Piracy

[Pricey]

SFD released on Steam a month ago, and in this short period of time, many people have chosen to pirate the game instead of buying it. Me and many other moderators on Blurry's Server (and I would assume individual hosts and mods as well) have seen many pirates in and around the servers. While we can try to ban as many as we can to discourage pirating the game (we have our ways of knowing), we can only do so much.

The problem will only continue to get worse if nothing is done, so I'm asking, will any anti-piracy measures be introduced in the future?

[Merchant]

I agree, the game needs some kind of piracy protection, ofcourse its up to the devs, but i think it would be a fair decision to look into it, because players who bought the game, may get the "why did i buy this game if i could just pirate it" feeling. Not provoking pirating here, it is and has always been unfair, if you really enjoy the game, you should buy the game to also support the developers. Me and many other blurry's moderators have banned up to 25 players (probably more), who most likely use pirated game, and im sure that the number will increase in the future.

Sincerely, Merchant.

[Evilsack]

pirates need to get beaned by the bens once and for all

[Sh4d0w]

I agree, the piracy is a serious problem in SFD, especially when there's no protection against pirates. You can just go on a random pirate site and get the game for free.

Not only is this the insult to the developers, who have been working on this game for 6 years, but it's also an insult to the players who have decided to buy the game, not knowing that "hey, you can just pirate it and you'll get the full version without any piracy protections". I'm not encouraging players to pirate the game - no, piracy has always been a negative phenomenom and if it is ignored, the pirates are going to overthrow us one day.

I had this situation on Blurry's server a few days ago when two players with the same account joined the game. They joined at the same time, so you knew that it would be a 2 players online playthrough. They might've been there unnoticed if the third player with the same account hadn't joined the game. I banned them and told my colleagues about that account being used by the pirates.

I hope there would be something done to prevent piracy, as if it goes unnoticed, the pirates will just appear like the Bubonic Plague or something bigger - and trust me, the server bans won't help, as another pirates will replace the banned ones or they will migrate to other servers.

[Evilsack]

The first pirate I encountered was someone with the infamous [alias removed] username, from then I had realised that unless the developers do something to prevent piracy there's little that the moderators can actually do.

[Del Poncho]

Hell, even just a way to recognize these players would be nice. If we can't make them buy the game, at least we can isolate them from as many servers as we can.

[Pregnant]

Not trying to sound rude or anything but you guys are hypocrites, don't tell me you've never cracked a game before. So piracy is fine when it's not SFD? Alright...can't beat that logic

[Sh4d0w]

Not trying to sound rude or anything but you guys are hypocrites, don't tell me you've never cracked a game before. So piracy is fine when it's not SFD? Alright...can't beat that logic

Then show me the proofs of how I cracked a game.

[Pregnant]

I wasn't specifically throwing shades at you. But I'm pretty sure more than half of the members of this forum have cracked a game/downloaded a game illegally in the past.

My point still stands though. Suddenly piracy is not fine because it's SFD? I'm not trying to encourage piracy but if people with cracked accounts join my server I'll let them stay. Not everyone has the money to buy SFD/use a credit card.
I'm not poor but I'm not well-off either, and buying SFD was really a pain in the ass because in my country 10 bucks would get me food for the whole month if I'm careful.
As a kid I remember going to gamestores, looking at the price of my favorite game and leaving to finally pirate the game online and enjoy the shit out of it.
To conclude, in my opinion I don't think you should ban the pirates but rather talk to them or ask them why they cracked it.

[RickAvory]

According to Gurt, they are choosing not to use a steam authentication service in order to put their game on other platforms (ex. GOG).

I wasn't specifically throwing shades at you. But I'm pretty sure more than half of the members of this forum have cracked a game/downloaded a game illegally in the past.

I have never cracked a game. Even if I wanted to I don’t think I’m tech savvy enough to do so. I can’t rlly speak for anyone else though.

Hell, even just a way to recognize these players would be nice. If we can't make them buy the game, at least we can isolate them from as many servers as we can.

Yes please. All we had to go by was the “[crack website not to be named]” as the account name, but for some reason these crackers have the ability to change it, which is absurdly annoying. How the hell can these guys join online servers anyway? I didn’t even think that was possible.

I had this situation on Blurry's server a few days ago when two players with the same account joined the game. They joined at the same time, so you knew that it would be a 2 players online playthrough. They might've been there unnoticed if the third player with the same account hadn't joined the game. I banned them and told my colleagues about that account being used by the pirates.

Couldn’t that just be people playing Local? I mean, what was the account name? Was it the “[cracking site not to be named]” account?

[Sree]

How the hell can these guys join online servers anyway? I didn’t even think that was possible.

because like you said, they aren't using any authentication service to stop a player from having online access to the game without a key. I understand why they don't want to integrate too much of steamworks api, that would demote code reusability and make it harder to publish their game on other platforms.

I don't think it's unfair to ban people from your server for pirating the game, pirates shouldn't have all the features that are available to the people who bought the game, that would be unfair to the people who bought the game, for having paid money for something that is freely obtainable.

[RickAvory]

How the hell can these guys join online servers anyway? I didn’t even think that was possible.

because like you said, they aren't using any authentication service to stop a player from having online access to the game without a key. I understand why they don't want to integrate too much of steamworks api, that would demote code reusability and make it harder to publish their game on other platforms.

I don't think it's unfair to ban people from your server for pirating the game, pirates shouldn't have all the features that are available to the people who bought the game, that would be unfair to the people who bought the game, for having paid money for something that is freely obtainable.

That makes sense. Is there still any way for them to make their own authentication process? Like maybe using some external software that checks if your steam account is legit? Like I said prior, I’m in no way Tech Savy, so I have no idea if something like that would be trivial. Just a thought I guess.

[Sree]

Is there still any way for them to make their own authentication process? Like maybe using some external software that checks if your steam account is legit?

not sure about that myself but this is the steamwork's api documentation on user authentication if you are interested.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/auth

[Evilsack]

Hell, even just a way to recognize these players would be nice. If we can't make them buy the game, at least we can isolate them from as many servers as we can.

the bens know we're just keeping that info on a downlow, but essentially it boils down to finding pretty generic usernames.

[Armolitskiy]

Piracy is certainly bad, but the game costs $ 4, which is not enough for you, but a lot for Russian players. Not for all, but for many. Russians are not used to paying for games, sorry. If the developers made a discount, then maybe ... Although piracy is a bad thing, but it helps to evaluate the game, playing it for free, as if it were a demo version. Someone sorry to give 300 rubles ($ 4) for such a game, probably. And if the developers do something serious, so that the pirates do not play this game, then there will probably be an online recession.

[GreenyShark]

TSA Agents in every server,SWAT teams even!
That's the best way to find these hooligans!
It's more than life or death with these bastard!
HAAIL HAIYDRA

[RickAvory]

Piracy is certainly bad, but the game costs $ 4, which is not enough for you, but a lot for Russian players. Not for all, but for many. Russians are not used to paying for games, sorry. If the developers made a discount, then maybe ... Although piracy is a bad thing, but it helps to evaluate the game, playing it for free, as if it were a demo version. Someone sorry to give 300 rubles ($ 4) for such a game, probably. And if the developers do something serious, so that the pirates do not play this game, then there will probably be an online recession.

What the hell? Us Americans need to pay 13 USD Δ π

[Mighty Spirit the 2]

Just curious, what are "your ways of knowing"?
Do pirates get certain usernames created for them to differentiate them from legit players?
Why are the "bens" (what's that?) keeping the info "downlow"?