In physical stores it is okay to take and and taste one wraps of candy before buying it. This way the person can be sure that they won't regret buying it. In same vein, there are software demos, such as that of Ardour, where they provide a version at no monetary cost with less functionality than the paid release. Being freedom software, the person can set up the full version without paying, but that requires expertise. Unfortunately, not all developers are so nice.

The majority of paid software, especially video games, do not have demo versions. You either pay for it or just content watching videos others using it. Since they do not provide the recipe of the product (code), you cannot prepare it yourself. The thing is, not everyone is in a financial situation to be able to pay for it. 

Such was the case for a little 14 woe year old me. As I had no means of paying for video games, video playthroughts of them were just poor substitution of actually experiencing it, akin to watching a friend play without being able to pick up the controller, I took the matter into my own hands.

I found a full version of the game through alternative channels. I treated the game as a demo, experiencing it as I would were I to pay for it fully. I convinced myself that once I had income, I would pay for it. 

Torrenting the game is technically considered a crime, so called quote piracy unquote. But the term itself has nothing to do with the physical act of looting ships. If anything, it has more in common with plagiarism and carbon copy products, since the original author loses nothing. The world has not stopped spinning from Chinese or other Third World countries manufacturing inferior versions of well known brand products. Difference here is the copy is exactly the same, so even that analogy is shaky.

I couldn't have paid for the product even if I wanted to, so obliging the paywall would've meant I wouldn't be able to experience the game and would most likely never come back to playing it again.

The little me played a cracked version of this little video game developed by a single person called *Software Inc.*. The fact such a mechanically complex game about technology development was created, tingled my novice programmer parts, as I was starting out learning computing then. 

I played the game and rejoiced in it, but at some point I wished to try out the modifications of the game, so I could play around with different functions, not intended by the author. Consequently I went to the Discord chat of the said video game and inquired how to do it. All the explanations were given for doing the modification of software through the Steam platform, as I had got the game through unofficial sources, I had no access through such means. 

I explained my situation honestly, giving away that I did not pay for the game... to the developer. He got hurt so badly, of me being so insistent on receiving help when I had paid not a dime for all of his hard work, that he lashed out on me. All of the words of spite and genuine earnest annoyment were absorbed by me. 

I did not stoop down, I said I could pay for the game in crypto-currency. Here I spoke of LBC, a currency of the video platform [Odysee](https://odysee.com/). My words further pushed him to the edge, taking them as an insult, that I not only wish to not pay for his hard work but if needed do it through made up internet money.

I'd be best be know that the developer had the full right to not assist me. The response was emotional and not too rational, but I empathize with his situation. He did pour his heart and sweat into this single project and to have somebody take it for granted and require assistance without compensation is by no means pleasant. At the current moment I stand with him and are appreciative of the work he did. The developer is open to helping out others and ideas how to improve his game, as long as the interaction is on mutual ground. In my case that was not so.

I carried the pain for weeks end, until it subsided, until once in few months remembered what I had done and felt the lash of mistake once again. Having installed the game without transaction was not what hurt me, but me smooth-talking about crypto and twisting the conversation in such a way, that I'd be considered on the moral side. It was the way **I** was behaving that made me resent initiating the interaction.

After 6 years I went to [the game's website](https://www.swinc.net/) and finally bought the version not requiring the there to be internet to check whether the copy is legitimate and not have it be tied to the Steam account, which can be lost or stolen, the Digital Rights Management (DRM) free version. 

![The VAT tax is how much the dev wants to give to itch.io platform](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/Softwareinc.png)
*The VAT tax is how much the dev wants to give to itch.io platform.*

I chose to avoid Steam for other reasons besides DRM, it is also 6 Euros cheaper! Given how the game is nearing 1.0 release after 12 years of development, buying the game before it is released is a decent strategy of saving few bucks. 

The developer offers the game just for 16 Euro for a DRM nonsense free version with updates at no monetary cost. And there is no additional paid downloadable content (DLC). The optional Multiplayer is not on some centralized server, but on LAN. Of course I'm going to pay for it!

![I did not email the game download link to Stallman, don't worry](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/Softwareinc1.png)
*I did not email the game download link to Stallman, don't worry.*

The game name is misleading, because the game is not about just about making software, such as operating systems and video games. No, you can also be a marketing contractor for software, hardware. You can open up a file server in 80s and create your own Amazon Web Server. You can create product designs and have others or yourself manufacture them, in a robust assembly line built by yourself. The products themselves can be designed in detail not by changing numbers, but their 3D models as well. If that's not enough, you can play as a patent troll and sue others to make money. Even if that's not enough, you can be a stock investor and play with the stock market. 

All that money can be used to build an office or a factory in a very detailed and extended building mode, with various options for furniture and architectural minutae.

This is just in the base game so far, major rework is up for the 1.0 update with even more complex marketing strategies and even more micromanagement of the servers.

![Not exactly sure why I paid .33 for the tax and not 2.88, WTH?!](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/softwareinc2.png)
*Not exactly sure why I paid .33 for the tax and not 2.88, WTH?!*

This is where my story ends.

Out of repentance of my brazen desire to get help for something I did not financially support, I've finally paid for it. Unfortunately the game's source code is not freely available, but I'm still appreciative the developer is so loving of his overly ambitious project. Godspeed, Kenneth Otto Larsen. You can follow him on [Mastodon](https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@KennethLarsen) or pay for the DRM-free version on [itch.io](https://coredumping.itch.io/software-inc).

*Fin.*