Yum!!!

Beta isn’t far off now, I’m hellova excited! Wow, but T3D is looking awesine, I’m seeing some great stuff in the private forums and the snippets of the T3D documentation that’s just been released. The odds of me not porting SoW to T3D drops everytime I see another video!

Named for their leader’s signature weapon, the legendary Black Spear of Anados, the Blackspear Company is an infamous mercenary band which can be found operating throughout the Westlands, wherever there is conflict and coin to be made from it. The Company has profited tremendously from the Mirtaran-Lethani war. Currently, the majority of the Companies forces are contracted by the Mirtaran government to bolster it’s eastern border with Lethan and to provide security services within the capital of Endaurvar while the succession is being decided.

The history of the Blackspear Company is, in essence, the history of Soln Kayd. While most mercenary companies reflect something of the nature of their leaders, this has never been truer than in regard to the Blackspear Company. Dynamic, opportunistic, exceptionally skilled and, most of all, eclectic, the Company has risen in the estimation of clients, rivals and enemies alike. To underestimate Kayd is, it is known, an often fatal error in judgement.

On the surface of things, Kayd appears little more than a common soldier; cunning, certainly, and with a natural charisma to him, but little depth beyond that. Appearances can be deceiving. Behind the brusque manner, crude humor and quick temper lies a clever, calculating mind, one that is always looking for an opportunity to turn events to Kayd’s gain. Those who see past the surface of this man wonder if that surface layer is merely a mask, a ruse to disarm foes of their caution.

That mind has served Kayd well throughout his career. While little is known of his youth, it is well known that he travelled East as a young man, selling his services as a freelance sword in the civil war wracking the region following the Ajhan Uprising. Ten years later Kayd would return to the lands of his birth in possession of the Spear, a weapon legend says was used by the hero Kimaran Zolak to kill the Imaarian Lion, staining the spear with the beast’s poisonous blood in the process, as well as a small fortune and the services of Alam Hasvirad, a sneering foreign mage with a cruel disposition.

Many would have been content to retire and enjoy their successes, but Kayd was never one to settle. Using his campaign spoils to fund his vision, he set about creating an elite mercenary company. Lured by the promise of wealth and Kayd’s charisma, the Blackspear Companies’ ranks quickly swelled with mercenaries, retired soldiers , even ex-criminals. Kayd seems less interested in pedigree than in demonstration of talent, offering positions to individuals others would have turned away due to their dubious reputation. Kayd’s band attracted others like him, warriors whose names were known wherever soldiers gathered to gossip, men and women known for their prowess and their deeds, both heroic and villainous. Jango Ven, Wrain of Keton, the Asaric Twins, Jen of Blades, the legendary tracker Sixwinds…the Companies’ roster reads like the cast of a bardic epic.

And, under Kayd’s leadership, the Company has gone from success to success. Their fortunes increasing tenfold, the Company has headquarters in the capitals of Athar and Mirtar, private contracts with noble houses and merchant barons, the finest equipment. The Company even has use of a Ygatii Airship, a unique vessel Kayd acquired during another expedition East three years ago and which now serves as his mobile headquarters.

Although the results achieved by this diverse collection of talent is undeniable, it is also the Companies’ greatest weakness. With so many famous names and egos in one group, struggles over authority are frequent. In a way, the Blackspear company reselmbles a pack of wolves, leadership residing with the strongest and most cunning. So far, Kayd has retained his control in the face of three direct challenges to his authority and two assassination attempts. Kayd favours direct physical confrontation for resolving challenges to his position, using the opportunity to make an example of the challenger to anyone else with rebellious thoughts. 

Although Kayd has won all three challenges, he only survived the last with the subtle help of Alam’s magical talents, a fact he hides from his followers. Although externally as confident as ever, Kayd’s grip on the Company is tenuous and he knows it. A reckoning is coming and it remains to be seen if even Kayd’s cunning will see him through it.

In the days since the end of the war Kayd has been highly active, his airship seen across the Westlands. Kayd is rarely seen without the company of his inner circle, Company members whose loyaltyKayd considers unquestionable. What they are about, no one knows, but this flurry of activity has drawn the interest of a number of political players, forces who would pay much to know what Kayd is up to.

Addendum

Alam Hasvirad : Sharp of tongue and cunning of wit, Alam has a reputation both for his skill as a battlemage and for his cruel streak. Although he bows to Soln’s will it seems he does so only grudginly, rumor has it that he is bound by some debt which he is paying off, reluctantly. His reddish skin marks him as coming from the East, probably Ghiet or Rhodan.

Wrain of Keton : A large, powerful warrior, Wrain is surprisingly well spoken and educated. Not only does he seem knowledgeable on the subjects of history, geography and politics, he speaks a number of langugages fluently. Probably the greatest mystery surrounding Wrain is the exact location of “Keton”, no one has ever heard of such a place. And Wrain refuses to speak on the subject.

Jen of Blades : Sometime in the past, something scoured all compassion and softness out of the woman who calls herself simply “Jen”. Short but muscled, Jen’s skill with her knives is the stuff of bar-room legends. While no one knows much about Jen’s background, the latticework of scars across her back and around her wrists speak volumes.

The Black Spear of Anados : A legendary artifact, even the slightest scratch from the Spear poisons the blood of it’s victim with the tainted essence of the Imaarian Lion. Short of direct intervention by a Power, the victim’s fate is sealed, death claims them within an hour.

Kayd’s Airship : A Ygattii vessel, unique in it’s size, speed, manoeverabilty and firepower. The only such vessel in the Westlands.

Ok, this post will be a bit different. For the first time ever, a blog about politics, SA politics to be exact. This will probably be boring for most international readers/people only here for stuff about RPGs. Ah well. Revenge on the US readers for all the stuff about the US elections all over the net.

Alright, getting into it : South African politics and yours truly. 

I’m almost 27 years old and this year will be the first time I actually vote in a national election. That may shock people or cause various levels of disapproval. I don’t really care, I’ve never been a fan of wasting my valuable time. And voting has been, until recently, a waste of time in my estimation. Let me elaborate.

First, a short primer on SA politics as I see them, for out international friends.

In 1994, the ANC  took power in South Africa, thanks to popular support and it’s alliance with the communist powers COSATU and SACP. Previously the National Party ruled the country and it was responsible for things like apartheid. Happily for SA, the changing of the guard was far more peaceful than many had expected. Bloody revolution was avoided and the future looked promising.

Unfortunately, too few people have read the book Animal Farm, an astute commentary on socialist revolutions but which holds lessons about revolutions and power monopolies in general. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, yeah? History teaches us this lesson, unfortunately everyone ignores history.

So let’s fast-forward to today. In the years since 1994, the National Party has evaporated. Unsurprising, it tried to reform its image but that was pretty futile. The ANC retains it’s majority support without anything approaching real opposition. There have been tensions between it and it’s alliance partners due to it changing it’s tune to a more business and capitalist stance since it came into power and had to actually deal with the realities of leading a country, but it is still far and away the political power in SA. The Democratic Alliance, a new face for the Democratic Party, is still around and doing alright. It should be noted that the DA took control in the Cape Town (where it is strong) and is apparently doing an most excellent job of running the city. Kudos to them. The DA has established itself as the official opposition to the ANC in SA, but it has that title almost by default as there isn’t really anyone else big enough to even attempt to lay claim to that title. 

Well, there wasn’t, until recently. In the last few years there has been a power struggle within the ANC. The former president, Thabo Mbeki, and his then-Deputy, Jacob Zuma, got into a tussle. Jacob was involved in corruption and then rape charges, his side claiming that the charges were instigated by Thabo’s, blah blah blah. The end result was that Jacob slipped out of the 700+ charges of fraud even though his partner-in-accusation Schabir Shaik went to prison, the rape charges didn’t stick (although the idiotic comments he made during the trial will follow him forever), Thabo and his pals were given the boot and Zuma began his rise in power like a political Pheonix.

Except this had a repurcussion. The old guard, pissed at the outcome, splintered off and formed COPE. COPE claims it is sort of an ANC version 2, a reclaiming of the ideals of the ANC which have been lost in the corruption that is transforming the ruling party from within. They face a struggle. For the ANC’s traditional support base, many voters see them as betrayers of the cause/party. Others see them as simple opportunists, they lost the internal power struggle so they peeled off to form a party where they could retain power. The voters who dislike the ANC see them as “just another face of the ANC”. Despite those problems, they’ve gained a fair amount of support from those within the ANC who have become disillusioned.

Right, before I continue in my analysis of who I’m going to vote for and why, I’d like to talk about the major “issues” which influence SA politics. These are, in order of highest importance/impact down to lowest :

1. The liberation struggle/apartheid history.

2. Race.

3. Everything else.

You might be beginning to get an inkling of why I didn’t consider voting worth the effort, but let me elaborate a bit.

1. The liberation struggle/apartheid history.

Apartheid and racial segregation in general was simply a terrible idea. Even if you ignore all the humanitarian factors, the simple fact is that history teaches us that the slaves almost always eventually revolt and the revolution is often really bloody. It’s a fuck up, really. Short term gain, long term pain. SA is dealing with the consequences now, and one of the most significant is the mental scars left across entire racial groups. This isn’t going to heal quickly. It will take entire generations before this stops being a factor, and even then it will simply fade slowly, not disappear overnight. I hear white South Africans saying things like “it’s been over a decade now, they should get over it”. Which is like saying to someone who grew up being brutally raped and abused that they should be over it because “that was years ago!”. No. Doesn’t work like that. And since this is a cultural scar, it won’t be cured by a single generation dying out, it will take many generations. For every action, an equal and opposite reaction. 

So “The Struggle” is a factor in SA politics no matter how you slice it. The current generation of ANC leaders enjoy heroic status. Jacob Zuma helped broker a peace with the Zulus, which up till then had been causing a lot of bloodshed. 700+ white collar fraud charges aren’t going to counter that heroic status in his follower’s eyes. White middle class voters might roll their eyes, but then again, we weren’t the ones in the thick of it. We didn’t see him play a pivotal role in ending violence which was claiming the lives of our children and family members. 

For reference, a newspaper did a poll. It found that only 50% of those polled believed Zuma innocent. But 75% said they supported him unwaveringly. So that is 25% who believe him corrupt but support him anyway. That’s a large number, 25%. A large, scary number.

2. Race

Yeah, this one is obvious. The whites repressed the black majority (and the other races to varying degrees). So now the shoe is on the other foot, politically. I’m not accusing the ANC of repressing the whites like the old NP did the non-whites. But race plays a major role in politics. For the overwhelming majority of black voters, it would be unacceptable to have a white leader again, or for any significant political control to reside with a “white power”. Simple as that. The scars are too fresh.

3. Everything else.

These things would be important, if the other two didn’t dramatically outweigh them. Service delivery? Don’t make me laugh. Reports are coming in from rural towns about how they’re dying without fresh water supplies, yet they will still vote ANC because to do otherwise would be to betray what they fought for in the struggle.

Oh sure, there are some who don’t have such blind loyalty. But, considered as a whole, the above two factors are weighted dramatically higher than everything else.

Ok, so now let me explain why I didn’t vote. No point. It’s spitting into the wind. I don’t want to vote for the ANC. I know what happens when a political party enjoys a near monopoly of power. But with the political landscape as it was, the ANC was going to dominate everything regardless. So voting day was something I used as a free public holiday. I have better things to do with my time than spend it achieving absolutely nothing. Some people say “if you don’t vote, you can’t complain”. Since the outcome is identical anyway, I just laugh it off. Whatever makes you feel better.

But, something has changed. COPE. Cope is what has changed. 

People tell me “vote DA, COPE is just another version of the ANC.”. Another ANC? Yes. Yes! That is exactlywhy I’m excited. Finally!

Not following? Ok, let me spell it out. Politics is chess and people need to seperate out their emotions from the analysis. The DA is “the white party”. They have a white face for their leader. If you consider the points I outlined above, you can see the problem. They’re never going to gain enough support to seriously challenge the ANC, not for generations. Their ability to grow is severely limited by the race card. They do control some areas, true, but it is limited to areas where they have always been strong, traditionally. In ANC strongholds they barely make a dent. Their ability to draw voters away from the ANC majority is highly limited.

Now COPE. People say “they’re another ANC” like that is a bad thing. Silly, silly people. That is exactly what this country needs. Another ANC. Because, if you haven’t gotten it by now, the problem is not any particular party, nor race or affiliation or anything like that, it’s the monopoly of power. If the DA or anyone else enjoyed such unchallenged control they too would start to become corrupt. Good intentions or policies mean little, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, a universal truth. It’s only a matter of time. 

What this country needs is a more evenly divided political power structure. The ANC needs to be bled of strength. And, if you’ve followed along, COPE is almost custom-built to do so. It started with dissaffected ANC members, so that alone drew strength off from the ANC. And if it gains popularity it will continue to do so because of the fact that it is seen as “ANC ver2″. Those factors I talked about don’t apply. You’ve got heroes of the struggle in COPE. You have black faces running the show. You have the perfect sanctuary for people who are fed up with the ANC but find joining in with “the white party” as unacceptable.

Sounds racist, doesn’t it? But that’s reality, and you have to deal with the cards on the table. 

Now, the way I see things, COPE is at a fragile point in it’s life-cycle. If it does poorly in the coming elections, I see many of it’s supporters losing faith and splitting back off to join the ANC again. In other words, COPEs loss will simply strengthen the ANC again and we’re back to square one. But if COPE does well in the elections that will bolster confidence. People who had a “wait and see” attitude will be encouraged to make the leap. The opportunists will see a chance to rise quickly and may also take the leap. Either way, COPE and the ANC are far more intertwinned than the ANC and the DA.

So I’m going to vote for COPE. I want to do my bit to ensure they thrive. Not because I care about their policies (it’s naive to think that COPE will seriously challenge the ANC within my lifetime, in the same way that it is naive to think the DA will seriously challenge the ANC. I’m not voting for them to be control of the country because that just isn’t going to happen), but because I want to help drive that wedge into the heart of the ANC. 

History teaches us many lessons. One of them is that great empires rarely fall to outside forces until they fall to internal pressures. This internal power struggle within the ANC is the best thing to happen in SA politics for a long time, and, to me, the best chance we have for real change. 

And, ironically, if COPE gets stronger, the DA’s influence will also grow. Which scenario is better for the DA, power-sharing wise :

Scenario 1 :

ANC 70%

DA 20%

COPE 10%

Scenrio 2 :

ANC 50%

DA 20%

COPE 30%

Thats right, scenario 2. In it, the DA can choose to side with the ANC to give it overwhelming power, or it can side with COPE to completely balance out the ANC. Which means both sides will court it.

The concept behind my voting choice is simple, a matter of choosing the best tactic to achieve the long-term goal in this grand game of chess. Equitable distribution of power is what this country needs. COPE has the greatest chance of leeching strength from the ANC, it represents a weak point in the ANC’s previously almost impregnible armor. I will vote for driving a wedge into that weak spot with as much force as can be mustered.

Not long till Wednesday now…

I realise I haven’t posted much about SoW recently. I suppose I could give a tiny peak at one of the things I’m currently working on.

A long-overdue, major revamp to the player model.

All part of my “Ok, I need to show more of the game now than just some of the environments. Oh crap, the art is still really fugly in a lot of place. Need to fix that.” drive. While ugly stuff is ok for my eyes, it ain’t fit for public consumption. The player model overhaul is a pre-requisite for showing off player-related hijinx publicly. Fugly stuff is fine for me working away in my secret laboratory but the general public judges on visuals, even a lot of people who say they don’t. And they are harsh judges. You can all blame youselves for the fact that most dev houses only post up new things every 6 months, after having worked on the game for years in secret. The negative backlash if you show a model that hasn’t had it’s seams fixed, for example, is just not worth it. And, let me be honest, my to-do list is huge, superficial crap like fixing seams is not my highest priority. Well, it wasn’t. I suppose I’ve changed my mind.

Anyway, this is, as I said, a very small peak of what’s coming. I’ll put in my usual disclaimer, even though it always gets ignored. Work in Progress.

Ah, fuck.

A friend of mine’s ex-boss was murdered a few days ago. 5 guys broke into his place during dinner, tied up the family, took what they wanted and then left. But not before stabbing him to death in front of his children.

It just gets under my skin, hearing this kind of thing. And every few months it’s another horror story.

A few months ago a group of men went on a rampage in Chatsworth, a suburb 30 minutes away from mine. They walked from door to door, killing people who answered the door then entering the house, raping and then killing the women.

And a few months before that an attorney’s house was broken into down the hill, one suburb away from where I live. They tied the family up in the lounge, teenage son included, did their thing then slit all their throats on the way out. 

And there is little to do but hope it’s not your turn next. Or leave. The police don’t come fast enough, the security people don’t come fast enough, security measures don’t work well, courts fail to prosecute the criminals when they are caught. We’re lambs to the wolves.

For reference, compare SA’s murder rate to the rest of the world.

Fuck but this leaves me in a grim mood. Gotta try to shake it off, focus on SoW tonight.

The piracy post drew a few comments, two of which I thought might be better responded to via a post. So, well, this is that response. 

Bobisimo commented :

…I’ll offer up my one question – addressing the used market.

Yes, you responded to the used market, more or less, in your library section when you say that publishers are trading uncertain profit for a smaller return, but the used market is very gray and throws everything into uncertainty. The legal buyer of a used title just might say, “Hey, I’m not rewarding the developer’s effort or the publisher’s investment. I’m rewarding 14-year-old John-from-Minnesota’s business savvy and his beat-and-get-bored-of-a-game-in-three-days consumerism.”

And once the victims of day-one wallet-exploitation wise up (”For your $60 victimization we offer: a buggy product, and the opportunity to buy very short, $10 DLC a few months down the road!”), we might see the used market really boom. Sure, a title has to be purchased before it can be re-sold, but if the used market booms we’ll see faster turn-around with more-often-recycled units. And if that happens, what is the difference between it and piracy? Why are we worried about whether Joe gets rewarded? Or to put it differently, why should someone feel guilty about an illegal download when there is the same net impact on the industry?

Ok. Second hand games, resale, that sort of thing. A good question.

First, let us establish the fundamental difference between second hand sales and piracy, then we can address (my opinion on) the rest. Everyone who knows this already can skip it.

Piracy, aka copyright violation, isn’t the same as resale of a good, obviously. And copyright laws aren’t intended to prevent transfer of ownership of a digitial good, they are intended to prevent the creation of further goods by people who don’t own the right of production of that intellectual property, ie, to protect the owner’s right to copy, to produce more of the intellectual good. 

When you buy a physical good you do not gain the ability to produce more of that good. If you buy some Levi jeans, you can’t then mass produce Levis. You could take the jeans apart and then make another set out of the materials but you’d have to destroy the old pair to do so. Whether you take it apart of pass it on to a friend, there is only ever one pair of jeans.

Digital goods aren’t like this. The cost of production is almost entirely in the creation of the idea/intellectual work. Replication is trivial. Copyright laws are an attempt to create production barriers for digital goods similar to those inherant in physical goods. 

Ok, let’s not get bogged down with copyright laws and whether they work or are morally right or whatever. The point is that their intention is to create replication barriers like with physical goods, ie to impose production limits, not to prevent transfer of ownership. Preventing transfer of ownership is not what the spirit of copyright law is about. When you lend your shoes or a book to a friend, that is fine. Likewise, you should be able to do that with a game. Or to sell it if you want.

But that isn’t what happens with piracy. You aren’t lending your copy to your friend. You’re making another one. What was 1 game is now 5, you and your 5 friends (and 5000 bittorrent friends ) can all use that good at once. You have violated the license owner’s right to control the supply of that good. It is a fundamentally different act because you have caused the creation of a new instance of that asset. With transfer of rights you simply move an existing asset from one owner to another. The net effect on the number of that asset in the marketplace is 0. 

Right, so those are the facts on the differences between the two concepts. Now onto my opinion on the rest of bob’s comment.

Is the used market a “gray area” because the developer isn’t rewarded for every trade down the line?

In my opinion, and in the eyes of the law, no. It isn’t in used car sales, why should it be in used game sales? The point is, once you legally own an asset, it is yours. If you want to sell it then that is fine. Your assets decrease, your monetary wealth increases, and vice versa for someone else. This is the basis of trade systems for all goods. The original developer was fairly compensated for a single copy of their good. As long as there is only that single copy of a good being traded around, they have been fairly compensated. The problem comes about when you buy one copy, upload it to a torrent and turn it into 50 000 copies of that good, while the original developer was only compensated for one single copy.

But aren’t second hand sales competing with the originals? If a lot of people are playing from one copy, doesn’t that result in a net effect that is similar to piracy?

With physical goods, the answer is “generally not”. There are plenty of shops selling second hand clothes and second hand TVs. In terms of competing with the original shops, they are pretty much inconsequential for various reasons. 

But that is physical goods. Physical goods wear down, go out of fashion, become outdated, that sort of thing. So that affects re-sales. Digital goods can be almost of the exact quality of originals. If they’re sold at 60% of the value, they are definitely competing. And if you consider that games are getting shorter, this results in a very real competitive threat. So, what should be done about that?

Legally, nothing. People have the right to sell or trade the things they own. They own their copy. Game developers have no right to complain about this whatsoever. I’ll explain what they can do in a moment, but first I want to address whether this makes it equivalent to the effect of piracy or not.

I do not believe so. Mainly because of the convenience barrier I talked about in my previous post. People are impatient, they want a game now. A pirated copy could easily be spread to 5000 people at once. Can you imagine that same 5000 people waiting to play a popular new game, one after the other? Not only that, the number of games available for resale are a fraction of the games in stores. We have games resale here in SA, I’ve traded in my old PC games for money to buy new ones. The exchange rate was around 3-1 so I only did it for games I really didn’t want, even if I don’t play most in my collection. And the selection available in the second hand store was aneamic compared to a games store, mostly older games that weren’t in stores anyway. There were only a few copies of current games meaning they can’t really supply the demand.

That could change, of course, if the second-hand sale cycle picks up speed and increases in popularty (I doubt it would ever be more than 40% though, people like to own/collect things). Which brings us nicely round to what game developers can do to deal with second-hand sales :

They can be cunning and embrace it.

Dammit devs, be a little observant, look around. We already have car resales. I don’t know about your part of the world but here in SA a lot of the resale dealerships are the same companies as produced the original car. Toyota resells Toyota cars.

Instead of fighting a losing battle (people should and will have the right to transfer ownership of their own assets), use a bit of cunning and subvert it to your own benefit. For example, EA could start a trade-in system in partnership with retail outlets. You could get 30% of the price of the game back when you return it plus a 40% discount off the next EA game you purchase for every 5 EA games traded in and a free game for every 15. You could setup a “EA checked and guaranteed” service for second hand games, in effect selling “peace of mind guarantees”. Don’t laugh, a lot of money is made from that kind of branding. This would enable a developer/producer to resell a good they had already made a profit on without incurring the same expenses, in effect selling the same thing twice. If you add on the services and suchlike, develop the “EA Used” brand beyond what most competitors can offer, you could do well off this.

Just be smart about it. You could make a killing off those bloody short 6 hour games. And people will love you for it.

Or you could be like this idiot : Reggie Fils-Aime says used games not in gamer’s best interests.

Opportunity missed Reggie, opportunity missed.

There was a little bit at the end of Bob’s statement I’d like to comment on :

And once the victims of day-one wallet-exploitation wise up (”For your $60 victimization we offer: a buggy product, and the opportunity to buy very short, $10 DLC a few months down the road!”), we might see the used market really boom.

Sorry Bob, my response is “Fat Chance”. That ain’t gonna happen. People will climb over each other to get a title they are excited about as soon as it comes out. They’re never going to wise up. If anything, the prevalence of broadband will make it the norm to deal with a stream of patches even on consoles. It’s already started.

So that is Bob’s comment. Onwards, to James McNeill! :

 …So much of the entertainment business is reliant on cultivating societal expectations: what people expect to pay, how they pay, and what they expect to get in return. There have been a lot of different economic models tried over the millenia….

 …Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software made a blog post a few days ago arguing that game developers ought to be able to charge what their games are worth without being limited by artificial market caps (i.e. $5 limit for iPhone games or whatever). You should have seen the Slashdot crowd tear into that, with their Wesnoths and Freecivs and what-not.

I’m a veteran video game developer so this is something I think about fairly often. The recent spate of indie developers revealing their sales figures has been disheartening, to say the least.

Yes, I read Jeff’s post too. I have also read a few of the comments around it on various forums. And I have now read those Slashdot replies

Firstly, it’s worth remembering that the main problem with the Internet is that it is a sea of gibbering idiots. A few worthwhile people in-between, sure. But the idiots are by far the loudest and most active group, sadly.

The problem is people half-understand basic economics like the law of supply and demand, just enough to shoot themselves in the foot. In this case, they do so because their thinking is too simplistic, too 1-dimensional.

There is no demand for the mythical “average/generic game”. None whatsoever. People are looking for specific experiences. Some are simply sampling games until something strikes a chord with them. Others are hunting for a taste of something they once experienced and want more of. Either way, when a customer finds something specific they like, that is the “demand”. Supply of that demand takes into account how much of that particular type of experience is in circulation. Acceptable price is based on how much demand they have for that good/experience vs how much is in supply.

Games fall within the broader category “entertainment”, yes. So people are assuming they can just look at how much “entertainment” is on the market and extrapolate prices based on that overall value. But people have tastes that are far more granular. Two pieces of entertainment are not necessarily interchangeable. Related, but not interchangeable. 

For example, say you like light-hearted comedy movies. And you also like deep period dramas. No matter how many comedies you watch, the urge to see a period drama isn’t scratched. Now, if I set the price of a period drama viewing too high, you may turn away and go to a comedy instead, but you may not, depending on your desire for that specific type of entertainment. People who have a very high desire for that specific form of entertainment are what we talk about when we refer to a “niche/hardcore” market. They will pay a premium because other types of entertainment aren’t satisfying their urge for a specific type of entertainment, and their demand for that entertainment is high. 

Which is where Vogel is coming from, and where the Slashdotters are missing the point. His type of game is not an interchangeable experience with iPhone games. The people who want the type of experience he offers with his RPGs aren’t comparing it with an iPhone bubble-popper and compaining at the difference in price.

Me, I loved Baldurs Gate 2. I’d pay 2-3 times the original price for a comparable experience right now. Why? Because there aren’t a lot of similar games on the market. Wesnoth be damned. 96 million free game hits on google be damned. What I want is very specific and I will pay a premium to someone who can give it to me.

The key to making this strategy work is not to aim for the generic, the interchangeable, the widget. It is to create a unique experience, something that stands out. That is something the Slashdotters need to realise. In a marketplace awash in goods on offer, the only way to sell is to stand out, to offer something unique. To turn your type of experience into a form of branding. You aren’t selling “a genric PC game”. You are selling “a complex RPG with a deep, involved storyline, complex characters to interact with and the opportunity to make real, meaningful choices in an inter-faction conflict.”. 

Find your Blue Water.

This is not a daydream. Look at Nintendo and the Wii. Look at Apple. Microsoft dominates the personal computer market with it’s generic PCs yet Apple has survived by offering a unique experience that appeals to a very specific segment in the market. Learn the lesson, the way to survive in a sea of indistinguishable titles is to stand out, to offer something unique to a niche that appreciates it, a niche that is large enough to support you. Don’t underprice that value.

Hell, just look at clothing. There are a gajillion types of “pants”. Yet Levi jeans are in higher demand with a certain niche market  than generic offerings. Why? Because they are selling something unique about their specific product. And that unique aspect is marketable, has a real dollar value attached to it.

And ignore the internet. People are dumb and given to shouting. Spiderweb software is, at 15 years old, one of the longest running game developers out there. People need to learn to shut their traps and listen to the wisdom that people like Jeff give away for free. It is invaluable.

Me, I’m going to be selling SoW at $25, about the price of a mainstream title in SA at retail. Not half. Full price. I’m not making “an inferior graphical/cinematic gameplay experience”. I’m making “a superior roleplaying and storytelling experience”. If you aren’t able to appreciate the value of what I’m sellling, GTFO. Chances are, you aren’t the niche I’m aiming at serving anyway.

Be unique, sell your uniqueness, filter out the internet noise. That’s my opinion.

So, the big slot game I was working on around the Christmas months has recently been released. The news is quite good, apparently it is very successful. Good to know, given that the bastard almost broke my bloody back. But ah well, it gives me some measure of warm fuzzies to know the effort wasn’t in vain.

If you are curious, there are some animated gifs on this page showing shots of the game if you scroll down a bit. The idea of the game is a Robot Pirate space chase through assorted locations. Yes. Robot Pirates.

Well, I’m back from my holiday. I’ll write something about that when I can find my bloody camera’s pc cable so I can upload photos. For now, another topic.

I thought I’d write a post addressing a fairly common argument that comes up whenever piracy discussions arise on the net (ie every few days ). The assertion is that, since you cannot prove that any pirates would have bought a copy of a game if they couldn’t pirate it (since it is impossible to really prove any purely hypothetical scenario), you thus cannot conclude that piracy effects game sales. 

False.

You cannot prove anything, certainly, but you most definitely can reach a logical, legitimate conclusion via analysis of the situation. You just need to use a bit of common sense. Unfortunately, that is a resource which seems in short supply on this planet. Let’s all take a moment to consider a simple, easy to understand example : A hotdog vendor.

Imagine a hotdog stand, set up on the corner of a street. People walk past during the day, some walk right on past, uninterested, some stop and buy a hotdog because they feel hungry and the hotdogs smell good. Cool, simple to conceptualize.

Now, lets say someone acquires a magical photocopy machine, a device capable of instantly copying physical goods! Wow! This person then buys a single hotdog from the vendor, goes across the street and sets up a rival stand. Using his hotdog and the machine he can create as many hotdogs as he wants, without any expense except the initial price of one single hotdog. And, for his own reasons, this person decides to give away their hotdog clones completely for free. Now, lets apply common sense and think about what happens to the original hotdog salesman with such a competitor across the street. Yes, that is right. He is boned. Simple economic reality, unless another factor changes in this equation it is nearly impossible to compete with your exact product sold for a much lower price. 

We can all agree on that, right? This is not a hard thing to wrap your mind around. If you cannot understand this concept outright then I’d suggest you find a friend or relative, ask them to drive you to the nearest hospital so that you can be checked for severe head trauma. 

Now, at this point, your average piracy apologist will try to make the following argument : “But Gareth, if what you say is true then how come plenty of game developers survive, even thrive? Explain that Mr Smartypants! Blizzard/Braid/World of Goo!!!!”

Indeed. At this point we cannot entirely rule out head trauma for this individual but they do have a point. If the above situation was the whole story for the game industry then none would survive. Yet many do survive, plainly. So, why? Is the above an incorrect representation of piracy? No. It merely represents the absolute worst case example of piracy for a developer. There are a few other factors which can serve to lessen the negative effect of piracy, to negate it to some extent. These factors mean that the devs aren’t 100% screwed. However, these factors/piracy barriers are also temporary. They are crumbling, even now. Let’s take a look at them :

- Unaware of availability of cloned hotdogs : If someone doesn’t see the free clone stall, ie they don’t know that the option exists, they might buy a legit hotdog simply because they don’t know of another option and want one. A significant portion of games are bought by parents for their children, parents who aren’t aware of The Pirate Bay, for example.

- Unable to access cloned hotdog stand : If the cloned hotdog stand isn’t on the other side of the street, if it is in a building with access control, then people without access will not have that option available to them. In computer terms, not everyone has always-on, fast broadband. In South Africa, for example, it costs me the price of a video game per 2 gigs I download. If I were to download a 6 gig game (an average size these days) it would cost me 3 times what it would in a store. For many people this is simply out of the question, ie the option may as well not exist. Some people do have better connections and can then share the games they download with their friends but this presents some level of an “access barrier” to the piracy option.

- Convenience : If the cloned hotdog stall isn’t across the street but on the other side of town, a customer may decide it is too much bother to walk the distance and simply choose whichever hotdog vendor is nearest him when he gets hungy. Or, say the magical copying machine takes a long time to copy hotdogs. A person might decide they don’t want to wait to eat and go to the original vendor to get a hotdog right now. This is the case when a crack doesn’t yet exist for a game on shelves, a lot of people who are keenly anticipating it will buy it just to play it now. Which is why the goal of anti-piracy systems isn’t really to prevent games being cracked, it is to delay that occurance. However, this also applies in the reverse case, if the game isn’t on shelves but a cracked copy is already on the net then the pirate copy wins the convenience battle.

- Morality : If people know that the cloned hotdogs are happening at the expense of the original salesman’s livilihood, they may decide not to buy from the cloner. The problem with morality is that, if the action is considered minor enough and/or without consequences (or the consequences are hard to notice directly), many people will commit it anyway, see jay-walking and littering for examples.

A small note. I don’t include the “I bought the game to support a company I like” idea under morality. If you only abide by a principle when you really like the intended recipient then it isn’t morality, it is self-serving. If you are only nice to people you like, then you aren’t actually nice in general. Which is why so few people buy Windows, they don’t “like” Windows but it is a necessity.

- Branding/Intangibles : There is power in branding that people can positively identify with. If your brand is strong enough you inspire “brand loyalty”. People will buy brand goods because it makes them feel better about themselves somehow, whether because they want to feel superior to others (designer jeans), because they believe the brand is higher quality (designer jeans/bottled water), because something about the creation process makes them feel good about themselves (eco-friendly products) or because they feel like they are supporting a worthy cause (buying games from a favorite game company).

Ok, I think those 5 cover all bases. If we examine them we can see that, worryingly, 4 out of 5 are temporary, ie over time their strength as “piracy barriers” is weakening. Lets examine.

- Unaware of availability of cloned hotdogs : Within a handful or generations this will completely fall away. We all know how quickly kids pick up tech trends.

- Unable to access cloned hotdog stand : The pace  of technological development is staggering. Net access has gone from the privelege  of a handful to almost a standard in developed countries within my short lifetime. It will only get more pervasive. Not having permantent broadband will be like not having a telephone or TV. The exception rather than the norm.

- Convenience : Again, with the increased penetration of technology the inconvenience of finding pirated goods has dropped considerably. And will continue to drop. If anything, for many people the balance has tipped in the opposite direction. The pirate goods are more convenient. This barrier is almost non-existent in the 1st world.

- Morality : Oh, this is a nasty one. Because attitudes are viral. And, if you’ve been paying attention, the attitude that piracy is acceptable and harmless is growing like wildfire and the justifications are becoming more sophisticated, to the point that people in Sweden (filthy Swedish degenerates) have set up a political party around the idea. As things stand, many people still feel some guilt, regardless of how much the justify it. But the more pervasive these ideas get, the more ingrained they become, the weaker the feelings of guilt, the fewer people that care. If everyone is convinced that piracy doesn’t harm sales then eveyone will feel justified in pirating anything they can get their hands on. And the system will collapse.

-Branding/Intangibles : This one is probably the only barrier resistant to “decay”. Why? Because pirates don’t really have the capacity to compete at this level, nor do they really try. When you offer some great customer service or otherwise inspire “brand loyalty” in customers (like if you are an indie and people want to support indies), you are doing something the pirates cannot. However, that isn’t to say that this is the perfect solution. Branding is a positive factor that works in your favor but it is not a cure. For example, if the entire world goes into financial recession, suddenly people are pinching pennies and your product, even with a positive branding effect, simply cannot compete with the allure of “free”. 

If we consider all these factors, we see that they do not negate the impact of piracy, they simply reduce that impact. Like wearing armor, it won’t stop you taking a hit, but it may mean the difference between merely being injured/hurt and actually dying. And this is exactly what is happening in the real world when we talk about piracy. These factors are absorbing some of the “blow” of piracy, preventing the industry from collapsing. Instead, it is just hurting. But the armor is weakening…new, better armor is needed.

Ok, with that clarified, let us look at some of the other common ways that people try to explain away the negative effect of piracy. Because, by this point, we’ve eliminated the head-trauma cases and are left with the people who have at least some wit. And many turn that wit towards wiggling out of any sense of responsibility, sadly. So let’s have at it :

The White Knight Defense

If I like a game I pirate, I will buy it. If I don’t, then I will delete the pirated copy.

How many times have you heard that one eh? Me, I hear it in every thread where this topic arises. Which is really strange ’cause in real life I’ve met no such moral individual. Odd, eh? That online it would appear that the majority of pirates are so virtuous yet in the real world everyone simply takes what they can because it is there and they want it. Hmmm, how to reconcile such contradictory data?!?!?! I know. We can stop being naive. People can say anything they want online. Pay attention to the people around you, your fellow gamers at lan parties, your friends. How many of them are White Knights? Yeah, not many. This isn’t human nature. The idea that even 5% of pirates fit this mold is incredibly improbable. There may be a handful of people like this out there but I doubt it is more than a tiny fraction. But hey, who knows, perhaps tomorrow I will wake up and pigs will be flying past my window.

The Poor Man’s Defense

I don’t have the money to afford games, boo hoo.

Oh, but life is so hard, isn’t it? Able to afford the computer that can run Crysis but not the actual game itself, what a conundrum! Yeah, pull the other one. There are a range of cheaper game options, but you just have to play the latest games as they come out. It wouldn’t be fair to expect you to find cheap alternatives, or to save up money for the luxuries you want. Poor little  lamb, lets all have a pity party and you can be the guest of honour! Unless you live in Zimbabwe don’t bother trying to illicit sympathy from me on this point, the rand-dollar exchange rate is 1-10. I understand, and I understand that this excuse isn’t good enough.

The Robin Hood Defense

Publishers are bloated corporate parasites. I’m sticking it to “The Man” by not giving them money. Devs see such a tiny fraction of the end profits so I don’t really think I’m hurting them.

This person is a very special type of idiot. They think they are a “rebel” of some sort and people whose interest is primarily in making money are the enemies they are rebelling against. They are probably in possession of at least one shirt with a picture of Che Guevara on it. They are children, either physically or mentally.

They are unable to comprehend that, when a business invests vast sums of money in a creative endeavor, taking the entire burden of financial risk upon itself, that business is not the enemy of creativity. Publishers need returns on their investment to justify repeatedly investing in creative works. Creatives need people with capital willing to invest in big ideas. The fact that these investors are adverse to taking massive risks with millions of dollars is only natural. No one is forcing devs to sign deals with publishers, it is entirely voluntary, they could all give it up and make smaller indie games funded out of their own pockets. But they don’t. When you “stick it to the man”, you stick it to the people who are most able to give the next creative mind a chance, and you make them more risk averse. Good job genius. In the real world, artists and business must often dance together. You cripple the dance partner, you screw over the dance itself.

I know the idea of indies as saviors is a popular one but the fact of the matter is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would never have been painted if Michelangelo was funding it out of his own pocket. Remember this truth before you say stupid things, please. And take off that bloody Che t-shirt, you unintentially-ironic git.

The “Information should be free” defense!

Copyright laws are evil! For the good of society, information should be free!

When I read this I immediately know that odds are good that I’m talking to a young person, probably a teenager or someone in their early 20′s, maybe a student. You rarely find anyone who has worked for 20 years who doesn’t understand why it is better if people who produce a good are given just compensation for their works. When people have moved out from their parents and had to take on the burdens of supporting themselves they can generally understand why people need to be paid for their work. There are a few special cases where copyright laws as they stand are dangerous to the growth of society but these individuals like to use those exceptional cases as justification as to why they should have gigs of pirated movies, games and music on their harddrives. Bah on them.

Secondly, you’re a fool if you think this is about the greedy rich people vs the poor proliteriat. Places like the Pirate Bay run ads. Ads which make them money when you come to their site to download other people’s work. This is a business, make no mistake, and you are making people money. Lots of money. Just not the people who actually deserve it. For reference, Fredrik Neij, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, is listed as one of the top 30 internet millionaires under the age of 30. Good job all you freedom fighters, you’ve certainly helped fight the good fight to make sure the deserving get what is coming to them. You’re a fool if you don’t realise that piracy is big business itself, and the motives of the interests promoting it just as suspect as any “corporate”.

The “Piracy spreads awareness!” defense.

I pirated this game, and I liked it, so I bought the next game from that company. And told my friends to buy it. Piracy is like cheap advertising.

Ok, this one is a bit cleverer, I cannot resort to mere scathing sarcasm to counter it. So instead we’re going to go back to the hotdogs. What happens when a person who wasn’t really in the mood for a hotdog takes one because it is free and discovers he actually loves hotdogs? Surely this is a legitimate argument?

Well, it would be, if the free hotdog stand disappeared the next day. You see, we already have ideas like this. They are called “promotions”. This is when a store hires an attractive young woman to give away free samples of a good in the hope that people will like it and later buy more. And it most definitely works.

Except, try to imaging what would happen if, instead of giving away a free sample of, say, cheese, the busty young lass with the winning smile gave you a special card. And that card allowed you to come into the store and take as much of that cheese as you wanted for free, whenever you wanted, for the rest of your life.

Yeah, I think you get the point now. Don’t be a moron. While this might work in a handful of cases (overlapping with the handful of White Knights, no doubt), the overwhelming majorityof people will simply become aware of the option of never-ending free hotdogs. And now the legitimate producer, who may have tried to run a real promotion for their good no longer has that option open to them.

This argument also implies that it’s proponent doesn’t think that they would have found out about a game except through piracy. I challenge that. I remember when, as a kid demos were prevalent and piracy wasn’t an easy option, we found out about these games regardless. And information dissemination channels have only gotten stronger since those days. Speaking of which…

The “I wanted a longer demo!” defense.

No, really, I just wanted a longer demo! It’s not fair, I need a good demo to judge whether I will like a game! Otherwise I run the risk of buying a lemon!

Ok, seriously, there are a near infinite steam of sources of information about a game available to you to make choices about what games to buy, far more than almost any other physical product. Blogs, game review sites, forum communities… hell, I remember wanting to buy games I’d seen my friends playing when I visited them. Nowadays, about 3 hours after a game is available to play you can watch recorded play sessions on Youtube. That’s what decided me on buying Empire, Total War. Even without a demo this is no real excuse. A little bit of research is all that is required. This is a cheap justification. And it’s like saying you want movie companies to give you a free copy of a movie which you will then watch until you decide that it is good enough for you to stop the DVD and go out to watch it at the cinema. Please, pull the other one. 

The “Piracy is like a library!” defense.

Libraries lend out books. Surely that is what piracy is like, borrowing? How can you say libraries are ok but piracy isn’t? Is the only difference scale?

Partially, but the difference is also in convenience. I talked about convenience above, how if one product is dramatically more convenient to acquire than another then it holds a significant advantage. Well libraries aren’t a challenge to the book shops because of this barrier. A library will typically have 1 or a couple of copies of a book. Lent out for 2 week periods. That means about 26 people can read a book per year from a library. Most of book sale profit will probably come from selling high demand books at the time when they are in high demand. During those periods of high demand, libraries simply cannot supply the demand. Hence, they don’t provide real competition. Imagine if the torrents available to you could only supply 1-2 people per 2 week period in an area. They’d be far less damaging. Most people with disposable income would get tired of waiting in queue and just buy the thing.

And libraries also serve as lesser revenue streams. The library pays for a copy of a book, so that is a sale, and lends that book out to people who may or may not have bought the book in a store. Ie, producers trade an uncertain profit amount for a guaranteed lesser profit. Since the library cannot strongly compete with a book store even given that this is a fairly good deal. Especially since the library doesn’t take the book to an underground scanning facility and procede to copy and distribute the book to everyone on the continent! 

Personally I think this is what game producers should do for older games. Startup a GoG like service, charge people a monthly subscription fee and give them access to all titles that are a few years old. That would maximise revenue for older games which are past their peak sales point. However, note that this is a legit sales model set up by the producers themselves. Not piracy, which is operates outside the economic model.

Ok, I’m sure I’ve missed a few of the many and varied types of lame piracy defenses but I’m a bit tired now. So I’m signing off. Hopefully I will never have to hear that “But Gareth, there is no proof that piracy leads to lost sales, you’re buying the music/game industry propoganda!” argument again.

Hah! Not likely!

It is time.

The portents are in agreement. It is time to return. To return to the land of Spirit and Rain. To climb the mountain trails, to trek to the end of the world. To go to the hidden place and join the Great Dance, to dream the dreams of the Earth and the Moon.

The preparations have been made. The paths of the mind must be opened. The sacred elixors have been brewed in anticipation of this need.

And there will be much need.

Of course, while the mind is being opened the shaman’s physical body will also require nourishment.

That ought to do.

It is time! Washani i’wana u’lungulu! The preparations are made, the moon is full and the Great Spirit Dance is upon us. I go now. To the mountains. To the sky and the rain. To Splashy Fen.

Catch you all after Easter. If you see a stange guy covered in mud, you may just have seen yours truly.