Liquid insanity 101

[Walsingham]

As I was out running this evening I amused myself by thinking through the old problem of software copyright. I need to be away off to the pub, but these are the basic points:

 

1. Situation: Piracy is an issue

2. Problem: Taking revenue from sales requires draconian safeguards and still leaves revenue to chance

3. Solution: Sell a class of shares in teh company where the 'dividend' is a special numbered hardcopy of each game that comes out. Could generate revenue from sale of the shares, and of course trading in them.

 

Thoughts?

[Rosbjerg]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.. do you mean selling games as a kind of share in the company?

 

I've seen some companies battle piracy in interesting ways, the best of course is making a killer game that people want badly from the day it's out.

 

An interesting option would be to allow buyers to set the price they want, like Radiohead did with their latest album. Of course this could be a very costly experiment and seeing as bands make most of their money going on tour and game developers don't, it's probably too risky.

 

Piracy is probably a bigger problem for the big developers/publishers who spend 3-5+ years developting a title and millions on commericals. While smaller developers can actually experience a higher revenue because of Piracy, since it works as a kind of "free" PR machine causing the product to be more exposed and therefore increasing sales - this only works for good titles though. Like we saw with the film "A man from Earth":

 

Can internet piracy result in more and better movies? "Of course, not!" is probably our stock reaction. By illegally downloading and sharing films, pirates steal the revenue that would otherwise reward and encourage film-makers--or so we are told by lawyers, economists, and lobbyists for Hollywood studios.

 

But we may have plenty to learn yet about the possible impact of file-sharing and other online distribution methods on the quantity and quality of films we watch. The story of Jerome Bixby's "The Man from Earth", a small-budget science fiction movie released on DVD in November, shows how piracy can help salvage, not sink, high-quality cinema.

link

[Purkake]

Valve actually proposed something like investing(financially) in the games you are interested in and getting dividends and the game, of course, once it's done.

 

It's an interesting idea, but I have a hard time seeing it work in practice.

[Gorth]

Lord of Flies would love this. A game that belongs to the people

[Gorgon]

It would kill the only source of objective opinion about games we have : other gamers. Since everyone would constantly be trying to talk up their stocks.

[Purkake]

Most other people are about as objective as Fox news, everyone who owns the game is already potentially biased.

[Walsingham]

Most other people are about as objective as Fox news, everyone who owns the game is already potentially biased.

 

True. Confirmation bias and all that.

 

But you make a good argument in favour of it in a way. It would cause people to work for the company as well as just buying the games. Unless that's just creepy.