Game/Software piracy is anathema to success.
Who I am as a person has nothing to do with the business of selling games. Part of the free market dictates that if you can take measures to subvert the surrender of money for access to a product I create, you have that right, but I also have the right to take measures to ensure that money is exchanged for my product.
I realize that getting into this discussion is like wading into a honeypot of trolls but I think it is a dialog worth having. As a small indie developer I would absolutely recognize the value that giving my game away for free has to my future business. The facts remain regarding the expense of creating and the lack of recompense for the effort and labor that goes into it but we all hope for brighter days ahead anyway.
The single largest problem in games development right now is the fact that so many of the largest publishers and game companies are either on their way to being publicly traded, or are already there. The pressure to perform for shareholders means that even the language used around the torrent conversation has to be contrived. If anyone in a position of responsibility at a publicly traded company were to speak out in favor (in any way) for the illegitimate access of company property they’d be in violation of their contract with the shareholders.
For a small developer what we lose most directly from software piracy is any sort of direct link with our customers. I think that what we’ve seen with the resurgence of always connected “DRM” solutions has more to do with marketing awareness than actually protecting property.
My solution? If you want to play my game but you can’t afford it, get ahold of me; let’s work something out. Torrenting can be dangerous for your computer and does me absolutely no good whatsoever.
To speak to your key value position of why I should just let it happen. You aren’t going to like me. The law of averages is stacked too far against it. I can’t un-seed my game any more than I could force someone to take to my personality (on-line, imagined or otherwise) so I’m not even going to try. What I’ll do instead is figure out a way to get you to play my game for a price that we can both agree is fair. We’ll keep it mostly professional (because we’re talking about games for globs sake) until somebody loses their cool.