Re: Licensing

From: tim@leaphome.pelican.org (Tim Franklin)

Date: Sat, 04 Nov 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Enno Rehling <schick.mir.spam@gmx.de> wrote:
>
>> >If its already playable for free, then why would people play another
>version?
>>
>> Paper turns?  I like paper turns, and mailing things out costs real money.
>
>Uh, paper turns can get really huge after you've played Eressea for a couple
>of years :-)

OK.  I don't know the game at all, I was just trying to address the 'paying
for a "free" game' question.

>> Perceived continuity?  If I'm paying someone to run a game (and so are
>> enough other people, of course), I'm fairly convinced it'll continue
>> running.
>
>Yes. And free games tend to skip turns because of GMs that have exams coming
>up, weddings, kids, family, etc. I've had games not run for two month, then
>come back for three more turns, and with 50% of the players dropping out in
>the next few weeks, fold entirely. How're you suposed to get attached to
>something like that?
>
>Not that we're doing that sort of thing. :-) 212 turns since August 25,
>1996.

Congratulations.  I've run a free hand-mod for 18 months (60-odd turns), and I
was quite pleased with that so far ;)

>
>> I don't know if those factors give enough benefit to allow you to charge
>> enough to make it worth your while, but I'd guess it's possible to charge
>> something for a 'free' game.
>
>Another thing: Continuity in the rules. Free games (that includes us,
>definitely) have a tendency to change the rules from one week to the other,
>because the designers found that adding new stuff is more fun than just
>rerunning the same old boring server they had last week. They tend to be
>more buggy, too. It's more like being in a beta test all the time.

I hadn't thought of that.  Adding new stuff is cool, although buggy / beta
code in a live, paying game is not really on.

>
>Also, players that pay money take the game more seriously. They don't
>register 5 factions to see which one develops best, and then drop the other
>four (or at least if they do, they pay 5 times as much as the average
>player). they don't drop out that easily, too. They often get more attached
>to the game.

Definitely.  The danger with the whole multiple positions argument is that it
becomes possibly for people to buy their way to victory with real-world money.
Free games remove that - anyone can have as many positions as the rules allow -
but, as you say, that may well encourage "trial" positions and a high drop rate.

Interesting points raised, I'm looking forward to hearing from some others too.

Regards,
Tim.

References

Licensing
"Enno Rehling" <schick.mir.spam@gmx.de>
Thu, 02 Nov 2000 22:11:36 +0000
Re: Licensing
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Fri, 03 Nov 2000 16:22:47 +0000
Re: Licensing
tim@leaphome.pelican.org (Tim Franklin)
Fri, 03 Nov 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Licensing
"Enno Rehling" <schick.mir.spam@gmx.de>
Fri, 03 Nov 2000 23:00:40 +0000