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'How piracy works' according to Minecraft creator

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Re: 'How piracy works' according to Minecraft creator

#61

Post by gaius »

storm wrote: post #12
wccrawford wrote: post #2

Sadly, pirates don't actually convince their friends to buy it. They help them pirate it. He's right about doing what he can to provide features that pirates can't take advantage of, though. That's the only way to actually combat piracy.

> Sadly, pirates don't actually convince their friends to buy it. They help them pirate it. Pirating software is often a pain - find a proper release, install, replace a binary, generate a key, avoid online services, seek out cracked updates (or go without them). If your time has value, it's hardly free. Do you really think everyone pirating anything is going through this process for every Tom, Dick and Harry they kn…

Do you really think everyone pirating anything is going through this process for every Tom, Dick and Harry they know

Probably, yes. They're trading their time for social capital.

Re: 'How piracy works' according to Minecraft creator

#63

Post by njharman »

wccrawford wrote: post #2

Sadly, pirates don't actually convince their friends to buy it. They help them pirate it. He's right about doing what he can to provide features that pirates can't take advantage of, though. That's the only way to actually combat piracy.

> Sadly, pirates don't actually convince their friends to buy it.

Untrue, I have direct personal proof to the contrary ;)

Re: 'How piracy works' according to Minecraft creator

#64

Post by mattmaroon »

rsbrown wrote: post #3

"why fight the biggest revolution in information flow since the printing press when you could easily work with it by adding services that actually add some value beyond the free act of making a digital copy?" This is very intelligent insight on the author's part. It's also the same argument that has been staring the RIAA in the face for over a decade: you can't fight the future, so you'd better figure out a better wa…

You certainly can fight the pirates. You perhaps can't win the war, but you don't really have to to make it worthwhile. That's why they keep being fought.

I would guess that whatever the RIAA spends on fighting piracy is recouped tenfold in iTunes sales. iTunes would not exist if nobody fought piracy and legitimate business models could be built on it. (i.e. if What.cd had the ability to be a venture-funded startup.) Just keeping piracy underground, no matter how successful it is there, is a positive ROI.

Granted all of that is still not as good, from the RIAA's perspective, as the old model. And it's maybe not as good as some potential future model that nobody's discovered yet. But it still generates large revenues and will continue to fight for it's own existence.

Re: 'How piracy works' according to Minecraft creator

#66

Post by nfriedly »

barkingcat wrote: post #59

Perhaps then the goal is to have a mutable pricing structure that responds to market pressure. If it really doesn't cost anything to produce 1 additional electronic copy, something like this might work. At launch date / first to market, there is a high price tag for the digital good (whether it be music, game, movie, etc). This is so that the vendor/author can make sure that they can sell at a high price to those "fi…

That sounds like the reverse of what http://amiestreet.com does with music - they start it at free and the price goes up to 99c based on demand.

If you buy it at the low price, you can "recommend" it (write a review) and then later after the price has risen, get the difference in price credited to your account. (The difference between the price at the time of the review and the current price.)

Unfortunately I think they're closing up shop in a month or two...

Re: 'How piracy works' according to Minecraft creator

#67

Post by barkingcat »

nfriedly wrote: post #66
barkingcat wrote: post #59

Perhaps then the goal is to have a mutable pricing structure that responds to market pressure. If it really doesn't cost anything to produce 1 additional electronic copy, something like this might work. At launch date / first to market, there is a high price tag for the digital good (whether it be music, game, movie, etc). This is so that the vendor/author can make sure that they can sell at a high price to those "fi…

That sounds like the reverse of what http://amiestreet.com does with music - they start it at free and the price goes up to 99c based on demand. If you buy it at the low price, you can "recommend" it (write a review) and then later after the price has risen, get the difference in price credited to your account. (The difference between the price at the time of the review and the current price.) Unfortunately I think t…

That's why you start high, and then go down. People actually want to pay you buckets of cash if you let them - all startups should keep that in mind.

As a consumer, I've also thought - hey this service/product is totally worth $50, and I would give them that money - but it's priced at $10 - so I'll just pay what they ask - 10 bux it is - it's a steal! - Great for me, not so great for the seller.

Have you ever felt like that as a consumer?

And if you're looking for consumers who can't afford more than $10 to spend on this theoretical product, maybe you're in the wrong industry segment, or you need to match the sale price with the production costs - ie you can't hire coders at $80,000/year just to make a $10/user product - until you hit that scale of # of customers.

McDonald's hires kids for their crew at perhaps $12,000/year, and sells burger meals for average, maybe $6 - $10.

And they're extremely profitable - even though they are selling physical goods with warehouses, processing plants, real estate, etc.

Re: 'How piracy works' according to Minecraft creator

#68

Post by Groxx »

Revisor wrote: post #65

What he describes can be summed up as "Don't sell games, sell services". And I wholeheartedly agree. Games-as-a-service in the future?

Present. There are a number of games that require internet access - MMOs, some where your save file is online, and some which simply phone home frequently. ie, Assassin's Creed 2.

Re: 'How piracy works' according to Minecraft creator

#69

Post by ZeroGravitas »

mattmaroon wrote: post #64
rsbrown wrote: post #3

"why fight the biggest revolution in information flow since the printing press when you could easily work with it by adding services that actually add some value beyond the free act of making a digital copy?" This is very intelligent insight on the author's part. It's also the same argument that has been staring the RIAA in the face for over a decade: you can't fight the future, so you'd better figure out a better wa…

You certainly can fight the pirates. You perhaps can't win the war, but you don't really have to to make it worthwhile. That's why they keep being fought. I would guess that whatever the RIAA spends on fighting piracy is recouped tenfold in iTunes sales. iTunes would not exist if nobody fought piracy and legitimate business models could be built on it. (i.e. if What.cd had the ability to be a venture-funded startup.)…

Strangely, for many years iTunes did not exist because people were "fighting" piracy while Steve Jobs and Apple were repeatedly rebuffed for telling them that they couldn't fight it, instead they had to compete with it.

This is covered in his Rolling Stone magazine interview:

www.keystonemac.com/pdfs/Steve_Jobs_Interview.pdf

Re: 'How piracy works' according to Minecraft creator

#70

Post by Revisor »

Groxx wrote: post #68
Revisor wrote: post #65

What he describes can be summed up as "Don't sell games, sell services". And I wholeheartedly agree. Games-as-a-service in the future?

Present. There are a number of games that require internet access - MMOs, some where your save file is online, and some which simply phone home frequently. ie, Assassin's Creed 2.

Not considering MMOs, those other examples sound more like a nuisance (DRM) than an extra service.
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