Oh, definitely. There's just not really anything I can do about it, unfortunately.
I didn't think it would affect me so much prior to releasing anything worth being pirated since I used to pirate everything back in the day. Hell, I've been literally arrested for stealing before. But it's hard not being bothered by people begging for someone else to fork over $5 and leak a game for them because they don't want to wait two weeks. Those people bother me more than the ones actually downloading them.
I have a responsibility as a creator to defend my consumers and my product. And while I know there are plenty of people who would continue to donate to me even if there was no difference between a Patreon and public release, it doesn't change the principle of people simply taking things that other people are using their hard earned money to buy- especially after I've demonstrated the exact weight of that impact on several occasions.
Piracy is inevitable in today's day and age and is the key reason that so many professionally-made visual novels release at a loss. I'm fortunate enough to have made something that so many people love, but I'd still be completely irresponsible for not informing and educating everyone about the damages piracy can cause.
I work extremely hard on this game. In just the last year, I've put out 700k words and 30+ hours of content without help from anyone. There is no exclusive gameplay that only subscribers have access to. There are no additional transactions or bonuses I make people pay for to get a full experience. All I do is ask for $5 in exchange for early access to something that everyone else is going to get in two weeks anyway. And even that much is enough to make some people rage or complain, apparently. I'd be a liar if I said that didn't bother me.
I guess this particular issue is something we have to live with ? You can't act on it yourself, I mean it's a shame that there's not much can be done to fully address the problem and then deal with it.
I know this certain game made by 4 enthusiastic creators, and every time they post an update, someone either post some leaks from the Patreon version or mods that straight up give them content supposedly made for payers only, for free ! Now that I look back, it does feel a bit disappointing when stuff like this can happen and whenever things don't go in their favor, they'll whine and complain for more even though they didn't contribute anything.
That's just greedy, this site maybe a good place to promote your creations but still holds the whole piracy problem and tbh, I thought since f95 gained way more popularity than before, it's supposed to establish some sort of rules against this matter, no? I may not fully understand how you feel 'cause I'm not a developer, but I've seen more of the arguments revolving around this specific topic popping up in a lot of threads recently, maybe the people are finally discussing about the elephant in the room ?
Despite the unfair, I somewhat partly get the perspective of the "pirates", the games in this case are really good and since the site's original purpose is to steal (?), they kinda hold on to the idea of not paying and still want to enjoy the good qualities. It's good to know those people want more of your game but still, they're ass.
And really, ya got arrested ?
