Chris Harris, a developer from Positech Games, wishes to learn as to the nature of the pirate, and why people pirate his PC games.
He invites users to email him, off-the-record of course, and anonymously with their concerns. He promises not to give any email to the Big Brother companies (Read: RIAA, MPAA, BSA, etc..) He seems sincere enough.
Harris has spent time lurking websites like Digg, and some warez forums to get a general idea, but he ultimately wants a direct response from the pirates themselves.
This is a good step in the direction of the industry actually listening to the gamers in what they want for once. Hopefully other developers and companies will follow suit.
Whether PC gaming is dying or not, one thing is certain: piracy of PC games is a serious talking-point for developers on either side of the debate. A growing number of developers big and small have become increasingly vocal about piracy rates for PC games. One developer, though, has finally put aside the complaints, the indignant state of mind, and is asking the pirates directly a simple question: why?
Cliff Harris, an independent game developer with Positech Games, has put out a call to pirates asking for an explanation. Not seeking to turn around and refute the pirates' reasons or to simply oust the pirates and turn them over to the authorities, Harris is earnestly sincere about learning what drives pirates to steal his games. Harris is asking for pirates to send him e-mails detailing the reasons why they are pirating games.
Why?
"What I don't know is why people pirate my games," Harris wrote on his website, where he made the open call for e-mails. "I might be able to get a general idea as to why people pirate stuff *in general* from reading warez forums, and every other story on digg, but I'm not interested in the general case. I want to improve my business, and ensure I stay afloat, and to do that, it would be mad to sit in the corner and ignore the opinions of that section of the public who pirate my games."
Harris promises not to publicly out any pirates for the sake of trying to get to the bottom of the issue. "I won't publicise who e-mailed me, or even store the addresses, share them, tell anyone them, or make any use of them whatsoever. I'll just read them, nothing else. It will be entirely off-the-record and effectively anonymous. I won't hand any email addresses to the RIAA, MPAA, BSA or anyone at all under any circumstances ever." What he will do, however, is read every e-mail in an attempt to understand why pirates pirate and what developers can do to change the way that PC gaming is going.
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Also- if we spend $50 on a game, we shouldn't have to pay another $10 each month we want to continue playing it.
BTW if you want cheap games then say goodbye to graphics, I know alot of people don't care for it but tell that to the xbox360 and PS3 fanbots. IF a agmer sees a game with "last gen graphics" it gets discraded immediately as crap. It costs money to tap the next gen hardware especially on a machine like the PS3. SO don't say make games cheaper if you aren't willing to make any sacrifices.
Then, there's always the obsessive compulsive behavior. Some people just download things to collect them or just simply because it's something to download and use up bandwidth.
You have to realize that the newer generations aren't growing up in the 8bit days any more, their standards are much higher.
http://kotaku.com/5037902/indie-dev-asks-why-and-pirates-reply
The reasons pirates traffic his games, Harris found, were roughly
• The information wants to/free anarchists think copyright shouldn't exist.
• Games are too expensive.
• The quality of gaming is too uneven.
• DRM is hurting the legitimate customers.
• Going to the shops is annoying.
• Because piracy is easy to do with low risk for getting caught.