Article about why the creators of Darkwood decided to release the full DRM-free game for free on The Pirate Bay.

If you want the torrent link, check the article, I don't want to link to torrent sites here.

6 years ago*

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Missed it, since it wasn't in the deals section. Usually where free games are announced. Sorry.

6 years ago
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I didn't even notice it wasn't in the Deals section. LOL.
This thread is probably more apt, then.

6 years ago
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I'll keep it since the other thread didn't properly tag it with [Free], plus it contains a bit different content with the article(which I guess I could add in the other thread as a reply).

6 years ago
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I was planning on getting this game on a good sale someday (it looks excellent, and I love that type of game), but this simple act has me convinced they deserve full price for the game.

6 years ago
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Technically, it should be labeled along the lines of "[Free] (DRM-Free) Darkwood {Indefinite Offer}", so it's good that we generally apply such concepts of propriety without too much rigidity. :P

Moreover, generally permanently free/pay-what-you-want DRM-free games aren't actually given deals threads, namely since it's hard to know where to draw the line on that (given a significant portion of games on sites like itch.io or RPGMaker sites that already are already offered at pay-what-you-want pricing). Given that 'Deal' indicates a temporary duration, it feels like the original "discuss the event itself" thread covers the topic more suitably. Which isn't meant to criticize your perspective- just noting that it is, in fact, down to a matter of perspective.

That said, the other thread currently offers more information on the topic, as well as detailing site rules related to dealing with torrents, so just changing the category and title isn't currently enough to warrant this second thread.

6 years ago*
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Magnet link here:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:bec5ebccc6c66c9e6e883de4a4e3e74990ca42b5&dn=Darkwood+-+hotfix+3+%28developer%27s+torrent%29&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fzer0day.ch%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969

6 years ago
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You da MVP, for some reason the URL in the article wouldn't work for me.

6 years ago
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You're likely in one of the countries that force their ISPs to block access to TPB.

6 years ago
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Wouldn't have imaged Spain did so though, but I guess that is the reason...

6 years ago
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Similar situation in France, TPB website is blocked, forcing you to use VPN if you want to see it.

6 years ago
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Not loading here in 'Murica either.

6 years ago*
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Thanks. Didn't want to link directly to torrents, even if it's legal. Not sure about cg's stand on it.

6 years ago
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Downloading torrents isn't illegal. Downloading pirated copies of programs is illegal. Torrent is just another way of sharing files. Even official copy of Ubuntu is available in torrent file.

6 years ago
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I know. I even said in the message you replied to that it's legal. :P Doesn't mean cg allows it.

6 years ago
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No catch, but one request: "Please, please, don't buy it through a key reselling site. By doing that, you're just feeding the cancer that is leeching off this industry."
Don't like the type of game, but I'd support the developers for that statement alone.

6 years ago
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Read the whole thing, the developers are so honest and so real that I plan to buy darkwood instead of torrent.

6 years ago
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I read the whole thing, but I wanted to highlight that part. I've dealt with key resellers and rarely have I had a pleasant experience. I like seeing a developer calling them out on their bullshit and not partnering with them to re-release a great game. Bulletstorm.
The game just isn't my type, so I'll probably pass on it, however if there was a way I could crowdfund another project of theirs or just donate straight to the developers, I would. If not, I'd just buy the game for a friend when it goes on sale.

6 years ago
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I bought this off HB 3 years ago and while I haven't played it much I did enjoy the game from what I played then and what it's become now. I think that's really awesome that Acid Wizard studios did this.

6 years ago
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Hats of for the developers. For this reason alone, I pledge to buy the game when it's on sale. I'd buy it full, but I've just made a commitment to never buy any game full price unless for an extremely exceptional reason.

6 years ago
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isn't Hats of for the developers an extremely exceptional reason?

6 years ago
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Nah, it's not extreme until the monocle goes off as well.

View attached image.
6 years ago
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For the record, the phrase is "hats off (...)", with 2 "F"s.

6 years ago
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Unless they are making hats of the developers...

View attached image.
6 years ago
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Blame autocorrect fir that. :D
EDIT: there it goes again. God dang it! :p

6 years ago
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It's exceptional, but not extremely so. :p

6 years ago
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I don't think we should advertise this as "free".

The devs obviously want people to buy the game, not get it through piratebay. They just released a torrent version for people who can't afford it or maybe as a publicity stunt, but either way people shouldn't be encouraged to get it through torrent.

6 years ago
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+1.

6 years ago
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That's one of the reasons why I didn't post a direct link, to have people actually read why there's a torrent. I understand your sentiment though, but publicity stunt or not, this will get people looking into it and talking about it and hopefully buy it (if nothing else so they can get updates to the game).

6 years ago
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True, but a lot of the people who use this site use it because they can't afford games. If you look at the traffic by country a lot of it is from 2nd world countries and other places with poor economies.

6 years ago
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They should have created a webpage with direct download link instead of a torrent link. Many countries block the access to TPB website and in France torrent use is on survey by "hadopi" authority so I won't use any torrent link but I'm interested to get the game to test it.
So, as it's legally share by developpers, if someone can put a mirror link to any direct download page, I would be thankful. :-)

6 years ago
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You can use the magnet-link posted further up.

6 years ago
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I don't know how to use a magnet link, and if it links to the torrent as said before I won't use it as I don't want any issue with "hadopi". Many friends/neighbours/colleagues got issues with it by using torrent (one even got his web access cancelled for a month 1 or 2 years ago), so I keep away from any torrent link.

6 years ago
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That's a bit extreme. After all, even sites like humblebundle use torrents for their downloads.

6 years ago
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Yes, and Linux distribs are also on torrent. Torrent doesn't mean illegal, but French authorities are so incompetent that they doesn't understand that. Use torrent = get problems, that's my experience in France...
And I only used direct downloads to get the DRM-free versions of my HB purchases.

6 years ago
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I just don't get how that would work since it's a peer to peer connection. How would they know what the bits you're receiving are?

6 years ago
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They created numerous fake users, they download almost everything available on torrents sites and they stay as seeds. They collect both IPs of people downloading parts of files they share and the IPs that shared data they downloaded. If it is a French IP, you're their concern.
They send a 1st letter to ask you to stop.
If you're caught a 2nd time, the 2nd letter is "last warning".
Get caught a 3rd time and you're assigned to justice with high bill to pay corresponding to 10 times the value of the things they identified that you downloaded + risk of asking your web provider to shut down your web access for 1 month. I have heard that this last part is not applied anymore because a new law was voted regarding freedom of acces to the web, but the bill risk remains.

6 years ago
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that the worst reality i ever hear about torrent., using logical thinking, if the autorityes are seeds, just to cach french users, thats meens that they are normal seed for people from other contries like me. i thinks this is an obvius exagerated way to stop piracy on the internet., maybe they can use all that efford to stop pornography, or worst things than games.
sorry for my bad english

6 years ago
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Agreed 100%, but music and film lobbies have a great influence on French parlament, so priorities are not what they should be...

6 years ago
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Wouldn't that make what they are doing illegal if they are seeding illegal stuff?

This is what I found about France and torrenting laws:
"If it involves free material, like Gnu/Linux distributions or whatever, it's perfectly legal to use torrent, like it is elsewhere, torrents in themselves aren't illegal. Some French ISPs do block even legal torrents though."

So it would be perfectly safe to download this.

6 years ago
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Theorically yes it should be legal to download it, but as it is hosted at TPB I fear that it would be considered as pirated material by default. Also, TPB website is blocked by French web providers as requested by French authorities.

And yes, to catch pirates they act as pirates too... But they are officially allowed to do so...!

6 years ago
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That's why you can use the magnetlink, which has nothing to do with going to TPB. :) And you can't press charges against anyone anyhow unless the original copyright holder does it. Just like I can't press charges for someone downloading the latest blockbuster movie. And it's quite clear the original copyright holder would do nothing against you in this case.

But there's the hypocrazy, if they are allowed to do it, that means the torrents they are seeding are legally seeded by them. And they would definitely need the original copyright holder's permission to do it.

6 years ago
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Yikes! If someone was downloading an Adobe Photoshop torrent that could seriously screw them up.

6 years ago
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They obviously didn't want to pay for bandwidth used by freeloaders. Though they could probably put it on some upload/download site, maybe even earn a bit from the ads. Though I think putting it on torrent was also with the intention of giving the finger to pirates who'd put it on torrent as well.

6 years ago
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Wasn't there a scene release before this was uploaded though? Also, even if there were no scene release, how is this giving the middle finger to pirates? If you read their "press-release" it pretty much sounds like the opposite and using our two greys it seems pretty obvious they are doing it to promote their game and garner some goodwill.

6 years ago
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"how is this giving the middle finger to pirates" - that's quite simple really. If there was a "scene" release before, then it's even simpler. The devs uploading their game to torrent get to choose the message attached to it. They can write something like "please only download it if you can't afford it, or just want to test it before purchasing, or you wouldn't buy it anyway for some reason. if you like the game and can afford to buy it, please make a purchase on some legitimate site, not even at full price, but wait for a sale" - which they pretty much did. Pirates rarely write stuff like that, usually it's more along the lines of "yo yo, another release brought to you by xyz, stealing games since 1999, yo!". Uploading their game to torrent they essentially send a message to pirates: go back to your holes, we'll take it from here. How is that not giving them the middle finger? (by pirates I mean people "releasing" / uploading to torrent)

6 years ago
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You seem familiar with the current scene so I won't try to contest your statements but as I remember almost all the release groups had a message along the lines of "If you like this game please buy a copy to support the developers/development of good games"

6 years ago
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Yeah ok, maybe they still do. But it's usually at the end of the NFO file, after instructions how to make the cracked version work; while the devs made it the main message.

6 years ago
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Wherever they put the message they made it stand out enough for me to remember. I'd even go as far as stating that it's was more noticeable in the scene releases than it is in this developer release

6 years ago
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Free or not I have to buy it on steam, I am a sick man please help me!

6 years ago
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