When you encounter an issue in a game, it’s perfectly reasonable to go online and try and find a solution. The more determined among us might even try pinging the creators of a product directly just to get an answer. But would you have the gall to talk to someone whose product you’ve stolen?
Such appears to be the case for one bold Steam user, who was posting up a storm on the storefront’s community page for Farthest Frontier. Developed by Crate Entertainment, the same studio behind the 2016 apocalyptic fantasy action game Grim Dawn, Farthest Frontier is a medieval city-builder sim with survival elements. In addition to mechanics you’d expect from a city-builder, Farthest Frontier sets itself apart by including an in-depth farming system, Oregon Trail-like diseases, and an advanced town simulation system where villagers perform their jobs in real time. In the couple of months since its October release, Farthest Frontier has earned itself a “very positive” review score on Valve’s platform.
BigBadAss33 is one of the many people playing Farthest Frontier, but if they’re enjoying it, you wouldn’t know it. The user appears to have spent the last couple of weeks complaining incessantly about the game in a variety of threads. They don’t like how forested the maps are, and they’ve got a lot to say about how trading works in the game. Inventory management is also a sore point. “The constant MICRO-Managing of EVERYTHING is nuts,” the player exclaimed in a thread.
By mid-December, BigBadAss33 was running into issues with the city-builder. The game was suddenly crashing for no reason. “C’mon Devs please let us know!!!” the player wrote in one thread where they were trying to figure out seed generation. Finally, by Dec. 21, the irked Steam user went straight to the source with a short thread titled “Please fix your in game time?”
Less than an hour later, the player had finally caught Farthest Frontier developer Crate Entertainment’s attention. Zantai, one of the developers behind Farthest Frontier, responded curtly, “Please purchase the game instead of running a ‘non-Steam version.'” The thread was immediately locked.
Over on Reddit, Zantai has shed some light on that decision and their general approach to piracy in video games. Zantai says they know the player was a pirate because they had caught them mentioning using a “non-Steam version,” which doesn’t exist.
“So if they don’t plan to support our work, we don’t think that gives them the privilege to participate in our community,” Zantai wrote in a comment discussing the interaction.
Game developers have all sorts of approaches when it comes to piracy. Some will shell out for services like Denuvo, which prevents game cracking and dissemination. Some game developers have fun with it and put in features or details that will only affect pirates, like when Rockstar sneakily made it so Grand Theft Auto 4 pirates had to play the game with a drunk character who gets locked out of their car. Others will try and tackle the piracy question with region-specific pricing. Whatever the approach, the consensus — especially among indie developers who may not have the means for anti-piracy software — seems to be that piracy generally cannot be stopped, only managed.
Some of the more benevolent game developers will both seed the pirated versions themselves and readily interact with people who are obviously pirates. If Zantai appears to be on the stricter end of developer responses to piracy, it’s worth noting that they could have banned the player and didn’t. Zantai knows that piracy is a complex issue and that punishing the player isn’t necessarily the best course of action. The developer has seen first-hand how some pirates try the game illicitly and end up buying it later, sometimes apologetically. These players, Zantai says, deserve a second chance.
“There are many reasons people may pirate games, and sometimes it’s just the sad reality that someone literally cannot afford them,” Zantai wrote in one comment. “That’s not a lost sale, that wasn’t going to be one to begin with. If your financial situation is fine or you’re doing it in ‘protest’ of Steam or some other nonsense, you can fuck right off though with your high horse.”
Still, the developer claims that their measured response to the apparent pirate has been met with reports sent to Valve that call Zantai a rude harasser.
Though it’s caught viral attention, this actually isn’t Zantai’s first time navigating video game pirates. Grim Dawn was coded to serve pirates issues like the inability to turn in quests, losing levels, or not spawning bosses. But in this case, ultimately, the developer does not feel they have any obligation to cater to pirates who do not value their work.
“If [an indie developer’s] work brings you joy, help put food on their table,” Zantai writes. “And if you can’t afford to, at least don’t come to their forums to announce it.”
