10 Times Video Games Brutally Trolled You
3. Piracy Doesn't Pay - Game Dev Tycoon
No creator is happy when their game gets pirated, but few have trolled people for it as hard as Game Dev Tycoon developer Greenheart Games.
You see, the charmingly colorful simulator is all about experiencing what it was like to, well, develop games in the 1980s. For instance, you need to look after market reports and industry trends amidst advancing the size and depth of your team and software. All the while, you unlock new features as you go.
Obviously, another inherent part of the real-life process is dealing with people who steal your creations, and that’s precisely what happened with roughly 94% of Game Dev Tycoon.
Cunningly, Greenheart Games didn’t just get mad; they got even. How? By uploading a different version of the game that hackers would likely take. Upon booting it up, said bandits would find a message mentioning that their in-game profits are being progressively hindered by piracy. If they repeatedly ignored the warning, they’d eventually go bankrupt and have to start over.
Lesson learned, right? Well, not exactly, as numerous "victims" of the developer's self-referential gag ended up complaining about it on various message boards and the like.
Oh, the irony.