I think there are some comparisons in this thread that aren't really fair. Erotic games content is not mass market - it's almost the exact opposite of that. Premium products (and it's hard to describe DPC's work, which is some of the best in the genre, as anything else) in a niche industry are always going to be more expensive.
Running a business is expensive. And hiring help isn't as simple as you might make it out to be. I am a programmer myself, and I have at times considered dabbling in creating or modding games as a way of developing my skills (for example, python is not currently a language I have any work in, so I could develop some python skills by working on a ren.py game). But there's a big problem with doing that: Most programming work is open source, and the way you demonstrate your abilities to employers is to let them look at your actual code.
You can't do that with adult games content; the games aren't open source to begin with, and "here's an XXX rated game I worked on" is not really a conversation you can have when interviewing for a conventional job. That makes it a lot harder for either DPC or someone he hired to commit: No matter how good a creator or programmer DPC is, it's going to be hard for him to move into another industry if this doesn't work out, and it's going to be hard for him to hire someone at a market rate when they're producing work they can't really put on their resume - he's gonna have to pay a premium for that.
It's just a thing you have to accept that if you're consuming this kind of product, and frankly especially if you're doing so in a world where something like F95zone exists so people who want to not pay for your content WILL be able to get it for free - if you want to support it, you're gonna pay more than you do for a commercial title, and you're doing so explicitly in order to keep that work in production.
Now, maybe DPC could find someone more easily now, when people might be willing to take more adventrous employment choices in a US economy that's dealing with significant contraction, but it remains the case that you're going to have some vision-sharing issues, and that a great creator is not necessarily a great manager, leader or communicator. It's DPC's product, and there's no requirement that someone working with him agrees with his choices, but being able to communicate with subordinate programmers and give them feedback on what you do and don't like about their code is a skill, and it's not one all programmers have - many experienced programmers pass on leadership roles to remain senior developers explicitly to avoid having those kinds of responsibilities, and others get jammed into those roles due to lack of interest and do a shitty job and alienate members of their teams.
To be honest, it's hard to blame someone who is financially dependent in not only the short but the long term on their products success having some resentment and unhappiness with a website that freely pirates the shit out of their content. That anyone can come here and get his work (and, indeed, will probably be able to get his new update as soon as he releases it to his top-level patrons, much less the general release) for free is a real threat to his long-term economic stability, and he's taken an enormous personal risk by committing to this, because he'll have to explain the gap in his resume even if he doesn't choose to share the work with a future employer if he ever gives up (and, probably, in order to demonstrate his skills he will have to find someone willing to look at his work on adult content, which will significantly limit his options, probably to within the games industry generally; you're not gonna be able to show the codebase of Being a DIK to Amazon or Google and get a job there! They couldn't even review and discuss your work among the hiring group w/o violating company policies!)
If you enjoy this game (or any game, but especially the ones from the best creators who are doing this as their full-time jobs), you should probably whine less and be more appreciative that the creator has taken a rather significant risk in their personal life by making a commitment to making content you like.
Running a business is expensive. And hiring help isn't as simple as you might make it out to be. I am a programmer myself, and I have at times considered dabbling in creating or modding games as a way of developing my skills (for example, python is not currently a language I have any work in, so I could develop some python skills by working on a ren.py game). But there's a big problem with doing that: Most programming work is open source, and the way you demonstrate your abilities to employers is to let them look at your actual code.
You can't do that with adult games content; the games aren't open source to begin with, and "here's an XXX rated game I worked on" is not really a conversation you can have when interviewing for a conventional job. That makes it a lot harder for either DPC or someone he hired to commit: No matter how good a creator or programmer DPC is, it's going to be hard for him to move into another industry if this doesn't work out, and it's going to be hard for him to hire someone at a market rate when they're producing work they can't really put on their resume - he's gonna have to pay a premium for that.
It's just a thing you have to accept that if you're consuming this kind of product, and frankly especially if you're doing so in a world where something like F95zone exists so people who want to not pay for your content WILL be able to get it for free - if you want to support it, you're gonna pay more than you do for a commercial title, and you're doing so explicitly in order to keep that work in production.
Now, maybe DPC could find someone more easily now, when people might be willing to take more adventrous employment choices in a US economy that's dealing with significant contraction, but it remains the case that you're going to have some vision-sharing issues, and that a great creator is not necessarily a great manager, leader or communicator. It's DPC's product, and there's no requirement that someone working with him agrees with his choices, but being able to communicate with subordinate programmers and give them feedback on what you do and don't like about their code is a skill, and it's not one all programmers have - many experienced programmers pass on leadership roles to remain senior developers explicitly to avoid having those kinds of responsibilities, and others get jammed into those roles due to lack of interest and do a shitty job and alienate members of their teams.
To be honest, it's hard to blame someone who is financially dependent in not only the short but the long term on their products success having some resentment and unhappiness with a website that freely pirates the shit out of their content. That anyone can come here and get his work (and, indeed, will probably be able to get his new update as soon as he releases it to his top-level patrons, much less the general release) for free is a real threat to his long-term economic stability, and he's taken an enormous personal risk by committing to this, because he'll have to explain the gap in his resume even if he doesn't choose to share the work with a future employer if he ever gives up (and, probably, in order to demonstrate his skills he will have to find someone willing to look at his work on adult content, which will significantly limit his options, probably to within the games industry generally; you're not gonna be able to show the codebase of Being a DIK to Amazon or Google and get a job there! They couldn't even review and discuss your work among the hiring group w/o violating company policies!)
If you enjoy this game (or any game, but especially the ones from the best creators who are doing this as their full-time jobs), you should probably whine less and be more appreciative that the creator has taken a rather significant risk in their personal life by making a commitment to making content you like.
