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Author Topic: When/what is alpha?  (Read 37355 times)
belgariad87
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« Reply #15 on: November 10, 2012, 02:32:52 PM »

You mean "cracked" in the way that players who didn't pay for it somehow manage to unlock the full game?

For one thing, studies show that these players wouldn't have paid for the game anyway.  So it's not really a lost sale.  You just have to make it more convenient for honest players to play it legitimately than it is for them to play it illegally.  So it has to be easier to buy a valid license than it is to search for and install some crack.

For another, they won't be able to play on legitimate servers, regardless of any cracks.  It's the legitimate player, server, and modder market that is the most important to me.  The game will be successful if those things are successful.  The people who will make those areas a success are the ones that will gladly pay for what they believe is a good value rather than trying to find some way to crack every new mod that some modder puts out.
Maybe for a free demo you can give them all or most of the features (single player only) for only one map? maybe a crappy map or something.
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pspeed
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« Reply #16 on: November 10, 2012, 02:57:22 PM »

You mean "cracked" in the way that players who didn't pay for it somehow manage to unlock the full game?

For one thing, studies show that these players wouldn't have paid for the game anyway.  So it's not really a lost sale.  You just have to make it more convenient for honest players to play it legitimately than it is for them to play it illegally.  So it has to be easier to buy a valid license than it is to search for and install some crack.

For another, they won't be able to play on legitimate servers, regardless of any cracks.  It's the legitimate player, server, and modder market that is the most important to me.  The game will be successful if those things are successful.  The people who will make those areas a success are the ones that will gladly pay for what they believe is a good value rather than trying to find some way to crack every new mod that some modder puts out.
Maybe for a free demo you can give them all or most of the features (single player only) for only one map? maybe a crappy map or something.

I think if the parts included for free and the game play videos don't convince people (along with all of the grayed out checkboxes in the plugins list)... then they won't be convinced anyway.  Or if they are, they will begrudge every penny spent there-after.

But we'll see.  I'm flexible on some of these points... though each option has significant down sides to go with the up sides.  For example, some people already don't believe the world is randomly generated just because they see the same seed every time.  Those same players who only get access to one full-featured world may decide they've explored all they can and not bother paying anyway.

Also, something else I see significantly among people who play in the "free to play" communities... well-meaning folks who have no problem buying a game outright will utterly refuse to participate in any micropayments for a "free" game.  And they get really angry about attempts to make them pay.  This attitude makes me want to be very clear about the difference between demo mode and pay mode.  If could be that this is a relatively small percentage of folks but in my local microcosm nearly everyone I know who plays the Facebook free-to-play games feels this way... and posts about it vocally from time to time.
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Michael
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« Reply #17 on: November 10, 2012, 04:07:09 PM »

simplest way to explain to a person what the difference between demo and pay mode:
Quote
Demo mode free. Pay mode not. Pay mode has more stuff.

In a semi-descriptive way:
Quote
In demo mode, there are not as many features as in Payed, but is free. On the other hand, pay mode has many more features, allowing you to do with demo.
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pspeed
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« Reply #18 on: November 10, 2012, 06:46:19 PM »

simplest way to explain to a person what the difference between demo and pay mode:
Quote
Demo mode free. Pay mode not. Pay mode has more stuff.

In a semi-descriptive way:
Quote
In demo mode, there are not as many features as in Payed, but is free. On the other hand, pay mode has many more features, allowing you to do with demo.

I think you kind of missed my point.  You will maybe understand when you are older.
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Iggyjeckel
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« Reply #19 on: November 10, 2012, 07:48:08 PM »

Alot of people who actually pay for games, buy them and expect to pay charges for expansions but when they are bombarded with "pay more" all the time it feels like a money pit. Demos are a hard topic because you could alienate many people.
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pspeed
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« Reply #20 on: November 10, 2012, 08:10:00 PM »

Alot of people who actually pay for games, buy them and expect to pay charges for expansions but when they are bombarded with "pay more" all the time it feels like a money pit. Demos are a hard topic because you could alienate many people.

Yeah, and there's the people who would have paid for a game like Farmville if they'd charged up front but somehow feel enraged any time they are presented with the opportunity to spend money in the game.

I don't plan to make Mythruna a free to play game like that.  I think there's a lot of money in that but it also requires constant new content, etc. to keep the micropayment options fresh and exciting.  If Mythruna ever has any me-developed add-on content then I'd like it to be something significant and not just a funny looking hat for 5 cents.

There will be a specific demo mode.  The game will be in demo mode until you login to your Mythruna account for the first time and verify your purchase.  When in demo mode, certain features will just not be available at all.  When logging into to servers you may also have to login to your main Mythruna account so that the server can verify your identity and what you've paid for.  This is also how the server will make sure that you have the right plugins, etc. before letting you in, how the server can check your subscription, etc..

Since I hinted at it, I will address this topic... I go back and forth on whether or not I will provide Simsilica developed mods for some cost later.  There are a few reasons that this is a good idea... it means I'm "eating my own dogfood" with the modding API.  It also means that I can keep the price of the regular game low and still keep income coming in to fund further development.  The down side is that I don't want players to feel like they are paying twice... so a) it would come a significant amount of time after the full release, and b) it will clearly not be part of the regular game that I've been promising people up until then.  The alternative that is fair to early adopters, though maybe not fair to the community, is to keep raising the cost of the game as features are added... that makes it harder for people to jump on board later.  Though this may end up happening sometime between beta and release... like one more price bump for those who haven't bought yet.  Just depends on how things go.
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Michael
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« Reply #21 on: November 10, 2012, 08:45:04 PM »

simplest way to explain to a person what the difference between demo and pay mode:
Quote
Demo mode free. Pay mode not. Pay mode has more stuff.

In a semi-descriptive way:
Quote
In demo mode, there are not as many features as in Payed, but is free. On the other hand, pay mode has many more features, allowing you to do with demo.

I think you kind of missed my point.  You will maybe understand when you are older.
There goes "When you are older" again -.-
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Iggyjeckel
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« Reply #22 on: November 10, 2012, 09:01:22 PM »

If a modder comes up with an amazing mod, one thats just "everyone must have" is there a possibility that you yourself would purchase the "rights" of this mod and make it a permanent thing, one people wouldnt have to then purchase
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pspeed
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« Reply #23 on: November 10, 2012, 10:04:41 PM »

If a modder comes up with an amazing mod, one thats just "everyone must have" is there a possibility that you yourself would purchase the "rights" of this mod and make it a permanent thing, one people wouldnt have to then purchase

Never say never, I guess.  But it's not something I plan on.  Personally, I will try to stay away from mods so that I lessen the accusations of stealing if some mod implements something early (and different) then I planned to implement already.

But who knows.  It largely depend son how lucrative the game is by that point and whether it can afford such a thing.
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Moonkey
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« Reply #24 on: November 19, 2012, 05:53:19 PM »

Speaking about mods, if someone wanted to make a mod where everyone could afford it and he could get money without making people pay. Would you take in consider of letting such people use adf.ly or other sites like this?
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« Reply #25 on: November 19, 2012, 06:26:48 PM »

Speaking about mods, if someone wanted to make a mod where everyone could afford it and he could get money without making people pay. Would you take in consider of letting such people use adf.ly or other sites like this?

I'm trying to understand... you want to make an ad-supported mod?  ie: players can download it for free but you somehow advertise somewhere?

My Mythruna store will support free to download content.  I will probably also support optional payments... like "donate if you want to" sort of things.  I don't know how I would tie it into ad-based revenue, though.
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BenKenobiWan
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« Reply #26 on: December 02, 2012, 08:59:49 PM »

A modded could probably mod in an ad screen on the side if he was keen on it, but then someone would make an mod to remove ads. Oh, well.
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Moonkey
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« Reply #27 on: December 02, 2012, 11:16:53 PM »

Speaking about mods, if someone wanted to make a mod where everyone could afford it and he could get money without making people pay. Would you take in consider of letting such people use adf.ly or other sites like this?

I'm trying to understand... you want to make an ad-supported mod?  ie: players can download it for free but you somehow advertise somewhere?

My Mythruna store will support free to download content.  I will probably also support optional payments... like "donate if you want to" sort of things.  I don't know how I would tie it into ad-based revenue, though.
I made it way too confusing. Smiley. Basically: Can modders use adf.ly as a link to their download? (Not saying I would because I can't but just helping those who would want to.)
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« Reply #28 on: December 02, 2012, 11:45:13 PM »

Speaking about mods, if someone wanted to make a mod where everyone could afford it and he could get money without making people pay. Would you take in consider of letting such people use adf.ly or other sites like this?

I'm trying to understand... you want to make an ad-supported mod?  ie: players can download it for free but you somehow advertise somewhere?

My Mythruna store will support free to download content.  I will probably also support optional payments... like "donate if you want to" sort of things.  I don't know how I would tie it into ad-based revenue, though.
I made it way too confusing. Smiley. Basically: Can modders use adf.ly as a link to their download? (Not saying I would because I can't but just helping those who would want to.)

I suppose... but the intent is for plugins to be hosted on mythruna.com so that the game can auto-download them if needed.  We'll see how it actually works out.
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X3n0ph083
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« Reply #29 on: June 18, 2013, 10:27:04 AM »

Sorry for the necro on this thread, but...

I really like that idea Paul, something that definitely should be implemented if possible. I have played so many games, tried to connect to a server but can't due to the lack of a certain mod, and not joined that server because of lethargy.
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