Sugestion regarding piracy

[superluser]

You can also make the counterargument that finding bugs in pirated copies helps make the paid copies more stable, as well. It's not a particularly strong argument, but it is an argument.

Ok, so why don't you make some game that you want to sell and me + my 10000 friends will find bugs for you, but you give us a free copy first, deal? Or better yet why not ask the FG devs why they did not do just that?

Funny. I'm looking forward to using the dev tools to do just that. I am not making this argument (because I think it is a weak argument) but others are taking up its torch. You will want to discuss this particular point with them, not me.

The chilling effect that comes when you have the cool forum members who have bought all Frictional's games, and then the social rejects who only liked Penumbra and decided not to go for Amnesia (or vice versa), and the fact that it is immediately identifiable which group someone is in at all times beside every message.

You keep pressing with this, i'll reiterate: I don't care if someone liked Penumbra but not Amnesia, or the other way around, if they did not pirate the game they can talk until their keyboards break. This has nothing to do anything, better yet, make that icon viewable only by moderators/devs, and new tech threads by pirates get silenced or don't get any dev attention ( until a valid key is aquired anyway ).

OK. Cool. I withdraw my chilling effect criticism.

BTW, could you please read this: http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2010...nesia.html and then comment this there:

Dear FG devs, it does not matter that plenty of users did not buy the game and yet they play it, just think about all the FREE bug reports as well as solutions that could have otherwise cost you thousands of dollars just to solve for one customer with an unique problem.

I'm sure they'll be thrilled that you opened they eyes.

I have read that, and I see Frictional taking some time out to reflect on the pirates, exasperated that there were so many of them. What I do not see is a condemnation of pirates. It's a difficult line to walk--these people are future customers, and while you want to shout at them and tell them that what they are doing is wrong, these people now take a freeloader mentality and that sort of hard line attitude will just ensure that they never buy your game. It sucks, and it's an inherent paradox, but that's life.