Selling securely?

[crimsonnight]

Hi all,

My novel's ready for release - I intend to release it through Storenvy as it looks like a good place to sell merchandise and I really like the coupon system.

I could upload my novel and then send someone a link when they purchase it, but obviously that's not very secure as they could forward on the link onto whomever. Storenvy offers a great add-on: http://app.boxtruck.co/ but it's expensive as I'd need at least the 1GB package and I have no idea how popular my novel will be.

So my question is, does anyone know a cheaper, easy to set-up/use alternative to securely sell digital content online?

[Camille]

https://gumroad.com/ and https://ribbon.co/ are two pretty easy-to-use methods for selling online. I haven't used Ribbon but I like Gumroad a lot. You can create coupons for that, too, and they even show you analytics and whatnot, which is nice.

[crimsonnight]

Thanks for that, Gumroad looks good to me! So how does my content stay secure with them, are customers sent serial keys/unique URLs upon purchase? If I release an update will all users have access to it? Also do you know if there are any file size limitations?

Also it doesn't say anything about .zip files under accepted file types?

[PyTom]

Since this isn't Ren'Py-specific, I'm moving this to the creator's corner.

[Morhighan]

There's also Fastspring, which I use to sell my boyfriend's games. (http://www.fastspring.com/) Might want to check it out. : )

[Camille]

Thanks for that, Gumroad looks good to me! So how does my content stay secure with them, are customers sent serial keys/unique URLs upon purchase? If I release an update will all users have access to it? Also do you know if there are any file size limitations?

Also it doesn't say anything about .zip files under accepted file types?

They get a unique URL shown in the browser and also emailed to them. I think they've recently added in a feature where the person can save it to their DropBox, too. I believe the file size limit is 4GB. If you update the file, I think it'll be reflected when the customer visits their unique URL again. You can email everyone who's purchased the game to let them know of the update.

I've used .zip files before, no problem. Gumroad supports all file types. o3o

[crimsonnight]

Awesome, thanks for getting back to me - I'll give it a day or 2 to see if anyone else has any opinions, but if not I think gumroad it is!

[yuushi]

This is actually something I've been curious about, though it's more general than the OP's topic. With Gumroad or any other similar service, a customer may be sent a unique URL, but is there anything preventing a buyer from lending their account to another user so they can access that unique URL, or otherwise reuploading the file they purchase to a free file hosting service?

The only solid prevention method I've seen is what Dandelion ~wishes brought to you~ used, since I believe the game needs to periodically access the Cheritz server via internet for you to keep playing. I'm not sure why it is, but that function seems to have shut down the ability to share/reupload the game. Of course, a lot of VN creators don't have their own servers so it doesn't seem like a viable method for most people.

[trooper6]

DRM that works by forcing a user to connect to the Internet regularly is something that many users do not support and resent. There are users who don't have regular Internet access, and being prevented from using a game you bought legally because you live in an area with spotty Internet service seems pretty unethical to me.

There are pirates. And you can not prevent the determined pirate. You can make it inconvenient for less skilled pirates, but in the process, if you make it more inconvenient for your legitimate customers, you won't have legitimate customers. And you might build a reputation among the consumer base that you do not want that will result in people boycotting your work.

[Elmiwisa]

DRM that works by forcing a user to connect to the Internet regularly is something that many users do not support and resent. There are users who don't have regular Internet access, and being prevented from using a game you bought legally because you live in an area with spotty Internet service seems pretty unethical to me.

There are pirates. And you can not prevent the determined pirate. You can make it inconvenient for less skilled pirates, but in the process, if you make it more inconvenient for your legitimate customers, you won't have legitimate customers. And you might build a reputation among the consumer base that you do not want that will result in people boycotting your work.

I agree with this, and to add to this:
-For many place, billing Internet by time is very common. Since people will predictably try to take advantage of the bandwidth as much as possible in such a business model, the billing rate is usually rather high. This is not helped by game that require constant connection (which is why a game like Dandelion is quite baffling to me, since I heard that billing-by-time is very common in Asia, and Dandelion is a game from Korea, and written in Korean before translated).
-If you make a simple KN, or VN with too few path, or dating sims with only good endings and boring gameplay, people have ways of pirating that bypass all form of DRM: making a Let's Play video and post it on YouTube.
-People have been letting friends borrowing books for ages, and borrowing/reselling games have been around for decades. If you think a VN is like book, people making copies for friends is just completely to be expected; and even though doing that for game is technically pirating (but it really depends on the method of doing it) you can't hope to stop it. You really can only hope to stop mass pirating and hope that your game is popular enough that it isn't get played by just a single group of friends. You could for example, put a restriction on the number of download/expiration date on the download URL (but make it reasonable, sometimes people need to re-download the game due to a variety of reasons). You might also need to patrol the Internet and be ready to produce a take-down notice whenever someone try to share a pirate link publicly.

[trooper6]

Elmiwisa agrees with me, and I agree with her!

Here is my thought about combatting piracy as a small creator in a niche field like VNs.
1) you can never stop all pirates, so if you are going to do a DRM, do so etching basic and reasonable...but most importantly...
2) Build good will with the community. This is a small community. If people know you and like you, they are less likely to steal from you, and more likely to want to buy from you in the first place. For example, I have played The Elevator and Ristaurante Amore by Cyanide Tea...both are free. I liked them. Both Cyanide and Camille frequent these forums and are really nice. They seem like great people. Now I hear they are working on a commercial game, Break Chance Memento. I don't really know much about it, but I will probably buy it because I want to support them. I certainly wouldn't steal from them.

Some people will always steal or be jerks...but you will make your living from fans and those who have a connection with you. You don't build a good connection by treating your paying customers poorly through over aggressive DRM.

[yuushi]

You make good points, thank you I asked because it's something that I've been wondering about for some time. Piracy of indie games is extremely common (which, honestly, frustrates me to no end because I know many of those creators personally) so I'd come to wonder what the perspective of some creators are (and, as I'm new to the scene, I can't say I have much of a perspective myself).

I don't necessarily agree with Cheritz's internet connection requirement (I also think it's inconvenient and more than a little unfair, especially for those without easy access to the internet), but I can understand why some companies implement such extreme measures. QuinRose, for instance, is a rather large and prolific otome game company, nearly went under a few years ago due to piracy. It was dangerously close, so they started releasing their games with serial keys (if I'm remembering correctly) until they could support themselves again.

Granted, the circumstances surrounding an actual company and indie producers are different, so I thought it'd be worth inquiring.

[V2Blast]

I can "understand" why game designers might want to use DRM, but that doesn't make me dislike the DRM itself any less.

If you're going to have DRM of some sort, the service connected to that DRM needs to provide some benefit to the user. (See Steam, as an example. It lets you play any game on your account on any computer that you log in to.) Regardless of any benefit provides, more importantly, it needs to not inconvenience legitimate customers.

Anyway, this is a bit of a tangential conversation to the original post.

[Papa Whiskey]

I sincerely doubt DRM is "worth it" for individual designers or indie developers.

I think the most effective approach might be a disclaimer in the game saying: "Thanks for purchasing this product! If you have acquired this game in any other way, please keep in mind that blood, sweat and tears have gone into the development of this fine piece of entertainment and if you like it, cough up the dough! Thanks!"