“The RPS Electronic Wireless Show — no longer sounding as if recorded inside a metal box”

“The RPS Electronic Wireless Show — now with no Skype-distorted C3PO-like voices”

I grump because I love ;-)

This one was great, thanks!

And the podcast was entertaining (and possibly even informative), as usual.

I’ve been playing Mafia for the first time this week and I can’t really see why it is praised so highly. Ok, the story and acting are above average (although there are some big plot holes — WHY would Morello’s men go into Salieri’s bar when pursuing Tommy in the second mission?), but it has plenty of gameplay defects that make it too randomly punishing — which is then compounded by the inability to save the game except at prefixed points.

And don’t get me started on the race mission. What were they thinking?

Good points though.

1. Say that piracy exists, you accept it, and you’re not going to pursue it or make a big deal of it, do this without whining, just make it a statement, this way it knocks the cool factor down a number of rungs.

2. State that you have no problem with people using piracy as a try-before-you-buy method, considering that it can act as a good demo, this is especially true with higher-price-point games. Just point out that you’d appreciate it if they bought the game your team has made if they did like it.

3. Keep the game at an impulse-buy price-point, this helps fight piracy. Now, I could (and did) make an impulse buy of Zeno Clash between the £5-10 price point, but if the price is much higher than that, and the game is reported to be very, very short (Braid?) then it may fall more in the try-before-you-buy region.

4. If you can’t keep your game at a lower sales point, remember that sales and good support help, keep offering little tidbits Valve-style that a pirating group couldn’t keep up with providing, and every now and then drop the price of the game to an impulse buy point, and advertise it, that way you get sales from people who might not have thought it was worth the full price.

The thing is, if you want to deal with piracy then you have to deal with why people pirate, not try to combat that they do pirate. ACE team have taken a few steps towards this, but there’s still more they could do to work around the pirate condition. In a situation like this, you have to show people why they should do something, along with who their real friends and enemies are.

As it stands, this is coming from someone who has had experience with piracy, but stands by the: If I try it and like it then I’ll buy it. I’ve never pirated an indie game though, I prefer giving some money to the little people, they deserve it more in my opinion. 2DBoy deserves 10-15 quid more than say… Rockstar.

But I digress.

So in my case, I pre-ordered Zeno Clash (the D2D deal, as I’ve thrown too much money at Valve already). It was in the impulse-buy range and I wanted to support ACE team who looked like they were doing something brilliantly different (and they were, so, so different). My hunch was right, and I loved Zeno Clash so much that I played it over again. It’s beautiful in its own strange, strange way.

Note to companies, who you don’t want to be: Cliffski. There are ways to combat the pirate mindset, and there are ways not to. Making yourself seem like an enemy to your potential audience is the worst possible thing you do, Cliffski’s posts on his pirated games were a reason to visit PirateBay for a while, they were a spectacle that a number of people found amusing, and he didn’t endear himself to anyone.

One thing to remember is that often, a pirate will be someone flat broke who’s looking for the best way to spend their money, this is doubly true in this bloody recession. A pirate might be someone with 40 quid who downloads a few games and throws whatever money he has at the best of them.

To sell games: Make good/interesting games and make friends.