Incidentally, the studio behind it was also taken over by capitalists via some trickery
Which means it’s completely moral to pirate it despite it being an indie game originally. Those who made it wouldn’t get a cent if someone buys it anyway
Here’s the thing. When you pirate something, the money you would’ve paid, but didn’t, to the company would have gone to the company profits.
See that, I said profits, not employee salary, profits.
The people who made the game, were already paid, while they were making it. Unless there’s some sort of revenue share agreement, or the workers are unionized to receive compensation on exceptional performance of products, or the workers partially own the company thus receive part of the profits every year, then none of your money will go to the developers. Literally not a cent. Companies who make record profits have massive layoffs of thousands of developers, you know why? Because employment and pay are decoupled from revenue. All the money goes into pockets that had no involvement on the creation of the game. The game they are working on right now, is not being paid by the revenue, but by investors, who are gambling on the next game’s revenue. The developers will be paid or fired, regardless of how much money old games make.
So, when you pirate a game, no one goes hungry. No one runs out of healthcare. People laid off from their work will go hungry or lose their healthcare regardless of how much money the game they coded makes (some even would point out that the highest record breaking games usually come from the studios with the worst layoffs). They were already paid, there’s no more money to go from you to them in the current capitalist scheme. This is why it is always moral to pirate a game made by a mega corporation (or owned by one), it’s reclamation.
You mean Zero Parades? the game that debuted to extraordinary critical acclaim but sold a handful of copies? The lack of sales is not due to piracy, nobody cares about the game, it has no cultural impact. It’s not Disco Elysium, that’s lightning in a bottle. What corporate scum never seem to realize is that you can’t buy a reputation, nor can you pay to get rid of a bad one.
Nobody want’s ZP, because it is not DE and it was not made by the people who did DE. No matter how bad of a tantrum a corporate suit throws.
Now, this one is a funny story you brought up, because the people at ZA/UM are actually unionized (those who remained in 2022 and those who were hired later). And I would bet inordinate amounts of money that if they weren’t for the union, the studio would’ve been closed instead of just laying off 32 people.
Go cry about how much you want to give more money to faceless people who are already millionaires.
Fuckin love seeing DE references in the wild.
Incidentally, the studio behind it was also taken over by capitalists via some trickery
Which means it’s completely moral to pirate it despite it being an indie game originally. Those who made it wouldn’t get a cent if someone buys it anyway
Oh I remember! ZA/UM strong-armed the creators out of the IP so now they encourage people to pirate it. And it’s extremely easy to find!
Considering the game is available DRM-free on GOG, it should be easy to find an installer somewhere.
The founders of the company won’t get a cent, but the coders and the people who labored to create the game are still there and would benefit from it.
So if you want to be anti-capitalist, pirate it, but if you want to support the people who labored to create it, buy it.
Here’s the thing. When you pirate something, the money you would’ve paid, but didn’t, to the company would have gone to the company profits.
See that, I said profits, not employee salary, profits.
The people who made the game, were already paid, while they were making it. Unless there’s some sort of revenue share agreement, or the workers are unionized to receive compensation on exceptional performance of products, or the workers partially own the company thus receive part of the profits every year, then none of your money will go to the developers. Literally not a cent. Companies who make record profits have massive layoffs of thousands of developers, you know why? Because employment and pay are decoupled from revenue. All the money goes into pockets that had no involvement on the creation of the game. The game they are working on right now, is not being paid by the revenue, but by investors, who are gambling on the next game’s revenue. The developers will be paid or fired, regardless of how much money old games make.
So, when you pirate a game, no one goes hungry. No one runs out of healthcare. People laid off from their work will go hungry or lose their healthcare regardless of how much money the game they coded makes (some even would point out that the highest record breaking games usually come from the studios with the worst layoffs). They were already paid, there’s no more money to go from you to them in the current capitalist scheme. This is why it is always moral to pirate a game made by a mega corporation (or owned by one), it’s reclamation.
Follow up: a bunch of these employees just got fired the other day because their second game didn’t sell well enough.
It’s not about them making money directly; it’s about whether the studio continues to exist at its current size, which it no longer will.
You mean Zero Parades? the game that debuted to extraordinary critical acclaim but sold a handful of copies? The lack of sales is not due to piracy, nobody cares about the game, it has no cultural impact. It’s not Disco Elysium, that’s lightning in a bottle. What corporate scum never seem to realize is that you can’t buy a reputation, nor can you pay to get rid of a bad one.
Nobody want’s ZP, because it is not DE and it was not made by the people who did DE. No matter how bad of a tantrum a corporate suit throws.
Now, this one is a funny story you brought up, because the people at ZA/UM are actually unionized (those who remained in 2022 and those who were hired later). And I would bet inordinate amounts of money that if they weren’t for the union, the studio would’ve been closed instead of just laying off 32 people.
Go cry about how much you want to give more money to faceless people who are already millionaires.