I never thought the day would come where I would passionately argue that fans should pirate my game rather than pay for it, but here we are. That's conditional, of course. If you're going to be buying Defender's Quest from us then knock yourself out! But if you're going to…
Apple recently allowed Ad-blocking in iOS 9. Some people responded like this: Every time you block an ad, what you're really blocking is food from entering a child's mouth. There's more nuanced takes, but these two are the best, the first elegantly showing how Apple is a master of cynically…
Okay so let's talk about this whole Steam Workshop paid mods thing, the internet freakout, and its subsequent reversal. Some very good points have been brought up by the "against" crowd, among them: No try-before-you-buy No strong assurance of refunds or support Mods are often interdependent, fear of fracture Now…
One of my most popular articles was "Piracy and the Four Currencies", which explains the economics of piracy in terms of four "psychological currencies": money-dollars ($M), time-dollars ($T), pain-in-the-butt dollars ($P) and integrity-dollars ($I). Purchases don't just cost money; they also cost different amounts of time, pain-in-the butt, and (sometimes)…
Cross-posted on gamasutraToday I'd like to apply my "four currencies" model to the "pay what you want" phenomenon. Like piracy, this is a case where the results we observe don't match what conventional wisdom says should happen, and I use my "four currencies" theory to explain the discrepancy. …
Cross-posted on gamasutra.My previous article, piracy and the four currencies seems to have caused a bit of a stir, so I'm going to make this a series. Welcome to part two!For those of you just joining the conversation, go read the original article. Don't worry, it's pretty…