Distribution: Email vs. Private Webpage

[Zak Arntson]

I'm getting close to releasing Chthonian as a small shareware via email. But would a private webpage be a better route? I know of several people who have had great results through emailing copies, but I'd like to try something else.

I'm thinking of requiring an email, and I email back the url(s) with rules/scenarios/etc for playing the game. I could take advantage of the Internet to constantly update the beta-version documents, give sneak previews, etc. etc.

So has anyone tried this route? And if so, would you recommend just distributing a URL? A URL and a password to get access?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

In an ideal world, this is what I'd do (and am currently working on):

- Allow people to sign up to get a playtest version of a document on your website. They have to enter their e-mail address and password.

- They receive an e-mail with a URL they have to go to confirm that their e-mail address is valid. (This helps you maintain a good knowledge of who has access.)

- They can then go to the download URL with their username and password. The reason I would have them all use their own password is that most people are too lazy to think up a new password for every site. They'll probably use the same password they use everywhere, which they don't want their friends to know - so they won't be handing it out.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Zak,

I like the personal email option because it conveys a "hands-on, from me to you" message that people like. Mainly because it is a "hands on etc" approach.

I still handle all the direct orders for Sorcerer/etc myself, forwarding the messages to the warehouse.

Best,
Ron

[Cynthia Celeste Miller]

We have the Paypal set-up on our "Online Store" page.  When someone orders, Paypal sends us a notification email.  From there, we drop the customer an email that gives them the URL from which the game can be downloaded.  

For security reasons, we change the URL on a regular basis.  We keep track of everyone who purchased the game so we can let them know when we've updated/corrected text in the product (free of charge, naturally).

[Matt Gwinn]

How do you keep search engines from picking up the PDF file?
When I had the playtest version of Kayfabe on my site Google would list the file itself so you could go straight from google to the pdf file.

,Matt

[Clinton R. Nixon]

For those interested:

The "putting a PDF under a secret URL" thing is a bad idea. It can very much hurt you in terms of piracy.

I'm working on a small application right now that takes a request from PayPal (they send this automatically if you set it up right), adds authorization for the customer to download the file, and then sends them an e-mail. They have to come to the page, enter a password and download it. However, the file's not in an open directory. It's actually not anywhere in the document root (if you don't know what I'm saying, stop here), and the script pipes the file's content to the user, keeping even the end user unaware of the document's location.

After I finish this (this weekend, hopefully), I'll make the files available to anyone who wants them and write a primer on how to use PayPal to sell independent games with little hassle.

[Zak Arntson]

Wow! Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

I'm leaning towards Ron's suggestion of emailing the thing out. It will be a zip file, containing .pdfs/.rtfs (playtest rules, intro scenario), .txts (end user agreement, note from designer), possibly some images.

I also like Clinton's thoughts on a user/password system (and I agree wit the assumption that people use the same password everywhere, so they won't share their password, keeping piracy down). Though I want the personal touch of the personal email.

Ron's approach is more personal and easier on the customer, so I'm wondering, has anyone perceived a problem with this?

[Cynthia Celeste Miller]

After I finish this (this weekend, hopefully), I'll make the files available to anyone who wants them and write a primer on how to use PayPal to sell independent games with little hassle.

I'm definitely interested in this.  Very interested indeed.

[Cynthia Celeste Miller]

How do you keep search engines from picking up the PDF file?
When I had the playtest version of Kayfabe on my site Google would list the file itself so you could go straight from google to the pdf file.

,Matt

Truthfully, I'm not sure.  My webmaster said he could take care of that and it hasn't showed up on any of the search engines I tried.

[Adam]

How do you keep search engines from picking up the PDF file?

With Geocities and other free web page providers, you're probably out of luck to block this. If you have a proper host there's a variety of techniques you could use to block the indexing; the most common being robots.txt, a standard for telling web-robots [search engines, most generally] how to index your page. Well-behaved robots [and google is one of them, afaik] will read this file and /not/ index directories that you specify.

However, I'm sure Clinton has already put good thought into this in the software he's preparing.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Zak,

The only disadvantages to the mailing-it-personally approach are fairly basic, but they're real:

- It's an ongoing thing, and the real people in your life have to understand that yes, you do have to turn on the computer and fulfil your orders today. And the next day. And ...

- Again, because it's an ongoing thing, you have to be just as enthusiastic about *not* getting any orders today as getting some, plus just as enthusiastic about the fiftieth order as the first.

- File size is a real problem, both at your end and at theirs. I've come to recognize all the commonly-used accounts that (unbeknownst to their users) automatically bounce files of a certain size. Make sure to work within the reasonable bounds of your end (well within, which is hard for many people), and state the file size on the website itself, so people have no one but themselves to blame.

- That said, you have to go the extra mile for people who've paid but can't receive the thing. I've made many a long-distance call to explain to people that no, their hotmail account cannot receive a 2-MG file, and they have to give me an alternate email if they want this thing.

I still prefer this option, though.

Best,
Ron

[hyphz]

If people are finding reliable ways of doing these things by download, why does everyone have to use PayPal, rather than one of the other credit card agents?  

Just about everyone I have mentioned it to says that PayPal is not safe.  I have recommended games to people before, and had them refuse to buy them because they don't want to use PayPal.

Couldn't somebody run a kind of commercial download clearinghouse for Indie games, that might be big enough to get one of the other card agents interested?

[Zak Arntson]

The main rules will be a .txt or .rtf document. This will solve the file-size problem, and allow anyone to read the rules. With your mentioned space issues, Ron, I am thinking of releasing the sample scenarios and character sheets at a secret URL. That way, if the secret URL gets out, people will see it, see the character sheet, flip through the scenarios and say (ideally), "Holy crap! I want to play this game! I'd better send off my email!"

I also want to provide some method for shareware payment (would this be a new thread?), the $5 thing which puts you on the list for $5 discount on released game (if/when it is released): PayPal or mailing a check are probably the most realistic choices, but what are other options?

So, in short, my current plan:
- Provide rulebook on an email-request, email-transfer basis. Text-format to keep filesize at a minimum.
- Upon email-request, send rulebook as attachment, and provide a secret URL. This URL points to printer-friendly scenarios and character sheets and other goodies (images, pdf files, html files, etc).
- Allow for a $5 shareware payment, good for a discount if the game is released hardcopy.

Glaring errors? Subtle flaws? Things to watch for?

Oh, and thanks, everyone!

[Matt Machell]

After I finish this (this weekend, hopefully), I'll make the files available to anyone who wants them and write a primer on how to use PayPal to sell independent games with little hassle.

I assume you're including something to check that the amount payed through paypal is correct. If you just use a standard paypal forward, people can just create a querystring with say $0.10 as the price and a fake email address, and get your game for whatever they want to pay.



Matt

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Give me a little credit - I do develop this stuff for a living.

PayPal's Instant Payment Notification (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/pdn/pp-solutions-ipn) takes care of this. What happens is:

a) Anytime someone buys something from you, PayPal will hit a script on your website with all the details of the purchase.

b) You have to program this script to contact PayPal when hit. It sends back the entire query string.

c) PayPal checks this string against its records - if correct, it lets you know. (If not, it lets you know as well.)

d) You program your script to do whatever you want it to do when a verified payment has been made. You could e-mail a file, add a user to your database, or whatever.