I've found that out, but I'm also persistent. Anyway, I chose "It's cheaper already".

Didn't say I necessarily agree with him on anything, just thought it was relevant to the discussion.
Yeah, I can understand that you would worry about that, but I believe the new policy won't really affect your income in the end.

Sorry, my post wasn't actually directed at you personally. I probably should have just quoted the TB tweet instead of replying to you :P

How about you calm down, show people a little respect, and stop acting like everyone is attacking you personally. This is GOG, not the Youtube comments section.

Most of the time, this isn't true. Consumers don't do companies "favors," they purchase based on what provides them with the best cost/benefit. There are no "favors" in the free market. Someone provides a service/product, someone else pays for the benefit of said service/product. You would be "doing a favor" if you gave a company money without expecting anything in return, or paying more than you believe a product/service is worth. Purchasing something is not an act of charity.

There is a HUGE difference between someone who owns a small business, or is in some way self-employeed, and a huge billion dollar corporation. And frankly, there are a lot of ways in which both laws and general public opinion fail to distinguish the two (believe the hype about "higher taxes for rich people?" Talk to a small business owner some time. It's loads of fun being treated like an evil corporate overlord when you tune pianos in a small town).

Yes, businesses want to make money, which can lead to customer abuse. And, also, consumers want to save money, which can also lead to business abuse. Just look at the disaster that is the Android marketplace, with its ridiculous piracy rate. And once again, the failure of the public to differentiate between small businesses and huge "evil" businesses leads a lot of people to feel justified in cheating the system.

One might even argue that consumers are MORE likely to abuse the system, since they have nothing to lose. Business treats a customer badly? They lose a customer. Customer treats a business badly? The business has to stand up straight and take it like a man, lest they be bludgeoned with the old "customer is always right" mantra (and if you've ever worked in retail, you know that's a load of bull).

I don't even know what you're trying to say here.

None of us know yet, and it would be stupid to say with any certainty one way or the other until we actually see numbers.

From who? Evil anti-consumer indie developers like me? Who are apparently comperable to Walmart? And apparently have taken this opportunity to unleash some evil anti-consumer agenda they've been plotting?

Because, you know... it's not like there haven't been plenty of cases of gamers cheating developers. It's not like people pirate the Humble Bundles or anything. It's not like the Android market is basically dead because of piracy. It's not like I get flooded with scam emails whenever I release a game, from people pretending to be journalists or Let's Players, trying to get free keys. It's not like I can go on Youtube right now and find people advertising "free download!" for at least one of my games (I don't even know what Pirate Bay is like. Could be better, could be worse).

Look, I understand the concept of trusting your fans. I understand that now the indie game market thrives on trust and patronage from people who genuinely will give money to things they enjoy. I understand that most people aren't selfish assholes looking to cheat everyone. And I DO trust my fans. As much as you can trust someone you've never met.

But once again, try to put yourself in this situation. Of suddenly waking up one day and discovering that your entire livelyhood might now be based on the integrity of the same people who yesterday were leaving negative reviews because they "didn't pay attention to the story and played through it in 10 minutes, then left it running just to get all trading card drops." (an actual review). Yes, as an indie dev I meet plenty of wonderful people that treat me with respect and honesty. But I also meet a lot of jerks who act like...well...jerks. I'm not worried about what good honest people are going to do, I'm worried about what the jerks are going to do.

Do you lock up at night where you work (if you work that kind of job)? Of course you do. Is that because you or your boss is a paranoid idiot? Is it because you or your boss think your customers are thieves? No, it's because we all understand that there are jerks in the world, and you shouldn't give them opportunities to exploit you. So why doesn't the same logic apply to indie devs? Why, when I say "hey, I'm not comfortable with this new no deadbolt locks policy" does that suddenly make me someone you want to actively boycott?

For pete's sake... I'm not an evil dictator, I'm just a guy who makes games in my living room, who's worried about a gaping loophole in a new refund policy. Please stop treating me like some neo-Nazi just because I'm uncomfortable with the idea of leaving my storefront unlocked and unguarded. With a big neon sign out front that says "Hey, we don't lock our doors, and all our security cameras are battery-powered fakes."

http://kotaku.com/a-horror-game-about-two-people-trapped-in-the-same-body-1709096239?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Twitter&utm_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow

Well, it seems to me you caught the attention of those in power man, congratz! Hope that raises your sales.

I'd like to add to what others mentioned: Security is a game of risk vs reward.

The security measure just needs to be enough of a hassle that whatever gain is achieved by bypassing it is not worth it for most attackers and for the few attackers that take advantage, the losses to you are either non-existent or minimal.

The whole "contact us to get refund" policy was exploited for a while by retailers who would put stuff like "contact supplier to get 5$ off" knowing that most buyers wouldn't go through the hassle just to save 5$.

Here, I'd say the median wage, while in steady decline once you account for inflation, is still about 15$/hour and high enough to make budget games affordable. If someone spends 15 minutes trying to get a refund on a 3$ game, they just wasted3.75$ of their time to gain 3$, hence not worth it.

And someone out to actively sabotage or leech money off you will just be wasting their time buying and getting refunded. Won't be no skin off your back.

I'd say overall, the security measure is probably sound.

Oh hey, look at that! Thanks for letting me know.

...I would have thought I'd be on some Kotaku blacklist, to be honest... but, coverage is coverage!

I think valve did it to draw a line somewhere because from what i have read a few days ago someone did a game that is "a few seconds" long. In your case it sucks and i´m sorry to hear that but you can thank the fraudulent asses who see the meaning video game developer as an image that gives them "self promotion" attention and not justified bullying of other people and money!

You can thank all those frauds in the indy scene!

Your worrying is pretty unfounded. Literally unless you are involved in internet drama or creating horseshit no one will go out of their way to fuck with you over a few dollars.

The first thing most people thought about when the policy launched was their regretted $40-90 purchases, not that one indie game they paid less for than a sandwich.

See the thing is anyone truly interested in exploiting the system is going to be greedy, they're going to be interested in the big ticket items. Look at retail stores the expensive but easily carried shit is under lock and key, but the little cheap stuff has very little security on it overall.

Unless you pull a Slaughtering Grounds or piss people off a la Brianna Wu, I don't think anyone will really fuck with you (at least not in high enough quantities to matter).

GOG really needs to adopt a similar policy since their current one is the same as Valves old policy. And frankly they're now getting shown up by Valve and EA. Whats more if they have the same policy come october when the new EU directives come into force they're gonna have a tough time of it

That's a very good point. That's actually the argument people make for the effectiveness of DRM--it doesn't prevent a game from being cracked, but it delays it for long enough that some people will get impatient and just buy it. And I'm certainly no fan of DRM, but I think that argument makes a lot of sense.

That's true, although the problem is only really with games that can be finished in under 2 hours, and how many $40-$90 games are that short? I suppose maybe they'd be more likely to go for more expensive games like Gone Home or Dear Esther, or possibly even The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

At least for the moment I'm not involved in any nasty internet drama, although those that know me can attest that I do tend to unwisely stick my nose into controversy. Maybe I'll learn to keep out of things before I step on a social media landmine. Hopefully.

I think the worst thing that happened was that one crazy developer said people should boycott my game because of things I'd said about #GamerGate... then a whole slew of other people started buying it just to spite him. So... I guess that worked out in my favor -_-

Truthfully, though, I doubt I'm ever going to be "famous" enough to generate any huge shitstorm. Then again, who ever heard of Brianna Wu before #GamerGate? Although I'd like to think that I am at least somewhat based in reality...

oops, there I go again sticking my nose in controversy ;)

If you stay fairly grounded and don't purposely try and play the victim. I doubt much shit will ever come your way.

And the reality is no matter what system they implement it will be abusable. People are somewhat focused on the negatives of it (at least as far as indies go), but it could also help the scene in general by weeding out the cash-ins. I kind of stopped buying indie games for the most part unless I already played the creator's previous works just because so much of it is halfhearted cash-ins with no real quality anymore. Look at all the games just slapped together in Unity with no real soul. Ever since Valve opened the floodgates and changed the storefront it seldom is worth the effort of looking through releases. Maybe this will help weed out some of the garbage, so other indies actually pouring their hearts into their work can get better exposure.

Also true, and it would be VERY nice if Steam's indie scene got cleaned up, and people were able to treat it more seriously.