Overgrowth Pirated?! >:(

[Jackrabbit]

Hey guys, I'm actually back to tell you that my friend from Romania(Volo, who I almost convinced into buying an awesome game called: Overgrowth) chatted with me on xfire and while we were chatting he told me he PIRATED one of the Alpha's...
I'm pretty pissed about that because the Alpha's were supposed to be like a bonus for the Pre-orderer.(people who put their trust in this project and know this will succeed as a great game)
He actually said himself that he didn't WANT to pirate it, he just wanted to try it before he'd buy it... I don't know guys, I'm still pretty pissed at this fact, I can forgive him for wanting to try out the game before he would consider buying it but still IMO he should've waited until the full game released so that they could release a demo or something.(Again, pissed for the fact that the alpha's are really for the people who put their trust into the game and support it but then people go out and pirate it...)
What do you think about this guys?
Can Wolfire even do anything to stop this?(I thought that the system of having to have that code sent to a personal email account to download the weekly alpha's was impenetrable... apparently it's not. )

[Kicktar]

It means that the game is popular enough to have it freely available, it's actually a good thing, as a lot of the pirates will end up buying the game like this person said he might if he liked it.

[m3nace]

I get that you're pissed, but a pirated game is not a lost sale. Eventually Wolfire might get more sales from this.

[Endoperez]

Free "advertising" aside, yeah, these kinds of people annoy me a lot. Especially those few who have the gall to post in these forums, asking for help. Or those people who e-mail Wolfire and ask for help running their pirated copy - I'm sure there are a few of those as well!

[m3nace]

It's definitely douchy if they download it and then go have fun, not buying it afterwards. I can understand pirating games in order to try them, but if they play through the whole game with all the fun it entails and then not buy it afterwards they deserve a proper spanking.

[Jackrabbit]

Well yeah, I agree with all of you, the sucky thing here is that Volo isn't going to buy it, we just spoke and he told me about OG having potential but that it's not for him... so he's not going to buy it ... I am.. pretty annoyed by this so idk anymore, though if this really is good for advertising then I guess I'm rather happy but I just didn't want advertisement for the game THAT way

[Count Roland]

it's terrible advertising, somebody was douchey enough to pre-order and release their copy, but that doesn't mean that morons who download it will even understand that games are almost never seen in alphas, if anything I can see a huge loss in the dumbass contingent of the market. which is rather large. all because someone thought "hey I'll just get this here unfinished game out there DUURHHHHH."

[Jacktheawesome]

I actually think this is a legitimate way of testing a game out. I mean if someone likes the game, and is mature enough to buy it afterwards, that's a sale they might not have had otherwise. And if they pirate it, like it, and don't buy it, like a douche, they might not have had that sale anyways, since the person was obviously unsure. The real bad guy in this scenario is the person who leaked it in the first place.

[Endoperez]

I actually think this is a legitimate way of testing a game out.

Legitimate isn't a good word for that argument...

That aside, while the guy who leaked the game is much, much worse than someone who "just" pirates it, the pirates are still in the wrong.

They have no right, no prerogative, no privilege, that would give them any special power or exception, that'd make it any less wrong for them to pirate the unfinished, alpha version of the game. Trying out the unfinished version might turn them away from the game, just as easily as it might pique their interest. I can understand why people pirate, but I don't accept it. Pirating games that are still being sold by their original creators, pirating indie games still on sale, and pirating unfinished games, are all much worse in my opinion than pirating games that are not sold any more, or games very old, 10-20 years or older.
I used to accept abandonware, the pirating of old (10+ years old) games not sold any more, but there have since appeared online shops selling those games, so I've changed my opinion.

[Cloak]

Ironic that piracy is a form of advertising. Big companies, like Blizzard, handle piracy successfully by having the purchased experience offer something more. Also, the soft DRM approach works in Steam, which I believe is what they plan on doing.

[Banzai¥]

Can Wolfire even do anything to stop this?(I thought that the system of having to have that code sent to a personal email account to download the weekly alpha's was impenetrable... apparently it's not. )

Yea, add some annoying DRM (Which would allow a slow delay in new usable torrents) or lock-out any Alpha testing through pre-orderers.
Either way, people won't get the latest version torrented until the next update is released. More than likely less and less torrented versions will pop up the more updates are released.

[Jacktheawesome]

I actually think this is a legitimate way of testing a game out.

Legitimate isn't a good word for that argument...

Hah...maybe you're right there. Perhaps forgivable would be a better word.

[Korban3]

I used to accept abandonware, the pirating of old (10+ years old) games not sold any more, but there have since appeared online shops selling those games, so I've changed my opinion.

There are shops selling old games now? AWESOME! E-Bay tends to cost a lot for old games, especially the popular ones. Do you know any good places to buy 'em? Are the games being sold directing the revenue to the original developers, or in cases like Rareware or Atari, do the sales just get pocketed by the folk selling the games, since the companies don't produce games much anymore? I'd imagine that they're just selling old CDs and cartridges and such that they've got, since old games no longer get manufactured, kinda like e-bay, but not.
Anyways, pirating seems kinda like... well, I can't come up with a really wise sounding metaphor, but I'm sure one exists. It's advertising, but it's money not received. It seems like it has more benefit in old games than new ones. The old ones are not lost to oblivion, while the new ones just have sales lost, especially big AAA titles that get massive TV advertising anyways.

[Endoperez]

There are shops selling old games now? AWESOME! E-Bay tends to cost a lot for old games, especially the popular ones. Do you know any good places to buy 'em? Are the games being sold directing the revenue to the original developers, or in cases like Rareware or Atari, do the sales just get pocketed by the folk selling the games, since the companies don't produce games much anymore? I'd imagine that they're just selling old CDs and cartridges and such that they've got, since old games no longer get manufactured, kinda like e-bay, but not.

Steam has some nice oldies for sale (like the Lucasarts adventure games, Loom <3 ), but I was mostly thinking of GOG. It sells digital versions of various old games. Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics, Freespace 2, Alpha Centauri, Sanitarium, Outcast, Master of Magic, Master of Orion 1 and 2, all three Oddworld games, Heroes of Might and Magic series, Age of Wonder, Another World, Jagged Alliance 1+2, Incredible Machines pack, King's Quests, Police Quests...

They don't have everything, but they sure have lots of the classics.

[Korban3]

Yeah. i think I've been to their site... once. I'll have to go to it more often. I'm gonna have to pick up Loom. I've heard that it's great, so I have to find out for myself. Thanks.