Help me make this decision for my game

[Perverted Senpai]

Hello Everyone. Hope everyone's been doing well. Today I want to take some of your time and ask you all something that has been bothering me for a while. So I have been involved in the development of an adult game for some time now. I am not looking to reveal anything about the game here today though.

My question is after I release my game, should I make a devoted thread for the game here in f95zone by myself so that I can control the piracy limitations of the game and enjoy full benefits of my hard work. That way people will only be redirected to my patreon or subscribestar link and get the game from there by supporting me. I have seen many devs do this to control piracy. But I also know many people rely on piracy and it is primarily one of the main reasons people even come here to this site. Even I depended on piracy for the longest time to download and enjoy games. So should I just let someone else post it here and just visit the thread occasionally as a viewer only to get feedback from players to help improve my game. I also don't want to take away from those people who just wanna have thread discussions and have patches and mods linked besides the original game. Again, many big games are found like this here.

So my final query is, what do you guys think? Do you think I should take control of my own thread or should I let someone else post it and then just let things go naturally from there. Which would be more profitable? And which would help me get a bigger player base without taking away from the players? I just want to make fun adult games for everyone to enjoy and have a fun community for the games I make. But I also want to make money for the amount of work I have done and am doing. Money is obviously one of the main reasons I am doing it.

Thank you everyone for your time. And I wish you all Happy Holidays

 

[peterppp]

owning the thread doesn't mean you can control piracy. download links will be posted whether your own the thread or not and you're not allowed to remove leaks.

 

[Hagatagar]

First of all...

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My question is after I release my game, should I make a devoted thread for the game here in f95zone by myself so that I can control the piracy limitations of the game and enjoy full benefits of my hard work. That way people will only be redirected to my patreon or subscribestar link and get the game from there by supporting me. I have seen many devs do this to control piracy.

If somone requests a pirated version of your game and/or someone provides it, you aren't allowed to prevent it from the main game thread, even if you have ownership over it. You will be taken the ownership away.

So should I just let someone else post it here and just visit the thread occasionally as a viewer only to get feedback from players to help improve my game.
[...]
Do you think I should take control of my own thread or should I let someone else post it and then just let things go naturally from there.
[...]
And which would help me get a bigger player base without taking away from the players?

Participating in the game thread and the game community is always one of the best things a dev can do and this will boost your future community more that abstaining from it.

 

[VegitoHlove]

Um.... You're in the wrong place if you have concerns about piracy.

 

[Perverted Senpai]

owning the thread doesn't mean you can control piracy. download links will be posted whether your own the thread or not and you're not allowed to remove leaks.

If somone requests a pirated version of your game and/or someone provides it, you aren't allowed to prevent it from the main game thread, even if you have ownership over it. You will be taken the ownership away.

Oh, is that so? I swear I recently came across a thread where people were complaining "Ever since 'this person' took over the thread, sharing links has become very limited" or something along these lines. They were talking about how the original developer (a female) took over the game thread after it was posted by another person. Welp my bad. But thank you so much guys. It seems like

 

[Perverted Senpai]

Participating in the game thread and the game community is always one of the best things a dev can do and this will boost your future community more that abstaining from it.

I know right? That's one of the key areas I think developers don't put themselves into properly outside of their revenue stream subscribers . I hope to do that no matter the size of my community. Afterall, I like exchanging views with people.

 

[Perverted Senpai]

Um.... You're in the wrong place if you have concerns about piracy.

No no. I already said that in my post. I'm not really that concerned about it. Since even if I manage to control it here somehow, there are 1000s of other websites that provide games for free. I just wanted to know which better to accumulate bigger community

 

[tuvrelm11]

You won't control piracy. Don't even bother. Multinational megacorporations tried for decades with next to no success.

What you should be concerned with is - what positives you can get from working with pirates, rather than against them. While they don't pay, they are your advertisers, your proofreaders, your bug testers. And some, after getting a taste for your game and deciding it's something they want to see more of, convert into actual customers and patrons.

Those who try to control the "high seas" only get a bad rep. Who would you support? A gamedev that actively posts on this site to get feedback and discusses his game freely? Or a fruitcake that impotently slaps multiple levels of DRM on his game, DMCAs every link like a hawk, puts password protections between random chapters, etc, and only end up punishing his patrons? I know who I would.

 

[Satori6]

There's 3 main types of pirates:

A) The poor loner.
Those on this section will look for readily available pirated games, play them, and never pay.
They'll spend their time playing and rarely join communities about the game.
It's usually young people who can't even have a debit card or people from countries with bad economies where even small amounts are prohibitively expensive.
They don't make a difference for the author.

B) The engaged pirate.
Much like the ones above, they won't pay, no matter what, but they're active in communities where they may discuss, promote, or even create content for your game if they like it.
These matter a lot: they may not pay, but they can help your game reach people who will actually pay. You don't want to alienate them by placing locks that will only annoy them without ever preventing piracy.

C) The trial pirate.
We don't feel like paying just to see if we're going to like something makes sense, so we follow a simple policy of always getting a pirated version first, and if we consider it good enough, only then we'll support the developer/musician/author.
Many have other personal policies: a common one is not paying for early versions because many devs love to slow down development to milk supporters, or straight up abandon the project, so they'll only pay for a final version.

In the end, fighting piracy hurts nobody but the developer: players have literally thousands of games to choose from. By making it harder to play your game, you're only taking away free advertising and potential future buyers, while those who really want to pirate it will find the way no matter what you do. In fact, taking an aggressive anti-piracy posture will only motivate some bored cracker who'll make it their personal challenge and pleasure to pirate your every product as soon as it's released.

 

[CaptainBipto]

Oh, is that so? I swear I recently came across a thread where people were complaining "Ever since 'this person' took over the thread, sharing links has become very limited" or something along these lines. They were talking about how the original developer (a female) took over the game thread after it was posted by another person. Welp my bad. But thank you so much guys. It seems like
View attachment 3110310

If you truly believe that you can delete links, posts, and leaks about the game if you are the thread owner, you should be able to contact the Site Moderators or Admins and find out for certain.
My first guess is that it allows you to edit/update the original post, which would include removing links or putting links to your pay site.
If you are going to throw out a brand new game and do that, you are probably not going to attract many followers from 'Ye Ole Pirate Site'. Even if you interact with the people on the thread, if you are actively campaigning to have any links/leaks DMCA'd or just deleted, you game will, probably, not be well received here.

/Shrug It's your game, do with it and market it, as you will. If the content is excellent, you will attract followers.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Fact of the matter is, once you place your pixel on the internet - it becomes OUR pixel.
So may as well benefit from the publicity you get if you release your game here.
It's basically free advertisement that never stops advertising.

 

[peterppp]

Oh, is that so? I swear I recently came across a thread where people were complaining "Ever since 'this person' took over the thread, sharing links has become very limited" or something along these lines. They were talking about how the original developer (a female) took over the game thread after it was posted by another person. Welp my bad. But thank you so much guys. It seems like
View attachment 3110310

can't speak for the situation you refer to as i don't know it, but if thread owners abuse their ownership of the thread, they will be removed when people make the mods aware of the situation. like when this ashley ratajkowsky person lost ownership for replacing leaked updates
https://f95zone.to/threads/dominate-them-all-v0-9-68-ashley-ratajkowsky.36162/post-2866515

 

[anne O'nymous]

Oh, is that so? I swear I recently came across a thread where people were complaining "Ever since 'this person' took over the thread, sharing links has become very limited" or something along these lines.

Since when complainers here are trustworthy ?
There's devs who abuse(d) the system, but the instant it's noticed by the staff, or reported to it, they loose the thread ownership. I witnessed it more than once, sometimes firsthand.

Thread ownership may permit you to have some control over the way your game is shared, but into the limits of what is leaked against your will. Therefore, you can decide to only share by yourself the public release, but the instant someone will share the patron/exclusive/extended/whateverName version, you'll have no other choices than to deal with it.
A dev will have more control over what is leaked by keeping a good relation with his supporters and fan base, than by having the thread ownership. Not surprisingly, if you're liked, people will tend to respect you and your game, and therefore not leak everything.

 

[Perverted Senpai]

There's 3 main types of pirates:

A) The poor loner.
Those on this section will look for readily available pirated games, play them, and never pay.
They'll spend their time playing and rarely join communities about the game.
It's usually young people who can't even have a debit card or people from countries with bad economies where even small amounts are prohibitively expensive.
They don't make a difference for the author.

B) The engaged pirate.
Much like the ones above, they won't pay, no matter what, but they're active in communities where they may discuss, promote, or even create content for your game if they like it.
These matter a lot: they may not pay, but they can help your game reach people who will actually pay. You don't want to alienate them by placing locks that will only annoy them without ever preventing piracy.

C) The trial pirate.
We don't feel like paying just to see if we're going to like something makes sense, so we follow a simple policy of always getting a pirated version first, and if we consider it good enough, only then we'll support the developer/musician/author.
Many have other personal policies: a common one is not paying for early versions because many devs love to slow down development to milk supporters, or straight up abandon the project, so they'll only pay for a final version.

In the end, fighting piracy hurts nobody but the developer: players have literally thousands of games to choose from. By making it harder to play your game, you're only taking away free advertising and potential future buyers, while those who really want to pirate it will find the way no matter what you do. In fact, taking an aggressive anti-piracy posture will only motivate some bored cracker who'll make it their personal challenge and pleasure to pirate your every product as soon as it's released.

If you truly believe that you can delete links, posts, and leaks about the game if you are the thread owner, you should be able to contact the Site Moderators or Admins and find out for certain.
My first guess is that it allows you to edit/update the original post, which would include removing links or putting links to your pay site.
If you are going to throw out a brand new game and do that, you are probably not going to attract many followers from 'Ye Ole Pirate Site'. Even if you interact with the people on the thread, if you are actively campaigning to have any links/leaks DMCA'd or just deleted, you game will, probably, not be well received here.

/Shrug It's your game, do with it and market it, as you will. If the content is excellent, you will attract followers.

Since when complainers here are trustworthy ?
There's devs who abuse(d) the system, but the instant it's noticed by the staff, or reported to it, they loose the thread ownership. I witnessed it more than once, sometimes firsthand.

Thread ownership may permit you to have some control over the way your game is shared, but into the limits of what is leaked against your will. Therefore, you can decide to only share by yourself the public release, but the instant someone will share the patron/exclusive/extended/whateverName version, you'll have no other choices than to deal with it.
A dev will have more control over what is leaked by keeping a good relation with his supporters and fan base, than by having the thread ownership. Not surprisingly, if you're liked, people will tend to respect you and your game, and therefore not leak everything.

Fuck it. I'mma make my game available for free to all while myself being available here for its community. The people who like the game may support me. I won't put a price tag on it or force people to not share exclusive patreon/subscribestar only links. It'll just be like a free game. And if it is well received maybe I could make sequels to get revenue to build a team or acquire better assets.

 

[Perverted Senpai]

It is somehow possible for some devs. "The Sexy Chinaman" releasing the old version of his games when the new one introduced via discord.

Also, some game threads have this:

View attachment 3111382

Since you can't control the thread, I guess this is just something like a request or plead. I understand tho. Thank you for digging this up. I appreciate it

 

[anne O'nymous]

Since you can't control the thread, I guess this is just something like a request or plead.

What there's to understand, is that the F95zone isn't working against the devs. They have the possibility to own their game's thread, have a badge and a dedicated sub forum, and the forum is promoting games through the "featured games slider".
There's also the "I support those dev" feature, that offer to devs and members the possibility to link their Patreon account, and will show what devs (that have linked their Patreon account here) you are supporting. Plus, at the end of the year there's also a contest with donors, and the three dev who win will get a donation from the forum.
But the forum also isn't working against the members, who want to play the games. And globally it's a balance that works relatively right.

It's not everyone of course, because it depend on the global quality/interest of the game, but generally a game will gain more support the instant it's promoted here. This especially if it's promoted by the dev himself, unless he's a pure jerk.
Will all members are pirates, many are also smart enough to understand that a game can't exist without a bit of support. And therefore they pledge for the games they like. There's no way to know for sure, but with the importance that F95zone now have in the adult gaming community, it's reasonable to think that at least a third of the pledges a dev get are due to their thread here.

Of course, for this to works, both side need to make some compromise. Players know and accept that they'll not necessarily get the "full exclusive" content (or not have it immediately), and devs know and accept that they don't have a full control on what is leaked.
But, as I said, if the devs is liked, generally leakers will respect him/her. There's many games that are leaked in day 1, but only in their public version. It's a leak because that version will be officially available only in a month or more, but the leaker could also have leaked the "full exclusive" version. It's part of the unspoken deal ; out of respect for the community, he leak the game, and out of respect for the dev, he limit that to the public version.

 

[Iamthegoldengod]

I will echo off of others as well and say that although piracy is definitely a concern for new and upcoming devs, it should be good for you in the longterm if you take the feedback from community and engage with them (like Ripples or Stray Incubus dev). This makes you more trusting and providing transparency also shows that you won't be milking them and not delivering any thing.

If they like your product, you don't have to pay people to plug your product cuz they will put it in their signatures and mention it to others for free. I understand that it doesn't pay your rent but PR goes a long way to get noticed in sea of thousands of releases. I always see people asking about what character is in their signatures and what not.

Porn enjoyers are also very loyal, if they really like it, they will support. Look at games like Milfy City or Summertime Saga, they usually don't put out playable updates for MONTHS hell almost year or so...but they got a massive following! cuz the porn enjoyers are loyal.

Also, some devs freely offer their games on F95 or other sites at first and only have patreon and itch as a "tipbox" of sort. Stray Incubus dev, Flynn, started that way I think and eventually once people really enjoyed his product, he started the tiers in patreon so his loyal supporters had early access and renders and what not. So you can think about gaining a loyal following first, earning trust, and then moving over to making money from it.

It's very hard to trust your money with initial releases cuz the dev might just shut down the project (there was a dev who put out good stuff but basically said if I don't get X patreon by ch 4 or something, they would abandon the project...I feel like this should be mentioned initially so people know whether to support you or not).