Re: Swamp, zombie fps by Aprone
Some thoughts about paying to play:
Aprone, please be careful about deciding whether or not to do this. Chow and others have talked around the end of one very important issue. If I am playing a free game, i have no right to bitch if your schedule gets hairy and you can't fix a particular problem. Even if I donate, as I have done, I do so for love of the game and in appreciation for your crazy amount of work and patience.
The moment you ask for a subscription, even if it's optional and not required to play, and the moment I click the submit button on the Paypal form or whatever, I just became your customer, which, no matter what good will I do that with, gives me very different expectations. I expect the game to be maintained for a substantial length of time after my subscription. I expect that you will prioritize development and bug squashing time for efforts that have customers to maximize the value of my purchase. I expect
good, up to date documentation that changes with every version update to reflect new realities. I expect ongoing development of content and play modes. I expect to be secure in my payments, so that no one can use the game as a highway to any of my financial information.
Let me be clear, I am not trying to be an asshole, or demanding any of these things. I've been here from the shacks days and know the history of the game as well as most. I understand that you have a life other than this development.
But when you become someone from whom I am purchasing a service, you leave the realm of the ultra-cool developer dude who is pushing the envelope, trying to innovate on several different fronts all at once. You become another service/product provider, and while I hold much good will for you, much as I do for local business people whom I know and whom I am willing to cut slack if life events I know about make doing business with them harder, th
ere are still different limits.
I do not think i am particularly odd in this respect, at least with that segment of the game playing population who support themselves and spend every day making decisions about budgeting, product/service purchases and the like. I hope you know that if you ever come over to the west side of Michigan, I expect you to stop by for a homebrew and some excellent food and music, and to hear my eight-year-old talk about me playing Swamp, something that would still be true even if I am your customer, rather than your fan. But it will at least subtly change the relationship you have with everyone, paid players and non-paying ones alike.
I want you to get something for doing this. My donation shows that, and I hope that others do the same at the level that fits their budgets. I'd love to coordinate the fund raising campaign that gets you initial seed funding to do something incredible and disruptive to break open the stale
world of access tech development. If you implement a subscription model for this or any other game, know that I'll sign up, whether or not I play the game, because you deserve support.
But it won't be the same. Be sure you are all right with that before going down that road.
And y'all, if you're so damned hot to trot to implement a pay model, then in the name of bleeding Jesus, or by the hoary beard of Odin, or by the sweet thighs of Aphrodite, or by the brain of Hawking, just go and bloody donate to this man. Put your wallet where your cursor is and show him some green love. He has more than earned it.
URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=145455#p145455
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