I think 99% of the developers here would disagree with you. In the big picture, it's extortion.
Can you logically explain why a dev would paywall his game. I don't think you can, and be truthful at the same time.
(The donation was made back in 2018)
Digital media piracy will never stop, so I have accepted that, but that doesn't mean I like it.
I think you'd find a surprising amount would in fact NOT agree with you. Especially those doing more niche stuff that isn't welcome on the major storefronts. Devs relying on donations paywall because they feel like they aren't getting enough money. Thing is, if they had a product WORTH the funding, they would draw supporters without having to go to extremes. Not uncommon to see a game in dev that introduces paywalls actually drop off in funding. Becasue that tends to annoy people, even those that would otherwise want to support them. Devs that want to REWARD supporters don't do so by locking significant content behind paywalls. They add smaller stuff, or just put more passion into the product as a whole.
I have no problems with a complete game (or even a WIP) winding up on a storefront at a set, a la carte price. I do see a MAJOR problem with monthly subscription fees for a WIP that often never completes, or even actively chooses to spin it's wheels to sucker money out of people. Especially with multiple levels of subscription tier and significant resource put toward subscription only content instead of just building the overall product to be better.
Even when this site was in it's infancy, devs straight up paywalling a WIP with monthly charges was not the norm. What WAS and pretty much always has been the norm since it became an option for adult indie devs utilizing a donation or subscription service, is to do a 'supporter' and 'free' release, typically with the supporter release being a few versions ahead, and occasionally with some 'bonus' scenes only accessible to supporters. It's never been the norm to paywall significant amounts of content and expect to be successful when seeking ongoing crowd funding for a niche product. The only ones who ever get any level of success pulling that, are the guys with both significant quality behind their work, and other existing products to build up their name. Even then they don't tend to switch from free to paywalled mid-development.
This is especially true when it comes to games utilizing the Illusion games, 3DCG, etc as a base for their visuals, as would be supporters tend to not be as willing to shell out when it comes to repurposed assets from elsewhere. DAZ gets away with it because anyone who's ever tried to use DAZ knows that it gets expensive quick if you aren't making your own assets, and actually creating decent visuals with it is also far more difficult than using Illusion's studio or even 3DCG.
Now we have AI slop added to the equation, which is a new level of 'asking for money for no real effort or talent', and gets even WORSE looks by potential supporters when it comes to paywalled content of ANY kind. In this particular game we have the triple threat of 'major paywalling' 'ai' and 'low effort' when it comes to the actual game development and code, as well as writing.
The majority of digital media piracy comes from those who cannot (or will not anyway) buy the product in the first place. You aren't losing money by those guys giving positive word of mouth as an indie dev seeking ongoing crowdfunding support. Many of those who CANNOT buy at the time, will absolutely turn around and buy when they have the option. The other significant chunk of piracy is what I'd refer to as 'assessment' piracy, which is people wanting to take the car for a test ride before deciding to drop cash on it. If it's worth it, then they turn around and buy it. If not, these people will just delete it and move on. You've also got a degree of moralist piracy out there, which tends to blend the assessment and 'incapable' pirate groups. Those who pirate not because they can't afford or because they don't want to pay, but because they don't want to monetarily support a specific company or business practice or whatever.
Put bluntly, you do not lose sales from piracy, you lose sales from not providing a good enough product/service to make it worth people's money.
