How do you stay motivated after piracy?

Honestly, I find piracy hugely motivating, because it means that I am making something that people want, even if not everybody is willing to pay for it.

Accept that you will never stop piracy, and if you only sell a copy of your game to 20% of the people that play it, so be it.

Focus on increasing the amount of people exposed to your game and the amount of people pirating it will skyrocket, but also the amount of sales will follow.

DO NOT focus on how to get less people to pirate your game, instead focus on getting more exposure to the people that ARE willing to pay.

 

I think IAP's are a good way to fight piracy!Giving the game for free, but give extra content trough and in app purchase, I don't think there is a workaround for that!

 

So do IAP help prevent piracy, or are people even able to pirate that content? I imagine that if someone wanted to, they could probably pirate everything in the game and still find a way to access the IAP content.

Either way, I think a good distribution model that some people on this forum have suggested is making your game free, providing a few levels, and then having people purchase the remaining levels as an IAP.

 

Ios

I thought you could not pirate IOS games?

 

So it is trivial to pirate iOS apps, and in fact it is largely automatic for the cracker.

Adding IAP will make it harder to pirate your app, but not that much harder. A game will usually have a flag somewhere that says whether a given IAP is unlocked.

Crackers can find those flags or the file-system-based data that controls them and change things so that the IAP appears to have been paid for.

Downloadable content can add an additional layer of protection if you require that the device submit a valid receipt to the server before allowing the download.

 

In an ecosystem where developers regularly give away hundreds of thousands of copies of their games to try and increase visibility, it is hard to get worked up over sales theoretically lost to piracy.

I've always been happy to share free copies of my games with anyone that asks.

 

Yeah, MindJuiceMedia is right, IAP can be pirated, it's just harder. I think it still adds a layer of security though.

 

games that are free + IAP sell very poorly if you cross the magic 25MB barrier where it must be downloaded over wifi

 

When it happened to us with our Lukomorye Quest expansion series--this wasn't even on iphone--this was on pocket pc and palm--- because that's where we started out making our Quest expansions---I imagine they can now hack the iphone version---but I try not to think about it---I confronted the pirates being really mad and ranted and raved and had cat fits, found their forum, had a few good shots in, got banned and then realized that they and me are from different worlds and I can't make them feel what they're doing isn't right. They get a thrill---it's like the thrill we get from making games---but for them it's a reverse, dark thrill of doing something negative. I know I'll never give up the thrill of making games and I know they'll never give up the thrill of hacking games.

The people who will buy your games will buy them and you have to be glad there are people in the world who are honest and want to support you.

 

Ahh yes, the infuriation over Piracy - every dev has been there. It follows a series of steps:

1. Initial Discovery: "I see all these dudes on my leaderboard, but no one is paying for downloads!! WTF!!!"

2. Rubbing your nose in it: "I typed my game name into Google, and several sites are listing DL'able cracked copies of my game for free! But my damn app COSTS ONLY ONE DOLLAR!!!! WTF X 2!!!!"

3. Action: "I'll make a forum post on TA and explain how riled up I am and see what other people think can be done about this!"

4. Education: "Damn, all the other devs on the forum have told me to just suck it up, there's nothing I can do, some of them even embrace piracy. WTF X 3!"

5. Acceptance: "Ah well, I made my forum post, I emailed some of those sites and asked them to take my files down, but I still see many more DLs of my game than the sales numbers would suggest.. I guess this is a fact of life. Like Death, and Taxes."

6. Indifference: "Oh, yeah, people pirate all the apps I make. Let 'em, I don't care. Least they are playing them..."

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The thing that makes me motivated is to remember that though there are a lot, a LOT of people who pirate (numbers so huge I'd prefer not to think of it) - there are still plenty of people who will gladly pay. They are clueless about piracy, too lazy/can't be bothered, actually have a tinge of moral character, etc. If you actually can make something that is genuinely mainstream accessible, and it is actually good enough to get featured and raise eyebrows for longer than it takes to sneeze, then you can actually reach the folks who would pay. Those damn pirates were never, ever going to purchase your app anyway. And of those, you probably realistically lost out on maybe >$500 over the span of your app's life anyway (and I am probably being very generous with that number, in general)

I try to concentrate on making stuff free as much as possible these days, and seeking alternative methods for monetization. My bigger issue with piracy is not lost money, so much as not showing up in ranking because of that. Food for thought..

 

LOL! Are you a psychologist, by chance?

Yes, piracy is a problem, but are those who go through the trouble of pirating a $1 app really going to purchase it if piracy wasn't an option? Maybe, and this might hurt a little, but, if more people are pirating an app than purchasing it the problem is more to do with the value of the app than the current state of software piracy.

 

Every time I see my game on warez sites it makes me am happy, because I know that someone like it. It's a sign of recognition.

 

well, our first game "the great leaping lambrettinis" needed nearly two years to get pirated.
our new one "scream`n`run" just 3 days.

first, i really was pissed, because our sales weren`t so good.
and of course it is annoying, if you google your game and find some thread, where people talked about your game and that they really like it, but you haven`t any sale in this country.

now i`m relaxed about that. most of the people won`t buy it anyway, but they maybe show it to friends, who didn`t yailbreak their phone.

so maybe you sell more games than you would, if the app wouldn`t be pirated.
don`t know.

at least, you couldn`t do anything about that. i contacted different fileservers, two removed it from the server, the other ones wanted some proof, that i`m the owner of the game. funny thing.
i won`t spend any time in that.

i`m happy that some people buy our game nevertheless.

arg, this damned russian pirated server… hate them, hate them, hate them…

ups.

btw. do you bought all the stuff, you have on your computer?

aloha from bremen/germany,
maura

 

Some argue certain consoles performed as good as they did because of piracy.

Unfortunately there will always be a loss in sales due to piracy, but I think when you think long term when building up an IP it's probably most important people have played your game will return to it or to one of its sequels.

I also believe times are changing for the business as a whole, similar to the music industry. It requires us to be resourceful and to think big and more than just game. If people enjoy your product they may also be interested in buying merchandise or a service from you.

I guess for now, as developer you have to find a balance in development risk and development time which works for you.

 

As a developer you should never have expected not to encounter piracy. That would mean your product wasn't even good enough to bother with for free.

As long as we have had software we have had copying and sharing. Software is information, it's media, and as long as we've had information we have shared it.

Got a newspaper from the guy next to you at the coffee shop? You're a pirate?
Got a cassette at home with your favorite radio hits? You're a pirate?
Grandma borrowed your latest Grisham novel? She's a pirate?

Unless I'm confused Pirates robbed people of their gold at sword-point. They weren't borrowers or copiers. The closest metaphor in software I would think is Chinese companies selling Windows for $2, or that store at the Asian mall selling fake DVDs complete with fake cases 7 for $20. The key distinguished is PROFIT.

No one is profiting from your software being cracked and shared. And you aren't losing profit either: people with money will still buy your goods.

 

for me its much harder to find motivation after crap sales figures rather than pirates.

 

I think the app store has once and for all dispensed with the idea that piracy is due to the "expense" of the software being pirated.