Or it's a transition that forces people build upon other peoples ideas culminating into greatness. Everything just needs to be foss.

This would be nice if you could feed your family with free software.

But you can’t.

I mean, many open source projects offer paid subscriptions for hosting their service for you, in the world of hosted applications. So I mean, there are ways to monetize free software, indirectly.

Witcher IV is free but you want more than 30fps? For just $5/mo and you can play at a stunning 60fps! Want unlocked framerate? That's $15/mo. 4k textures? $5/mo please. Want more than one saved game? Upgrade to three whole saved games for $10/mo!

This is essentially what you are asking for.

I feel like people would buy a game if the alternative was just that you have to compile it yourself and not have Steam achievements

This is just how capitalism work in general. Imagine how many amazing ideas don't see the light of day because the creators know the markets will steal it, fuck them over, introduce a worse version to the world and then bin it when it has no more value. Capitalists are thieves, plain and simple and AI has newly empowered them in the software sector.

That's not how the projects in his example work. It's closer to a game which you can play for free but getting it to start is a bit of a hassle if you aren't tech oriented so they offer to host it for you.

It wouldn't work for all types of games though. And some products do keep part of their offer behind a pay gap. Some work with donations, including governmental.

That has nothing to do with my op. It's actually the opposite... If people could just copy shit they could copy it and make a version without subscription.

Also my op was borderline just sarcasm. Although isn't it how everything works in China with ip laws?

Mindustry seems to be doing just fine.

They do. Mindustry, Residual, and Asperite come to mind.

Okay, so some games are more susceptible to this. No Man’s Sky. But half of the glory of Balatro is the weird jokers. Or on a story-based RPG, all the writing. Or a doom-like, the levels. It seems like what makes it less cloneable is the human touch.

True, I don't think the clones reach the height of what they copy - But they certainly muddle the space.

Like this doesn’t happen in any other socio-economic system. Ffs… kids need a new argument.

For the record, nearly every top-tier game ever made was done so under capitalism. But we can always compare.

You list all the non-capitalist games you love dearly and that have done well, and I’ll list all the ones made under capitalism. Let’s see how things match up.

For someone (a fucking large portion of people) who would play and beat the game over a weekend, you just gave everyone a boner for saving them a fuck ton of money. Pay $35 (or even free since their rig can’t do any of that regardless) for the game vs $80, fucking eh dude.

I don’t think you made the point you wanted lmfao.

Like making a slave list all the cotton picked outside slavery....

The endorphins from all that fart smelling must be really worth it.

Don't let them take the overhand. Showcase your game for the fans. There will always be people copying or pirating your work. Keep doing the stuff you do and it will pay off (hopefully). Look at Zelda, its copied so often, yet it does not matter for the original. There are so many racing games, each of them is like a copy from another. Same for fighting games. Yet fans are fans of the originals and games are still good.

I don't think its a good idea to not showcase your game, because someone can copy it.

Meanwhile the literal highest selling game of all time is… Tetris, the game that is quite famously Soviet…

LMAO! Tetris barely made it to the top 20, bud. But revisionism it seems, is what really wins arguments nowadays. I mean, who needs proof, right?

On that subject:

It took 10 seconds to prove you wrong:

https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

Take a look at ALL that capitalism! (Keep in mind that this list is WORLD WIDE)

I knew minecraft was #1 but I'm surprised how long that Tetris line hasn't been true. I heard that in the 2000s and 2010s, too.

Also this made me laugh. Not sure why they truncatated the name

Yeah, Tetris was massive when it came out. I was around. Remember it well!

I don't think die-hard fans that trade off of established names are carrying direct profits. Especially for a franchise/studio as young as Moonlighter.

Die-hard fans keep the game's community alive, which can eventually lead to new people finding it, but I'd be surprised if even 50% of a game's revenue is supported by people that would pick the game out of a line up of all the game they play in a year. And that other, indifferent 50% could realistically be snapped up by someone who shits out a cheap clone with a similar enough aesthestic.

Why not take the first result on google and duckduckgo?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

The source on the one you gave is a random unsourced claim in a guardian article from 2009, whereas wikipedia cites the tetris website.

When I said "fans", I didn't mean literal die hard fans. It was a word as an attempt to distinguish between who doesn't care in any capacity, for lack of terms. Let's take Vampire Survivors as an example. There are many copycats of this game, but most people don't care about them. Most people want to play Vampire Survivors. Or all the Mario Kart clones. Well yes, they are not identical clones, but that's the thing. Those games have an identity and quality "fans" (or just "gamers") enjoy, that they don't get from the clones. The community are playing the main games, and are part of the fun for many. I don't think that we are currently in an especially broken situation of copycats, that dictates the entire industry. We had copycat games since the 80s. Don't get me wrong, it is an issue, but its not a big issue. Now its easy for me to say, because I'm not a small indie developer.

Sure… so let’s include Tetris. Now, how does your ONE game stack up against the rest?

Facebook kid, everything in your entire wold that you e hit is the product of capitalism. But please… continue the manufactured outrage. It’s funny!

Oh and by the way:

March 2nd 2026

And the Guinness Book of Records also disagrees with you.

But either way, nothing is going to stop your little ball-fisted feverish rage at all things caliptalist while frantically mashing keys on your capitalist designed and built phone, or PC, or tablet to tell me how it is….

So how about you do that now that I have you blocked. That way- you can get that coveted last word in, and I won’t have to waste my time reading it.

The community are playing the main games,

People are playing Vampire Survivors because it's Vampire Survivors. No one can say whether it would be the Flagship of its genre if genAI let someone create a passable knock-off in a week. Yeah, we've always had knock-offs but those required some modicum of effort to produce. And that effort took time, time where the original could become entrenched with people that like what it innovated on.

We can't talk numbers because nobody has them, but I'm pessimistic that the majority of Vampire Survivors (or any game that has reached "mainstream") players are engaging with the game in a way to interfaces with what makes it unique. They would get the same enjoyment out of a shallow rip-off. They're only going with VS or any mainstream because other people have vetted it as "not a waste of money" or out of FOMO. Idk how old you are but I absolutely "enjoyed" N64 shovelware games that were objectively 6 out of 10s because they were good enough. And I have a more discerning palate now, but that's because I'm a fan of the industry. Most people are just consuming content, like watching basic TV. The "fans" you describe are people in these comments. And they are indisputably in the minority when it comes to volume of product sales.

Maybe I am too optimistic, but copycats are also kind of free advertisement for the original.

Imagine how many amazing ideas don't see the light of day because the creators know the markets will steal it

Lol i call this bs. People who think this way tend to be just an idea guy that will inevitably fail on the execution. Idea is worthless, everyone have genius idea until they start implementing it. All great stuff are based on previous iteration, untested idea will never be amazing. People who never test their idea is either an idea guy or a patent troll, both are legit insufferable.

An outlier is not the norm. Cave Story and La Mulana inevitably need to be sold to generate the dev's income

Edit: mistaken Mindustry for being FOSS

You having a stroke?

If you'd like a list of your logical fallacies so far in this thread alone, I'm afraid it'll have to keep for tomorrow. I'm knackered after a double, and you seem to get off on this whole thing, but I'll put a pin in it, for sure.

fuckingchristonabender.

Don't you have hobbies? Go, be a twat to sone other group of anons, eh? Or, maybe go outside at least.

Sadly, their investors do not seem to share your confidence. 🥲

I don't think that was a decision by their investors.

Thanks Satan.

What gives you that impression?

What I see is that demos help games succeed, ergo investors're happy. You're suggesting that he was so resolute in his stance that he pitched it to them, knowing that he was trying to sell them on a high risk play to what, send a message? 🤓

You described Microsoft gamepass with extra steps.... and more expensive too.

The question is, what gives you the impression that investors control the project? Unless proven, I don't think your previous claim is true. I'm not in the position to provide evidence for not doing something, its the other way round.

I'm questioning your logic, not your sources. Thanks, though. Nice dodge.

You made the claim. And I don't believe you are right, unless you can prove it. I'm not the making the claim that investors control the demo to be cancelled. Do you have any prove for your claim?

Then explain, ohh the great unstroken one.

Your grammar is awful.

Yeah, I just assumed English isn't their first language? But that's hardly the point

For anybody else reading this, this fallacy is called "moving the goalpost".

One could also argue for "motte and bailey", but that's less clear.

Yeah, and?

Doesn’t mean their grammar is any good

You can feed a family by selling libre software or support, e.g. RHEL, other enterprise software.

It's described by three tags, tower defence, roguelike, castlevania. So they literally copied ideas, style and gameplay loop from other games. Absolutely novel nothing like this was ever made, my virgin eyeballs aren't ready for such novelty.

You're the one making the claim the investors didn't have a play in this. Shouldn't the most obvious/common case be what we default to?