The piracy rate just got mentioned as one of 2008's biggest heartbreaks for the gaming industry in an article on UGO:

http://www.ugo.com/games/heartbreaks-of-2008/?cur=world-of-goo&morepics=1

I confess, I didn't buy the game before I played it.

Truth be told, € 20 is a steep price for a casual game on digital distribution, even more so if you're a student and can barely cough up enough money to pay for tuition fees.

However, I did buy the game after having finished it.

The atmosphere is pretty intense in some of the levels (Red Carpet is a perfect example of what a little background music can do) and the design is incredibly well executed -- the production quality is several orders of magnitude higher than in comparable Flash games you can find online for free.

I have a conceptual problem with paying for digitally distributed software (which is why I don't play any MMORPGs either), but I think people who do their job well should be paid accordingly.

I would have bought the hardcopy if I had known of it before ordering via digital distribution, but that's mere cosmetics.

Actually, I would have preferred a donation option instead of digital distribution in this case. I would have paid even more for it (say, € 25) -- or less (say, € 10) if I didn't think it worth the full price.

I think donations are a good option if you are an indie developer trying to sell your game online, but risking piracy by doing so. Not as a replacement, but as an addition -- pay in full, or pirate and donate as you wish (pure freeware OTOH just runs risk of people taking it for granted and not paying anything, also it doesn't give you a frame of reference).

Now, I agree that piracy has the potential of deterring potential customers, but looking at the piracy rate and writing all of it down as lost income is, though common, stupefyingly naive. Not every person playing your game for free would have (or could have) paid for it in the first place, and not every person downloading it will play it.

Also, the piracy rate isn't considerably higher than with other games, especially other games for casual gamers.

In fact, one should argue, piracy exists in another plane entirely separate from potential revenue. Piracy doesn't translate one-to-one to lost income and it doesn't translate equally with all games either.

I think WoG's problem is its style and its size. With a 60 megabyte stand-alone installation file many people wouldn't even expect an obviously casual game to be commercial software, especially if they get their copy from a friend, on a USB stick or per e-mail (e.g. colleagues inside a company network) with no reference to the website.

The way WoG can justify its asking price lies in its quality, but to see that, you have to play it first.

Enough rambling, let's add a final statement:

Buy it, it's worth it! Tell your friends.

That piracy rate also means that the game is great, I mean a game that does not sell well and is not even pirated is a real failure...
I'm sure that piracy made some people discover this great game too, p2p, boards etc... are very good communication tools.
Maybe if the game had been released world-wide the same day, piracy level would have been lower. When you're in a country in witch games are oftenly released months after the first release and you want to play the game, it can be hard to wait. Ok it was possible to buy WoG using paypal since the first day but you have to know it. It's was not on download platform nor in stores.
Maybe officialy release a World of Goo demo on P2P networks a few days before game release (emule, popular torrent trackers etc...) with a explicit message describing the different ways to buy the game should have helped sales.

Anyway, several people on this board have discovered this game with piracy and bought it after, all people that download games this way aren't heartless players... As long as the sales are good ^^

The more important is that the game has been awarded, lot of magazines talked about it, it have very good rates, very good feedback from players etc... For the first game from 2DBoy, this is a success !

[quote author=Boudin link=topic=1064.msg7423#msg7423 date=1229605716]
Anyway, several people on this board have discovered this game with piracy and bought it after, all people that download games this way aren't heartless players... As long as the sales are good ^^


It's funny how every person who confesses to pirating the game on these forums hastily adds that they bought the game afterwards though, isn't it? I'm betting there's a lot of BS going round...

I guess there are many people out there who do not consider 2D games to be "real" games which are worth buying...

Even sonic games are 3D now, which sucks, especially when the camera decides to show you sonic's face after going around a corner, which usually means you're gonna fall, be squished, or just get a kick into your nuts by an enemy behind, or rather, "directly in front of" you.

Btw. I would have done it too - copying and then buying. If the friend who showed it to me wasn't using a mac. I'm still waiting for a linux release btw.. I have only played the win demo in wine ...
but as soon as the linux version is out I'm going to buy it.

[quote author=Tair link=topic=1064.msg7432#msg7432 date=1229611394]
[quote author=Boudin link=topic=1064.msg7423#msg7423 date=1229605716]
Anyway, several people on this board have discovered this game with piracy and bought it after, all people that download games this way aren't heartless players... As long as the sales are good ^^


It's funny how every person who confesses to pirating the game on these forums hastily adds that they bought the game afterwards though, isn't it? I'm betting there's a lot of BS going round...


BS : What does this mean ? (sorry, my english is not very good)

I blindly bought World of Goo because it was only available on preview for pre-orders back then, if I would have been able to illegaly download the preview, I think I would have done it, and surely bought the game after.
I don't see why someone would come on the official forum just to say he bought the game after play a pirated version if it was not the case.

[quote author=Boudin link=topic=1064.msg7436#msg7436 date=1229616053]
[quote author=Tair link=topic=1064.msg7432#msg7432 date=1229611394]
[quote author=Boudin link=topic=1064.msg7423#msg7423 date=1229605716]
Anyway, several people on this board have discovered this game with piracy and bought it after, all people that download games this way aren't heartless players... As long as the sales are good ^^


It's funny how every person who confesses to pirating the game on these forums hastily adds that they bought the game afterwards though, isn't it? I'm betting there's a lot of BS going round...


BS : What does this mean ? (sorry, my english is not very good)

I blindly bought World of Goo because it was only available on preview for pre-orders back then, if I would have been able to illegaly download the preview, I think I would have done it, and surely bought the game after.
I don't see why someone would come on the official forum just to say he bought the game after play a pirated version if it was not the case.



BS = bullshit.

And the only reason all these pirates are saying they 'bought the game after' is because these are the official forums designed for fans of the game! If people just came on here saying they'd pirated it and NOT bought it afterwards, can you imagine the upset it would cause on the forums?

I just think a guy that have pirated the game don't talk about it at all.
Studies about piracy tends to say that the people that are buying DVD, movies in VOD, games are the same that are downloading and pirating.
I found this a little hypocritical to say there is those who are buying everything and those who are downloading everything. Most of people do both

Actually, no. I have pirated the game, AND I've bought the game.



I know it's not exactly proof of purchase whitened out like that, but I'm not exactly at a trial here. It's probably enough info to hunt me down and kill me, but such are the intarwebs.

Truth be told, most people who will come to a forum like this and contribute to a discussion about piracy and ADMIT they pirated it, will have pirated it. And those who then say they also bought it WILL have bought it.

Why? Why should they contribute to such a discussion and lie about their motivation? There's no conspiracy -- there's no point in lying about something like that just to take part in a discussion.

The vast majority of those who pirated it and DIDN'T buy it either won't say they pirated it or not join the OFFICIAL discussion forum in the first place.

The point is, if you come to the official forum and have pirated the game and not bought it, you won't say you pirated it in the first place, because there's no sane reason to. It's not about manners, it's about self-preservation -- why confess when you have no reason to?

The only reason I confess to having pirated it (in the passive sense -- downloaded a copy without owning the rights), is that I bought the game afterwards and wanted to make a point about it.

Not only did I buy the game after playing it, but after FINISHING it. Why? Quality.

Not every pirate saying they eventually bought the game is lying. Most probably aren't. Pirates aren't evil mutants living in the sewers, they're ordinary people. Heck, most probably don't even know they're pirates -- mommies and daddies sharing funny software at work probably don't know they're pirating, just like they don't know they're infringing other people's copyrights when they post a funny picture they found on Google.