Another indie developer (Cliff from Positech Games) mentioned why he is adding copy protection to his next game.  Unfortunately, he is right in his reasoning about why he feels he needs to. :(  He has decided to add online validation to his next game, which we don't do, but I can understand why he is adding it.

There are a lot of excuses and justifications about piracy, but it does hurt the industry as a whole, the companies that make games, and especially the individuals that make those games.  Cliff is correct, in my opinion, that this is one of the big reasons why many developers are moving to consoles and why many games are going MMO only.

People can justify piracy all they want, but by stealing a copy of a game or by making it available to download they are doing a lot of damage.  What most people focus on is the lost revenue from piracy, which is very true, but there are a lot of other repercussions. 

Every copy stolen of a particular game makes it less likely that the industry will make another game of that type.  The industry is very focused on number of sales and revenue.  Piracy numbers do not show up in their market research (at least not in a positive way), so every pirated game is a vote against that game.  So in the long run pirating a game that you actually like is kind of dumb. 

The specific developer and publisher that made the game is going to be even more effected.  They are less likely to make more games of that type or property or even at all.  Without enough sales most companies definitely won't make sequels and will eventually go out of business.

Piracy also forces developers and publishers to add in copy protection schemes and is forcing more and more games to consoles and MMOs.  I'm seeing copy protection mentioned more and more in contracts with publishers and portals.  I've also been in countless meetings and discussions about leaving the PC business or moving to something more like a MMO style business because of piracy.  As a primarily PC gamer, this makes me very sad.

For small indie companies, piracy is even worse (not that it is ever a good thing).  A pirate is not stealing from a big faceless retail chain, publisher, or large developer.  Pirates are stealing directly from individuals that made cool games and it is hard enough to survive as an indie without people stealing from them.

I won't say how I know, but I know at least a few people have tried to pirate Depths of Peril.  I don't think there are many people that have tried, but it is still frustrating.  In our case there really is no reason to pirate the game, except to get something for free instead of paying for it (that's generally called stealing btw).  Anyways, Depths of Peril has a demo that is a very fast download, the demo lets you play as long as you want and even has all 4 classes, the game is pretty cheap at $29.99 compared to most games, we have a 30 day money back guarantee, and the game actually does some unique things.

Personally, I would much rather not add copy protection to our games.  It's an extra step I have to do for every build of our games.  It's another thing that can cause problems for our customers, which in turn causes support issues that I have to resolve.  It's also another expense that I have to pay for.  Unfortunately, currently it boils down to a necessary evil. :(

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