Paying $5 to Pirate a Free Game Is Embarrassing (Patreon)

I genuinely don't understand the logic here.

You're paying $5 to leak a game that becomes completely free two weeks later.

That's the grand achievement.

You aren't Robin Hood. You aren't sticking it to some giant corporation. You aren't helping poor gamers escape an evil paywall.

The game is already free.

You're paying money so a bunch of piracy-site strangers can get something 14 days early, collect your upload, say thanks if you're lucky, and forget you exist five minutes later.

What you're actually doing is taking the early-access reward away from the people who fund the project.

My Patrons aren't paying because the game will never become public. They're supporting development, and in return they get the new build first.

So when you immediately hand that build to everyone else, you're not really screwing me.

You're screwing the people standing beside you who actually supported the game.

And for what?

A tiny burst of internet clout from people who don't give a shit about you beyond what file you can upload next?

That's not rebellion. That's just being the sucker who pays for everyone else's piracy.

I guess next release I'll start distributing identifiable builds so leaked copies can be traced back to the account responsible, and then those accounts are gone permanently. And when you try to come back to avoid my Patreon ban, Patreon.com will Perma IP ban you from their site.

I'd rather not do that. It's extra bullshit for me, and extra bullshit for the overwhelming majority of Patrons who manage to understand the extremely complicated concept of:

"I paid for early access, so maybe I shouldn't immediately give the early access away."

Don't ruin a nice system for everyone else because you desperately need twelve strangers on a piracy forum to think you're cool.

They don't.

They just want your file.