With the flurry of new big-name games coming out in the next 6 months, I figured that it was a good time to take a look at something that many people do to get their gaming fix on without breaking their wallets: Pirating games. Just about everyone I know has done so at one point, myself included. So what better time to explore the issue of getting new games for free?
Recently, independent developer Cliff Harris of Positech Games, maker of Kudos, Democracy, Rock Legend, among others, got frustrated with people pirating games. But not just any games. His games. But rather than go scream about how he’s losing money or install vicious copy-protection schemes into his upcoming games, he decided that he would follow the classic method of “Know Thine Enemy.” So Harris posted in his blog, which he then submitted to Slashdot and the Penny Arcade forums, a simple question:
I want to know: Why do you pirate my games?
He granted everyone who commented or e-mailed him total anonymity, promised he would never give the RIAA, MPAA, or related groups their addresses, and swore to read every response, consider them, and use the feedback to help change what he needed to do to sell more games to more people.
So how did the public respond?
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