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Author Topic: I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.  (Read 5946 times)

Oak

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I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.
« on: October 03, 2017, 02:41:31 PM »

Effectively the game is fantastic.

The ‘RNG knows I pirated the game' showed me you had a sense of humor. And after seeing ‘if you like the game you should support if’ and agreeing for the tenth time. Essentially I think the messages are a good and funny way to prompt people to buy the game. I also think you should have the price though? Most people will think $20-$30. $15 is a great deal.

Why do I pirate?

Spoiler
The reasons why people pirate are uniquely personal to each of us. When I was in school as a teenager it was difficult to get a job so I had little income. You pirate because you're a broke kid. Now I honestly can't be bothered pirating anymore because my resources are less limited.

Generally speaking, there are two reason I still do it:

Unproven developer with an early access game. The developer is new and quite often the game hasn’t been properly reviewed yet because it isn't on Steam - and therefore there are no user reviews - and critics don't tend to review early access games. Early access is a minefield but once you've played the game I think you get the feeling whether or not the Devs are legit or not. I generally end up buying 90% of these games. Rimworld (pre-steam), and Starsector for example. Games I haven't bought - Spacebase DF-9.

Badly reviewed game. Games that have received bad reviews (usually on steam) but I want to try anyway. Ark, for example, I played, I loved and bought. No Man's Sky, I agreed with the reviews and deleted it after a few hours.
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To Alex (or how to convert more pirates)


Spoiler
Food for thought: I didn't actually pirate Factorio because it had a demo. Now Factorio is unique and the demo showed off what the game had to offer in a short space of time. Maybe have the tutorial as a demo for Starsector? The problem with piracy is that once you've pirated its much easier to continue pirating than buying the game simply because of the effort involved. What prompted me to buy the game was my decision to play modded. I had to stop playing to download mods anyway so it was fairly simple to just buy at the same time. But I had probably decided to buy it a day before I actually did. The demo works as that 'break'.

What Factorio also did was lock the mods behind a mod portal that required a log in with an access key or a link to a steam account. The mod portal had great functionality for the paying user. And now the pirate had to pay to use mods. I know of at least 5 friends who bought the game because of the mod portal and the multiplayer update.
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Skodmunk

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Re: I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2017, 08:56:26 AM »

I didn't pirate the game, because I could tell from the "lets play" videos on youtube that this game had potential.

Now regarding demos, I have read from developers on other titles that a demo is very time consuming and therefore expensive to make (you have to make it perfect or it will have the opposite effect).

Having modding in the game and showing that the developer is still making changes and improvements after release, I think is something that will push pirates into buying a legal version.
Oh and also fair pricing system, don't do lootboxes in a singleplayer game. In the Middle of what Earth would anyone think that was a great idea anyway ? :)

*edit added question mark.
« Last Edit: October 04, 2017, 08:58:16 AM by Skodmunk »
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Alex

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Re: I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2017, 10:24:29 AM »

I think it's time for a gentle reminder that discussing piracy (or anything else illegal) is against the forum rules.

@Oak: I appreciate your support! Welcome to the forum :)
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Drokkath

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Re: I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2017, 06:02:30 AM »

Thanks to this thread reminding me a few things. I finally decided to buy/pre-purchase the game since I've sank enough hours into it to a point I've been feeling bad sometimes about playing the game despite it being still free to download currently.
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arcibalde

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Re: I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2017, 08:19:59 AM »

You know something is good when even pirates pay for it  ;D
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Midnight Kitsune

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Re: I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.
« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2017, 10:19:45 AM »

You know something is good when even pirates pay for it  ;D
Damn straight!
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AxleMC131

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Re: I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2017, 04:50:53 PM »

If it helps, technically I've paid for this game twice - once when I first picked it up in 2011 or whenever (and promptly forgot about and lost my code...), and again last year when I rediscovered it.  :P
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mehgamer

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Re: I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2017, 07:48:32 PM »

Here I am being the weirdo who bought the game with cash mailed directly in an envelope.  Frankly the novelty of pulling that off is worth it alone.  Bonus that this is probably the best game I've ever purchased.
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Drokkath

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Re: I'm was a pirate who bought the game. Here's why.
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2017, 08:27:28 PM »

Aye, and indeed it sure is something fierce when you find out a yarred thing enjoyable enough or enjoyable a lot more and then some which add the need to actually buy it.

I still have a hard time describing how SS feels like as it gives me so many vibes from various older and/or other sci-fi games plus I sometimes forget that this game is still unfinished because of how finished it can feel. I think this Dwarf Fortress-esque approach to game's development is the best way to go about dealing with it and giving the game a few updates every now and then when something noteworthy has been added or changed or both. That way one isn't that keen on waiting for when it gets fully released.

All I can say for sure is that the concept of soon™ if executed well, looks a lot better nowadays more than ever to me. Thank you, Alex! :)
« Last Edit: October 06, 2017, 08:42:38 PM by Drokkath »
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