RE: [GD-General] Pyrogon Postmortem

[Crosbie F. <cr...@cy...>]

> From: Colin Fahey
> It seems like the PC is the only real
> free market, especially thanks to the free(*) distribution
> channel of the Internet, but piracy is terrible (unless
> your target demographic is typically marked by honor
> and disposable income).  (*...By "free" I mean that one
> does not beg a gatekeeper to make the product available
> to consumers, and there is no percentage of profits
> demanded for the privilege of access to consumers.
> Sure, there's credit card overhead, and bandwidth cost,
> but somehow such expenses seem insignificant relative
> to dealing with any gatekeeper/publisher.)

So, use the free PC market because it has:

1) A free distribution channel
2) No gatekeeper, no restrictions
3) An open platform
4) Tons of open source, freeware, and freely redistributable proprietary =
s/w

What are its problems?

Piracy????

So abandon the ridiculous idea that you can prevent players copying your =
game, that the Internet, the world's greatest diffuser of digital =
content ever known, is somehow going to refuse to diffuse your game.

Too much choice?

Marketing is your problem. Create a web site. Foster word-of-mouth/viral =
marketing.

Piracy?

You're still stumped by that one. I can tell.

So build you audience. Perhaps you need to give some stuff away first, =
even if just demos. Anyway, eventually you should be able to tell your =
audience that you can't go on like this, that you have to pay your =
bills, that the next game they will have to pay for or they don't get =
it. There is no honour involved here. Either they pay and get, or don't =
pay and don't get. You can say "I will not release this game unless you =
all club together and pay me 10k". The deal is so clear a kid could =
understand it.

And it's immune from piracy.

And you can make your game out of open source components.

And you still get 10k for it - or whatever the market will bear.

It's a solution that I'm working on:
www.digitalartauction.com

And I've written about it here:
http://www.digitalartauction.com/history/bcbm.htm

Believe me, I feel the pain of the Indie development community. Stories =
like Brian's and yours spur me on, reminding me that this solution is =
sorely needed.