If you’re a frequent RPS reader (or an infrequent RPS reader with uncannily good timing), the image on the front page of ubiquitous, recently-banned-in-the-UK-under-extremely-dubious-circumstances torrenting site The Pirate Bay might strike you as a bit familiar. If not, you may have still been able to guess that it heralds from Sos Sosowski’s McPixel because, well, the first four words on the page will tell you all of that. This, however, is the first time a game has ever been featured as part of Pirate Bay’s “Promo Bay” program – wherein, a creator gets to leverage the site’s incredible reach for exposure. But how’d this come about? And what does it say about the ever-evolving role of piracy in the gaming industry? Plus, given that many file swaps on Pirate Bay are technically illegal, does anyone really deserve a pat on the back in this situation? I spoke with both McPixel’s Sos and an organizer from The Pirate Bay to find out more.

Don’t get mad. Don’t lash out. Just think for a second. Count to ten. Punch a pillow. Do whatever you’ve got to do. It definitely worked for Sos Sosowski.

People were stealing his hard work – his first commercial release ever – right in front of his eyes, and he caught them red-handed. He found a link on The Pirate Bay, and sure enough, it was madcap mini-adventure explosion McPixel in its entirety. But instead of doing his damndest to bust everyone involved, he turned the other cheek. Like one of seemingly nonsensical cause-and-effect relationships in his game, potentially grievous harm to his bottom line prompted him to hand out free stuff.

“I was actually visiting Pirate Bay from time-to-time looking for a McPixel torrent,” Sosowski explained to RPS. “If people pirate games, it means they want to play it regardless of anything. Pirate Bay is one of the most visited sites in the Internet, and just having a torrent there is promotion for the game. I left a comment there, because I wanted people to know that I make games for a living, and that they are directly supporting me with each purchase.”

“I also realised that some people are unable to do that, since PayPal is not accessible in their country, or they don’t have a credit card, or just cannot afford it, because it’s worth their daily or weekly wage. So I went ahead and left few gift codes. It was not much, but I wanted to show that I understand. Some people contacted me asking for different means of supporting me too. I was really happy to hear that people actually care, and i think it shows that piracy is not bad at all. It’s just mis-perceived.”

And then the all-seeing, Sauron-but-more-obsessed-with-cat-videos eye of Reddit took notice. Minutes later, a snapshot of Sosowski’s handout was on the front page of the geek-tested, President-of-the-United-States-approved aggregate site. So Sosowski ran an AMA, and The Pirate Bay decided that kind of community outreach warranted a reward.

“We’ve promoted authors (Paulo Coelho among others), movie producers, musicians, and card game creators so far, but haven’t really seen any super talented game submissions,” one of Pirate Bay’s organizers told me. “When browsing around Reddit one day, I noticed a thread about a Polish dude promoting the torrenting of his own game. So I threw him an email asking if he’d seen our Promo Bay idea and if he’d like to apply. He said hell yeah and that was it.”

“The Pirate Bay Promo is tied with a pay-what-you-want sale on McPixel website, and as of now, there have been around 170 purchases and the torrent has around 2500 seeds,” added Sosowski. “You might think that this points out what big of a problem piracy is, but this is just manipulating facts. Since you can get McPixel for even one cent, this proves that many people have no means of accessing games, and for some, pirating might be the only way to play. It is developers’ fault that they do not provide means for everyone, and I am most at fault, enabling only PayPal-driven purchases.”

Ultimately, that’s the point of all this for both Sosowski and The Pirate Bay: to deal with piracy on its own terms in a day and age where it can no longer simply be shrugged off or pushed back against – despite how desperately many people would like to. It’s tempting, sure, to view piracy as the Big Bad Wolf blowing down houses developers have spent years assembling, but both parties told me – on no uncertain terms – that they don’t view piracy as an enemy. That’s too simple, and in taking such a combative stance, you risk missing the chance to understand why these things keep happening in the first place.

“Piracy is a response, like a rebellion,” opined Sosowski. “When there is rebellion in an unspecified country, it has its reasons. These reasons should be identified and dealt with – not the rebellion itself. Major publishers should ask, ‘Why? What do you want? What can we change?’ I can see that they might be reluctant thinking that ‘talking to barbarians who steal our stuff is not an option’. But it is in their interest to do so. They could gather a lot of fans and satisfied customers if they took the right approach – aka, not fighting to death.”

Meanwhile, Pirate Bay – obviously about as far from impartial as you could get in this scenario – takes things a few steps further. Or rather, it makes a running leap over the Grand Canyon, keeps going, and eventually circles around to Europe, where it wins the Tour de France on foot… further. But there’s certainly a method in what – to some – might seem like madness, and Pirate Bay already has and will continue to fight tooth-and-nail for that cause.

“When we got older (some of us were just in our teens when we started Pirate Bay) and travelled the world, we realized that Pirate Bay meant more than just getting some MP3s for free,” the Pirate Bay organizer told me. “People in less fortunate countries than ours really really needed us. To share secret information, to see culture from forbidden countries, or to find out that there is an alternative to what the mainstream media feeds them. This might sound a bit cheesy to people in the US or EU, but go to Syria (50K visits each day), Saudi Arabia (1M visits), China (800K visits, though most Chinese use proxies) and so on and so on, and ask those people what The Pirate Bay means to them. It has made us a bit more humble.”

Ultimately, though, The Pirate Bay’s current model is still definitely problematic – whether its heart is in the right place or not. Sure, not every pirated copy of something directly equates to a lost sale, but it’d be utterly preposterous to suggest that piracy’s not hurting many creators in a big way. And so, The Pirate Bay does nothing of the sort. Instead, it sees this as a situation where hopefully – at the end of the day – the pros outweigh the cons.

“It’s a tough question, and I wont lie or evade the answer by telling you that some creators don’t get hurt by what we do – cause some do,” the organizer admitted. “But on the other hand, others benefit. We’ve seen numbers of people actually using TPB to their advantage during the years. Nine Inch Nails used TPB to better connect to their fans – and probably gained both new fans and money in the long run. Some major TV networks actually (secretly) released pilots of their own shows on our site to create some kind of a buzz.”

“We believe that the technology is too good not to be used and that it would be a step back in time not to use it. Things will only move on faster from this so each artist that deals with immaterial ‘property’ had better step it up before it’s too late. As the old Chinese proverb goes: ‘When the winds of change blow, some seek shelter, others build windmills.'”

In Sosowski’s opinion, though, it’s less about building a windmill and more about constructing a bridge.

“Piracy is not an enemy,” he explained. “I can’t be orthodox about it, and want my game to retain value – not just give it away for free – and cater to people that have no means to access it otherwise as well. I sarcastically say that ‘real pirates use torrents’, which are not only means of distribution, but provide community. A community of gamers, enthusiasts, fans, and cool people overall, who want to enjoy and share.”

This is, however, terrifyingly uncharted territory, so – at this point – it’s all about measured steps forward mixed with more-than-a-teensy-bit of good old-fashioned fumbling around in the dark. But progress is being made – agonizingly slow thought it might seem.

“Having 20-30 artists get their three days of fame is not enough,” the Pirate Bay organizer said of The Promo Bay’s current state. “So we’re building a dedicated site as we speak that will allow everyone to post their artist profile. If everything works out, we’ll let the audience choose the promo for every week.”

Sosowski, on the other hand, doesn’t have much in the way of experience running file-sharing sites that pull in millions of people every day. He can, however, offer some advice to developers who feel like pirates are constantly besieging them on all sides.

“There are frustrating situations, where a game is pirated a lot but the sales are low – and especially so within indie game developer community, where being poor is not uncommon,” he said. “I can relate, and I would probably get frustrated myself, with my fridge empty and people playing my games for free. But staying angry and frustrated never solves anything. My advice is to think twice, then twice again, and keep in mind that people who pirate your game don’t live in your fridge. They cannot possibly know the source of your frustration. Tell them what’s up and remember that there are real people on the other side. Never let yourself get frustrated over people actually enjoying your game.”

“Stop hating, and start talking and understanding. This goes to both sides of this conflict. Don’t hate people for wanting to play your game. And don’t hate people for getting mad at you not paying them for their work.”

McPixel is currently available for whatever-you-want-to-pay on its official site. It’s also very, very silly. Give it a shot, if you’re feeling so inclined.