What Happens When a Developer Catches You Pirating Its Game

Here's an article on ign about copy protection while I was searching for the one used in GTA 4, I think I remember cars would have their accelerators stuck on & the brakes disabled. Also Codemasters had FADE.

@angus_lafroy: Yeah it was totally annoying coz the game doesn't make it clear enough that it's talking about the physical box for the game you're playing. But the process of realizing what it wanted from me was a good experience for me at the time. A lot of people (even some who owned the game) ended up having to look it up though...which is pretty ridiculous.

He bought it on PS3, so I don't see any problem with pirating it on PC. I think it's absurd that if we want something on multiple systems we're forced to buy it multiple times - particularly in the internet age.

Eh, regardless of how this was handled, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I don't understand pirates who act like they do it righteously. I've pirated before, but I owned the fact that I was stealing, and I don't do it anymore.

I don't know, I just don't like this weird atmosphere that seems to be forming where we embrace the pirates as our friends, and 'kill them with kindness.' Maybe it's just a band aid for something everyday people can't tackle, though.

If only he had got it in the steam sale. It was only 4 dollars then! Now that's CHEAP! (sorry couldn't resist).

@gunslingerpanda:

this times 10!!!

That was one of my favorites.

I also enjoyed the Game Dev Tycoon one where piracy would kill your company in the game. And of course, the bitter irony of people who did pirate it asking if they could research DRM or something to the support staff.

Delicious.

@gunslingerpanda: At least there should be huge discount.

Guys, we allow discussions of piracy as a general topic in threads like this, but specific admissions of your own habits of piracy are going to lead to deletion at a minimum with moderation pretty likely to follow.

To everyone commenting on this story please be aware that our Forum Rules strictly prohibit the discussion of personal piracy. Do not under any circumstances discuss how you personally pirate games on this article or your comment(s), and potentially your account, will be moderated.

@rorie:

i understand that as a general guide line, but in this case its directly in response to the article.

keep discussion open so long as its not advertising or posting links plz?!

Pretty ballsy to be asking the devs about adding in extra features!

@thomasonfa: it isn't shaming when using public comments - he put that story out there for the world to see himself already

i remember someone on this site post a thread asking how you took screen shots in the pc version of skyrim

i think so, and gta 4 made the cars unbareble to drive, then after awhile the screen would pulse as if you were drunk, and if you still were in a car after that it would catch on fire and then explode. i also think the charecter was terrible to control but i cant remember that.

Dont know that I think this is a very noteworthy happening but it's nice to see all the same.

I haven't played Skullgirls because the character designs are gross but does it really not have AI? That's shitty.

This whole thing seems fake... not necessarily staged, but just kinda fake in general.

The vast majority of real players & pirates don't act like this and never will.

So true.

Wait he owns the PS3 version and decided to "try it before you buy it" with the PC version to the point that he finished the story with 2 characters? Seems like a worse excuse than the "I didn't want to leave my house" one

@larrydavis: There's a story mode for every character where you fight CPU opponents. The dude just wants a versus AI mode or something I guess? Point is, yeah, the game has AI opponents in it. So, you know, not 'shitty'.

I really don't like people, lol. The "kid's" excuses were pathetic, but the SK dev handled them well. However, not having money is never an excuse to steal. That's the basis for most thefts throughout time, so your excuse of being "poor" doesn't cut it. Also the "I just wanted to try before I buy" was BS too as he already admitted having owned the game on another platform.

@thomasonfa I don't know. At this point the person will probably say whatever, and make whatever excuses, to not come off looking like an ass.

Of course I forgot about patches, testing, coding, porting, etc. No wonder I thought twas cheap. Thanks for the consideration.

You know, these things become more affordable when people actually buy the game.

I think this and the Alan Wake eyepatch are the best ways of punishing players who pirate. Serious Sam 3 would spawn an immortal super fast scorpion if it detected you were playing a pirated copy but I've heard of a few cases where people still got that scorpion even though they had legit copies on steam. I've even been locked out of my copy of Dead Space 2 because last time I tried to play it whatever DRM EA slapped on it couldn't authenticate with the servers.

It really sucks to be locked out of a game you paid for when pirates rarely have to deal with any of that BS, and when they do it probably only takes a few weeks at most for hackers to break whatever weird in-game measures devs use like slowing you down right before jumps in Mirrors Edge.

Thanks for this, real interesting stuff

Man, must have sucked to get that reply! Super friendly by the Skullgirls representative to handle it this way.

@gvalo: The story mode in Skullgirls is literally 10 minutes. It's not the Arc System Works 3 hour visual novel per character.

@corruptedevil: Ahh. The most I've seen of the game is the quick look (I think) so yeah.

I appreciate it when people act like this. It's nice to know you're seen. My opinion of Patrick improved a lot when I, after learning he answered people's mails regularly, sent him a mail asking for some stuff I'd like to see on Bombin' the AM and Worth Reading, and actually got a response. The Skullgirls devs are nice guys(and have been really cool about talking to their player base, responding to people playing the updates in beta and streaming themselves playing/working on the game), and I'm happy they got more screen time for being nice. Even to pirates.

Quite.

What, really?

@make_me_mad: If it doesn't just have a "fight AI now" mode that really is pretty shitty.

@larrydavis: They've got a story mode and an Arcade mode, both of which you can use to fight the CPU to your heart's content.

Why is it not a valid reason to pirate?

I call bullshit on this guy.

I'm sorry. I kinda did a trybeforeyoubuy thing. I already bought it on PS3 and I'm planning on buying it for Steam, soon.

Why do you need to "trybeforeyoubuy" when you already bought it on PS3? You already know what the game looks like. You already know what it plays like.

"I didn't have enough money to enjoy this non-essential item, which, unlike food, water or electricity, is in no way necessary for me to continue living. So I'm just gonna take it without paying for it."

Doesn't sound crazy enough for you?

"I didn't have enough money for the new consoles. So I shoplifted from Walmart. I mean, I wouldn't have done it had they given me a demo or something!"

Even when people passionately, vehemently disagree me (which happens all the time, as it turns out!)

As people with negative opinions tend to be louder, I just wanted to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for your consistently fantastic work Patrick. (even when you forget to use "with" ;)

Cheers!

The cheek of that Hibiki! Asking about updates and pricing! They were far too lenient. They should have stopped replying. Cheeky fucker.

That's not entirely true, and I would know because it was years before I realized that the CD case Campbell tells you to check was the game case and not the floppy disk you get right before that particular codec conversation. If you approach the doors that you need Meryl to unlock for you without ever contacting her yourself, then she'll call you, the game progresses as normal. A lot of people think that the game just ends there if you're too dumb to check the back of the box, but since I'm pretty dumb I can confirm that MGS does in fact throw you a bone.

@corvak: Sent you a PM.

don't understand the whole argument about try before you buy and piracy is not stealing it's copying, especially with the way game prices fall on Steam. unless you're completely destitute (and you should have much more pressing concerns than getting video games if that's the case), i don't really think there's any excuse for piracy nowadays; well, ever.

that said, i do agree that more games should have some form of demo. oh, how i miss the pc gamer demo CD days. Ascendancy ftmfw.

Is it some sort of delusion, or a reactionary defense to immediately put onus on the provider to not 'flip the fuck out' when you're the one with your hand in the jar?

The best thing to do in this situation is say "you got me" and post a redacted screenshot of your purchase invoice. Sorted.

@milkman: I thought him bringing up the word free for the update was quite funny. Dumb choice of words definitely.

actually, not quite true in fighting games. The netcode can be quite fucked in one version, but be perfectly fine in the other. Not justifying the actions, because thats what demos are for(although most demos wont let you try online mutiplayer anyway).

yeah i'm doubtful this guy will follow through on his promises. he should at least have documented proof that it's been deleted from his system, if possible.

Guy thinks game development is cheap or free. Not shocked that he stole the game.

@gunslingerpanda:

I think it's fair to require multiple purchases between platforms because even though the content itself is identical between platforms, the work required to get it on multiple platforms still costs money. The only analogy I can come up with is if you have a record (timely, I know) that you want to listen to while you drive. Pirating the mp3 even though you already own it in another format is still slighting the people who worked to change the format, remaster it, etc.

Nature follows the path of least resistance, free is the least. Call it crazy, it's simple physics.

Screw "kindness." Throw the book at him. LITERALLY.

I really need to get some new screenshots to these guys, BTW.

Piracy is probably the only issue I truly believe will never be "solved" by discussion and education. It's partly the fault of the RIAA and MPAA who have in the past cited piracy as killing their industries while sales increased, and partly because it is impossible to quantify the effect piracy has.

If a studio shuts down because of poor sales, one might be tempted to look at piracy numbers and say, "if all of those downloads were sales, that studio wouldn't have closed." But you can't know how many of those downloads would have been sales, and you can't know how many sales were made because a person pirated it to try it first.

Jeff's consistent saying on the subject is one of the few things I agree with him on. Most pirates simply have more time than money. And if time is all it takes to pirate something--that is, there is no real legal risk--you're never going to convince someone not to do it.