LOL

Question; How can Galciv been pirated if noo one can get it yet...unless it was an insider job?

Hopefully everyone who downloads it realizes that it's (probably, I hope LOL) worth the money to buy it. Especially with all the stuff planned for the future.

Pirating is way overrated. Part of what businesses don't understand (they refuse to stand it anyway) is that they believe everyone who pirates the same could have bought it (and this is very false).

Pirating is only bad when the product is bad or when the product is not launched in difference parts of the world on the same day. If the game is released in North America first, that gives a really good reason for anyone in Europe to download it (seeing as they may have to wait 3 months and they probably think pirating is the answer because the publisher overlooked them - that makes them look less important). This is just bad for sales and does a really poor job in building a solid and loyal customer base.

If the product sucks, people will pirate to see if they like despite the bad reviews because this gives them the oppurtunity to get as much fun out of the game before it becomes boring (very often it does if the game is really bad) or they just delete the game 5 minutes after they first installed it. It's hard to say that in any of these cases that you would have had made a successful sale anyway.

Then all you have left is the buyer who 'would have purchased' but downloading it off emule or an ftp site was just more convienent. Well, Stardock has done a good job to influence this crowd as well. It won't get all of them, but it will get some (in the same Blizzard gets people to buy starcraft, diablo and warcraft).

There are a lot of people that download a game, only to delete it a day later. This happens so many times around the world that it's very hard to justify these lack of sales. To be honest, if pirating wasn't available at all, I doubt you'd see a major increase in valid purchases of the title as opposed to a world with pirating.

There are also some cases where pirating works to your advantage. For instance, many people probably downloaded Warcraft III to play the single player and then loved the game so much (and had the largest urge) to go buy the game just to play the multiplayer. So if your product is good and possess high quality, you really don't have a lot to worry about because if you have that service oriented, value-add on top of the original product, you will get this free advertising and get more sales. I'm sure blizzard can tell you all about this.

That's what I have to say about pirating.

In the end, it's the unintelligent, unmotivated game developers that make late, bugged and terribly designed products that end up complaining about pirating the most. I guess if you can't blame it on your poor business mode, crappy game designers and unschooled software engineers, you might as well blame the element that no one can argue against (with the proper facts anyway).

Personally, these organizations need to take some responsibility for their own mistakes, find some real leadership and then make a quality game. If they spend time on doing those things rather than the 13 year old pirates, they might just succeed financially and can be mature enough as an organization to be concerned with more englightening things.

business mode = business model. Sorry about that.

I actually like Brads attitude about priacy

Question?

How are you going to be able to block a CD from getting bonus material update? Unless you lock out a certain cd-key, etc. - most folks will be able to have a workaround for "bonus packs" in a relatively short amount of time.

No offense, but I think resources are better spent elsewhere than trying to lock out cheaters. I have yet to find a game (single-player), that has any kind of effective anti-piracy measure.

The BonusPak installs directly into the game, no download file.. so its kinda hard to pirate

This happens to every game on the market, so it's not really a surprise.

GC has a different style of distribution designed specifically to discourage pirating (as opposed to eliminating), so this is something they've planned for.

>>The BonusPak installs directly into the game, no download file.. so its kinda hard to pirate

Ok, so someone with a legitmate copy of the game hijinks the needed files - and tosses them online. I'm not here trying to poopoo on anyones parade but cmon now.

Sure. You can pirate anything. But you cannot steal what does not exist. The BonusPak isn't done yet. Heck, I think we've had 4 builds today alone.

But the game recives constant updates, they will need to put out a new pirated version every time there is an update.. Patches works the same way as the BonusPak, so it will be quite inconveniant..

Unfortunitely there will always be some smart arse who will find a way to pirate a piece of software. With these pirated offerings only being Beta 5, hopefully anyone who gets them will get the feeling that the game is incomplete and will visit here to find out they've been ripped off and that the Release version is so much more than they have - and will buy it through the proper channels. LOL

I suppose you could take the point of view that the pirated versions could almost be like unoffical demos - thus generating legitimate sales. :notsure:

Well, thats my 5c worth.

Hmm...how about adding an option to that "how did you hear about GalCiv" poll to the left on the page? I mean, why not? It would surely be interesting to see if anyone votes "Saw it on a FTP" or something.

This is not a joke but a serious suggestion.

It might give people ideas.

Haven't read the entire thread but since the game is still not released and the cds are beeing made it means that the copy has been received by someone from stardock!!! Sorry but the other way is the servers of stardock to have been accessed and the game downloaded which sounds somehow ridiculos. On apolayton the persone who informed about the pirated version also said that it has the bonuses included and as brad claims they are not yet ready, something is selling stardock's products !!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I would like to add that most of the crackers come from poor countries where games come at a high price.

Odegard: I asked Frogboy that when the poll first showed up, he said that he could only add a maximum of 6 diffrent choices unfortunatly.

BulMaster.
don't jump to conclusions.
If the version is from beta anyone who pre-ordered while the beta was up had access to this code.
The fact that they say that the bonus pack is included is just false as it is not complete yet.
Also when CD's are made this introduces a whole chain of possible pirates.

Anyone in the beta test program that has a DSL link and no personal firewall (at least the level of Norton's Personal Firewall) could be exposed to hackers getting it from them without their knowledge.


~SDC~

unlikely :/ Even then, more and more people are running xp and they don't even know it comes with a firewall already turned on.

I didn't know that. but I only have ME. It was not DSL ready when I got it. Besides, the lessons of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express can't be ignored.

~SDC~

Listen to yourselves... Hackers braking in to your computer to steal a beta? No, face the facts, someone spread the latest version. My guess?
1)has gamesdomain/gamespot/.. recieved a copy to review?
2)someone who works with the distributor let it leak...

Anyway, that doesn't really matter, cause if they wouldn't have spread it, it would have been available the 27th on the IRC channels...
The only thing you can hope for is that people who downloaded the game non-legitimate like it so much that they want the updates ... and pay.