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From: jacobw@flagstaff.Princeton.EDU (Jacob Solomon Weinstein)
Subject: Re: IF business venture?
Message-ID: <1994Apr14.205722.22510@Princeton.EDU>
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References: <2ohbjv$14vd@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <DJOHNSON.94Apr13140305@arnold.ucsd.edu>
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 1994 20:57:22 GMT
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Darin Johnson <djohnson@arnold.ucsd.edu> wrote:
>> >[Save Princeton makes only $250 in shareware fees]
>
>> It's a shame that we've gone from a point where the Zork series sold zillions
>> of copies at $30+ a pop to a point where an IF adventure reaches only
>> 2 measly dozen people who appreciate it enough to register.
>
>Face it, you don't even make money when doing it commercially,
>so why assume shareware would do anything?  Most commercial
>games programmers rarely make money at it, instead the overhead
>gobbles it up.
>
>Personally, I think it's a shame that people are only motivated
>by money in order to write stuff...

Hey, relax. If you've been following this thread, you'd see that
_nobody_ has said, "I want to write games because I want to be rich."
_Everybody_ who has discussed making money off a game has said, "I want
to write a game because it would be fun, and I was wondering if I'll make any
money in the process.

>There's still a lot of people out there that remember back when
>shareware was non existent and the world still worked nicely.
>They even remember when shareware meant "if you like it, then
>send whatever you feel is appropriate".  Nowdays it's "you must
>send $36.95 even if you think it's crap because I spent time on
>it, and time is money".  Trouble is, if the user thinks it is
>worth $5, and the author demands $10, then $0 is going to be paid.

I've written to a number of shareware authors and said something to the
effect of, "I like your program, but I can't really afford to register.
Mind if I use it anyway?" Every author I've written to has said
something to the effect of, "Please go ahead. I wrote the program to be
used." Which is how I respond when I get a similar note from somebody
about Save Princeton.

>It still annoys me that a certain IF game, while full of bugs,
>with poor descriptions, looking as if it were hastily thrown
>together in an attempt to learn how to write adventures, has
>the nerve to demand a certain price for the game as shareware.
>There seems to be this attitude that if any effort at all is
>spent on something, recompense is due.  They'd be lucky to even
>get constructive criticism of it...  Why does shareware come
>more often from relative newbies than the old timers (who have
>a better reputation and more chance to make money at it)?

I hope you won't take this is a flame, but the reason I'm responding is
that you rather upset about something, and I can't quite figure out
what bothers you so much. If you paid good money up front for a crappy
game, I could see why you were annoyed. But the whole point of shareware
is that if you like it, you pay what you think it's worth. If you don't,
you trash it.

I think that attitude of most shareware authors isn't "If any effort at
all is spent on something, recompense is due." I would guess it's more
along the lines of, "If you don't ask, you don't get." Personally, I
considered releasing Save Princeton as freeware or with a token
shareware price (specifically because I was afraid that the in-jokes
would interefere with people's ability to enjoy the game.) When my
beta-testers told me they enjoyed the game, and would have been willing
to pay money for it, I figured "Well, why not?" The result is that, in
addition to the challenge of writing my own game, I have $250 more than
I would have otherwise, and the fun of running (in some rudimentary
sense) my own business.

I'm responding in such detail, I think, because you've inadvertently
touched a nerve. I don't know about other authors, but I worry about
everything I writew, whether it be a computer program or a short
story or anything else. Is it any good? Am I being egotistical to imagine
that anybody else would even glance at it? And so to have somebody indicate
that they find shareware games personally offensive is a bit
intimidating...
