I am nearing the finish-point for my first decent game. I want to release it via shareware, and I am trying to decide how I will do this. I have seen many programs where the user just recieves a password after they pay for it and that unlocks the game. Does this work? How bad is piracy? If you have ever released a shareware game and used this method, PLEASE add your experience. I am extremely interested in whether or not this method worked for you.

Bad.

it can be more frustrating than bad. As long as enough people do buy the game it won''t upset you.
And you CAN defeat the pirates. People hardly bother trying, but you can shut down piracy sites. I just got one shut down on tripod yesterday and another today at attcanada, you just have to report them a lot and be persistent.
Dont let the worry about piracy put you off shareware. afer all, retail games get pirated too.

http://www.positech.co.uk

How does one find out who hosts the site? I''ve come across two more warez site that also carry shareware games:

www.nforce.nl

and

www.divinegods.com

How do you shut them down?

Start with a whois query, to find out their contact info. Also try a traceroute, to see which ISP''s domain they are being served from. Generally, it''s difficult to get non-US domains, such as this nforce.nl, shut down. I can''t see a divinegods.com domain. Perhaps it''s already been shut down?

Here''s a whois on nforce.nl:

Result for nforce.nl

Domain name nforce.nl (first domain)

08-09-2000

Organisation Taks

Vroenhoutseweg 8

4703 SJ

ROOSENDAAL

Last update 29-01-2002

Status active

Maintainer NL Domain Registry

Administrative contact P. Taks

+31 165 569773

postmaster@nforce.nl

Registrar Internet Service Europe*)

Nieuweweg 2 A

4751 TG

OUD GASTEL

Technical contact P. Taks

+31 165 569773

famtaks@home.nl

Nameserver dns-eu1.powerdns.net

213.244.168.217

Nameserver dns-us1.powerdns.net

63.123.33.130

Well, if you want to try to shut down the Dutch(.nl) one, you could contact BREIN (Bescherming Rechten Entertainment-Industrie Nederland; Pprotection of the Rights of the Entertainment Industry Netherlands).

It''s a organization that combats diferent sorts of piracy (video''s, music and games) in the Netherlands. I believe they also have contacts with the Dutch Department of Justice.

Their e-mail is at the bottom of this page.

What about file swapping programs, such as Morpheus? Does anyone have any experience with those (I don''t use them myself), and know if a lot of shareware titles are pirated that way?

Morpheus/Kazaa aren''t bad for shareware. They are kind of bad for retail titles (try searching for a popular game like quake 3)

WinMX is a bit worse

Gnutella is much worse

IRC is the worst of all

also, for shareware games, its all too easy to download a demo that comes with the full game, but locked, and download a crack from astalavista.box.sk or some such site.

I think its excellent when people post practical advice on getting warez sites shut down. Maybe we should have a FAQ or something for shareware authors that lists all the websites of the different regulatory bodies?
I got a real snooty email from ATTCanada refusing to shut down a blatant warez site until i could prove I was the copyright holder. By the time the email was sent they had already been forced to shut it down by FAST (federation against software theft) who I had reported it to.
Persistence pays off, and if every gamedev shareware author get s a site shut down a month then I reckon thats pretty good going
And dont bother responding with crap about how piracy is fair game. If you do, remember to hold that thought next time your house is burgled.

http://www.positech.co.uk