So while I respect the content creators rights, I have no respect for the business people who try and milk every cent from something at the expense of the customer.
I feel similarly. The "common rudeness" going on is certainly not all on the consumer side. Many of the producers are treating consumers (including actual paying customers) like dirt. Actually, worse: I think if they treated dirt as badly as they treat the consumers, they'd run seriously afoul of some environmental-protection laws. If consumers respond by being rude to them... well, two wrongs don't make a right, but it is more understandable.
Indie games do it (including Arcen in this, even if they aren't technically indie)
Incidentally, I don't know why we wouldn't technically be indie. Not that the label or lack thereof really matters to me, but "self-funded and small team" is the usual practical definition I'm aware of, and we fit that.
Something I'm curious about is, how do you view a developer's work? Is it a work of art, or an object that consumers should get a proper level of enjoyment out of?
A lot of wheels get spun on "are games art?" and I'm not going to touch that. Here I'm not concerned about that: the game is a product of the developer's labor. Exactly what that means depends on your worldview and resulting moral standard, but the common historical understanding (at least in the societies I am aware of) is that generally the laborer has certain rights regarding the product of their labor.
I'm not so concerned about the details of what those rights are (honest debate about that is a valid thing), but with the more fundamental question: do you, as an individual,
care about the rights of that other person, or are they so far beneath the importance of your own desires as to be functionally irrelevant?
From a strictly consumer point of view, a video game is an object. It's something that you buy, and you need to know if you're going to be satisfied with the product.
I'm fine with that viewpoint. But if you run into a product where there's no way of knowing "is this worth it?", the appropriate response is to not buy the product. And that's entirely ok. It's an informed decision based on the information that "there's not enough information to justify the expenditure". In fact, it's one reason developers should make sure you have a reasonable ability to answer that question.
Responding to not being able to answer "is this worth it?" by disregarding and violating the developer's rights is an
entirely different proposition, and I don't think it's ok. That doesn't mean I think you're an awful person, just that I disagree that the action is acceptable.
To put it more succinctly: you
do not have the
right to try-before-you-buy. You
do have the right to not-buy.
If you disagree and can prove that you have the right to try-before-you-by, I'd like to see that proof
Though note the use of the term "right". It is reasonable to want to try-before-you-buy, and it is a good practice for developers to give you that opportunity, but there is no
obligation for them to do so. If they do not provide a demo, they have not
wronged you, or deprived you of something you deserve.
This is true. It's also a conversation that might have to happen another time with people who watch TV more than I do.
Haha, yea, I watch almost zero tv, we don't even have any kind of in-feed, just dvd's and a few vcr tapes, and that's almost entirely for the kids.
I like to think that I love and appreciate developers at least a little bit, but maybe I hold them accountable to too much
I think accountability is fine, as long as it's a two-way street. If someone wants to bash a game I've made for being "buggy" or "grindy" or whatever, or if they say our business or design decisions were stupid, fine. But will they sit still long enough for me to interact with that claim? To present evidence and arguments to the contrary? To show our side of the story? Are they willing to admit it if they're wrong, or at least acknowledge that the situation was more complicated than they thought?
In short: will they accept accountability for what they say about us? Or are they just sniping from the balcony, refusing any responsibility to behave according to any particular standard?
You can guess what approach actually encourages me to care about what they say
Anyway, that's more specific to people talking about us, but the same thing goes for the piracy question: do people want us (developers) to treat them with decency and respect their wishes? Do they do the same for us? Going beyond that, do they want us to go the extra mile for them? Do they do the same for us?
Probably in most cases they've assumed from previous consumer-producer history (in this industry and others) that we don't care about them, and therefore they feel no particular obligation to care about us. How they react from there depends on the person, of course.
