Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: v131p9t3@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu (Ninstar Cybermage: Black Phoenix Rising)
Subject: Re: Financial rewards?
Message-ID: <CI6zKB.Fup@acsu.buffalo.edu>
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References: <2eo5ql$pvs@crl.crl.com> <CI5vJJ.KnJ@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 18:36:00 GMT
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In article <CI5vJJ.KnJ@acsu.buffalo.edu>, goetz@cs.buffalo.edu (Phil Goetz) writes...
>I can share my shareware experience:
> 
>Xasteroids:  I posted Xasteroids on comp.sources.games and in
>~ftp/contrib on EXPORT.LCS.MIT.EDU.  I asked for a $5 donation.
>Over 3 years I've received approx. 100 mail messages of appreciation,
>four or five modified versions, numerous excuses why a person couldn't
>afford $5 or couldn't mail it to me from overseas, and 3 checks for $5.

Well, you're right of course, but that's partially because of your medium.
At present, very few people actually have x workstation equipment at home,
with the exception of some people who buy themselves a workstation or run
X on a mac or IBM.  That leaves most of us X-users mainly working off of 
school or work equipment.  Very few of us are going to shell out money
for a game we can only play at school, and which will disappear whenever our
account does.

> 
>HackerDOS:  A superset of DOS 3.3 for the Apple // (faster, took less disk
>space, offered TYPE command, undelete, hex/dec translation, showed space on
>disk, extra tracks option, lowercase conversion for ][+ers, etc.)  I sold
>about 20 copies in 1984 for $5 through a one-paragraph ad in Computist.
>Each copy was unprotected (a DOS, after all) and the documentation asked for
>a $5 donation.  Never got one, unless some of the people I mailed disks to
>for $5 already had it.  I doubt that, since they all came within a month or
>two of the ad.

Well, you could have posted more ads and kept it out of the internet, but I
think that under the circumstances you made out about as well as can be 
expected.  People get this stuff for free, then they don't want to pay to keep
it.  This is why crippleware is so much more successful.  You have to give them 
a reason to send you the money.  The Asteroids II game for the Amiga has a real
good hook, and lets you play the first 5 levels in the demo version.  If you 
want a complete version, then you send the money in.

>This doesn't count as a whine!  He asked!

o, you're absolutely right, he did ask.  If it's any consolation, when I made
the decision not to pay for your game, I deleted it from my directory.
Take care.

James O. Shank Jr.     HEE!		v131p9t3@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
AKA: Ninstar Cybermage  I 	or 	shank@acsu.buffalo.edu 
Black Phoenix Rising... A 	or 	aa247@freenet.acsu.buffalo.edu
XINEOHPAEGAMREBYCRATSNINMONMYWAYBACKTOTHEWAYTHINGSARESUPPOSEDTOBELIFEISGOODYAY
"Anyone with a .sig more than four lines long is a self important fool!"-Marek
"OOPS!  8-)" -Ninstar, on line 6 of his .sig
"You forget.  I am a Knight of the Inner Sphere, and I have dozens of friends
with  very large battlemechs."  -Ideal War 
