Also if the alternative was “no money, still can’t buy the game” then they are losing no money in the process anyway.
I don’t fully disagree with you. I personally don’t pirate things (I can afford to just pay up front, and if I don’t want to support a dev, I just fully don’t play the game, I don’t want to accidentally be lumped into any metrics that might show support), but the game dev themselves said “No skin off our back”.
If I steal your car, you no longer have a car. If I steal your game, you’ve lost absolutely nothing. Code is infinitely reproducible. You’re only out the sale.
This dev made art, and they care more about sharing the art they created with more people, than they do about getting every last transaction paid for.
It’s usually the publisher that has strong opinions about this, because they didn’t make the art nor do they care about people seeing it. they only care about getting the money, but again, if you can’t afford it, they were never going to get your money anyway. It’s technically a victimless crime. No skin off anyone’s back.
The issue is when enough people who CAN afford to pay use the “no skin off their back” logic to not pay, and a good game winds up not being profitable (or profitable enough to the publisher) and a studio suffers as a result.
That’s not where I’m coming from. The “you’ve lost nothing” excuse is just an excuse. These people put their time, money, and talent into their games and people who are entitled and can afford to buy them don’t. My company made a game before and people played it for weeks and pirated it. Some of our top players by time were people who pirated the game. You can’t tell me that the game isn’t worth paying for if you’re spending that much time playing it. Some devs can get to the point of where Slay the Princess is and the actual sales can sustain the company and so the minimal pirating just encourages word of mouth sales. Most game devs don’t have that luxury. They’re trying to make a living and sustain themselves and entitled shits are leeching off their time and effort.
If you enjoy something, pay for it. Otherwise, you’re voting with your wallet for the wrong things.
But it doesn’t cost their time and effort. Time and effort has already been spent, and as a result, the media exists. Someone playing a copy of the game has no effect on the developer (except maybe advertising).
It’s not about cost. Their time and talent have value. They should be rewarded for that time and talent.
