Internet steals 30 000 steam keys from WadjetEyes

WHAM · Fri 01/11/2013 18:27:14

http://kotaku.com/indie-dev-says-people-stole-30-000-steam-keys-from-him-1456875308

The internet made me sad again...

Ponch · Fri 01/11/2013 18:34:30

I has a sad too

qptain Nemo · Fri 01/11/2013 18:35:41

To resell?! A game by a full-time indie? What a bunch of dicks.

ThreeOhFour · Fri 01/11/2013 22:21:34

Sadly, the exact same thing happened to another indie dev earlier in the year.

Retro Wolf · Fri 01/11/2013 22:48:58

I'm speechless....

Ghost · Fri 01/11/2013 23:16:55

This really... man. Arseholes!

That is a new low.

Azure · Fri 01/11/2013 23:28:41

Utterly horrible in all the cases mentioned. At least Valve are stepping up and invalidating the codes. I wonder where those codes are resold though?

WHAM · Sat 02/11/2013 00:01:50

There are some websites that sell steam codes for well over the regular price. Basically people buy up codes for the games when they are on a -75% sale or something and then just keep selling them for minor profit after the sale ends.

Radiant · Sat 02/11/2013 00:55:24

Yeah, this is the indie's equivalent of patent trolls. Some people will abuse any loophole as long as it makes them a dime. Sad indeed.

kaput · Sat 02/11/2013 02:34:03

That must have been really scary... Kind regards, Dave. Glad you managed to get it sorted. There are some real assholes in this world, that's for sure... Hope all is well.

kconan · Sat 02/11/2013 04:30:15

Pricks...Leave the mom and pop software houses alone.

Armageddon · Sat 02/11/2013 04:41:35

So it's okay to steal 30,000 keys from say, EA?

It does suck though that this stuff happens.

qptain Nemo · Sat 02/11/2013 05:30:08

Quote from: Armageddon on Sat 02/11/2013 04:41:35
So it's okay to steal 30,000 keys from say, EA?

Specifically from EA? Yes.

Ghost · Sat 02/11/2013 06:33:09

Well, somehow it feels worse when a fellow game designer is the target. A large company has more resources to avoid theft (in the case of EA, the whole always-online-thing is clearly an attempt to do just that) and at the same time is a more likely target. But theft is theft. I found some of the comments in that article really depressing, too, especially those that tried to put the blame on "bad planning/carelessness". If my neighbour's door is open and he is not home, and I go and raid his fridge that is a crime, no matter how careless my neighbour was. Like, leaving the door open. And actually buying raid-worthy stuff and putting it in his fridge.

Fitz · Sat 02/11/2013 07:22:47

That! Shifting the blame on the victim is a way of - whether consciously or not -- siding with the perpetrator. A few days ago I read about a judicial expert (!!!) saying that it's women who provoke rape -- because... well... when you meet a guy (whatever the circumstance), it's obvious he wants intercourse and will stop at nothing to get his way. Right?

Aaanyway... I'm logging in to Steam right now and buying Resonance

(shame on me for not doing that earlier!)

RickJ · Sat 02/11/2013 07:35:09

The mistake was in not hiring the Obamacare folks to handle the web traffic. Had the precaution been taken losses would have been limited to about 6 or so. Just sayin

In all seriousness though it is a sad day for the internet. Sorry this happened to you Dave but I am glad you were able to limit the damage.

Grim · Sat 02/11/2013 07:56:50

Oh man...

Read about it on Joystiq... Hope you can sort it out.

With some luck you might find this whole thing to be good promotion for the game- people who never heard of Wadjet Eye {or adventure games) will read these news on major gaming sites and feel inclined to check out your games (if someone would steal 30.000 copies of it it must be absolutely AMAZING)?... What I'm saying is, I really hope that this bad thing will turn into something good in the end.

Fitz · Sat 02/11/2013 08:55:29

Yeah, that's like free advertisement -- and they are great games (playing Resonance as we speak -- blown away), so I hope it'll win WE's games some well-deserved attention in wider circles. It reminds me of when McPixel got pirated (via Pirate Bay). Right now, Sos is pretty much a celebrity in our neck of the woods.

Tabata · Sat 02/11/2013 09:48:02

I am very sad and angry at the same time about such things and the amount of criminal energy behind it.
Most of those criminals - yes, criminals because it's no peccadillo for me - are clever and could easily earn their money the legal way with half of the effort instead of stealing and cheating honest people.

... and even more sadly to see it going worse every year.
I am afraid that respect and kindness are becoming extinct.

For Dave I can just hope that the reports about the theft will bring him attention (kind of marketing) and some good customers to compensate for the damage.

selmiak · Sat 02/11/2013 09:55:52

Quote from: Armageddon on Sat 02/11/2013 04:41:35
So it's okay to steal 30,000 keys from say, EA?

Quote from: Ghost on Sat 02/11/2013 06:33:09
But theft is theft.

But these were free keys. How can you steal something that is free?
Noone would have noticed or complained if some 10 people had generated 10 keys for themselfs, a couple of friends and even to resell 5-6. But the pure scope of the same 10 people generating 3000 keys for later resell makes it this bold asshole move. The mean thing with digital goods is that you can't even complain about them taking away and not leaving anything for the honest people. Except for overloaded servers that make it impossible for honest people to get a code. If it were a buy one game, get another game for free offer and people found a way to exploit this and get unlimited games for free it would have been blatant stealing in my book. I'm in no way trying to defend these actions, but still this is legally not stealing but morally totally wrong.
Not that these masses could have been expected in any way but when I'd do such a promotion I'd still make sure to have a one game only per person mechanisms in place, if it doesn't work with IP counts as people use proxies, maybe limit it to one copy per steam account or are people also hoarding steam accounts? Though technically this could make it slower on their end as they'd have to generate a new steam account for every code they want. Captchas do a good job in keeping automated scripts on the internet from doing the same task over and over again and thus exploiting mechanisms!
From what I read steam sorted it out and most of the bulkhoarded codes are made invalid. So except for some some hair lost while the whole thing was going on, I'm with Grim and Fitz, this could be a nice free advertisment, and turn out a lot better than the initially planned freebie thingy as people like to get emotionally involved now and buy even more games. Cheer up Dave