From: Chris Lemens <chrislemens_at_...>
> > Particularly for software, a better model
> > would be for developers to provide enough
> > support and content that it is worth the time
> > and effort of customers to purchase the product.
>
>I've never actually seen this work well, though I'm
>not familiar with the example you cite. For most
>gaming products in particular, the you want the
>product for what it does the moment you bought it
>untried, not what its makes says mught be coming out
>in the months ahead. For example, as nice as it has
>been to get fixed to KoDP, I liked it when I got it
>and I like it that much now. The difference between
>them is not enough to discourage a pirate from not
>paying for the initial copy. A further point is that,
>once a gaming product is substantially complete, the
>developers have to recoup sunk costs before they can
>really start making add-ons. (And then the add-ons
>can get pirated, too.) Or do I misunderstand your
>point?
No you understood my point.
It works a bit better in the software utility industry, and it's
not a perfect fit for all distribution schemes.
I will agree that we buy most games for what they do at the moment of purchase. Of course the same is true of Movies and Music and both those industries are facing the same peril.
I'm certainly convinced that relying on "better" copy protection schemes is going to take us down a path where we elevate the skill of those breaking copy protection schemes instead of actually increasing sales.
and then David wrote.
>Both of these require dropping the concept of game as work of art
>(like a novel or movie), or perhaps change it more into the TV series
>model.
Yup. Of course movies are in the same boat. Books are an interesting comparison precisely because they bypass digital media, but are losing readers at a quick clip. They have become a hit driven industry where the closest analogy to KODP would be a vanity press title.
>TV series don't really happen without a TV network, so this doesn't
>really offer much for an independent publisher.
Oh. I don't know about that. If A# would add in 10 stories a quarter, I would pay a subscription to download KODP events. (Of course I'm a lunatic as well, but I suspect there are a couple others like me out there. Not enough to make it work with this game, but there are other games as well.)
>I'm not sure if the analogy is a good one or not -- I don't think you
>can play EverQuest occasionally, the way you can watch a TV show one
>week and then skip a few. On the other hand, I think the novel
>analogy is good, because I tried to make King of Dragon Pass like a
>novel. You could read a chapter or two, put it down, and pick it up
>where you left off.
>I'll also add that the extra amount of infrastructure required to run
>an online game like EverQuest scares me off -- all that server
>ramping, customer service, game monitoring...
sure. I wouldn't want to make that commitment either.
dfs
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