Re: Agent Alona (Combin Ation Game)
Incoming rant about piracy. But firstly, full disclosure: I have written some of the text for various scenes in this game, but have not received anything in return. It was entirely voluntary. I have also pre-ordered this game, so am one of the individuals waiting for the full release to be emailed out.
not to be a total cynic, but I'm pretty sure the reason preorder drm free copies aren't out yet is because the author doesn't trust is his audience and wants to wait until his dsite drm version hits whatever sales numbers that satisfy him first. This is like EA levels of scumbag. But I'm pretty sure that's not the case here.
Given that previous releases that he gave out to those who preordered were leaked online it isn't exactly a pointless exercise on his part. This is the game developer's primary job at the minute and given that this has taken the better part of a year to produce it is necessary to ensure that enough money is earned to cover living costs as well as turn a profit on the time invested in the production.
As someone who has pre-ordered the game I am slightly upset that we didn't receive the game at the same time as the commercial release. But when you look at it critically we received monthly updates via email. We have already gotten to play what I estimate to be 80% of the game before anyone else. Waiting a short period of time to guarantee that no one else shares the work and threatens the future of this small developer makes perfect sense.
What you have to realise is that a comparison to EA doesn't work. This developer doesn't operate a multi-million pound budget. The developer's games are advertised to a much smaller market share, they don't receive any console support. Unlike EA who can sustain the release of a bad game and live off cash reserves from hundreds of other titles, this developer is small time. Piracy hurts him disproportionately more than it does to a leviathan like EA.
and he is right...
we just need to hope that 1 of the 300+ people who got the game will upload their DRM free & uncensored version here so we can all enjoy it.
When a crime is committed you can't simply ignore the context. Stealing £20 from someone is bad. If they're a multi-millionaire they won't likely miss it though.
If you steal from a poor person though £20 can be a week's groceries.
Why should someone enjoy, for free, a game that the developer poured their sweat and blood into? A game that 300+ Patreons and others paid money in advance to help fund when they have contributed nothing.
For a game like Skyrim or a triple A title a leech is a nusiance, but the impacts are minor. When it comes to small time games leeches can destroy the company and prevent future games from being produced and kill off further investment in the industry.
in terms of patreon-maker trust, he's worse than Akabur...
Once again, trust has already been broken by some individuals leaking the game to those that hadn't paid. This threatens the future of this game developer from producing more games.
