I think I have been reasonable in my answers. A little research and you would have known that Ashes was released as a finished game, but lets not let the facts get in the way of your story... I believe you were the one to introduce a "knife"?
There are many more papers that say the opposite to those you reference. Good Day.
The "knife" comment was about kicking the Ashes 2014 game when they're down, you've won, you don't need to keep mentioning how poor it was. What I knew about it was in passing, and the impression I got after the release day fiasco (the original one) and what followed was that the steam release was a test one with the game not completely up to scratch, but I'll have to look further into that. If it was meant to be a complete and final version released, I must appologize, it was just what I got from the media releases at the time.
You haven't exactly been polite in terms of ideas that are against your own in terms of piracy, and you've been unwilling to discuss the issue properly. I'm more than happy for an in depth discussion of the literature if you want, but the simple point is that the recurring themes are that:
A: Availability and pricing are a key component
B: Piracy doesn't necessarily equate to loss in sales
C: In developing markets in particular piracy might actually increase profitability
Personally I don't like piracy, and I hope it's something that slowly disappears, but the key point is that using it as a cover all excuse doesn't make sense with the research. It's telling that two of the biggest firms, Google and Valve, have strikingly similar views on piracy, and that it's a case of producing a better product, and making it available, rather than hunting people down and crying foul. Valve in particular make the point, and have put their money where their mouth is, in that piracy is an issue of service, and has said on various occasions that the key to solving it is to offer a better service. Here's how he put it:
We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem, If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable.
Also:
Prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become [Steam's] largest market in Europe
- Gabe Newell on steam entering the Russian market
As for papers which say the opposite, which exactly? There are a lot of very outdated papers (from the 90s) which discuss piracy protection matters and ways of preventing it, but the research on decision making to my knowledge has all gone down the same path of showing that it is related to availability and quality of service, much as Gabe Newell suggests.
