Game developer issues piracy plea

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 11 Aug 2008 at 12:05

An independent game developer has put out a plea for people who pirate his games to email him and explain why.

Cliff Harris, responsible for the Democracy series, says he just wants to understand why people pirate his games. The developer says he is not looking to rebut arguments, or change opinions but just get a general sense of the reasons behind piracy.

"What I don't know is why people pirate my games," Harris writes on his site. "I might be able to get a general idea as to why people pirate stuff *in general* from reading warez forums, and every other story on digg, but I'm not interested in the general case. I want to improve my business, and ensure I stay afloat, and to do that, it would be mad to sit in the corner and ignore the opinions of that section of the public who pirate my games."

Harris promises not to report any of the people who contact him, or disclose the details of their email to the authorities. Rather he simply promises to read each and every email he receives.

"It will be entirely off-the-record and effectively anonymous. I won't hand any email addresses to the RIAA, MPAA, BSA or anyone at all under any circumstances ever," he writes.

Harris says he was motivated to put the call out due to the increased furore surrounding the issue, and the reaction he gets on his blog whenever he broaches the topic.

If you want to help Harris out, you can contact him here.