Dear Runic Games,

[Punnett]

I typically pirate any game that does not have some multiplayer/drm aspect to it that makes it practically un-pirate-able. With that said, I followed Torchlight production since before its release and I bought it on Steam at full retail price. I guess I may just be a hopeless romantic with a severe underdog complex, but, either way, I will buy Torchlight 2 at full retail price as well. Keep up the good work and I hope you don't ever sell your souls to Acitivsion, EA, or Ubisoft (Perfect World Entertainment is okay, I think, lol).

Best wishes,
Random Person of No Importance

[Zidders]

Hey Punnett. I once did the same sort of thing. I think one of my first posts was this same sort of post, letting Runic know that their game had impressed me enough to actually pay for it. I must admit that a large part of the reason I stopped pirating games was because of Runic themselves.These folks pour their heart and souls into the games they make. They're also really great people.

I just decided for myself that I wouldn't steal from people like the folks at Runic and I wouldn't steal from publishers I don't like (like EA) because all it does is tell them that it's ok to make crappy games because even if the games crappy, it must not be THAT crappy since someone was willing to risk stealing it. I want developers to know that good games are worth my money and bad games aren't even worth stealing.

[RayBanJockey]

For me, actually paying for the games I play is - to be utterly and brutally honest - entirely a matter of personal convenience. Back when I was a kid, and then up in my university years, and I honestly shouldn't have been playing so much games then but that's another story, I simply couldn't pay for computer games while at the same time having money left over for noodles and ketchup. So I downloaded everything, and had to deal with all the hassle that came with pirated software. Now I have a proper job and have money coming out of my nose (well not really lol), I pay and everything is so much smoother with software updates and support etc.

But considering my motives, I hold no higher moral ground now than I did back then - I'm just paying for games now to further my own personal needs, not because it's morally correct (which I realise it is, you obviously shouldn't be stealing someones work).

In a nutshell, I'm lazy. And that's also the reason I like services like steam where someone else keeps track of the stuff I bought, and I really hope TL2 is released there.

[Webbstre]

Dear Punnett,

I think you're cool. Thanks for posting

[Jackalhead]

Torchlight II is definitely a game worth honestly paying for.

[adoomgod]

I'd pay 60 for TL2. Let's compromise, you sell at 20? I buy twice.

Guys pirating is not ok. It is illegal. Anyone who pirates should be ashamed of themselves. Like totally.
I mean, they are the vast minority, barely anyone does it due to moral integrity.

On a serious note, I wish everyone pirated Mass Effect 3. They are really C*** slapping the buyers.
On a more serious note , people should just stop buying their games. That's the legitimate way to make them stop releasing a game in pieces.

[gold163]

boycotting EA or Activision would be like trying to boycott Hollywood. No amount of angry Ninja Turtles diehards are going to stop a shitty Michael Bay movie from turning millions of dollars in profit.

[Arlian]

As wrong as piracy is; Max Schaefer and Markus Persson (Notch of MC fame) have the same view on it. There is very legitimate GOOD that can come from piracy.

I've actually pirated games that I ended up turning around and purchasing. I've also pirated games that I ended up turning around and uninstalling as they're not worth my time. I've actually pirated games that I already own simply to have a cracked copy that doesn't require a CD key (sometimes a no-cd-patch just doesn't work).(Technically this third example is not pirating, but acquiring a back-up)

“We got a lot of letters from people saying ‘Hey, I pirated your game, but it was really cool, so I bought it.’ Y’know, we’re cool with that, we’re not as concerned about that sort of thing as other companies, especially if it makes our honest players inconvenienced. We assume that everyone is an honest player, and we want to make their experience as cool as possible.”

A major point that Notch makes is that piracy doesn't take money from him.

If someone pirates Minecraft instead of buying it, it means I’ve lost some “potential” revenue. Not actual revenue, as I can never go into debt by people pirating the game too much, but I might’ve made even more if that person had bought the game instead. But what if that person likes that game, talks about it to his or her friends, and then I manage to convince three of them to buy the game? I’d make three actual sales instead of blocking out the potentially missed sale of the original person which never cost me any money in the first case.

The person that pirates isn't going to buy in the first place so there's no lost revenue on the part of the dev/publisher. While it is still illegal, the company is losing nothing; granting, they're gaining nothing; but that's beside the point.

I've shown friends a game that I pirated, come to find out that they really enjoyed it and ended up purchasing the game which BROUGHT revenue that the company wouldn't have had in the first place. Eventually, I also legally gained a title I wouldn't have.

There are so many games I wouldn't have even considered, demo aside, that I now legally own because of piracy.

That is to say, war is an atrocity of civilization, yet medicine as we know it would not have arisen without it.

My money is the strongest force I have toward corporations; more important than my voice, and more important than my actions; what I spend my money on is my strongest show of support.

Runic's titles deserve to be purchased. If for no other reason than the company deserving it. Even if TL2 is mediocre in your opinion, it deserves to be purchased as this is one of few companies that actually thinks with their hearts instead of their wallets.

[JoystickMonkey]

Thanks for supporting things you like! It only encourages us to make more.

[hamsterboom]

i do myself used to pirate games but recently there hasn't been any good games out even looking at

everything seems to be an exact copy of another with some tweaks.

i know TL is the same style as diablo butt my god it is actually like playing playing a different game all together i did buy the game at full retail price myself as i love these type o games .. well RPG action ones.

these days i just waste my time playing battlefield or assassin creed on Xbox. nothing else out there even intrests me.

i hope ~TL2 is as good or better than TL1 being that i will buy it on Xbox and PC (pc for the modding)

i also hop runic don;t take too long .. unlike blizzard as in my eyes Diablo 3 looks now dated, graphics look sharper than two but generally the same .

[xani]

i do myself used to pirate games but recently there hasn't been any good games out even looking at

everything seems to be an exact copy of another with some tweaks.

... you must be looking at completely wrong direction So many good games come out last year and those I remember the most are games made by small companies (so-called indie these days... i remember times when "indie game company" was called "game company" )

[Zidders]

o.0

lol Doom.

Punnett, just to clarify, I think you're cool, too. I hope it didn't seem like I was coming down on you. I'd be a hypocrite if I tried to act like I was totally innocent, y'know? Like JM stated, tho. It definitely encourages developers like Runic to continue doing things the way they're doing them.

[TheLurker]

Thanks for admitting that you like to steal, and thanks for telling us that you're not going to steal...

...this time.

-TL

[Punnett]

To me, piracy is whatever. It's all in accordance to the principles of economics, and I'm not rolling in wealth--that and One Piece is awesome.

Oh, and Zidders, I ain't even mad.

[Jackalhead]

I'd pay 60 for TL2. Let's compromise, you sell at 20? I buy twice.

Guys pirating is not ok. It is illegal. Anyone who pirates should be ashamed of themselves. Like totally.
I mean, they are the vast minority, barely anyone does it due to moral integrity.

On a serious note, I wish everyone pirated Mass Effect 3. They are really C*** slapping the buyers.
On a more serious note , people should just stop buying their games. That's the legitimate way to make them stop releasing a game in pieces.

I wouldn't even give ME3 the time of day after what they did with Dragon Age II. Bioware went from being one of the best game companies in 2009 to almost as bad as Acti-Blizzard has become in just three short years.

[kenitsu]

I used to really lack a decent moral code in a previous life and I didn't care what I stole and where I stole it from. I'm not proud of the life I led, but I have since had a profound enlightening through Christianity. As a result, I destroyed all of my illegal copies of games and other various programs, along with a real change in what I play. I feel torchlight fits the bill better for me not only price wise, but violence-wise too. Diablo 3 was too much blood and gore for my taste (with, so I'm sticking with TL2. They make a wonderful game and I can't wait to get playing it again.

[xani]

And what are lessons to be learned ? Distributors can be a very bad influence on game companies. ME3 overall is great game, but all that DLC crap around is just a jump on money. IMO the 3 biggest sins of distributors are:
-Pushing game too early (paradox is very bad with that lately, they distribute a lot of cool titles but sometimes they release buggy crap that can't be even called beta version)
-"Milking money" - Intrusive DLCs/preorder bonuses and "buying power" sometimes all of those at once, like BF3 and ME3 - the latter had basically the most powerful assault gun AND a lot of story and lore stuff that should be in game as zero-day DLC
-DRM - why legit games should be able to play their singleplayer game on release ? its ridiculus ( hi ubisoft ! )

[RizzRustbolt]

And now they can afford the "Deluxury" doggie sweater for Falcor.

Thanks Punnett.

[hawkn]

I wouldn't say piracy is a lack of moral code. Most people are struggling in this economy, and while they can afford minor luxuries like TV, and internet (though in today's age, that's a mandatory thing. I can't participate in school without it), paying upwards of $60 just for one game can be... a bit much.

It's like saying you should pay $200 for an entire series of anime or whatever show it is you're into, when there's a lot of better things that money could go towards.

[Arlian]

I wouldn't say piracy is a lack of moral code. Most people are struggling in this economy, and while they can afford minor luxuries like TV, and internet (though in today's age, that's a mandatory thing. I can't participate in school without it), paying upwards of $60 just for one game can be... a bit much.

It's like saying you should pay $200 for an entire series of anime or whatever show it is you're into, when there's a lot of better things that money could go towards.

The concept is "If you don't have the money, go without". However with digital distribution, you can have the show and save the money without hurting the company 1 red cent. (You're not helping them either, so keep that in mind).

A friend argued with me about piracy and his point was "If you put hundreds of hours of hard work into a video game, how would you feel if someone pirated it instead of buying it?!" And my response was, "If I'm going into this industry, I should hope to expect it."

Piracy is a part of life, and it has been before ships sailed to the new world. The difference is this:

1750's pirate steals 15 tons of Mink fur and freely distributes or distributes at their price. The victim loses 15 tons of Mink fur.
2010 pirate steals a song from bittorrent and listens to it freely. The victim loses 1 song; oops, since the song is replicated, the victim loses nothing.

Theft is defined as taking possession of another's property without permission.

When you steal someone's car, you have literally stolen a car.

When you eat someone's lunch, they are literally out a lunch.

When you copy a song and play your copy, they are literally out a son.... wait... No... They still have it... What, again, did you steal?

That's like cloning someone's sheep and eating the clone; are they going to say that you "stole" their sheep, even though it's bleating in their pasture? Possibly the stem-cells it wasn't going to use anyway were taken, but it's not like the sheep traumatized or even notices.

This is where the problem comes in. How do you define theft in a digital atmosphere? You can't even say you've stolen intellectual property as they still have their IP and you are not claiming rights to it. About as far as it gets is "stealing" the license to use the software; a digital sheet of paper that costs about $0.000001 cents to produce yet sold at $60. That's an exorbinate mark-up when you look at things in those terms.

Notch has stated that "the model used is outdated", it must be reformed toward use in the digital environment and made JUST FOR ALL (read: impossible) for it to be effective.

Unrelated, how's that rack of lamb?