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Game Publisher Following Pirates To Find a Market
RossR writes "A Chinese multiplayer online game company is taking note of the success of 'private servers' running pirated and altered versions. In moves that show some common sense, when a pirate server is taken down Shanda Games sees it as a sign of a underserved market. Properly licensed servers are occasionally installed for the geographic location previously covered by the unlicensed servers. Shanda is taking it a step further by developing a new platform that would allow for the flexible rule changes favored in the hacked versions. Also of interest is the article's reference to the escalation of cyber attacks between private server providers."
Chinese company is going out of their way to give players what they want
And at the same time US companies are removing dedicated servers completely, applying heavy DRM instead of rethinking their business model, making it impossible to create mods and in general do everything they can to hinder players ability to enjoy games how they want.
It really looks like US is going downhill and fast while other countries do things correctly and will enjoy the results.
Google+ vs. Facebook, and why Google+ will fail
I really don't want to hear that word today.
You'd be surprised how often people will resort to a DDoS on your (popular) private server to drive traffic to their competing server.
in China the rate of software pirates is alot higher then in the us and other places.
Chinese games work differently. You don't pay for the game or access to it, but for game items. Sort of like TF2. It's a good business model, too, and is working really good for Valve in the US. While you can get the items from store, you can also get them from drops, trading, achievements or by crafting them and it doesn't affect the gameplay negatively.
Google+ vs. Facebook, and why Google+ will fail
Uh, Perfect World has items that are solely from the cash shop.
Nobody cares what the CAPTCHA for your post was.
This is what people have warned companies for a very long time, adapt to the market or die. They're adapting, and hey, look it's working.
Same story with the music/film industry. There are already alternatives to the old markets, much better from every point of view.
It's ironic, but despite DRM and **AA efforts, it's companies like this that will reduce piracy by offering people what they want, not lawsuits and loss of personal freedoms.
Just for the record that content distribution model began with Korean games.
Also of interest is the article's reference to the escalation of cyber attacks between private server providers.
I see no evidence of escalation presented; periodic wars between rival private servers have been commonplace for at least the past eight or nine years.
Problem is that free-to-play only works for certain kinds of games. It took a few years of work to convert TF2 from the traditional release to the current F2P form, and the game changed so much that they lost quite a few of their early players (myself included).
Basically, it ONLY works in multiplayer (many people either can't, or won't, play online), and it ONLY works in high-variety games. You couldn't make a F2P version of Portal, for instance - there's not enough variety of useful items to sell, and you can't go far at all selling cosmetic-only items.
You can't have the entire game industry based around F2P. At least, not one that was previously established using the "traditional" model. You'll lose a significant chunk of your market just by making a game that [em]could[/em] be F2P (from the Portal 2 stats, about 40% of players never even start online mode), and you'll lose another major chunk if you do make it F2P (many long-time gamers refuse to play "free" games as they've been conditioned to expect it to be low-quality, others will refuse because quite often bought items DO trash the game balance). Even in China, F2P is a trend, not a rule. There are many, many Chinese games made according to the traditional formula.
Meanwhile, lost in the announcement of D3's ban on offline play was the fact that Blizzard is also banning modded servers. Apparently they don't understand that sometimes people like to adjust the rules to fit their own h tastes.
Hopefully they come to their senses and realize that modders have made some of this generation's best games. Counterstrike, TF2, DOTA, and so on... It's stunningly foolish to turn their backs on all that.
1) Developers release games with dedicated servers that can be run by anyone
2) Multiplayer games get popular, running servers is free and easy and anyone can do it. Years of value comes out of a single game thanks to mod tools and extensibility and the fact that anyone can run a server for their favourite mod.
3) Developers slowly cut back on dedicated servers as they want to control the game experience once they realise they can sell you less DLC when mods exist.
4) Multiplayer games get less fun and more irritating because they only last a few months before the sequel is announced or you have to buy DLC to extend it and keep playing with everyone else that bought the DLC.
5) Game developers notice that private servers are really popular for some weird reason and start thinking that maybe they'd be a good idea for their next game!
While only a personal anecdote, i have not seen a micro-payment game that had its game balance wrecked by bought items.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
Dear /.,
Piracy is ship to ship armed robbery, kidnapping and murder. Every time you call copyright infringement "piracy" you are making light of what's happeing off the horn of Africa and making copying a floppy sound like a capital crime. Stop playing their game.
Semi-literate excuses in 3... 2... 1....
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
This is silly. I played TF since the original Quake version. TF2 as a F2P works great and does nothing to alienate old, hardcore players.
You can just ignore other people's items, as I do. The game is still the same. Quit bitching already.