Re: RJ113419 - Dungeons and Prisoners
A critical factor on piracy is really convenience. If something is much easier to obtain via pirating, you bet the piracy rate would be much higher then if the purchase option is easy to use.
Hell, often times the pirated version is better then the official version, via say translation / subtitles and a faster release, it's no wonder piracy is so popular. When something is free, more accessible and/or with better features, it's only natural for things to end up that way. The question is then how to resolve that conflict between consumers and producers.
itune, steam and the like has done far more to combat piracy rate then lawsuits and walls. The lesson there is that tactics and distribution design focusing around convenience and accessibility is the optimal way to combat piracy to date.
^ One philosophy focuses on the consumer, and facts will show you that it beats a producer focus every time.
Tactics revolving around walling almost never work, and in fact hurt the product itself. Example: Atrocious DRM? Nope, it will both hurt your product sales (hi ubisoft!), harm your reputation (hi again ubisoft!) and will still get pirated. Take that to it's extreme and you get things like forced-online only stuff like Diablo 3, with all sorts of obvious and hidden cost that came with it (Not worth it, I'm sure Jay agrees secretly).
How would all this this apply to an indie developer listing his hard work on japanese DLsite? Admittedly this is quite a complex and far from simple question. Indie developers hardly have much resource to spend on the subject. There are a few "better then nothing" step to take though that will lower piracy rate and perhaps expand the audience:
1. simultaneous English DLsite and Jap DLsite release. Timing is part of accessibility!
1a. Of course, you need to release your work on English DLsite.
1b. I'll note that some credit cards for some reason don't work on Jap DLsite. I did some quick searches and it's a somewhat common occurrence that foreign credit cards sometimes don't work on Japanese sites (particularly ones with 3 security digits on the back). I haven't found a good explanation as to why yet and it doesn't happen to everyone (which makes it harder to pinpoint). This hurts sales, I know for myself I >Can't< buy games on Jap DLsite because they won't take my cards.
2. Work with volunteer translator to release an english version. If your work is good enough, there will be volunteers. Again, if this can be done along with simultaneous release it would be great. Note: A bad translation is far better then no translation (erotical night). Remember - Accessibility!
3. Openness > Closed in. Open up and get in touch with your potential community wherever they may be, you don't have to constantly stay in touch and maintain things, just drop by all the major congregation point now and share your thoughts. This alone would lower piracy rate by a bit. Build a connection with your fans and you're find more of them wanting to support you.
4. Some form of light DRM is okay, but ONLY if it doesn't damage accessibility and make consumer jump over hoops. It may sound contradicting but well designed light DRM pairs well with games with good accessibility and convenience. Simple CD-key system used by many indie developers aren't even closed to fool-proof, but goes some way of lowering piracy rate. CD-key system has come a long way today from that days where a simple keygen will kill it. Soldak entertainment and Illwinter for example are 1 man indie developers who used non-intrusion consumer oriented DRMs (you won't even notice after the 1st CD key prompt).
Accessibility and convenience include such thing as:
a) How easy is it to obtain the game.
b) The timing of obtaining the game. (JAP DLsite release earlier then Eng DLsite? no no)
c) The language accessibility of the game.
What others said before about wider audience and exposure definitely applies, closing your product in and limiting its exposure is definitely a lose-lose scenario.
Lastly, I glossed over a lot of details and exceptions blah blah blah. It's already a TL;DR monster so I'll stop here.
