http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13563

yeah - that was good.

one of the best sessions

http://saunderslog.com/2008/08/20/taking-squawkbox-to-a-new-level/

Nice session Alec, thanks for this experience, my first Calliflower one. :)

Good call today Alec

If you have the energy, engaging your game's fans is the best route to educate and convert to paying customers.

Why are Pirates called Pirates?<br/><br/>Because they ARRRRRH!

what % of these pirates actually end up playing your games or are you just merchandise to move

what about games that verify themselves on the internet before runing

or do realize they are not your customers

asking a pirate for mercy is like asking them to pour gas on you and toss ya a match

Generally I would steer clear of products with DRM - it introduces a higher level of complexity and stuff to go wrong!

That link to Slashdot gives me: Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

ciao!

Hasta!

My former boss Bobby Kotick is doing quite well

I'll try to do so more often Alec

Not all hackers do bad things for example look at the hack that uncovered government documents that disclosed the real age of the Chinese women's gymnastics team<br/><br/>http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/20/1259253<br/><br/>

thank you for coming back Ken!

I have to drop off. Have a conference call in a few and need to get coffee. Nice to be able to join in here again this morning.

I think I could live with WoW's diminished revenues

And the challenge of a locked iPhone - too tempting to resist

William, brings up a good point, what about going subscription based? while WoW has been exploited in various ways with hacks and virtual servers its pretty isolated

those a re brutal Jim

what about going to an online game model where purchase is a subscrition to play

Branching out on this issue, Dan York reports from SpeechTEK: At #SpeechTEK, Kevin Mitnick is demonstrating the incredibly scary databases out on the Internet for finding personal info like SSN's.

theres a huge status and ego side of the scene

thanks Nick!

Olympic sport - now there is an idea!

and you get status in uploading

Many apologies, but I have to leave for a noon appointment. If anyone has any good or bad comments re MyChoiceBot, pls don't hesitate to contact me: nickd@choicebot.com . Cheers.

which begs the question, what is this pirate scene all about really, defeating games protection schemes, and moving files, moving newness

there you go James

absolutely, everything gets cracked

So - crap games get hacked?

heh

(web based iPhone game we did)

Like "Pigs A Popin"

there are a lot of titles doing thousands of sales per month

Of course - HACKING/CRACKING is *BAD*

our ROI on iPhone games, based on our sales, is a matter of a few months

never too late to deliver a great experience

The fact that some individuals WANT to go to all the hassle of hacking a game is a sign of success - if the game was rubbish then no-one would be willing to put in the effort of hacking it

gold rush is right :)

and yet it make DOS a household name

like XBox live arcade

yep

Remember how Gates became paranoid about software thief

not sure either is better as both fail to support your income needs

cliff are you considering getting into iphone games, or platform environments that affectively protect you against pirates?

hammer vs screwdriver James. If you're out to make a living, both of those fail as a business model

Which would you say is better - to have the fruits of your labour cracked/hacked and distributed - or to be totally ignored!

Very hard to get into retail

Thanks Alec. I hadn't realized Cliff probably can't see the wall.

or digital objects

or go expansion pack model

limited time of play

in their PC titles

BigFish has this nailed

but you can do ONE-LEVEL lite versions

i hate time limiters on software, expire in 14 days, it should be instance wise, if i use this app 5 times or something

Apple will NOT allow time-limited versions of games in the app store

the article on Labernith ... 80k downloads of the "one level" version in a day and therefore sales of the main version

plus imagine the number of games out there...if joey wants 50 titles a month...how much is the value in that?

tons of 'lite' versions of games on iTunes

major titles get kids begging mommy and daddy whereas the others ones are harder to justify

need a taste, now theres something i iphone app store needs, a taste of what the app is vs actually buying it :P

hehehe ; nice Frank

13-28 the least able to afford such a thing

still, major titles like Bioshock etc. do quite well

Excuse me I'm off to McDonald's to steal my lunch

Is making a living writing games like you do Cliff, as a solo guy, somewhat akin to making a living writing shareware ten years ago? It seems an exercise in trust knowing that your trust will often be violated?

I'm not sure they're so resentful as they simply can't afford it. Look at the demographic

hence the move to online gaming ... STEAM etc.

i've been curious at zero day warez people, most of which just seem to be into the art of moving files, fresh new file fast, vs actually playing the games they pirate and distrubute

but much of this is "because we can"

and the comments in the blog on quality are spot on

in a way

stealing is stealing

yep

sounds like they are really ripping off "The Man"

yeah - but Cliff is an independent who just cranks out games and makes a living from them

4 or 5 titles are all the sales

The PC Game Market is pretty awful, if not for co's like PopCap and BigFish selling casual games online, it would be in decline. It's sort of World Of Warcraft and everything else

it would be interesting to comb through the comments and create some personas of pirates

anti DRM, copy right, the man, the organization etc

yep

you continue to surprise Mr. Volk!

I started in the biz in '79 at Avalon Hill

I recall the first BBS discussion of this nature was between the Wizardry folks and the pirates in 1981 or so

n/p

Tnx

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/10/1553224

surprising no one has done that really

Got a link to SlashDot article?

and...further look at the age of them and the cost of games. Most of the kids can't afford as much as adults could...and yeah mom and dad supply but again it's a challenge

1988 to 1994. Best selling title: The Return to Zork

nice blog post he had there, 230+ comments

want to see whether they can