operates). The player can still install their game on as many PCs as they wish, but they can only play online from one PC at a time.
It won’t stamp out piracy, but it will stop the pirates from being able to enjoy the whole game. Which is pretty much the best that can be hoped for these days.
For myself, I played the demo of this game and didn’t like it. It just wasn’t my type of game. But given it’s low price, I too feel that piracy of this game is just wrong, but then again, what do pirates care about right and wrong?
November 14th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Definitly interesting, the last time I saw a game dev discuss their piracy rate so in depth was uuh.. never
November 14th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I assume there are several problems:
- The game is not officially out in Europe, which leads some people to pirate the game. Sounds stupid, sure, but that’s how stuff works.
- I don’t know how this is handled in other countries, but at least in Germany, you usually get a different IP adress at least once every 24 hours. You tried to respect that fact, but it’s very hard to quantify I guess.
- There are people who use pirated copies as “demos”. It’s definitely an exception, not a rule, especially since there is an official demo, but the demo came out after the full game if I remember correctly. If you do a demo, release the demo the moment the full game ships - or a few days earlier if possible.
- There is no WiiWare demo. Some people might pirate the PC version to decide whether or not to buy the WiiWare game later on, especially due to the delay in Europe (see above).
By the way, even though it might look like I’m defending pirates, I’m not. I’m a software developer myself, and I, too, need the sales. But even I used… questionable software in the past. There are many reasons to pirate games, some of them more understandable than others. And to be perfectly honest, even though I think it’s great that you decided to use no DRM at all, I wouldn’t have done it. A solution I’ve seen that I believe is really nice is the copy protection Renoise uses. It’s basically no copy protection per se, they just use watermarks. If you buy the application, you can download it as often as you want and install it on as many systems as you like, but every single downloaded copy is watermarked. If you chose to distribute your copy, your account will be revoked, and you won’t get updates anymore. And strangely enough, the application is hard to find on filesharing platforms, even though it’s quite a bit more expensive than World of Goo. There’s no serial number, no license server, nothing. I believe that’s a model worth copying.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Oh, what a sad statistic. Did Wii sales factor into this estimate? And what’s your profit on a Wiiware sale anyway? That’s where I personally got my goo.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
i borrowed my cousins pirated game,just to show my niece whos 12.she loved the game and im buying it for her wii for christmas.my copy has been deleted,il play on the wii with my niece.as for my cousin,he really doesnt beleive hes doing anything wrong at all.his xbox live accounts been banned today on his chipped xbox. ho ho ho merry christmas
November 14th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
What I’m interested in is sales ratios between the PC, Steam, and Wii versions. I have a sneaky suspicion that Steam and Wii revisions of the game are greatly outselling the PC download. Which would suggest that the vast majority of your customers are making use of more convenient channels rather than pirating your game.
If I’m correct, your numbers are horribly skewed. They don’t show 90% piracy. They show that the PC download is the least effective channel to sell through which to reach your customers.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
2D boy,
I purchased your game, and I appreciate your shipping it with no DRM. Too many of the games I have require some form of activation that after a number of moves, computer upgrades, and what have you, often gets lost even if I have the original install media.
Thank you for producing a quality game, and for not making ME, your customer jump through hoops to play it. I hope other companies follow your lead.
wardred
November 14th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I can honestly say that I originally pirated your game, but I loved it so much that I went ahead and bought it. Amazing that people will pirate a game that only costs $20 - which isn’t that much - and is amazingly addicting. Granted I’m a Mac user so my data might be pending. Figured I should at least comment.
I hope more people are willing to spend a measly $20 on your game, its certainly worth more than that. Feels wrong stealing from a little up-and-coming company too.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
You know, even of people who pirate, plenty of us would love to do a trent reznor equivalent for games - aka let us set our own price to obtain it (even if the game is non-DRM’d in the first place). You’d see a lot of money come in that way too :)
However, I do plan to pirate it, and then maybe purchase it later if I have the money and it feels warranted. I do want to give it a viewing at least, purchase or not.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
The high rate of piracy (for most games) is rather disheartening, especially when one considers the size of your team. I just hope you sold and will sell enough copies to do well.
Sure, I had lot of cracked game copies (previously owned) for my C64 when I was a kid, but I didn’t know any better back then. These days, I am very much legitimate. If I haven’t paid for it then I simply won’t have access to it. I may be far from well off, but I like the feeling of actually owning something and supporting developers that are deserving of my hard-earned cash.
Sadly, I can’t say that about my friends who wouldn’t bat an eyelash at pirating anything. No amount of reasoning tends to sway these people, and, no, the majority would certainly not buy the product, in the first place, whether they enjoy it or not.
As said, I hope you guys will do well enough so you can bring us more great games. WoG was definitely worth my twenty bucks.
November 15th, 2008 at 12:38 am
@Matt: “However, I do plan to pirate it, and then maybe purchase it later if I have the money and it feels warranted. I do want to give it a viewing at least, purchase or not.”
Why isn’t the demo sufficient for you to decide whether you want to purchase the game? Why must you pirate it first to make that choice? Perhaps knowing that information will be helpful to developers such as 2D Boy.
November 15th, 2008 at 1:35 am
No Steam Release in Europe - your entire post is invalid.
November 15th, 2008 at 3:02 am
Yes, I have pirated the game at first. I’ve even completed it, and it was such a great experience that I HAD to buy the game. And that’s what I’ve done through the paypal link (I’m in Europe).
What I want to say is that if there is more games like this, there would be less piracy. You succeed to turn a acostumed pirate into a valued customer, only because the product was worth (such a small) price.
November 15th, 2008 at 3:11 am
I have cash put aside, once you make a Linux version and it works, it’s yours.
November 15th, 2008 at 3:27 am
How about posting some REAL numbers instead of this pointless “Look Mum! So many evil pirates!” crap?
It would be much more interesting to know how much sales you actually had, especially in comparison to the (regioncoded) Wii Ware version (royalties to Nintendo!).
Am I right to assume that despite the high percentage of freeriders - many of them probably never had the intention to buy your game in the first place - the PC version was commercially very successful and generated more profit than the Wii Ware one?
Btw, I bought your game on steam…
November 15th, 2008 at 4:03 am
[...] The post yesterday reporting World of Goo’s 90% piracy figure drew a surprising response. The P-word regularly generates comments threads that scare our hosts, but this one was odd. It became a discussion about whether one could disprove the 90% figure, and then extrapolating this to reach peculiar conclusions. Some could see this as people claiming there were far fewer stab wounds than first predicted and therefore there hadn’t been a murder. Others might suggest that fighting over the exact number is completely irrelevant, as that’s not the point of the issue. Now 2D BOY have responded with new look at the figures. [...]
November 15th, 2008 at 4:47 am
The interesting fact about piracy is that people steal software because it’s fast; cheap; easy; and they are used to .
So, I think, software developers should understand why a user would pay for a game : basically :
• He could have it fast and cheap by paying (online or on a cd-rom cheap = less than 19 euros )
• because he can’t have a pirate game on his device (console users)
• Because he wants to use a game as a Legitimate customer , which grants him some advantages
• Because the whole game needs subscription.
• Or occasionally : he would like to thank the developers . (yes it happens)
Of course it’s easy to say “Pirates are bastards” but it doesn’t solve the problem .
World of warcraft has got millions of subscribers
Everybody in the gaming industry should try to work so pirates become legitimate customers.
(in the particular case of WOGoo, in think legitimate customers should have acces to much more levels, which could only be downloaded online, or something that could turn a pirate in a non-pirate user – in a cheap and simple way)
By the way, Wii-ware, Ps-network, and Xbox live are great ways to distribute.
November 15th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Just bought it, and I’m sad about all the piracy you got, after being so explicit about no-copy protection. Anyway: you behaved very nice, trusting your users this way. And I hope people will appreciate it, thus buying more and pirating less.
Thanks for the trust. With that, you earned at least one customer (and I suppose/hope many more) that will eagerly follow your present and future works,
and good luck :-)
Daniele
November 15th, 2008 at 5:21 am
90% piracy rate? based on unique ip addresses. Wow and I was thinking about buying your game. I may have installed it on my notebook and played from maybe 50 different ips last month, sine I travel alot and use public hostspots and stuff. Ppl will aways pirate your game, no friggin point in releasing your game DRM free and then start to whine when someone copies it. What did you expect that just because you are being a good everybody will follow suite? Advice from me: look at the stance of the sins of a solar empire guys:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080320-pc-game-developer-has-radical-message-ignore-the-pirates.html
Maybe you wont drive customers away this way.
PS: I still can’t believe this. It is hilarious. Just like leaving your house open with a huge glowing sign ontop of the front door which describes in details where all your valuables are. And then start to bitch when someone robs you… Get a life
November 15th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Le jeux sort en France l’année prochaine et je ne pouvais pas attendre désoler. Mais ça ne m’empechera pas de l’acheter quand il sortira… :D
November 15th, 2008 at 6:37 am
I’m not buying it.
I’m an elder mod on an International forum, with 54K+ users, this is what I see:
After a year online most accounts have more that one IP address associated with them, some have hundreds. Particularly users from the UK, some of those ISP’s have very short lease times on their DHCP IP’s, and frequently change IP addresses.
Also if the game was installed on a laptop, it could be assigned many IP addresses as it moved through the world, connecting to different wifi networks.
November 15th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Would be great if more people bought the game… but hey, count one more legal purchase as soon as the linux version is out. I had great fun with the demo already, buying this as a native linux game is really a no-brainer for me. Rock on!
November 15th, 2008 at 7:46 am
hmm, interesting update. And 82% is still a lot. Would be interesting to see how many of these IP’s originate outside the US (that is, in areas where the game isn’t yet being distributed.
I’m curious if the unavailability of the game in some areas make people there more prone to pirating it. (Yes, I know we could buy it off your website, but it’s still not as readily available as in the US)
Of course those numbers are going to be vague as well (both because IP’s don’t always match one single country or even continent, and because of cultural differences. - I believe piracy is *really* common in Eastern Europe, for example - but the numbers would still be interesting. I suspect that a lot of games get pirated much more than they would otherwise, because they’re released months later in certain territories. People in those areas can still read the reviews, and talk to their friends overseas to hear about how amazing the game is… It’s launched, but the only way they can play it is by pirating it. And once they’ve pirated it, the motivation for buying it when it comes out “properly” in their region obviously drops. In your case, it’s obviously not that simple, because people in Europe *could* buy the game, just perhaps not through their preferred channel. Still, if you have those numbers, they would be interesting.
Matt: “However, I do plan to pirate it, and then maybe purchase it later if I have the money and it feels warranted. I do want to give it a viewing at least, purchase or not.”
And I suppose you do the same with cars too? Steal it, just so you can drive it for a week or two to see if it’s worth buying?
You sneak into cinemas to watch the movie first, just to see if it’s worth paying for the ticket?
Why do you feel that’s justifiable with games, when it’s so obviously BS for pretty much any other type of product?
November 15th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Hello, I’m one of those who did buy the game (on Steam, before it got pulled off), I find it amazing… but I think there may still be some flaws in your figures. Apart from the IP thing (it’s already been said that most providers don’t allow static IPs), I noticed that, in the ranking thingy, my ID comes up in three or even four clouds, all at different heights. Could it be that they’re all being counted as “unique IDs”?
On a semi-unrelated note, maybe a simultaneous worldwide release on Steam would have made things a little better… not everyone knows that the game can be purchased directly on your site from Europe as well.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:07 am
BAAAWWW PIRACYYY!!!111
How I supposed to buy this game if I don’t have a credit card and I’m not Steam subscriber? Release CD version lol.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Standard excuses for not paying for this or any other game (pick any that apply):
1) I will pirate it first and then pay only if I like it (a la when I go into a restaurant and only pay when I liked the food, or go to the theater to see a film and pay only if it didn’t suck). If the game is not PERFECT, I don’t pay.
2) My pirating is good for the software developer (more people playing, even without paying is good, it gives them lots of free publicity). Piracy increases sales! I am doing them a HUGE favor.
3) I am a cheap ass.
4) There is no such thing as copyright (or shouldn’t be). Other people should create art, music, games, films, and entertainment for me as a favor and fund it out of their own pocket.
5) Piracy is a fact in the gaming world. Get used to it. It’s the developer’s own fault because they should have taken it into account in their business case (besides, they should have been working on this full time as an open source program for free anyway).
6) $20 for this game is too much. Come to think of it, $10 is too. And if it is only $5, then pirating it shouldn’t be that much of a burden to the developer.
7) I do not want to try the demo because the only meaningful way to try out a game is to try out the ENTIRE game.
8) Who cares if there is 99.9% piracy, all the developers need is to make just enough money to fund developing another game. They don’t need to get rich (after all, I’m not).
9) “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
10) Because I have never had to create, develop and market a game and I don’t have a clue as to what it takes to run a business.
November 15th, 2008 at 9:18 am
I’d be more interested to see the piracy estimates for the WiiWare sales. WiiWare piracy seems prety rampant at the moment.
November 15th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Not sure if anyone before me has added this, but I installed WoG on a laptop. I’ve contributed to at _LEAST_ 5 or 6 IP addresses for the simple reason that I walk around. This will very likely increase, as I haven’t yet started it up in any of the coffee shop that I visit. My family is in another city, and my extended family is in a third (I’m a college student), so including all the areas around there, as well as all the times our ISP changes, I could likely create 20 or more different locations.
If I can recommend, try taking all those IP addresses, and eliminate any of them that are within 10 or so miles from the original. If the same thing is downloaded from two opposite locations on the globe, it’s far more likely that it was pirated than if it’s still near the original sale (for reasons of coffee shops). Yes, there are still some of those that are copies handed out to friends and family, but that likely accounts for far less piracy than something done globally over the internet.
November 15th, 2008 at 10:11 am
The percentage doesn’t surprise me at all… The world of gaming is becoming more and more like the world of music. That being its over saturated. people can’t buy games because people would be broke if they did. New games are released almost every other week. IE beginning of the month.. within a couple of weeks FAR CRY2, DEAD SPACE, and FALLOUT 3. i mean what the hell is a gamer to do. go out and spend $200 on games and then hide away for a month to try and pass these games before the next round of games comes out…(L4D).
If i have to say anything it is that 2D Boy should embrace what has happened. He has developed an incredable game almost entirely on his own. That doesn’t get you money it gets you Cred!! I would recommend making the Game completely free with a donation option. The Dudes behind the halflife mod Natural-Selection lived off peoples donations, and it was a MOD! people are generous if they feel you deserve it.
So i say embrace the piracy, don’t fuss, don’t turn into another metalica! because if you do you will disapear from gamming and no one will give a @#$%.