abelius
patreon
A word about "piracy"
🕑 Added 2024-03-07 14:57:13 +0000 UTCThe following post has been published on my Discord server. I'm reproducing it here.
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Soooo...
I admit these days I’ve been thinking hard and long about the leak.
I wasn’t so mad as on previous occasions, even though they didn’t leak it during the beta stage. No, I was more surprised that this individual hates me so much that he is willing to spend $35 just to spite me.
I don’t know what I did to him, but knowing thousands play my game I guess it’s only normal the occasional crazy is going to stalk me, no matter what I do, don’t do, or what my intentions are.
And, after the initial shock, I’ve looked into ways for this episode not to repeat. And trust me there are many and more than enough to make the easy scraping a lot more difficult. Hard enough so he would need to avail of the services of someone who actually knows what is doing.
I evaluated things like a licensing server, subscriber authorization, mandatory connection, etc. None of them are infallible to a competent individual, but yeah... we aren’t dealing with someone of that level here.
But then I thought about you guys...
“Do I want to impose those requirements on the hundreds of people who are helping me every month...?”
No, not really.
”Do I want to add yet another ongoing task to my workload...?”
Also no.
So, I’ve decided to go with the flow and ignore the hate from that tiny minority for whom the work I do will never be enough.
If they want to spend more money to leak the game to a site where only 2% of people end up supporting my work, so be it. They have my pity, I have their money.
But that’s just one thing remaining that I cannot let pass: flawed betas being distributed.
Yeah, veteran players should understand a beta is going to be loaded with bugs. Even releases aren’t bug-free. However, I still don’t want them being played by the masses as if that is what I have to offer.
That’s the real damage this guy has done. It’s not about the money lost from people not needing to “buy” access to the game. It’s about the reputation of my work.
Therefore, the only change I will implement from v0.13 onward will be that I’ll directly send the beta link ONLY to white-listed Edward Lewis supporters.
What gets you “white-listed”? Well, for example, not signing up to Patreon/SS, and the next freaking minute cancel your subscription. That mainly. So, people who have been around for a while, even if they aren’t active supporters for months, won’t have any problems accessing the beta.
For the rest of you (release tier users) I won’t implement any restriction whatsoever. When it is your time, you’ll see a post on Patreon/SS with the link.
And, to be honest, if support greatly improves in the future, I may very well decide to remove delays for all release tiers, and depend on you guys tipping me in proportion to the value you feel you’ve received from my work.
Alas, sadly I can’t afford that for now, because a big chunk of my income depends on one-off “purchases”, not sustained subscriptions.
Anyway, this is what I have to say. Guys... I just want to focus on my project, grow this game to my vision, and that many, many people around the World enjoy the fruits of the work I decided years ago would be my livelihood.
Thanks for tagging along.
P.S: I’ll release v0.12, officially, in a bit.
