I co-developed Snails. I'm not known for kissing the ass of other developers and may not be very well liked or respected. I am certainly not about to alter that trend and start kissing some Warez-fiend ass.
1) Payment by credit card is not the developers fault, nor is it their problem. Thats online sales. Come up with a better plan, and you'll be a multi-millionaire by this time next year. I'm fucking serious.
2) Devs are naive to think that their software is so valuable that the majority of WAREZ'd software would have been purchased legally. When devs can provide accurate numbers projecting the number of sales if WAREZ didn't exist, then we have something to talk about. For now, WAREZ is just a matter of convenience to blame sagging sales.
3) Most devs can't afford to sell retail. Furthermore, distros (distributors) want to ensure a return on their investment, so they look at the potential and current sales base. Nobody knows exact figures of the selling potential once WAREZ enters the mix.
4) Snails was priced at $12 as an experiment to see if it reduced WAREZ. Obviously that failed, and we cannot advise others to follow. The fact that Strategic Assault and Chooper Alley are STILL being WAREZ'd at a $5.99 price tag shows it still doesn't work. These are quality games on CNETs Top10, and affordable price models had no effect on pirating. However, there are other benefits to affordable price models.
5) All WAREZ sites hate leeches. In fact, Warez sites even have their own methods of "leech prevention" that DON'T WORK. You can pretend it works if you want, and I'll pretend my protection schemes work.
6) If I recieved an email from a Warez-fiend, with criticisms or praises of Snails, I would be happy as shit. I can't crawl through the wires and reprimand them. In fact I wouldn't want to. Most devs would be happy if their product recieved any attention at all. Drop me a friggin line sometime, even if you wanna discuss another game. I talk to most of the top devs, so I can relay that info to them as well. Neither of us are going away, we might as well be in communication.
7) Online communities are amazing. If you want to test drive software, I suggest you become a reviewer. All the shit you want, plus you give back and make the PPC industry stronger. If you are good enough, you can become a freelance writer for PocketPC Magazine and get paid in the process. I was fortunate enought to meet Diane Dumas and Hal from PocketPC Magazine and they recieve all kinds of shit to review, not just software. Diane had a bundle of CF shit I never even heard of- a remote control amplifier to turn your PPC into a TRUE remote control?
Devs need to get off their asses and start selling their shit. Most software has a limited amount of time that will maximise profits, before they are WAREZ'd. Typically a week- sometimes less. Yet very few take advantage of this narrow window- Snails certainly missed it. So did Argentum. Truth is, marketing needs to start at least a month before the projected launch date. DEXplor missed this by a wide margin, I am sorry to say, as it still isn't FULLY launched.
9) Justifying Warez by any means doesn't work. We've all done it, however I have bought every single app and game that I found worthy. All others I dump (like Quake 3). I am in the minority. How the hell am I supposed to test the functionality of CorelDRAW10 if I can't save? What the hell is that? I bought Half-life and Unreal Tournament soley for their mods, however that required me to steal a copy in order to get an accurate feel for the mods gameplay. Still, it doesn't make it right and I hate doing it.
10) I don't have alot of full versions. Most of them I have obtained through promotions or beta cycles. I don't have the time to test every app and game anyway. However, I have no idea how these WAREZ-fiends find all the time. That kind of hardcore dedication is useful on many levels within the LEGAL industry.
I don't suspect I am going to win any popularity contests here, from either side. I don't condone WAREZ- hell I am losing a bit of money in the process. It sucks. But I am still making a living, just like a couple others out there.
