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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: Comment on how to make money on IF
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Date: Sat, 3 Aug 1996 18:11:46 GMT
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Colm McCarthy (illusory@execpc.com) wrote:
> Another problem, and it's a big one, that Andrew Plotkin pointed out
> somewhere in this group is that most of the *significant* (sic) games
> that have been produced are freeware.  In fact, I think Neil, Chris
> and I are the only ones whose games are shareware.  (I'm looping back
> to the IF catalog idea here (excuse me, but I'm stoned on pain
> killers).  Why would anyone fork out $10 or so for "Lost NY", "PTF" or
> "Shelby" when they could get "Jigsaw", "So Far", "Theatre" or
> "Christminster" for $2 or $3?
>
> Damn you freeware authors :-)

That's actually not what I was pointing out. I have no objection to 
selling "So Far" for $2; the problem is that I have no mechanism or 
desire to do so. It wouldn't be fair to raise the price to $10 for one 
audience when another audience can get it for free; it's not worth my 
time to stuff floppies and sell them for the real cost of shipping; and 
it just seems silly to sell an Inform game solely to the Macintosh 
market.

I imagine things would be twice as silly for, say, Graham, who would be 
(A) shipping overseas for the majority of orders, (B) trying to do 
something with US checks, or else (III) selling only to the Acorn market? 
Never mind, you get the idea.

The point is that a catalog which points people back to the authors is 
really only a service to people who are already set up for mail-order. 
Meaning, um, Neil, right? (My copy of Path to Fortune is old, but it says
that the authors will send you paper when you register, not disks. Ditto 
for Shelby's Addendum. I don't know whether you folks are unwilling to 
mail out disks too, but you must realize that, at best, it's more than 
you bargained for when you released the game, and there are Mac/IBM/other 
machine issues.)

Nulldogma (nulldogma@aol.com) wrote:
> Well ... there's nothing stopping any of those authors from selling their
> freeware games on floppy for $5 or $10. 

Fear of being bludgeoned to death when one of my customers gets Net 
access and learns the real story? :)

> Or from (ahem) adding in some
> hints and a manual, and charging $10 for the inclusion of *those*. 

So Far has no manual, and you know my attitude towards hints.

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
