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Sketchy Site Referred... help?

A topic by zebulaun created Aug 16, 2020 Views: 515 Replies: 12
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(1 edit)

Hello everyone. I am a hobbyist. I am selling a game that is very cheap and even on sale. Unforetunately, I have had to restrict my project due to 40 people from a sketchy Chinese website trying to "promote" my game. There are more views on that post then on my game. I think they might be trying to do something bad, so I have restricted all access. Even though I've done what's needed, I still feel terrible, like something bad will happen. Can anyone help?

(By the way, if anyone feels like this isn't on-topic or anything, it's an emergency)


Moderator(+2)

Assuming that’s a different site, there is not much you can do. You can join that site and report that member. You can take a look at DMCA claims, but I’m not very familiar with them, and not sure if it can be applied here.

From my experience, a lot of people purchase steam games and try to “promote” them on different sites, or even pirate them.

To prevent this in the future, you can look at ways to “watermark” your game, so your name is clearly visible inside it, preferably in a way that can’t be removed. This won’t stop people from trying to steal it and promote it as their own, but it will make it clear that it’s yours. Another option would be to look at DRMs, but that has its own pitfalls.

I knew they are attempting to pirate the game after I saw a link on the page going to a script that makes games free.

Thank you so much, I am so happy that you replied.

I am going to add a watermark right now.

(+2)

Along those lines, I also recommend if feasible adding in-game a button/link to your real game site (in this case the itch.io page I assume) or at least a display of the URL.

Moderator(+2)

That’s a good idea, but I think it would be better to link to a personal page/blog instead of an Itch.io page. The reason being, that game might be distributed on multiple platforms, and not just on Itch, and making different builds is cumbersome.

(+2)

That's a good point, and I had a terrible time with app store rejections because Apple/Google/Amazon would say I can't link to pages showing links to other app stores!

(+1)

Thank you all for helping. By the way, after translating the website, they look a lot more peaceful, like they just want to play 1148 itch.io games. (40 views has turned into a 126)

Hello everyone I'm back. I now have insight on the problem and I think I'm fine. Except for one thing. A user has reported me, gave my game a one star review, left rude comments, and in all just trying to destroy my reputation. I am claimed to be 'offensive to Chinese.' I'm just trying to defend my game. Am I be offensive? Or am I doing things right?

Moderator(+1)

We don’t know the full picture, so we can’t tell who’s right or wrong. “Fake” reviews (like retaliation) are not allowed, so I’d suggest you contact support about it.

Okay. It's so reassuring to know that there is someone on my side, so thank you so much for replying to my post. I think I might have accidentally said something in a rude way, so I have purged the posts by the rude user and made a comment on my game claiming that I am in no way trying to be rude, and everything I have said is in attempt to stop potential pirates, not be offensive. Thank you. Is there anything else I should know?

Moderator(+1)

Well, the only thing I can mention, is that you will always have people try to pirate your game. It’s very difficult to avoid that, and even AAA companies with millions in budget fail on that, so not sure how much you can do there.

Try not to let it get in your head, and focus on becoming better and better as a creator. Don’t pay too much attention to shady websites mentioning your game.

(+1)

Wow, I feel great now. Thanks for the insight. I guess I could call this problem resolved now.

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