1 CommentWhat adult game economic model?
I've just had a tough few days explaining my point of view as a developer on the biggest adult piracy site. You might as well say that I was in enemy territory, but I knew it.
Some of my opponents were quite intelligent and level-headed, but others were just as stupid as I'd imagined. Well, no: they were even more stupid than I imagined. Some of them were beyond comprehension.
So let's leave the assholes' comments to one side and concentrate on the more intelligent ones.
You say you don't do it for the money, but that's not true.
I'll say it again. This is just a hobby. I don't need this to live, not at all.
Does that mean I have to give things away? No. I want this to be a clean sweep.
No loss (except of time). I want my costs to be covered. I don't care when I've covered my costs.
I suppose it's the same for subscribers, who will have no interest in what has been consumed first being shared.
Shared yes, but afterwards. But what the people at F95 are doing is sharing content without even asking for it.
You're taking advantage of F95's advertising.
But... I didn't ask for anything. I'm there because I was put there. Faced with a fait accompli at first, I tried to put on a brave face. But you have no control over your game there. The bottom line is: "Either you give me your wallet of your own free will or I'll steal it from you".
You're shooting yourself in the foot. Nobody would know about your game if it wasn't here.
That's not false! But it should be my choice not to enter the model, and I'm not given that choice.
The reason I don't want to be there is that I don't recognise myself in the vast majority (99%) of the games on offer.
Being an 18-year-old guy (but does he really, you wonder), who's recently lost his parents, who's starting secondary school, and who's faced with a plethora of chicks? No!
Being a willing cuckold who lends out his girlfriend or his wife? No. Futa? No. Incest? No! Violence, rape? No!
Anyway, as you can see, I don't want to be in the middle of all that. I wrote it clearly on the welcome page here.
Your behavior makes no sense from a marketing point of view. You should accept exposure, even for free, make good games and hope that people join your community of paying users.
It's not dumb, far from it. Loads of people do it and it works very well for them. But I don't want to go down that road. Why not?
Firstly, because I don't want to be one game among 18,000 others. Pure and perfect competition is not a model that suits me. I'm looking for a niche. And a product that's looking for a niche isn't going to put itself on MSN or advertise on TV. A niche product is looking for a precise and small target. I don't need a large number of subscribers. But I would like them to be patient, loyal and truly mature. I won't find them on F95.
What I would like, is bring them to my site in small groups, so that they can try out a few free games and say to themselves: "This is what I like, I'll stay, play and get involved."
Cultural goods shouldn't have to be paid for. Especially if there's no cost involved in duplicating them.
That's where the social debate comes in. But surprising as it may seem, I agree.
I also agree that those who have the means allow others who have none, or less, to enjoy games for free.
I'm not sure we're talking about culture in the strict sense of the word, but... in the broad sense, why not.
The problem is that what is given away is immediately shared, including by those who have the means but want to take advantage.
So free, yes. But afterwards. What F95 wants in order to generate traffic is something that's free immediately and all the time.
Some people manage to keep the heroes in check for a while, but F95 never steps in to say "No, guys, wait until the dev asks for a delay". In any case, I've never seen that happen in over two years. A guy comes into a thread, drops his own Gofile or Mega link and F95, instead of stalling uses it almost immediately.
That's basically the intelligent thing to take away from these discussions.
The rest is sarcasm, mockery, preconceived ideas, unvarnished opinions, condescension, contempt for one's opponent, in short, everything the web in general has to offer in the way of stupidity, bad faith and malice. For one clever guy, there are 50 profound morons.
For a while, I responded and I must admit that I enjoyed it. After a while, the smart guys disappeared, only the jerks were left, I started to feel like insulting and I withdrew too.
