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I was coming here to say exactly this. It was just a slapstick rehash of a few of the funnier moments of the movie presented in a way that was not very funny.

about 10 hours ago on Amazon kills 'Zombieland' series, picks 'Betas' and 'Alpha House' for original programming 2 recommends

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Well, the problem becomes bigger when that 1 dollar is 1 million dollars, and the recipient is a drug cartel, terrorist, or other unsavory sort.

Oversight exists for this reason.

4 days ago on Biggest Bitcoin exchange accused of violating US financial regulations, CEO faces fine or jail 3 recommends

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This has to do with Mt Gox’s handling of USD, not BTC.
What they are concerned about is that a dollar I send to Mt Gox may end up in your bank account with no oversight.

4 days ago on Biggest Bitcoin exchange accused of violating US financial regulations, CEO faces fine or jail 1 reply 3 recommends

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I think this would only be a problem if you sold your children…

7 days ago on Supreme Court rules in favor of Monsanto, says farmer violated seed patents

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This seems like the right kinda move for MS.

12 days ago on Microsoft reportedly trying to buy Nook ebook ecosystem for $1 billion

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My phone supports Qi. This disappoints me.

What bothers me even more is that I can’t find a decent table comparing the features of these competing standards.

12 days ago on Did the future of wireless charging get decided by a coffee cup? 1 reply 1 recommend

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“EA will no longer officially pay gun makers for the right to depict weapons in games, all future payments will be made in a manila envelope dropped off at 8:42AM every Tuesday at the last stall of the public restroom at the Pub down the street.”

12 days ago on EA will no longer pay gun makers for the right to depict weapons in games 1 recommend

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This sounds like a match made in heaven. Disney and EA are going to do amazingly terrible things to the Star Wars franchise.

14 days ago on EA takes helm from LucasArts, will exclusively develop future 'Star Wars' games 5 recommends

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My friend asked me to install SnapChat. I declined, explaining I didn’t wanna see his junk.

17 days ago on Tears in rain: how Snapchat showed me the glory of data death 2 replies 4 recommends

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I can understand why they don’t name the employee… but not even mentioning that he’s been sacked for his behavior is an eyebrow raiser.

18 days ago on Employee creates Bitcoin botnet to exploit ESEA's 500,000-member gaming community

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I feel like this unnamed employee is a fabrication used as a fall guy to save face.

18 days ago on Employee creates Bitcoin botnet to exploit ESEA's 500,000-member gaming community 1 reply 3 recommends

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I’m saying that if the developer hadn’t posted it on TPB, nobody would know the game even existed. Those that downloaded the game from TPB did so because they had faith that something worth posting was worth downloading, and they downloaded and played it because it was there, NOT because they had any desire AT ALL to play that game specifically.

Arguing about intent and outcome is a pretty pointless adventure, especially when this specific example has been skewed in such a way where a legitimate release is made to look like piracy. The people who downloaded it thought it was a pirated game because the developer presented it in such a way that it looked like it. Had the developer honestly posted the game, the outcome would have been the same.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 2 recommends

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No, I’d bet that they totally thought that it was a pirated copy.

What I’m saying is that the wannabe pirates were blissfully ignorant of the games existence until it was posted by the developer on TPB. Had he not done so, the few hundred people who knew of the game’s existence and purchased it via their online store would have been the only people to EVER play the game.

The pirates did not know that the game existed before downloading and playing it. They did not actively seek out the game. The just saw another game on the new release page and downloaded it.
Typically speaking, games that are worth seeding are worth playing, so they downloaded them. This wasn’t the case in this scenario.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 2 recommends

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Yes, they likely did believe what was posted about the release was true. I’m saying they downloaded and played it because it was a new release on the pirate bay, not because they wanted to play the game. Prior to seeing the link on the “New Release” page, they had no prior knowledge about the game. I would bet that a great many people clicked the magnet link without so much as a google of the title to find out what kind of game it was.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 2 recommends

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Were they? Do you think that every single person who downloaded the game knew what the game was before they downloaded it? I am inclined to believe that the majority of people who downloaded it from TPB had NEVER heard of the game until it showed up on the “new releases” page, and downloaded and played it for that reason alone. Hadn’t it appeared there, they would have been blissfully ignorant of the game’s existence.

The developer released the game via TPB, thus giving his consent for distribution via that channel. If gamers got a version different than the one specifically made for torrent distribution, then they would have been pirating the game.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 1 recommend

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The developer consented to the release. How can it be piracy? You can’t steal something if it’s being given away.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply

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Yes, the developer tried to make it look like piracy. The developer framed the situation in a way where the poor indie dev got shafted by the mean ole pirates.

If I released a game in secret (serously, I can’t find any marketing material that pre-dates today’s events), but publicly shared it on THE largest torrent site on the internet, I would expect that the bulk of my downloads would come from the torrent site.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 3 recommends

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No, it is about marketing.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 3 recommends

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Yes, I agree… I’m puzzled why you bring it up, as this was not part of the discussion we were having.

This scenario isn’t about piracy. This is about a developer complaining about a manufactured scenario that they themselves created.

Piracy is a problem, and it needs to be addressed. This is NOT a case of piracy though.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 2 recommends

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No, they wouldn’t have. There are pages which specifically list new postings in various categories. Many bots will pick up and seed things automatically to support the community.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 3 recommends

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Furthermore, due to the games limited advertising efforts, it is highly unlikely that the warez community would have bothered to crack the game, or distribute it. The game would have ended its life in obscurity, unknown to all but a few hundred people who purchased the game.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 4 recommends

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I agree, it is very likely that the people who downloaded the game thought that it was a pirated copy of the game.

I’m still asking, How many people downloaded and played it just because it was there and how many people downloaded it because they actually wanted to play the game?

I assert that the greatest majority of the people who downloaded the game from TPB had no clue what the game was and downloaded and played it simply because it was there. Had it not been there, they would have never known of the games existence, and would have never played the game, nor had the desire to play the game.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 2 replies 4 recommends

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I wasn’t making an argument for piracy. I was asking how many of the people who “pirated” the game did so with the desire to play the game and the unwillingness to pay for it, and how many people downloaded and played it simply because it was there.

This WASN’T a case of piracy, and the developer allowed users to download the game without playing, so they surely deserved to play the version provided at no charge.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 3 replies 3 recommends

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If you were to guess, how much of that 93% were people actively seeking to circumvent the online store, and how many of them downloaded a new game on TPB because it was a new release on TPB.

The fact that they only managed ~200 sales is unsurprising. I actively frequent a number of gaming sites and blogs and hadn’t heard of this game until today. This studio was mostly unknown. It is unsurprising that their product which was poorly advertised had limited sales.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 2 recommends

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I do suspect that this entire thing is a fabrication.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 8 recommends

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Intention doesn’t matter. No matter how much you want to steal something, you can’t if someone is giving it away.

The developer distributed his own game via TPB.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 1 reply 2 recommends

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But, it was the developer who actually released it. This wasn’t a leak, this wasn’t a pirate cracking the game and releasing a cracked version. This was the game developer releasing his game via a channel and them getting bothered when people downloaded it from the channel he released it to.

If anyone could give consent for the release of his game via this channel, it would be the developer.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 5 recommends

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From what I understand, the piracy number just grows in a linear fashion the longer you play the game until you go bankrupt. The paid for version of the game does not contain a piracy simulation.

I may be wrong…

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 2 recommends

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This is hardly “illegally downloading”, as the game developers were the ones who released the game free of charge on torrent sites.

Its entertaining how this discussion goes on about piracy, but this specific example is NOT a case of piracy.

This is a case of a developer releasing a free version of the game via torrents and releasing a paid for version via their own online store.

There is no “cracked” version of the game. The developers didn’t “crack” their own game. They just released a version that contained no DRM and had an additional and inevitable lose scenario.

This game had next to no exposure before this pity-fest, and if it wasn’t for the devs personally seeding the game on TPB, those 200 people who bought the game likely would have been the ONLY people who ever played it.

Piracy is a problem, and it needs a solution. This specific situation is NOT about piracy.

21 days ago on Players who pirated 'Game Dev Tycoon' see their virtual studios hit by piracy 3 replies 7 recommends