Battle Dungeon (by Hunted Cow Studios)

[WakeOfPoseidon]

Even though I feel bad asking for a refund due to the surrounding issues, I went to their support page and filled out a ticket. For those that bought the app, here were the instructions I received in order to receive the refund:

"To get a refund for the app, go to the iTunes receipt in your email you received when you purchased it, and you will see a link to 'Write a Review' and 'Report a Problem'. If you click the 'Report a Problem' link it should open iTunes and show your purchase history. If you then click the little arrow to the left of Battle Dungeon then click the 'Report a Problem' link.

You should then see a box to selec the problem and type in a reason. If you then select 'I have another purchase or download-related question.' and type the following

"The developer has removed the app from the store and asked me to contact you for a refund. If there are any issues with this please contact info@huntedcow.com (The developer) for confirmation."

If you encounter any issues getting a refund, please let us know and we will look into it for you. "

If you don't still have the email receipt, You can also get to the "Report an Issue" from your purchase history in iTunes.

[Ayjona]

Originally Posted by sakinnuso

Any chance of turning this into an turn-based asynch experience like Highborne HD? Streamlining the controls and queing up commands ala Highborne or Hero Academy, and you might be able to salvage it.

I'm curious: in what ways would turning a game that is already an asynch experience into an "asynch experience", streamlining the controls and the addition of command queuing help combat piracy?

Perhaps the streamlining wil simplify the game and make it less appealing to pirates and players alike. That sorta makes sense.

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

For online games, the ultimate answer has got to be some verification/authentication system that only allows purchasers to play online, not anyone who's got a copy of the app from anywhere. But much of this is up to Apple to help implement.

MMO/online competitive multiplayer/MOBA ways to go. Online player accounts and login screens. No pay, no account, no play. Only way to play on the official servers is to hijack someone's account.

To this day, one of the few documentedly effective ways to combat piracy (especially for small titles, where the creation of dedicated private servers + the jailbreaking/iExploring needed to direct the iOS client towards the pirate servers might seem a wee bit ambitious in lieu of paying 5 dollars). And while it might be a tad annoying to have to log in every now and then, what with the iDevice focus on having a very small interval between launching an app and tapping away, it is a price I guess many of us would pay to play a game like Battle Dungeon, and a method that requires no involvement or implementation from Apple whatsoever.

There are a few titles for iOS that already rely on this method. It would be interesting to hear from Gameloft if they have found any evidence of private servers or account hijacking of Heroes of Order & Chaos and Order & Chaos Online.

[MrMojoRisin]

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

I don't get it. The pirates didn't have any more or less chance to play the game than you did.

I don't have the money right now for it. I was going to buy the app on the 14th when I get paid next. The irony I mentioned was that I could have just pirated it (although my phone isn't even jailbroken right now so I would have had to go through all that) and played it right when it came out. Instead, I stayed honest, but now that honesty has prevented me from getting to play this game at all.

That said, some blame has to fall on the devs for not fully protecting their game. Maybe this is a valuable lesson for them. I sincerely hope this does not ruin them and that we can eventually see this game again on the app store some day.

[MrMojoRisin]

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

Unfortunately, the pirates might say just the same thing.

I'm pretty sure they know who actually bought it and who didn't. It's a shame they didn't build that into their servers, though.

[DaviddesJ]

Originally Posted by MrMojoRisin

That said, some blame has to fall on the devs for not fully protecting their game.

How could they have done that?

[DaviddesJ]

Originally Posted by MrMojoRisin

I'm pretty sure they know who actually bought it and who didn't.

Seriously? How could they possibly tell whether TouchArcade user "sakinnuso" bought the game, or not, in order to PM him a code? It's a nice thought, but it seems completely unworkable.

[DannyTheElite]

Originally Posted by MrMojoRisin

I don't have the money right now for it. I was going to buy the app on the 14th when I get paid next. The irony I mentioned was that I could have just pirated it (although my phone isn't even jailbroken right now so I would have had to go through all that) and played it right when it came out. Instead, I stayed honest, but now that honesty has prevented me from getting to play this game at all.

That said, some blame has to fall on apple for not fully protecting their store. Maybe this is a valuable lesson for them. I sincerely hope this does not ruin them and that we can eventually see this game again on the app store some day.

Fixed.

[MrMojoRisin]

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

How could they have done that?

Oh, I don't know. Ask EVERY OTHER DEVELOPER that has a similar online structure how they do it. You have to be totally naive to believe that this is just some random isolated case of "piracy gone wild". Piracy has been around ever since there have been things to pirate.

[MrMojoRisin]

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

Seriously? How could they possibly tell whether TouchArcade user "sakinnuso" bought the game, or not, in order to PM him a code? It's a nice thought, but it seems completely unworkable.

Didn't they offer to reimburse those that spent money on the game? So that would logically point to me that they actually know who spent money on their game! Or am I missing something there?

[DannyTheElite]

Originally Posted by MrMojoRisin

Oh, I don't know. Ask EVERY OTHER DEVELOPER that has a similar online structure how they do it. You have to be totally naive to believe that this is just some random isolated case of "piracy gone wild". Piracy has been around ever since there have been things to pirate.

If they are pirates why don't we build a giant plank and make them all walk off the end of it
but seriously piracy is a big problem for developers if I am not mistaken it is why glu went freemium