Someone is pirating Universe Sandbox Alpha

[pac0master]

I wonder if you ( Dev of US2 ) can make a Cracked version of the game and share it as a Torrent.
But adding small problems ingame  For instance, The devs of ( Game dev Tycoon )  made that after some time,  you were facing Bankruptcy because people pirate your game )  This was only done on the false version they have uploaded.

Basically, if you make a false cracked game which you upload on any torrent website, you might become the most seeded. which give you power over the pirated game in some ways.
You could make the game a bit buggy or having popup or something which will interfere with the players
( buy the game now)  or something might be funny to see.  Or simply entirely disable different option like changing the mass of a planet without saying that it is restricted because it's an illegal copy, just let it apear as if it was a glitch.  you might even have players coming on the forum claiming they found glitches which might be hilarious.

 Plus maybe you can add an ingame poll or something which send anonymous data to a server where you can see what they think about. and how many people installed it.

[Xriqxa]

Beautiful idea.

Would flood the bugs subforum though

[Estwald]

I wonder if you ( Dev of US2 ) can make a Cracked version of the game and share it as a Torrent.
But adding small problems ingame  For instance, The devs of ( Game dev Tycoon )  made that after some time,  you were facing Bankruptcy because people pirate your game )  This was only done on the false version they have uploaded.

Basically, if you make a false cracked game which you upload on any torrent website, you might become the most seeded. which give you power over the pirated game in some ways.
You could make the game a bit buggy or having popup or something which will interfere with the players
( buy the game now)  or something might be funny to see.  Or simply entirely disable different option like changing the mass of a planet without saying that it is restricted because it's an illegal copy, just let it apear as if it was a glitch.  you might even have players coming on the forum claiming they found glitches which might be hilarious.

 Plus maybe you can add an ingame poll or something which send anonymous data to a server where you can see what they think about. and how many people installed it.

Well, it won't work anymore now that you said it publicly

[nosirrbro]

I wonder if you ( Dev of US2 ) can make a Cracked version of the game and share it as a Torrent.
But adding small problems ingame  For instance, The devs of ( Game dev Tycoon )  made that after some time,  you were facing Bankruptcy because people pirate your game )  This was only done on the false version they have uploaded.

Basically, if you make a false cracked game which you upload on any torrent website, you might become the most seeded. which give you power over the pirated game in some ways.
You could make the game a bit buggy or having popup or something which will interfere with the players
( buy the game now)  or something might be funny to see.  Or simply entirely disable different option like changing the mass of a planet without saying that it is restricted because it's an illegal copy, just let it apear as if it was a glitch.  you might even have players coming on the forum claiming they found glitches which might be hilarious.

 Plus maybe you can add an ingame poll or something which send anonymous data to a server where you can see what they think about. and how many people installed it.

Well, it won't work anymore now that you said it publicly

It might, and if it did it would be hilarious seeing people who pirated it's reaction to that comment... lel

[Xriqxa]

I'm sure the people who pirate it don't know about Dan and how this is actually an indie game keeping him and his crew alive... therefore they probably aren't on the forums thus they wouldn't see this.

[Killua48]

can i be a tester i love the simulation and colliding each planet

[creeperz1211]

can i be a tester i love the simulation and colliding each planet

you can buy universe sandbox 2 here www.universesandbox.com/buy

[Plutonium]

I wonder if you ( Dev of US2 ) can make a Cracked version of the game and share it as a Torrent.
But adding small problems ingame  For instance, The devs of ( Game dev Tycoon )  made that after some time,  you were facing Bankruptcy because people pirate your game )  This was only done on the false version they have uploaded.

Basically, if you make a false cracked game which you upload on any torrent website, you might become the most seeded. which give you power over the pirated game in some ways.
You could make the game a bit buggy or having popup or something which will interfere with the players
( buy the game now)  or something might be funny to see.  Or simply entirely disable different option like changing the mass of a planet without saying that it is restricted because it's an illegal copy, just let it apear as if it was a glitch.  you might even have players coming on the forum claiming they found glitches which might be hilarious.

 Plus maybe you can add an ingame poll or something which send anonymous data to a server where you can see what they think about. and how many people installed it.

Well, it won't work anymore now that you said it publicly

It might, and if it did it would be hilarious seeing people who pirated it's reaction to that comment... lel

If you think that pirates/filesharers are that stupid then you are really misinformed (not talking about 12 year old kids d/l-ing everything). These sort of things can backfire, imagine lots of negative feedback on neutral gaming sites and portals....
Also, you can't blame people who like to try before they buy something. Considering the fact that a lot of games do not have public demos available pirated versions are the only option for trying.

Although this particular case is very much unacceptable (closed alpha member leaked the product), the topic of piracy is very complex and many answers are not as straight forward as they appear.

[Xriqxa]

A closed Alpha piracy is definitely an act of childish impatience, but the piracy of games because you want to "try b4 u buy" is okay.

[pac0master]

That's basically why I said that Dan and the other member of Giant Army should release a Fake Pirated version which is almost indentical to the game. ( maybe when the game is in a Near finished state )

Having intentioned glitches and stuff might be fun to see.

Plus, I highly doubt that every single people which might want to download a pirated game in the future will see this message.  At worst, they just need to delete my posts.

I highly support Indies games.  Sometime I buy the game twice or more..  When there are small pledges to help the development, I donate often.  For instance, I have the "Name in the Game" from Prison Architect.
Plus, I consider myself as an ( Indie dev wannabe )
Just in case you heard of some of my projects ( Sinking Simulator and Portal 2 Abyss )

[zed260]

first off yes i bought a copy


second of all there is relly not much dan can do about piracy all methods of activation can and will likely be cracked

all activation systems etc that dan will/can implement will be bypassed look at Microsoft they still haven't stooped people from pirating windows

really the only thing dan does by trying to protect the product by say putting it so you need steam to legaly download and install it is to punish the end user of the product

[pac0master]

first off yes i bought a copy


second of all there is relly not much dan can do about piracy all methods of activation can and will likely be cracked

all activation systems etc that dan will/can implement will be bypassed look at Microsoft they still haven't stooped people from pirating windows

really the only thing dan does by trying to protect the product by say putting it so you need steam to legaly download and install it is to punish the end user of the product

That's right, Putting a lot of money against piracy is a waste of time.  Many companies lose an incredible amount of money trying to defend themselves against piracy. Ea, Microsoft , etc..   

A cool thing to do might be what I just pointed out in my comments right above us.

[zed260]

first off yes i bought a copy


second of all there is relly not much dan can do about piracy all methods of activation can and will likely be cracked

all activation systems etc that dan will/can implement will be bypassed look at Microsoft they still haven't stooped people from pirating windows

really the only thing dan does by trying to protect the product by say putting it so you need steam to legaly download and install it is to punish the end user of the product

That's right, Putting a lot of money against piracy is a waste of time.  Many companies lose an incredible amount of money trying to defend themselves against piracy. Ea, Microsoft , etc..   

A cool thing to do might be what I just pointed out in my comments right above us.

a game called game dev tycoon did that lol

http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/

it was quite funny really i never even knew of that game existing until after the news spread about what they pulled anyway i bought a copy of that game in a sense piracy generated a lot of new sales for them ironicly

[pac0master]

Yup, That's what I was talking about

[zed260]

just uninstalled universe sandbox no point in using it if i have to have steam lol

[pac0master]

what's wrong with Steam?

[Dan Dixon]

really the only thing dan does by trying to protect the product by say putting it so you need steam to legaly download and install it is to punish the end user of the product

We may offer a DRM free copy in the future... but Steam makes updates for both us (Giant Army) and the end user super easy and effortless.

[pac0master]

really the only thing dan does by trying to protect the product by say putting it so you need steam to legaly download and install it is to punish the end user of the product

We may offer a DRM free copy in the future... but Steam makes updates for both us (Giant Army) and the end user super easy and effortless.

That's right, I am also on Steamworks and it's very efficient and easy to update.

[TheoDorian]

Hi Guys!! New to this forum, One good thing that has come from this pirated download of the game is that it allowed me to learn to love this awesome sequel, and as of today I have joined the Universe busting, life sustaining awesome that is Universal Sandbox 2! Mayhaps after the game has been fixed up and made betterer and sexier you awesome Devs could package a small simulation etc into a dubbed down demo?? would be an awesome way to lure in the budding spacey wacey types.. 

[Camacha]

We may offer a DRM free copy in the future... but Steam makes updates for both us (Giant Army) and the end user super easy and effortless.

I would very much prefer this. Steam is nice and all, but (for me at least) it tends to generate as much problems as it solves - unrequested changes, being locked out until you go on-line and mandatory downloads to name a few. I do realize some people disagree, but I have not had the best of luck with it. I much prefer having full control, even if it does mean a little more work. Call me old school.

I am not even talking about the fact that Steam is a service, which inherently means you can only play your games as long as they exist. You are basically renting. The average longevity of IT companies does not instil much confidence.

[lk1990]

Maybe you could implement a simililar copyrights management like Steal Beasts has. Steal Beasts comes with a dongle that needs to be physically connected to the computer the game is run on.

[Camacha]

Maybe you could implement a simililar copyrights management like Steal Beasts has. Steal Beasts comes with a dongle that needs to be physically connected to the computer the game is run on.

Dear lord, think of the complexity and cost.

[Xriqxa]

Maybe you could implement a simililar copyrights management like Steal Beasts has. Steal Beasts comes with a dongle that needs to be physically connected to the computer the game is run on.

Almost a good idea. Think of the consequences:
>Losing it
>Getting it stolen by pirates
>Shipping and ordering taking forever
>Malfunction/Faulty Copy
>Broken

Also I don't think that Giant Army has the money to print thousands of little electronic boxes.

[C7]

At the end of the day, the only people that have to deal with copy protection systems are your actual paying customers. Pirates are always just going to rip out any kind of copy protection that exists. At best, you slightly inconvenience the pirates, and make them take a little longer to update a release.

[Camacha]

At the end of the day, the only people that have to deal with copy protection systems are your actual paying customers. Pirates are always just going to rip out any kind of copy protection that exists. At best, you slightly inconvenience the pirates, and make them take a little longer to update a release.

Like the only people ever seeing the pirating warnings on DVD's - those people that obviously paid for the product. I never got that and is a good indication of the gap between industry and consumer.