Quote from bbman :

And therefore has a piracy rate of about 90 %...

http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/

did you even read that text?

>preventing 1000 piracy attempts results in only a single additional sale

>people who pirate our game aren’t people who would have purchased it had they not been able to get it without paying

>in our case, we might have even converted more than 1 in a 1000 pirates into legit purchases.

>either way, ricochet shipped with DRM, world of goo shipped without it, and there seems to be no difference in the outcomes.

>i’m hoping that others will release information about piracy rates so that everyone could see if DRM is the waste of time and money that we think it is.



if anything that number shows that both people who download cracked copies and crackers are getting dumber and cant figure out how to disable the call home features

Quote from Shotglass :

if anything that number shows that both people who download cracked copies and crackers are getting dumber and cant figure out how to disable the call home features

Indeed. Anyone who downloads a pirated game then lets it connect to the developer's server to submit a high score is an idiot. I certainly didn't.

j/k, I haven't even played the demo yet.

liked the game... quite frustrating at some points but fun nonetheless.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

It's ok to rip off big companies such as Bestheda and the like, but nooo, it's not for a crappy little game that probbably took 1/18th of the effort.

I know what you mean, but it's still simply harder for me to justify pirating a smaller indie game than something that I know is going to sell millions. For me the bigger (more popular) the title, the less of a problem I tend to have with piracy in that instance- doesn't matter whether it's a crappy clone or a masterpiece, or whether they've upset gamers with DRM or not- I usually feel ok about it (never justified, but ok) because the company is obviously shifting units.

I played the World of Goo demo last night. Does seem fun. A little like Bridge builder, but gooey.

Maybe what I meant came out wrong.

I mean it's not ok to crack smaller companies, but the big ones don't really care since they put no copy protection on their games, and they're often shit anyway. (or if they do, it's piss easy to crack)

Take COD5 - 5 hours gameplay anyone?

On the subject of fun physics games, Crazy Machines 2 is one of the better ones I've come across in a while. It follows in the spirit of The Incredible Machine games and Armadillo Run. Seems to have all the right ingredients- lots of objects, lots of levels, a level editor, sensible difficulty curve (the later levels are apparently quite tough) and very good physics. Reviews tend to bag the graphics but I think they're well done, plenty of nice detail throughout... and watching a complex contraption go through its paces is great fun.



This game takes me back a bit (The Incredible Machine was excellent) and it's making me think. There's a demo over here, which includes some bonus PhysX levels which revolve around water, as well as the opening tutorial levels.

There are a couple of niggles throughout but so far I'm having a blast

Quote from Electrik Kar :

a post

Thanks for the tip! I loved Armadillo run and The Incredible machine. Downloading the demo, from the video it looks like quite much fun.

Wow, Incredible Machines style game in 3d! I've still got the original game somewhere, unfortunately could never get it to work on recent machines. It was also installed on some PC's at high school, so wasted a fair few IT lessons on that.

Thanks Kar, I shall be trying this new one out.

Amidst the collapse. It was heaving under its own weight, shaking at places!

Did get to 38m but it was collapsing before i could press print screen.

So here it is at 36.95

Quote from Electrik Kar :

snip

Thanks EK, this is really cool. I spent many many hours on the original TIM back in the day, this brings back good memories, and it's done very well too. Great stuff

I downloaded the demo the other day and completed it yesterday. It's so intuitive to use and I started to feel for the goo balls. Whenever they were falling or I thought something bad might happen I was wincing or closing my eyes. When I completed the level I felt serious achievement. Just bought a license for the full game, download it now.

Quote from MR_B :

Amidst the collapse. It was heaving under its own weight, shaking at places!

Did get to 38m but it was collapsing before i could press print screen.

So here it is at 36.95

Your mistake there is using triangles, you need to make squares, they are much more stable. Anyone else just notice that the worlds tallest tower just fell over?

This is my tower, not the best in the world obviously, and I do need a few more Goo Balls.

Quote from Electrik Kar :

On the subject of fun physics games, Crazy Machines 2 is one of the better ones I've come across in a while.

I'd tried that after seeing advertised on SRT. Personally I was expecting a little more, it's a bit clunky lacking the smoothness and intuitiveness which made TIM so fun to play (though I played that so many years ago I have just the faintest memory of it).

OTOH World of Goo is quite neat, much better than the original Tower of Goo which I didn't like mostly because it lacked the puzzle side of it.

Yep, it's a little bit clunky- (example) getting the cardon shafts into place is really fiddly. Apart from some of those small issues though, it's really a fine game. I'd almost say it's been the best game I've played all year.

I went & bought the full game & now im stuck on chapter 3.

I got the iPhone version of it, I love it and worth the money =)

Heads up for the non-believers, World of Goo on sale on Steam. 75% off!

yeah, its only 5€ there.

Too bad I hate Steam! But I could install it just for that

Nothing wrong with steam its a good way to collect games IMO!

Just purchased it and cant say im a big fan although my GF seems to enjoy it so not a complete waste of money!

Quote from Becky Rose :

The 90% is pretty much a guess looking at how they arrived at it, but that figure does not suprise me. However most of those pirated copies are not lost sales. For a company arguing against DRM they're sure giving the conglomerates all the justification they need to carry on implementing it, frustratingly.

The figures are not that bad imho, depends on how you look at them.

90% piracy is 10% conversion rate. In my mind and from experience selling software in the past that is a GREAT attach rate.

I have come round to thinking of piracy as free advertising now. Not a popular theory though

If you use direct mail for example you get 1% conversion is you are lucky on a good campaign, anything above 1% is a HUGH sucess. (Figures from Institute of Direct Marketing)

Email is far far worse and online advert blocking is becoming more common as firefox gains more ground so online adds are getting worse as time goes on. Just look at the word of mouth that has got World Of Goo sales in this thread.

There are people that just do not buy stuff. Just the way it is and no DRM will change that. Pirates do tell others though which might buy so it is just free advertising on a product that costs you $0 to distribute to the pirates. This way you gain indirectly from the pirates.

10% is double the conversion rate that Radiohead and NIN reported on their recent dabbles in online distribution both which made them good coin.

As you point out, not every download or pirated copy is a lost sale

finished the demo a while ago on PC. Enjoyed it haven't gotten around to getting the full game. It's out on Wii too i believe

Quote from sil3ntwar :

Nothing wrong with steam its a good way to collect games IMO!

I don't like intermediators, the LFS way is better, I pay they got the money the only intermediate step are the banks (they're nasty enough already) - and I don't have to install another useless program on my PC.

Quote from Woz :

I have come round to thinking of piracy as free advertising now. Not a popular theory though

Not among rich people who want money for nothing and chicks for free, indeed

Quote from NightShift :

Not among rich people who want money for nothing and chicks for free, indeed

Rotf

Quote from spankmeyer :

Heads up for the non-believers, World of Goo on sale on Steam. 75% off!

I almost purchased it. The only problem is every penny I have here is already going to be used for something.

Maybe some time I'll get this game, meanwhile I'll stick to the demo, which I haven't finished yet