Dude, breathe. I can do a run-on sentence here and there, but try some punctuation if you want people to read your posts. I'm not saying that everything you mention is invalid, but (and please don't take offence) many of these ideas are very popular among 20-somethings new to Philosophy. They don't always have real world applications that are germaine.
money is here to stay. it's not going away. stop derailing the thread with worthless philosophical babble like this. you're not going to justify piracy with an argument like "monetary systems are evil and shouldn't exist to begin with."
I understand how you guys feel and all I'm trying to do here is share some wisdom about a potential alternative to the monetary system that would essentially make everyone happy and for the last time I'm playing the devils advocate here I'm not the person you all should be preaching your rhetoric to
but it's so out of place to do it in this thread. the idea of an alternate modern world without a monetary system where everyone is equal and happy doesn't really fit into the debate over the reality that is piracy, in the reality of a world that uses a monetary system. at least we can agree that piracy is hardly a good thing.
The problem is that a big part of the ipod touch are owned by kids. I mean, these kids aren't going to buy games with their parent credit card but most likely get pirated apps. It's so easy to do that. Also, in-app internet registration isn't a good idea for me. It's not all people who have a wi-fi connection.
Many people make it sound like owning a ipod or iphone and playing games on it is some kind of human right. This is solely a luxury-item that no one needs to survive, and only people with decent amount of money on the bank can own it. Well, if you have the benefit of beeing one of those people then you really should have the financial means to shell out a couple a bucks for games to it. Its so sick. If you think you are too poor to buy that awesome - übercool new game for 9.99 $, well then you shouldn't play it. Simple. Welcome to capitalistic modern society.
Except for the fact that my own game, Flickitty IS available in all countries, it has a demo and it costs $0.99 and it is STILL PIRATED. I'm not going to claim this as lost revenue, because they obviously didn't want to buy it despite all the options available to them. This is why a lot of games don't appear in other countries- it is going to get pirated anyway and it will generate so little revenue that it isn't even worth the hassle.
How much hassle is it really to add all the countries? I`m no dev but AFAIK it wont be anything more than a few clicks. I think it`ll be better if the devs turn on sale in all countries coz you already assume you`ll get nothing from most of the countries. Then why do you care in the first place about a few people buying the games there and you getting nothing out of them. Atleast a few genuine users who really want the app wont be left with piracy as their only option if they want your game. And once someone pirates, he realizes how easy it is and will be tempted to do this with other apps. So I dont think any dev should block an app from smaller markets. I hope you (and other devs too) dont stop adding their apps in other markets coz of low sales.
Flickitty is still available in all markets, and doing pretty well despite the lack of press and coverage. It isn't difficult to add or remove countries- it is just a few clicks to check off the countries you want. However, I don't think you actually get paid from those markets until you exceed $250. My game is a week old, so I haven't gotten payment yet- excuse me if I don't actually know how the payment system works. So I dont think any dev should block an app from smaller markets. I think the dev has the right to make that decision, and I don't think other devs like me should be punished for it. There are many other reasons to not officially support those regions. I'm not one of those devs, so you really can't ask me. I've done my part: my game is accessible. Go buy it now and tell others about it. In the very least, try the demo.
Theft is an inalienable characteristic of capitalism. I don't buy the argument that the poor don't have the right to play a game, which is what you've actually argued here. Still, the reality is that anyone capable of owning an iPod Touch or iPhone is nothing close to poor. ...Unless it is stolen, in which case I say more power to you for finding a way to survive in a system that is hostile to the poor. Capitalism is here to stay, as is piracy. Don't spend your nights crying about it softly into your pillow. To dev's, learn from the mistakes of others the more you try to fight it the more you'll lose. At best you'll create a system beats most pirates, but also locks out or alienates legitimate users. Most pirates are not lost sales, but locking out and scaring off legitimate users is a lost sale. DMR and other inane things like it turn me away from buying most things. It is why I've only bought one album from iTunes. Instead I got an eMusic account and bought CD's.
i think what pug means (and pug feel free to correct me if im wrong) is that even tho he doesn't pirate iphone apps/games he may or may not pirate other content or he may simply agree with the ideas behind piracy for the most part and joining this group would be in that case hypocritical even tho he does support devs or who knows he might actually pirate iphone apps/games which i guess in your point of view that would make him the enemy? lets kill him! (figuratively speaking) i support the devs i do not pirate iphone apps/games and guess what im the kinda guy that will submit feedback make some suggestions submit bugs/issues and hell im even open for beta testing and all of this on my own free time simply because i want to learn how to be a game dev likewise if you want to support the artists the same thing applies go to their concerts bring your friends to their concerts be a fan submit feedback join a band and cover their music on your sets and tell your fans how much they have influenced you if you want to support the companies who hold the copyrights to the artists content you buy their cds you pay the middle man and the artists only see a fraction of that in royalties of course this all depends on how clever the exec was when signing the band and how business conscious the artist was when they got signed i doubt theres any regulation but all of these media companies and likewise big game publishers are HUGE they own everything ton of copyright assets ton of subsidiaries across multiple media markets so they make their money you can rest well tonight knowing that they have plenty of revenue pouring in i promise you that but the little guys are the ones losing out which brings me back to my original argument about the monetary system being a pyramid scheme how about this lets do something radical why dont we all have a thinking exercise for a sec lets imagine that there was no middle man that there was no pyramid scheme what do you think would happen to art, media and culture? well of course this is all speculation but one could infer that there would be a more meaning full direct relationship between artists and their fans without the need or dependency on a middle man one could also infer that more artists and people would begin to create art for the sake of art just as a form of expression and a convergence of personality and creativity rather then create art for the sake of making money or chasing the dream of being a "rockstar" which one could infer is NOT the point of music and art to begin with. you could also infer that if this was all open and free for the world to consume that more people would have much diverse music tastes and therefore art in general would be much more diverse and unique because as you know from a business perspective to maximize profits you have to optimize the product and target a specific demographic which leads to.....hmmmm conformity, and you wonder why every song you listen to on the radio sounds the same. shall we continue? lets imagine for a sec how this would apply to software and games, well one could infer that more devs would be more open to SHARING their game engines with the world so the little guys the enthusiasts the up and coming game dev would have access to more powerful tools to create better games. you could also infer that graphic designers and artists would be more willing to SHARE their works of art with devs open and freely and devs who are not very good artists would be able to make polished games more easily and then one could infer that without a pyramid scheme these devs would embrace "piracy" and actually measure their success on how many people have played their game rather then how much "money" they or their publisher made from it. but you know this who piracy thing is just "evil" and it must be stopped who wants to share information freely psshh thats just blasphemy
Information IS freely available. I do not have any education in Software Design, Programming, Game Design, nor Computer Science. Yet I am a game developer. I taught myself how to program in numerous languages, I picked apart the source for Quake and Quake 2 (among other engines). I studied gameplay mechanics. There are many tools that are completely FREE, and many viable options that are cheap. I don't use Photoshop, I use a 10 year old version of Paint Shop Pro to do my graphics. I used Crimson Editor to script 26,000+ lines of code for our latest game- I didn't need a fancy IDE. There are legitimate reasons for piracy, but I don't think anyone has actually touched on that aspect yet.
yup yup it sure is freely available and that is AWESOME I for one am very grateful for it and I hope it stays that way and doesn't get completely censored controlled and tiered in the interest of stoping piracy
This kind of story just makes me go psycho. Those people just don't CARE. They take it, RAPE IT, and leave it on the ground. I'm becoming really mad at all of this stuff.
I believe you are right on that point. Piracy is probobly here to stay, and i dont really see how the devs or distributors can do so much about it with the tech we are using today. But that doesn't make it right non the less. Its exactly the same with pirating software as any "normal" crime, some people will always try and take whats not really theirs and the author/owner will try and stop them using different methods. And on it goes. This chain of event will probobly go on as long as our laws and societys look the way the are. My point is that using a program without paying the author/maker/whatever is wrong. Even if we are talking silly fees like a buck its wrong. Both legally and moraly. And lol, no this is not something i stay awake at night about. But what makes it funny writing and reading in the thread is to see all them that are for piracy and their wierd explenations with different philosophys etc. I wonder if they believe that crap for real? =) Its kinda hard to argue for something you know is wrong deep inside isn't it? =) I will continue to follow this thread and see what funny justifications thats coming next.
How about this: I'll provide a PayPal link here. All the pirates that want my game can download it from anywhere they want, as long as they send me at least a dollar. We eliminate Apple, but we still have PayPal as a middleman- a necessary evil for transactions, unfortunately. Anybody want to guess how much I'll see?
