Question regarding "borrowing" the game to a friend

[Akronymus]

I Made this topic to ask if its ok to copy this game and give it to a friend so that he can test it out.

[Phillip_Lynx]

I dont know the answwer but there is a free demo on the factorio site.

This was with what I started (and bought the game when I was 20 minutes in the demo).

[-root]

I Made this topic to ask if its ok to copy this game and give it to a friend so that he can test it out.

There's a free demo and a shit-ton of let's plays on youtube. Between that he should be able to suss out if he wants to buy it. Its only $25 after all.

[Akronymus]

He bought it anyway. i gave it to him cause the test version didnt really push him over to buy it.

[SHiRKiT]

I don't think there's real issues with that. It remembers me and my friend playing at the PS3, we share the blu-rays with eachother.

[ares0027]

i must admit, i give all my drm free games to the friends i think who will like it, hell i even give my steam account/family share to them. they happen to buy it if they really like it and afford it, but if it is a mediocre game that they will not play unless some dramatic change or push (by me) they tend to not buy it.

i gave my factorio to 4 of my friends, 3 already bought it (first two bought it the same hour i gave to them, other one had no money and bought it 2 months after, even after price change) and last one loved it (he never plays video games) and tbh i don't think he will purchase it, he plays it quite a lot though.

developers may count it as pirating but i dont agree with that idea fully. i hope developers will agree with me and understand this situation completely, not as just a "simple piracy"

[Jythier]

Anyone who looks at that and says 'I just lost a sale because someone is playing my game without paying for it' rather than 'this guy just sold 3 copies of my game by sharing it' doesn't really understand business... people like to try before they buy and most people will end up buying things they like. Meanwhile, people who never buy anything because they can pirate it usually wouldn't have bought it to begin with.

While that really doesn't make things fair for that one guy who's playing it without a license, I don't think it's necessarily unfair against the company that sharing gave them extra sales.

indie games like this need all the exposure they can get.

That said, I'm not going to share my game with anyone... but I might make some videos of me playing.

[pbhead]

This is especially important with the new version.

For example:

Is it ok to let some friends 'borrow' an install in order to play multiplayer with me, ala Artemis Space Ship Simulator?

[Nova]

The devs can't really answer this questions. They can't say yes, because it would lead to people just sharing their copy with everyone because it is "allowed". They can't say no, because it would be interpreted as greed. It is a lose-lose situation.