Comment by jusben1369 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jusben1369 | Hacker News Reader

Brilliant. Really enjoyed this. Also enjoying this lively thread.

There's an awful lot of strange rationalization going on in the comment. For those of you who point out "Hey a lot of those pirated people aren't going to pay anyways!" here's a sobering fact. If just 7% of those pirated copies were paid this developer would have DOUBLED first day sales. Could be the difference between getting to work on their dream, hiring another dev, or calling quits on the whole thing. 7%

I have a hard time believing 10% of those pirates are not just cheap, lazy folks who - per the irony of the comments - are the first to squawk if they ever feel short changed in life "The steal because it's easy" is a great way to encourage draconian measures. I'd be a little more fired up if we were inclined to self police than rationalize away.

I want to respectfully disparage your statement. Doubling zero is zero. Doubling a small amount is likely still a small amount. They need to sell somewhere like 10k units to make this effort worth repeating, let alone a profit model. That means they better get working on getting this in the hands of 150k pirates.

7% of freeloaders is no small or easy task and compare time and energy trying to convert the sinful vs. pandering to the pious. Stop trying to fix culture or people and make a good product that makes life better and/or easier for paying customers.

This thread would be a fine place to enumerate the devs and studios that had success converting pirates to payers. That's a short list.

Given their platform, you would think progressive crippling of game play hits the correct balance of try before you buy and allowing for player investment to the point where they could be nudged in. Or, why not sell in-game DRM for $8?

I respect your argument and approach. "Stop trying to fix culture or people" I think our culture and people generally frown upon stealing given the ramifications it has for all of us if it becomes rampant. So I'm not trying to fix these folks - just point out that the ease with which these goods can be stolen creates this outcome where it gets too much of a free pass.

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