Game Dev Tycoon devs teach pirates about piracy

[Maxternal]

But according to Wikipedia (for that that's worth)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Dev_Story
Game Dev Story was actually ORIGINALLY a Japanese PC game that was just ported.

 

[Taleweaver]

I read this earlier on another site. And I gotta say...I love it. No...More than that. I absolutely freaking LOVE it!!!

I mean...there's comedy gold just writing itself on this:

pirate: guys: I'm having problems. My sales are going down because of piracy!
forum member: yeah...well...I know what you mean. Piracy is a bitch, isn't it?
pirate: you're telling me! Rotten a**holes. This way, there's just no way to keep up quality or even keep my team together.
forum member: okay...here's the solution: you've got to lead by example on this. If you don't pirate, neither will the peeps in the game.
pirate: huh? C'mon...be a bit less cryptic, okay? If things keep going this way, I'll be producing shovelware in no time.
forum member: I'm saying that you shouldn't pirate. That's what's causing it.
pirate: but I'm not pirating! It took the whole earnings of my last game to pay for the UnrealEd and train my programmers to use it, but I never broke any laws. In fact, I didn't even knew you COULD pirate that.
forum member: I'm not talking about in-game piracy.
pirate: is there any other kind? I've tried inventing some very obstrusive DRM that made users use serial numbers, that only worked on a fraction of the DVD-drives AND that required constant internet connection. Took me quite a bit of research, but aside from lowering the popularity of my company and slightly less sales (which caused me to have to bribe more gaming magazines), it didn't stop piracy.
forum member: that's because you're using a cracked version of the game.
pirate: what does that have to do with anything? I'm glad I haven't bought this game...you can't win with it. Piracy is way too much of an issue!
forum member: if you had bought the game, it wouldn't be an issue.
pirate: why should I buy games? I'm not stealing anything. Besides...there wasn't a demo available, so I HAD to!
forum member: just out of curiosity...did you make a demo in that game as well?
pirate: naah...it took too much work. But that's ingame. This is the real thing!

 

[DSGamer64]

It won't teach anything to anyone. People will still pirate games, especially when so many non franchise types of games are hit and miss these days, people are more likely to pirate it to see if it's any good and then not even bothering to buy it if they like it.

 

[Maxternal]

teach, perhaps not, but they definitely had their revenge

 

[2ndApex]

I stopped playing Tycoon games a long time ago but I think I'll pirate this just out of curiosity.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I read this just before I saw it on gbatemp. It's hilarious, I wish this would work as well in other games

Tycoon games in general are old, but this one is very recent, completely unrelated to any other game with Tycoon in the name and looks almost exactly like Game Dev Story.

Oh... I was hoping it was better than Game Dev Story. I got pretty addicted to that a couple of times and played it for hours on end, but there wasn't much to it, and once I got far in the game it was too easy.
I'm going to try the demo anyway, and see what it's like.

 

[trumpet-205]

Awesome anti-piracy, for once one of which I fully support.

 

[Hells Malice]

Fail and game breaking. Cause you know big companies do not really go bankrupt because of pirates. Pirates wouldn't have bought the game in the first place. Meaning they didn't lose any real money.

If you think 100% of pirates wouldn't have bought the game, you'd be 100% retarded.

 

[JoostinOnline]

Fail and game breaking. Cause you know big companies do not really go bankrupt because of pirates. Pirates wouldn't have bought the game in the first place. Meaning they didn't lose any real money.

Because no pirate has ever thought a product was worth the money, but just didn't want to spend it?

 

[Clydefrosch]

obviously this is funny. however, most people will not get it. they will see it as something they did wrong while playing, or a terrible game design, as long as its not explicitly explained to them.
had they added an additional message to the piracy one like: "change how many people pirate games these days by purchasing the actual uncracked version now: ...." some might get it. actually, some of those downloaders might have bought it right then and there.

also, i'm all for creative anti piracy. i also liked that one ego shooter game that had you followed by an unkillable monster that would rip you apart eventually if you pirated the game

 

[Minox]

I like the irony in it all, but at the same time I can't help but to be annoyed at the developers for whining about there being so many pirates when they were in fact the one who released it out in the wild.

 

[Clydefrosch]

I like the irony in it all, but at the same time I can't help but to be annoyed at the developers for whining about there being so many pirates when they were in fact the one who released it out in the wild.

i wonder if the pirates going out to spread the word about this game sucking will have a larger effect on possible buyers than this story about how they tried to teach pirates a lesson.

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

My fav is still Serious Sam 3's Immortal Pink Scorpion. While I do actually own the game on Steam I downloaded a Pirate version on purpose to see how much of a b***h it was and damn X.x

 

[Dann Woolf]

Well played, Greenheart Games.

 

[ferofax]

Fail and game breaking. Cause you know big companies do not really go bankrupt because of pirates. Pirates wouldn't have bought the game in the first place. Meaning they didn't lose any real money.

At least, if it wasn't cracked, you'd have ONLY legitimate sales on your stats. Nothing is as disheartening as seeing high movement numbers, but seeing only a smidgen of that as legitimate sales. If you were an entrepreneur, how would you react?

And there's always the chance that you can turn a pirate into a legit buyer if your game was good enough, instead of turning legit buyers into pirates because it's that easy. But I digress; it's a discussion that will never end, piracy.


ON TOPIC, this was a double edged sword. Pirates may have had a taste of their own medicine, but Greenheart Games didn't really earn much from this stunt as well. In fact, they were complaining actually. While the pirates receive the piracy dialog in the game, Greenheart Games received it IN REAL LIFE. A bite back in the butt.

 

[Foxi4]

Pirated it. With AP removed. Fun game. Not gonna buy, thanks for the preaching though, GreenHeart.

For the record, the more interesting companies I ran:

• Poortendo
• GreenFart

 

[chartube12]

If you think 100% of pirates wouldn't have bought the game, you'd be 100% retarded.

The argument is valid and made almost daily on the gbatemp. 90% of pirates wouldn't have bought the game anyway.

 

[Hells Malice]

The argument is valid and made almost daily on the gbatemp. 90% of pirates wouldn't have bought the game anyway.

Research to back up the statistic pl0x.

Approximately 105% of pirates are actually unicorns.
The other 47% crave pancakes on a bi-daily basis.

 

[JoostinOnline]

Research to back up the statistic pl0x.

Approximately 105% of pirates are actually unicorns.
The other 47% crave pancakes on a bi-daily basis.

You posted it on the internet, so I believe you. I can't wait to scream at someone who calls this ridiculous and begin half my arguments with "I know for a fact that..."

 

[dragster215]

I was so damn impressed with this that I decided to buy the game yesterday. Its better than Game Dev Story ever was