http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/09/e3-2011-torchlight-pirated-over-5-million-times-in-china-runic-ceo-thats-fine-with-us/

On Asian piracy:
“Millions and millions of copies of Torchlight downloaded from the illicit market in certain Asian territories. And that’s fine with us. We knew it was gonna happen. For us, we kind of see it as, down the road, we’re building an audience. We’ve long since announced that we’re going to be doing an MMO, and y’know, we kind of view it as a marketing tool for us. We’re going to have millions of people who are familiar with our franchise, familiar with our style, and who are going to be ready customers when we do a global MMO.”

On DRM:
“You’re fighting against an immovable force by complaining and being paranoid about [piracy] and all that. We figure if we’re just nice to our customers, charge a low price for our game to begin with, don’t over-burden them with crazy DRM, and customers will be nice to us too. And so far, they have been.”

“We got a lot of letters from people saying ‘Hey, I pirated your game, but it was really cool, so I bought it.’ Y’know, we’re cool with that, we’re not as concerned about that sort of thing as other companies, especially if it makes our honest players inconvenienced. We assume that everyone is an honest player, and we want to make their experience as cool as possible.”

On LAN support, which was just confirmed:
“I don’t know why everyone else doesn’t do it. I understand that a lot of other companies want to run you through their portal to expose you to the other products they have and make it easy for you to click a button and buy other stuff. But we’re a small company–we have Torchlight and Torchlight 2. There’s really no reason for us to do that sort of thing. And it’s something [fans] have requested, and we’re happy to be able to do it.”

On the prospect of community-created 50-player multiplayer:
“We’re releasing the tools that we use to make the game. We’re not dumbing them down at all or disabling anything–you’ll literally be able to change everything in the game, among that the maximum number of players that can get into a game. So yeah, if you make a level that’s appropriate for a ton of guys–we haven’t done 50–but it’s theoretically possible, it should work perfectly well.”



+respect for Runic Games

I'm going to buy Torchlight 2 and that MMO game of theirs now regardless of my interest in those games. :goodjob:

seriously Runic... just shut up and take my money

I loved Torchlight. It was a simple, mind numbing but addicting game. Kudos to their take on it as well. It's nice to see companies doing what blizzard did a couple years ago and saying "Go ahead and pirate it. We don't make games to put DRM on it. We make games that people want to buy."

And I remember seeing something on a website that Torchlight is the number one most torrented game after The Sims xD

aye, I would buy a Blizzard game without hesitating if it looked interesting. I wouldn't even check out any reviews or ask around first because I know that the game wouldn't disappoint. :nod:

Pretty smart move since eventually all games are pirated one way or another.

It makes so much sense, I find it hard to understand why there are so few companies that look at it from that point of view. Perhaps because most are not willing to charge a low price for anything.

So it's all a Xanatos Gambit. By allowing the Chinese to play their game illegally freely, they will get them hooked on the world and universe of Torchlight, create brand name recognition, get them to buy into a subscription-based MMO that won't be pirated so easily, AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Oh Runic, you dastardly lot!

Blizzard already did it with WoW. Now billions of Asian gold farmers are stuck on that game bahaha

Human behavior follows a means of reinforcement/punishment. DRM is a form of punishment for many people. Punishment, in psychology, is a term that refers to a reduction of a specific behavior. Also, punishment comes with side effects (Your customers may end up disliking your brand). Reinforcement, on the other hand, indicates an increase in a specific behavior. The goal is to determine what is reinforcing - what will increase sales?

Any system that employs punishment, such as DRM, is destined to fail on some level. You cannot predict the negative side effects and they always occur!

Examples of reinforcement are things like releasing free content (DLC), offering higher levels of service, such as dedicated multi-player functionality, etc. However, there's no one thing that works for everyone. Reward is a difficult thing to gauge.

I hate Big Bang Theory.... every time someone mentions reinforcement/punishment I think of Sheldon with a piece of chocolate and a water spray bottle :facepalm:

Especially when the only people the DRM is affecting are people legitimately paying for the game.

Oh you silly crackers. you so silly.

I've never played Torchlight before, but I will buy it. Right now.


+500 respect points for Runic Games. :wub:

Seeing as how the game was $5 for a while - when I bought it - this is probably a low number in comparison to most games.

Oooh, very nice. I'll pick up Torchlight 2 cause of this now. I was interested in the first one, but it not being multiplayer turned me off.

+1 for Runic.

I tried the first Torchlight and it wasn't really for me. Runic are doing everything right with the sequel by adding pretty much every feature I wish it had. I'll be purchasing Torchlight 2 day one. This is such a rarity in a time where every sequel feels more watered down than the last one.

You can choose not to believe in the science of psychology, but Behavior is the one area of psychology that is the best defined. Everything else is mostly highly theoretical. Behavior, on the other hand, is not. The science of behavior is well defined at this point.

Whaaaa? A game company that...doesn't make an ass out of itself after their first successful game? Shut the front door! I may pitch in for these guys.

ah Torchlight that is a fun game.I liked that the retail version didn't have any DRM that I could find

Torchlight 2 is on my radar to keep an eye out for

to bad few others think like Runic on "crazy DRM"

One of the first things I learned when I was studying to become a psychologist. Humans aren't simple robots with a trained good/bad response. Classical conditioning isn't enough to explain all of our behavior, though it is a component.

Have yet to buy and play it, but I totally love their attitude about treating their customers like honest people.

+5 pinkie pies

And yet Beth still intends on lumbering their customers with the godawfull GFWL.

:tops: Finally a company that sees the truth of it.

yup.

I find it my consumer duty to reward enterprises with my hard earned monetary means..

Here's hoping the game's actually good :foodndrink:


[wiki's Torchlight..]
I think we have a winner :celebration:


As well as the disciplines to steer ones behavior away from the science.. :whistling:

I'm still not sure why they would be okay with them losing... potentially millions of dollars.

Because those people would most likely not buy it anyways, so they don't really lose all that much. That and like they said it opens up their customer base and now more people who usually wouldn't buy it are buying it, so they're making money. I bought it for the PC and then again for the 360 when it came out for that. I will most likely be buying Torchlight 2 as well.

I'm buying the game on principle, Thunder And others are as well. That isn't a virtual sales projection that was 'missed', it's a real sale, with cash in the bank.

Projections are only as good as the flashlight shining on it.


If every company treated customers this proper, I'd buy ever game that was published, on principle. :grad:

soo, maybe it's a good thing that not everybody's doing it... just yet. :blush: