As Ars Technica quoted over a year ago: "The reason why we don't put copy protection on our games isn't because we're nice guys. We do it because the people who actually buy games don't like to mess with it. Our customers make the rules, not the pirates. Pirates don't count," Wardell argues. "When Sins [of a Solar Emipre] popped up as the #1 best selling game at retail a couple weeks ago, a game that has no copy protect whatsoever, that should tell you that piracy is not the primary issue."

Even Demigod, a game that shipped with no copy protection on the DVD, was massively pirated, and has had, to put it mildly severe launch issues with its multiplayer match-making which has had a negative impact on its Metacritic score has still managed to debut at the top of retail sales charts (not counting our digital sales).

Why is that? At that point I can only speculate but the first reason is pretty straight forward: Demigod is an awesome game. Second, while the multiplayer matchmaking that comes with the game currently sucks, our customers know it will get fixed. Part of that is the demographic of Stardock customers. They’re more experienced, they know that some of the issues with the MP matchmaking aren’t due to rushing the game out or negligence but rather the fact that complicated systems sometimes don’t scale well and there is no substitute for time when it comes to fix them.

When the focus of energy is put on customers rather than fighting pirates, you end up with more sales. It seems common sense to me but then again, I’m just an engineer.

What are your thoughts on user-created content?

As a game player, I love it. But that doesn’t mean at the same time I can’t love a BioShock or a Call of Duty 4. You can have a focused game, and do that really well. I think that’s the important thing – doing something really well. What the other games mentioned do as far as user created content, and just on that side of things, it’s like a different focus. I think there can be a separation, almost like movie genres. It’s okay to make a comedy, or a really hardcore, serious documentary. I think there are different fits.

For us personally, our biggest goal is – you can see it right now – we’re pushing on the fidelity, visually. We’re also pushing on the gameplay fidelity. Those two things are huge. For us, we’re doing things that we’ve never done before. That’s already a lot of eggs in the basket. As far as user-generated content, it’s not a huge consideration for us right now.