Question for creators

[artorawley]

I have a question for creators about their opinions on others using their games as a means to make money for them self. If you search for a specific game through your search engine of choice you'll no doubt find results leading to various message boards of people uploading freely-distributed games to a variety of payhosts which people can download the game from and give some random schmo free money for linking people to their personal download link rather than directing people to the creator's website or from a non-payhost website. I find this really scummy and I'm not really sure how to put an end to this as DMCA takedowns just lead to a futile, never-ending process that never works in the end. I ask this because over the past year I've been taking programming classes and have begun to dabble in TADS & ADRIFT as I begin to get an idea of what engine I want to use for my first game and I'm going to be taking a digital art class in the Fall that I'm hoping will introduce me to rendering so I can do my own artwork for my first game. However, as perfectly fine as I am making my first game for free in my own free time and offering it at no cost at all, it really pisses me off to know that when I release my first game there's a really good chance some jerk-offs will profit off my hard work while likely not giving me any recognition. It's gotten to the point that its made me consider if I should even bother with the arduous challenge of making my first game (and ensure it's fun and thoroughly tested) during what little free time I have as a full-time college student. I'm wondering if anyone else has thought about this and if it's affected your approach to making games.

[arnii]

As someone who is just starting out writing games, I'm fairly relaxed about people distributing my games - but that's because I just want to get my games and my website out there at this stage.

I guess it mainly becomes a problem if you intend to make money from your games, but I would think most people on here make games as a hobby. I would certainly say that you should only embark on making games if you enjoy the process of making games.

[fleet]

To reduce unauthorized uploading of your game, include the following in the announcement post.
Terms of use:

By installing, you, the end user, agree to the following terms of this agreement:

The game author expressly disclaims any warranty, expressed or implied, and accepts no responsibility for the quality or reliability of any of the games offered. The author accepts no responsibility for any damages to you, your computer, or any other property, person, or corporation which results, directly or indirectly, from the downloading of, installation of, compilation of, and use of the game.

You are not authorized to upload this game to any other site for sharing without specific permission from the author.

Also, include a credits page in your game that includes your name.
I also put my name in the corner of all the gam'e artwork.

While these actions do not eliminate unauthorized uploading, they reduce it.

[artorawley]

As someone who is just starting out writing games, I'm fairly relaxed about people distributing my games - but that's because I just want to get my games and my website out there at this stage.

I guess it mainly becomes a problem if you intend to make money from your games, but I would think most people on here make games as a hobby. I would certainly say that you should only embark on making games if you enjoy the process of making games.

That's the thing, though. If I released a game for free I would be thrilled ot have people sharing my game and spreading word about my game. The problem I have is the payhost bloodsuckers that wil ltake someone's game, upload it to their payhost, not credit the author of the game or write any sort of blurb like "Hey, check out this author's website here: ______" or "Support this author by _____" (I think since they do this crap so often it's robotic at this point), and then rake in the nickels or whatever kickback they get from the hundreds or thousands of downloads they get after spamming their payhost link on multiple websites. Making a buck (or several hundred) off someone else's hard work that they offer free of charge just really chafes me.

To reduce unauthorized uploading of your game, include the following in the announcement post.
Terms of use:

By installing, you, the end user, agree to the following terms of this agreement:

The game author expressly disclaims any warranty, expressed or implied, and accepts no responsibility for the quality or reliability of any of the games offered. The author accepts no responsibility for any damages to you, your computer, or any other property, person, or corporation which results, directly or indirectly, from the downloading of, installation of, compilation of, and use of the game.

You are not authorized to upload this game to any other site for sharing without specific permission from the author.

Also, include a credits page in your game that includes your name.
I also put my name in the corner of all the gam'e artwork.

While these actions do not eliminate unauthorized uploading, they reduce it.

Unfortunately those sort of legal threats mean nothing to most pirates, especially the ones residing in countries that don't follow DMCA law. Your point about including an author's credits section is good, though, and was one of the ideas I had to try and combat this scummy practice.

[ExLibris]

Unfortunately, if you publish something on the Internet you basically have to accept that it's going to be redistributed without your permission.

I agree with fleet's suggestions, especially inserting a credits page (including contact details) somewhere that would be difficult to remove. However, if you really want to stop your game being pirated just don't include any graphics.

[Wolfschadowe]

I don't plan to make money with my games, so this isn't as big of a factor for me. It will be irksome when someone else takes credit for my work, but I am resigned to the fact that it will happen and it's not worth my effort and time to try to outwit anyone who tries. I know any attempt to do so will ultimately fail anyway.

I am including a credits page that also includes a donation link, although both can be replaced easily by anyone who can edit a webpage. My expectations from the donation link is to maybe, if I'm really lucky, get enough for a nice dinner. I am fortunate enough to be in a position that I don't need to make money from it, and the donation link is included mainly as a way for folks who are so inclined to say thanks. At the end of the day, I expect my game will be pirated and cross-loaded within an hour of release. Not because I expect it's that good, but because that's the nature of things these days. I don't really care if those folks make money off of it although it will be without my permission. I will really appreciate it if they would at least leave my name on it for credit for the work.

Wolfschadowe.

[fleet]

On the game credits page including the name of the 'authorized' host sites and a statement about 'if you didn't get this from the authorized site then it was uploaded without author permission' does REDUCE unauthorized uploading. Nothing that I know of will eliminate unauthorized uploading.
Placing your name on all of the images pretty much eliminates the problem of not crediting.

[tlaero]

I was very annoyed when someone modified one of my games and uploaded it to an Android store. Besides the normal difficulties with pirates and thieves, I have the added challenge of wanting to stay anonymous. So, like others have said, there's not much I can do. Fleet's suggestions, though, are good, especially the watermark on the images. Artists have been doing that for millennia and I'm sad that I didn't think of it. Nice, Fleet.

A couple of random thoughts.
1) Erotic games are a terrible way to make money. (I know you weren't planning to.) Go in with eyes open. If you can code and tell stories, there are a ton of good paying jobs you can get. If money matters at all, you're better off with one of them.

2) The internet gives you access to billions of people. Even if there are a million good people for every thief, you'll still run into thousands of crooks and thieves. Don't get into the depression of thinking that everyone's bad. Most people are good. You're just running afoul of the tiny percentage that isn't.

3) Have a support group in place. When my game was pirated, the outpouring of support people here in the Lagoon gave me helped my mental state immensely.

4) People have been trying to do copy protection since the dawn of personal computers, and none has worked. You can reduce it with techniques like Fleet suggested, but you can't stop it.

I hope you find the right balance that lets you create something you're proud of.

Tlaero

[Greyelf]

4) People have been trying to do copy protection since the dawn of personal computers, and none has worked.

The one consistent thing that copy protection has achieved over the years is too make it harder for the "Good People" (tm) to use the thing being protected, whereas the "Bad People" (tm) just remove/bypass it.

[artorawley]

I appreciate all the responses. Also, I guess something was lost in translation but I'm not interested in trying to make money off my game, I plan on releasing it for free or not at all. My beef was with the people that take these free games released here and on the AIF group page but upload them to a payhost and spam it to dozens of websites and messageboards so that they can make money off someone else's work with each download. The really crappy thing about this practice is that typically if you search for a game on, say, Google you typically find these payhost links at the top of the search before finding the creator's personal website or their thread on here or on the AIF group. But I appreciate the input, I still plan on making my game and will likely include graphics and not strictly make it a text game to help bolster its quality and appeal. I like the idea of including watermarks, disclaimers, credits and the like from within the game that couldn't be removed or altered so I think I'll just go that route.

[tlaero]

The one consistent thing that copy protection has achieved over the years is too make it harder for the "Good People" (tm) to use the thing being protected

The one exception to this was the original infocom games. They came with cool toys and things in the box and, at some point in the game, you needed info from one of those physical toys. It didn't stop piracy, but it didn't hurt the real players because the benefit of getting the toys outweighed the small annoyance of needing to use them. But, in general, you're right. Copy protection tends to hurt legitimate people more than it hinders the thieves.

Tlaero

[Greyelf]

The one exception to this was the original infocom games. They came with cool toys and things in the box and, at some point in the game, you needed info from one of those physical toys.

I also liked how Sierra used information like glyphs in their printed manuals for their xxxxxx Quest point and click adventures, though that is less effective now we have widespread scanner and internet access.