I pirated NieR Automata having absolutely no idea anything about Yoko Taro or his games.
Long story short, I bought NieR Automata 7 times, NieR Replicant 1.22 3 times (including preordering the more expensive White Snow Collectors Edition), imported a Japanese copy of NieR Gestalt and bought it on the Xbox backwards compatibility store, and spent money on the mobile gacha game not even for characters, but literally just to give Square my money and say “I want more Yoko Taro games.”
Nobody can ever convince me that piracy causes companies to lose money long term if they actually make a good product. Piracy is the best thing consumers can do to protect themselves from a bad purchase, and trying to prevent it is a predatory practice to increase sales to people who then cannot return the product for a refund if they don’t like it.
Sometimes I wonder to myself: why pay in advance? Why can’t we get back our money because something is not good as we thought it would be?
You pirated an ebook? You can buy it after reading if you enjoyed it.
A game? Same.
And so on.
I like that indie games are bringing demos back. Like actually playable demos, not like a tech demo, the first 1-5 levels, so you can get a proper feel for the game before you shell out. 6 of the last 9 demos I played in the past year resulted in me purchasing the game.
There was some interesting study how much % of games we buy (on sales) we don’t play. The reality is we can get bored and have a new shiny thing. And also we are limited by finite time.
I once pirated Cuphead and loved it so much that I felt bad not supporting and buying it. It was only after First Isle.
I pirated NieR Automata having absolutely no idea anything about Yoko Taro or his games.
Long story short, I bought NieR Automata 7 times, NieR Replicant 1.22 3 times (including preordering the more expensive White Snow Collectors Edition), imported a Japanese copy of NieR Gestalt and bought it on the Xbox backwards compatibility store, and spent money on the mobile gacha game not even for characters, but literally just to give Square my money and say “I want more Yoko Taro games.”
Nobody can ever convince me that piracy causes companies to lose money long term if they actually make a good product. Piracy is the best thing consumers can do to protect themselves from a bad purchase, and trying to prevent it is a predatory practice to increase sales to people who then cannot return the product for a refund if they don’t like it.
Sometimes I wonder to myself: why pay in advance? Why can’t we get back our money because something is not good as we thought it would be? You pirated an ebook? You can buy it after reading if you enjoyed it. A game? Same. And so on.
I like that indie games are bringing demos back. Like actually playable demos, not like a tech demo, the first 1-5 levels, so you can get a proper feel for the game before you shell out. 6 of the last 9 demos I played in the past year resulted in me purchasing the game.
That’s how drug dealers gets you addicted haha
And they do it because it works. It builds good will, shows that the product is high quality, clean and pure.
If it didn’t have an official demo, I “acquired” it before I bought it.
I don’t buy games unless I know it will be something I like.
There was some interesting study how much % of games we buy (on sales) we don’t play. The reality is we can get bored and have a new shiny thing. And also we are limited by finite time.