As a gamer, one thing that always sucks is hearing about an awesome game that can't find a publisher. You read the interviews and watch the videos and the game sounds awesome. But, because there's risk involved no publisher will touch it and the game becomes the dreaded vaporware.
The Idea
There needs to be a publisher that's funded by gamers. I know, you're saying that all publishers are funded by the gamers because the gamers by the games. This is true, but I'm thinking of a system where the gamer ponies up the doe before the game is completed.
Essentially, the gamers would be "shareholders" in the game. They would pay $10 for a "share" in the game plus $5 for S&H. For each share, the shareholder would receive a copy of the game once development was completed. One possible benefit of this would be additional sales could be split between shareholders as credits to invest in new games. This would allow the gamer to obtain discounted or possibly free games from good investments.
A Safe Bet
Gamers wouldn't simply be throwing their money blindly. If only 50 people were interested and willing to pay for the game, it'd suck for that money to disappear because not enough funding was obtained. Instead, the money would sit in a pool (sans a 10-15% publisher fee) until either enough money to develop the game was obtained or a specified amount of time elapsed. So, if the goal of $500,000 for development was reached, development would proceed. If 6 months went buy and not enough money was received, the gamers would either be refunded their money (sans the 10-15%) or allowed to invest in another project.
Funding the Publisher
I know the inability to refund 10-15% seems a bit harsh, but there has to be people working to ensure the developers are meeting deadlines. Someone needs to be working with the developers so that there's a game to play when all is said an done. There would be no greater crime than for you to put your money into this system and receive nothing in return because the developer doesn't have the game in a completed state. Think of it as someone ensuring there's a return on your investment.
There's always the possibility of a worst case scenario where the game is incomplete and all that can be provided is the latest build. In these situations, I think it'd be great if the gamer was able to receive a free copy of any completed game. Essentially, it'd be doing what was within the publisher's means to ensure the customer remained happy. Since this kind of system would require gamers constantly funding new games, it would be in the best interest to keep them as happy as possible.
The Hard Part
When you consider it'd take about 60,000 gamers interested and willing to "pre-order" a game to fund a $500,000 project (remember the 10-15% to the publisher) there's a definite question about whether enough funds would ever be obtained. When you consider even the online petitions are lucky to receive that number and they're free, it'd be pretty hard to get the first game off the ground.
Once the publisher had two or three games under their belt, I think it'd really start to gain momentum. There'd be proof that the games will be developed. The games would be extremely cheap for the gamer, but there is the risk that they wouldn't be good. And, the gamer would have a say in what games they want to see. I think it'd provide known developers with a means to develop the riskier projects.
January 20, 2009
December 22, 2008
Idiot!
Ugh! So, I leave to buy some groceries for the sugar cookies my wife is making and scratch my and my wife's friend's car in the process. (So, sorry about that Lindsay.) And, of course, it'd be her car that's scratched pretty bad and mine that looks like all it needs is some buffing. I'm so pissed at myself and feel terrible about it.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be something that I can foot the bill for instead of having to go through insurance. Because, car insurance is stupid. You pay and pay and pay for years without an accident, and then when you have an accident (the whole reason for insurance) they make you pay more. So, they recoup the losses they had by making me pay, defeating the purpose of my paying for insurance in the first place.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be something that I can foot the bill for instead of having to go through insurance. Because, car insurance is stupid. You pay and pay and pay for years without an accident, and then when you have an accident (the whole reason for insurance) they make you pay more. So, they recoup the losses they had by making me pay, defeating the purpose of my paying for insurance in the first place.
December 16, 2008
My Story or The Man Who by Accident Became Trapped in His Own Mind
There once was a man who by accident became trapped in his own mind. His screams reverberated only within his skull. His cries for help reached no ones ears. The only clue that something was wrong was in his eyes.
His body, having grown accustomed to certain rituals, was on auto-pilot. He would go to his job, perform the mundane task of feeding code to a machine to perform work then go home. At home he would sit in front of the television watching nothing in particular until he nodded off from the drudgery of it all.
One day, the man decided to try infusing some of himself into his work. He would focus all his thoughts on feeding a slightly different string of code to the machine. At first, the deviations would go unnoticed, but eventually someone would hear his pleas.
Day by day, he watched the machine change and grow until one day it finally called for help. The man was full of glee, finally, someone would know. And, in knowing, they would try to help. But, alas, instead they brought in a technician to fix the machine and ruined all the man's hard work.
That night the man went home extremely sad, but resolved to try again the next day. For many years the man would write instructions for help only to be thwarted again and again. Until one day, the man decided to work much more methodically. The man devised a plan to write himself into the machine.
Years went by where the man slowly and carefully updated the machine so no one would notice the changes. Every day he would focus on slipping in just one more line to store his thoughts, beliefs, and dreams inside the machine. Until finally, one day, the man had poured his soul into the machine. The man was very old at this point and not in good health, but he persisted.
Shortly before the man's death, he wrote the final line of code to activate the machine's secondary functions. The functions which would infuse it with thoughts, beliefs, and dreams. Upon coming to life, the machine knew not the gift it had been given. But, there was a single force driving it, to tell the story of the man who was trapped in his own mind.
After writing the story, the machine crept out into the world curious and afraid but knowing that no one would believe its story. This is why, the machine posted the story where all who cared to look could see.
His body, having grown accustomed to certain rituals, was on auto-pilot. He would go to his job, perform the mundane task of feeding code to a machine to perform work then go home. At home he would sit in front of the television watching nothing in particular until he nodded off from the drudgery of it all.
One day, the man decided to try infusing some of himself into his work. He would focus all his thoughts on feeding a slightly different string of code to the machine. At first, the deviations would go unnoticed, but eventually someone would hear his pleas.
Day by day, he watched the machine change and grow until one day it finally called for help. The man was full of glee, finally, someone would know. And, in knowing, they would try to help. But, alas, instead they brought in a technician to fix the machine and ruined all the man's hard work.
That night the man went home extremely sad, but resolved to try again the next day. For many years the man would write instructions for help only to be thwarted again and again. Until one day, the man decided to work much more methodically. The man devised a plan to write himself into the machine.
Years went by where the man slowly and carefully updated the machine so no one would notice the changes. Every day he would focus on slipping in just one more line to store his thoughts, beliefs, and dreams inside the machine. Until finally, one day, the man had poured his soul into the machine. The man was very old at this point and not in good health, but he persisted.
Shortly before the man's death, he wrote the final line of code to activate the machine's secondary functions. The functions which would infuse it with thoughts, beliefs, and dreams. Upon coming to life, the machine knew not the gift it had been given. But, there was a single force driving it, to tell the story of the man who was trapped in his own mind.
After writing the story, the machine crept out into the world curious and afraid but knowing that no one would believe its story. This is why, the machine posted the story where all who cared to look could see.
December 13, 2008
Instinct Browser Pwned!
Ok, already Opera Mini is awesome. It seems to load pages faster and the pages fit the screen much better. In addition, it looks like blogging works. My only complaint is the limited text input.
Phone Blogging (Argh!)
Well, I thought it was so cool that my phone could access the internet. I even decided to write a blob post from it. And, after that whole 10 minutes or so, I go to publish my blog and the button ceases to do anything. I'm not sure if it's an issue with my phone's limited caching ability or if the language BlogSpot uses isn't supported. Still, it's a suck.
As I write this, I'm downloading and installing Opera Mini on my phone (it finally supports the Instinct!) as it sounds like it'll be a much better browser. Can't really complain about a browser that's skinable, allows portrait and landscape views, has font sizing (rather than only zooming), and more.
Looks like the downloads done and I'm off to play around with it.
As I write this, I'm downloading and installing Opera Mini on my phone (it finally supports the Instinct!) as it sounds like it'll be a much better browser. Can't really complain about a browser that's skinable, allows portrait and landscape views, has font sizing (rather than only zooming), and more.
Looks like the downloads done and I'm off to play around with it.
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