What is Digg?11 Comments
- AussieScribe, on 08/14/2008, -0/+5Kudos to Cliff Harris of Positech.co.uk for starting this dialogue and responding to the feedback he received.
- vdog, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3I've been saying a similar thing for years. If you look at piracy as a business model, it makes you wonder why anyone would buy a game legit at all.
Why pay $100 (games are expensive in my country) for something that limits how you use it, or smacks you over the head about not pirating it every time you play (I'm looking at you, DVD), when you can get an unfettered version for free?
I'm not condoning piracy, I'm simply saying that the consumer is asking 'why should I pay more for your product?' What can you tell them?
Try offering them things based around networking, (communities, match making, auto updates, new content), loyalty rewards, and/or tangible goods- things the pirates can't offer.
this is why Steam is such a success, sure it still has DRM, but it actually offers you things for you money above and beyond what the pirates can do. - Kethinov, on 08/14/2008, -0/+3I am disappointed Cliff didn't address any of the points in the message I wrote him. Here's what I said:
"Piracy is the inevitable consequence of the consumer cost business model being obsolete as it applies to all economically abundant goods. Your goods are economically abundant because the cost of redistribution is zero. Any consumer cost is merely the practice of artificial scarcity, which is economically unsustainable.
The solution to your problem is not to stop piracy but compete against it. If you allow unrestricted free redistribution of your software and find a way to monetize it in other ways such as subscription services or advertising, you will no longer have to worry about piracy.
If you ignore the problem and continue to practice artificial scarcity, your problem will continue get worse. As the markets for digital content continue to saturate, prices are rapidly falling. Since these goods are economically abundant, prices will fall until they reach free. If you do not confront this issue now and modernize your business model, you will be competed out of existence. It may take decades, but it will happen.
I hope that was helpful. :)
Eric Newport
(a fellow software developer.)"
Nevertheless, I'm glad he got something out of it whether he chose to reply to my points or not. :) - Polycount, on 08/14/2008, -0/+2"Your goods are economically abundant because the cost of redistribution is zero. "
=>
You don't take into account other factors that affect the price. For example the DEVELOPMENT costs. Distributing the game is not the only element in the channel. - Kethinov, on 08/15/2008, -0/+2That is irrelevant. Development cost doesn't change the fact that the good is economically abundant.
That said, as I said, there are ways to monetize digital media without a consumer cost. If software vendors continue to ignore this, then in the years to come either their competition will adopt the better business model first, or piracy will run them into the ground. - Fallout911, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2I do it because I like free stuff and won't get caught. I'd do the same with anything if I knew I'd get away with it.
- MrValdez, on 08/17/2008, -0/+2I disagree with you but I'm still going to digg you up since you put up a good point.
But since I disagree with you, I have to ask: there are a lot of free stuff on the Internet which the developers are willingly giving out as free.
Why do you have to steal when you know its wrong? when you know there are similar products which are free out there? If you respect the developer, would you buy the product? - Kethinov, on 08/22/2008, -0/+1EntropyFan, that is precisely the opposite of what I'm saying. Read my post again.
- Fallout911, on 08/17/2008, -0/+1I buy plenty of games I just can't afford ALL the ones I want to play.
So the really good ones get my cash and the "Meh" ones get the burn. - EntropyFan, on 08/16/2008, -0/+1Kethinov
Interesting. You are then advocating making these goods, namely worth while games, economically non-abundant. In your words, that is the only way developers can make a profit on them.
This can be achieved in 2 ways:
1- DRM.
2- Having developers stop making good games, because they are getting riped off and it isn't worth the effort and expense to make them.
Sadly, #1 has proved too problematic to do using current methods.
So in your future, we either have incredibly strict DRM that enforces non-abundance, or only ***** games. - TBK50, on 08/14/2008, -0/+1I'm really glad some dev came out and did this, it should have been done long before and I'm glad at least someone is seeing this. I'm buying one of his games just to support this type of practice, I've always said if the game is actually good I'll buy it, there's no excuse for making crappy games then blaming piracy on poor sales.
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