Bittorrent tracker targeted by game devs - "Please don't pirate our game!"

Gamer Limit writes "Just when you thought public relations with software pirates couldn't get any weirder, Ace Team, the developers behind Zeno Clash, have started posting comments on a popular torrent tracker."

[chrisjc]

I hope to God the pirates will listen. The game is great, and that's really sad the devs have to do this.

I also find it hilarious that the devs obviously know the big trackers, like Mininova. It must be like a running joke "hey guys, let's go on the tracker and say this torrent doesn't work/is a virus!"

I bet if every dev flooded trackers with virus comments, there'd be a lot less piracy.

[poindat]

Maybe not. All it would do is create hostilities between the pirates and developers. Not only would it show an extreme immaturity on the developer's part, but piracy rates for their games would probably increase.

I like the way Ace Team did it here. No negative statements, just trying to 'bridge the gap' so to speak. It pays to be considerate.

[iamtehpwn]

but I would go buy the game legally if I was interested, and read that.

[jackdoe]

Lol, Poindat, it just strikes me as hilarious when developers try to bridge the gap with people who pirate their games. It would be just like a restaurant saying to people who dine and dash, if you enjoy the food pay for it or like banks to robbers, if you like the cash, try to make your own.

[uie4rhig]

believe it or not, but since i bought my PS3 i only downloaded one game.. that is CoD4.. and that was AFTER i bought the PS3 version.. not played much with the PC version coz pc cudn't handle it but that is the only game that i have downloaded since i bought a ps3 on the UK launch date .. i'm happy and devs are happy..:)

[N4g_null]

That is the one thing I love about the PS3 it has not been hacked yet!

[Cicinho]

hahahaha poor guys begging it. Same this wasn't an Xbox game or I would have pirated it.

[SkankinGarbage]

That's pretty bold. I appreciate that kind of move.

[TrevorPhillips]

Busted!

[360Hater]

Be back when done. Oh wait I guess this sorta has the opposite affect? lol. Oh well.

[Fullish]

Heh, what can they do? Either way they lose.

[HDgamer]

Only idiots use torrents. It's all about rapidshare, megaupload and those types of services lol.

[morganfell]

Well you must not think much of Microsoft. They intentionally leaked Windows 7 beta over bit torrent. The beta release would have failed without bit torrent and they know it.

[vickers500]

Good luck paying 50$(or w/e the hell it is) a year just to get a download 5 minutes faster.

[Kushan]

"The beta release would have failed without bit torrent and they know it."

The purpose of the beta is to TEST the OS, to make sure it works on a huge variety of systems with as few bugs as possible. It wasn't to drum up hype, that's what the marketing department was for. So how exactly would it have "failed"? Are you trying to say that less people would have used it, thus less bugs were found? If so, what's your point? That people shouldn't have bothered with it? That we should just let MS release a buggy OS?

Also, the Beta was released FOR FREE on Microsoft's own website, if you wanted it, you could get it LEGITIMATELY straight from the source. Nothing was "leaked".
Sure, it came out a few days before it was supposed to, but how exactly would that have made a difference?

[J8M7G]

newzbin gets game,s movies, albums n apps way before torrent sites and upload sites, plus its more than 5 mins earlier that downloads finish on newsgroups, i can get any file i want at 300megs a second (thats 21 seconds per film).
Only games i download tho is wii cus they're pretty much all crap anyway i buy ps3 and 360, and films if i like them i will get on bluray.
pm me if you want an invite to newzbin.

[OSIRUSSS]

Newsgroups are the way to go. I DL'd the Spirit at 720p and save the file to my 16 gig Memory Stick and watched it on my PS3. I was amazed it worked but it did.

[morganfell]

Points from tuxgeek:

It should be clear to all of us that these versions floating around various torrent sites – and especially the beta 1 – are carefully planned by public relations. And it’s brilliant. Why?

* Because they reach their target audience, people with tech skills who are still enthusiastic about Windows and are taking time to download, install and test the operating system. Most of them have blogs and will surely post something about it and creating hype for the next release.
* Zero distribution costs via peer-to-peer networks; no responsibility for download speed or failures.
* Press coverage on all the major blogs with little adverse consequences; even if the review is negative – the release is not official.
* A large, no-consequences, zero logistics, no expense beta test; Judging by ThePirateBay seeder/leecher ratio and the time of upload, more than 30 000 tech savvy people are running Windows 7 beta 1 right now and probably submitting bugs, crash reports and hardware information.
* Frameworks inside Windows 7 allow remote deactivation or ‘crippling’ via de WGA scheme. Your copy of Windows 7 works because Microsoft lets you. And they know a new machine is online the minute Windows connects to the internet.

[Kushan]

morganfell, the only valid point made there was the distribution costs. That's it. The rest still applies be it P2P or otherwise. What of those points would have caused the beta to "fail" if it hadn't been released on P2P groups?

[HDgamer]

Rapidshare links has things that torrents don't have and they are better especially since they don't require a seed for a download. If you really wanted something all you have to do it download it at top speed.

[morganfell]

Because without torrents the beta would not have been spread to a wide enough audience in order to get a better handle on issues and there would have been less buzz...and those are the two things a beta is designed to do. Without them, a piece of software fails in a public beta.

[Kushan]

So you seriously mean to say that every person with enough technical knowledge to download the beta via Bit torrent or whatever and install it on their PC was incapable of getting it from Microsoft's own website?
I find that hard to believe.

[morganfell]

Did I say that? Keep making things up and this discussion becomes useless. No that isn't true but MS saved huge amounts of money and they bear no responsibility while passing the beta to hordes of persons.

[Kushan]

Yes, as a matter of fact you did say that, because you keep coming up with points about how the beta would have "failed" if it hadn't been released on P2P networks, yet every point you've made so far has no relevance to that. All of the same rules apply whether people got it from Piratebay or Microsoft.com - it's beta software in either case and Microsoft's support is the same. If anyone wanted the beta, they could get it just as easily from Microsoft themselves.

[morganfell]

No. You are wrong. I did not say that and I stated if you persisted in that dumb line of inventing things then I was finished. Well I am finished.

I did not say that. Read it again or go back to school, get some reading lessons, improve your comprehension and try again. Whatever, I do not care but you are on your own. Don't bother PMing me either.

Some of the best minds out there will not go to the MS site. And the type of volume needed to run a truly successful test was not offered through the MS site. Frankly the buzz for Win 7 was far lower than Vista. It is in danger of being dead out of the box and MS is getting worried. You see, you ignore all sorts of facts like the seceond purpose of a beta.

Well here is where I am smart enough to let it go. Without the data brought in from hundreds of thousands of of betas distributed through bit torrent the beta would have been a failure. You can't see that.

Could people have gotten it from the MS site? Yes and no as MS kept locking the limit - it made it seem more valuable. But the fact is people didn't want to go through the registration process. You can't see that either.

People like to feel as if they are getting over. You can't see that.

Getting it from a torrent site is loads easier than what I did - you can't see that.

Win 7 is fairly worthless - especially compared to Ubuntu 9.04 - don't know if you can see that and frankly I do not care. I am done here.

[Kushan]

You said you were finished and then wrote half a page of text...

[solar]

i buy my games. pirates of all sorts piss me off. btw, Zeno Clash (the pic in the story) is a sweet ass game. i recommend anyone with $20 to spend on an indy game to check it out on Steam. awesome art direction, the FPB combat was pretty good, and the story is one that leaves you going o.O. cant wait for its DLC.

[TheIneffableBob]

The DLC is going to be Garry's Mod support for the character models. I can't wait for the Deinother/Deadra sex poses. :P

[trgz]

Well this story may have gained them an extra sale or two from the publicity it's got - I'd never heard of it, but I may now.
I hope there's a demo due - I can't condone the pirating of games but you can understand why some people feel the need - there really must be the option to try before you buy especially for PC material where nobody can get a return on a game that doesn't run (cue the legitimate decrying of PC's vagaries by console owners!). There are many companies now that release a game without a demo (hint: rhymes with 'Dubisoft') a tactic which smacks of a cover-up of a poor game from the start.

[syvergy]

I think that's a pretty good idea, it appeals to those who might still feel bad about what they are going to do

[TrevorPhillips]

stupid people do stupid things we all know that

Agree if im right.
Disagree if im wrong.

[Sarick]

I don't totally agree with you because smart people can do stupid things too.

[LONEWOLF231]

This game is awesome.

Played it and will buy again if it ever releases disk based!
I hope it does.

[TheIneffableBob]

It's being sold at retail in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia Lithuania, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

[Fullish]

must get.

[Redempteur]

doing that kind of thing only increase the number of people that will pirate your game at first ..only if the game is good then the number of sales should go up ...

[nightelfmohawk]

The only PC companies that will survive are those that actually convince gamers to pay for a service (streaming games, subscriptions, etc.) instead of a product. No wonder companies like Crytek, Id, etc. are focusing more on consoles now.

[zagibu]

Well, there is still Blizzard. Strangely enough, they have no problems selling their products. Maybe it's because they are good?
I have bought Zenoclash, and finished it in 6 hours. It's a very artistic game, but the gameplay is...well, let's just say it didn't really work for me. Also, there is practically no replay value.

[zonetrooper5]

Alot of rips on pirate sites in the .nfo file it will tell you that if you like that piece of media/software etc then you should go out and buy it to support the developers.

[Mr Face Creamer]

And yet after pressing Enter for about 25 times, you see that small message... Why even leak the game on the web if you want people to buy it?

Everybody starts saying: "I'll download it. Big whoop. Suck on that corporate."

Yet people are killing the world's most popular gaming system.

Pirates disgust me, even you people out there who downloaded Halo 1 or Battlefield 2 to "try it out".

[Azurite]

Never heard of the game... gonna check it out.

[PopEmUp]

I'm one of the developers of Zeno Clash. I would appreciate you read this if you are about to download this file.

Zeno Clash is an independently funded game by a very small and sacrificed group of people. The only way in which we can continue making games like this (or a sequel) is to have good sales.

I am aware that at this moment there is still no demo of the game, but we are working on one which will be available soon.

We cannot do anything to stop piracy of the game (and honestly don't intend to do so) but if you are downloading because you wish to try before you buy, I would ask that you purchase the game (and support the independent game development scene) if you enjoy it. We plan on updating Zeno Clash with DLC and continuing support for the game long after it's release.

Thanks for taking the time to read this... hopefully it will make a difference.

Carlos Bordeu
ACE Team

[DSilva]

Although it seems useless, I think if his comments affect one person, then it was worth it. A sale is a sale and I hope this affects most people. Hopefully, too, it's a good game.

Kudos for not trying to stop piracy but instead promoting support for indie games and their devs.

[evilmonkey501]

I think its kinda a good idea for them to post that...sometimes people read post like that and actually think about it...I did at least.