Paradox Believe Great Games Fight Piracy

I've stoped pirating games once I saw all the work and effort that the guy behind banished put in it.
Also, my choise to only play games available on Linux/SteamOS to better help the linux community made a big change. Instead of trying every game and being disapointed with it. I watch streams and youtube review about a game before I buy. If I don't like it, I won't even try to find a pirated copy.

And yeah I just bought Cities Skyline just because : Paradox Interactive.

I believe that with open source as well. If the product is good you can make a lot of money out of it (see Redhat ;))

Used to pirate games back in the day quite a bit... but for the past 4-5 years, now that I have a reasonable job, I've not pirated a single game. A huge part of it is Linux support and the other part is probably good online review channels... watching 3-5 reviews of one game gives a pretty good picture of the title to either spend the money on or not.

I've never fully understood pirating games.... I've tried downloading games from Pirate Bay in the past and it was complete pain in the butt. Instead I purchase games on sale or second-hand. I have a huge library of over 200 PC Games and only spent a fraction of what they cost brand new on release day.
I know that I don't support developers directly, but that is the best I can do. Games are expensive. Movies are expensive. So I always buy everything used or on sale.

Guess I am not part of the statistics as a consumer

I'm not a big fan of DRM and love buying games on GOG.com
I've been testing a lot of games in PlayOnLinux and found that many of them work just fine. Some games refuse to run because of DRM. If it wasn't for DRM then it would run in PlayOnLinux.

DRM free has been very popular with Indie development and Kickstarter games. I'm glad to hear big companies are seeing the benefits of DRM free games for them and the consumer.

Good philosophy to follow. Also, by making great games people will be more likely to want to "reward" the developer by purchasing. With Paradox, I have "rewarded" them with so much money over the years it's silly :P.

Also if anyone is interested, I made a forum thread dedicated to Paradox games. Please [check it out](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/1162?page=1) :)

Convenience should always be the aim for curbing piracy. I hate DRM that doesn't let me loan out a game to a friend. Valve's own DRM might be perfect for me, but I haven't tried the library sharing feature yet. The reason why I bought Resident Evil 4 when the latest PC version hit Steam for pre-order is because I borrowed a copy for the GameCube, then was convinced I had to buy it for the same platform. Eventually, the game was lost by a friend and all these years later I was ecstatic to know the PC port was being redone since I converted to the glorious PC master race. I was sticking to PC because Steam games don't get lost or stolen to my knowledge (at least it's very unlikely to happen to me). Back then, you could hardly do anything about theft or loss but buy another copy. With purely digital game purchases, borrowing was lost from the PC gaming scene. Now, I can let someone eat my cake and still have it back whenever I wish, 100% of the time, anytime.

DRM has the opportunity to convenience both the customers and the developers. That had barely been touched on as of recent as far as non F2P games go. Anything else is an inconvenience to both sides.

I don't even have a pirate bone in my body. I just know what I want and what developers need to do if they want social advertising, let friends of customers play for free. If it's a really good game and the borrower agrees, then another sale is most likely guaranteed and so much more so than if they had no more than a demo to play. Borrowing features in DRM are a lot more about the developers helping themselves by letting the old tradition of legitimate ownership fly. Borrowing out purely digital games will always have a purpose beyond just conveniencing customers and friends, so it should not be ignored by the likes of Ubisoft and EA games, but EA for instance wants you to buy the same game twice if you change to another OS and if you want to play there too. That is wrong to me as well as Ubisoft forcing Uplay onto Steam customers. Until they fix those problems and let me borrow out games/share my library, I will have to be hard pressed to give them any more of my money for their otherwise great games. I can't stand having my options and conveniences any less than what Steam offers to the paying customer and the wise developer. Don't give me DRM unless it conveniences me more than inconveniences me.

I expect more might come in the future if the best of the old and new come together. It's not just for nostalgia's sake. It's also for a stronger business.

With AAA games costing as little as US$ 10 and indie games on the cents range during sales (which happen quite a few times a year), it's really hard to make a case for piracy these days. Nonetheless, Steam should have a return policy or a trial period so we could see if we like a game (and if it runs in our machine) before we spend money on them. I may be wrong, but it seems relatively easy to implement, especially considering how they already have a similar structure to enable the Free Weekends.

With AAA games costing as little as US$ 10 and indie games on the cents range during sales (which happen quite a few times a year), it's really hard to make a case for piracy these days. Nonetheless, Steam should have a return policy or a trial period so we could see if we like a game (and if it runs in our machine) before we spend money on them. I may be wrong, but it seems relatively easy to implement, especially considering how they already have a similar structure to enable the Free Weekends.

Google does that, but for only 15 minutes following the purchase. The return policy should be counting down from the first time you start playing until four hours had passed since then, IMO. No AAA game lasts just four hours or less unless you already played it enough to know how to beat the game as swiftly as possible, and I see no fun in that, myself.

Back in the day, after Loki died, i used to pirate their selection, because it was the only way to actually get them. Now days it's all about giving the money to the developers who deserve it. Sometimes even if i dont really care to much for the game. It all adds to giving that company more incentive to keep providing us with Native Linux versions of future games. As for this game, i am waiting until my next paycheck, and i will be purchasing this game on steam at full price. (with no prior pirating of this game)

That is wrong to me as well as Ubisoft forcing Uplay onto Steam customers.

I always love this argument. Pot calling the kettle much?

Don't get me wrong, I certainly agree that Uplay deserves a far blacker reputation than Steam, but I always love it when denizens of one potentially walled garden complain about the need to frequent another due to a game they want being locked into another service.

I brought two copies of the game without much hesitation. My mind never even registered the possibility of piracy. A great game, a good service provider, and a fantastic operating system make me want to pay for the titles which looks good. Back in the days, with a not so good operating system, mass produced game titles, DRM and weird CD requirements made me really want to pirate everything. I never was much of a pirate, but I did download quite a few no CD fixes and of course immediately felt somewhat like pirate. When a developer puts in the extra effort of bringing a game to Linux, it just make the game so much more valuable!

When I switched to Linux in 2005, I never looked back except to play a windows game or two. With everything available for linux as cheap, donation ware, or free there is no reason to steal games.

Also good prices fight piracy. For example, I wont buy this game at full price, but once it goes on sale I might buy it, instead of pirating it

I may have pirated games in the past *cough* or not *cough*.
I played these titles ( namely "Portal 1" & " Orcs Must Die!" ) for a few minutes and then bought them, simply because they were so damn good :D
I was 15 then and still on Windows (heh). I haven't pirated ever since. I noticed that developers should be supported, not taken out.
I have a few friends that still pirate games that do not have demo's in order to judge if they want to buy the game or not...

A really nice view on the matter, Paradox has there. I'm totally broke at the moment, but that game sure looks fun. I'll buy it as soon as my wallet is re-filled :)

Between 2002 and 2011, up to 2008 mainly on Windows, I pirate many (Windows-)games for two simple reasons both already announced previous: The "better-demo"-aspect and the "drm-treatment"-aspect.
Well, since I switched to Linux and having these good articles here on GOL I buy those games.

Some examples:
"better-demo": As I loved TES: Oblivion, I download Skyrim on release and I was really glad I didn't bought it. After a few hours (~5h) I deleted it and never played it again. As I said because of the GOL-articles I don't need any demo.
"drm-treatment": My personal favorite is and was GTA 4 (on win): Pirate version: Extract, double-click on exe-file and have fun. Steam version: Click on Start, register here and there, install this social crap and that. After many installs and accept/ignore buttons I could finally play.

A pirated copy is not necessarily a lost sale. In fact, probably only a fraction of the people who pirate it would pay for it.So, a pirated copy is maybe 1/20 of a lost sale if you must look at it that way.

The key to combating piracy is to make the legitimate source a better, more convenient experience.

It's almost impossible to 'pirate' Linux game. I've tried, but I've found only not working Dead Island and Borderlands (both). But I don't regret those ~20 games I brought on Steam for Linux. :)

I stopped pirating games when I switched to linux long ago and there werent any games to pirate lol. Then when the games started coming I was older and had a job. Now I buy all my software not just games. I even buy every app on my phone that I like.

That is wrong to me as well as Ubisoft forcing Uplay onto Steam customers.

I always love this argument. Pot calling the kettle much?

Don't get me wrong, I certainly agree that Uplay deserves a far blacker reputation than Steam, but I always love it when denizens of one potentially walled garden complain about the need to frequent another due to a game they want being locked into another service.

It's because all I want is Steam. Forcing me to install another games manager is not what I want. If I had a reason to stick with Uplay, I'd say the same for Steam.

I love Paradox's view on the topic and the philosophy they've employed. I believe it was Valve's Gabe Newell that referred to piracy as a "service problem". As far as music and movies are concerned, the easier it is to purchase these things in a preferred format the easier it is to use the official channels rather than having to go through 'alternate' routes. I used to buy DVDs like crazy whenever they dropped below the $6 threshold despite the fact they were packaged in such a way to seemingly deter the buyer from actually opening them. THEN a friend started lending me his pirated flicks and suddenly all annoyances were gone! I didn't have to search high and low for particular films and there was no over zealous wrapping to remove. For television I now have Netflix and Hulu with no need for cable or satellite.

With games...Steam sales and Humble Bundles make games extremely affordable now so long as one has the patience to wait for the temporary or permanent price reductions. I have more games in my Steam library and Humble Bundles than I have time to play. When I started PC gaming in the days of the Commodore 64 it was much harder to acquire games so pirated copies passed around on floppies was commonplace. For every game I purchased back then I was lent 2 that were pirated. Currently I have zero pirated games thanks to the ease of which I can come into possession of the 'real' thing thanks to digital distributions services such as Steam.