The Power of Free

[Seth M. Drebitko]

So I have been doing some research for the Serial Design Challenge over in the Endeavor section and figured it was prevalent to the publishing section. A resource I found interesting was here http://www.webcomics.com/home/2009/9/29/webcomics-and-the-economics-of-free.html<http://www.forums.goplaynation.com I would also like to get some opinions of how we might be able to take these webcomic principles and apply them to what we are doing from a general perspective.

[Dan Maruschak]

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[Callan S.]

I'm gunna get philosophical and say you need to look at doing it for the love, again.

Or put it this way - say the market is saturated with entertainment. The market does not want your crap.

If that were the case, it is not rational to pursue money in that area. It's simply is not rational. And to try and honestly discuss rational income methods when your working from an irrational base premise - that's a stupid thing to do.

Now coming back to how things actually are, the market basically is pretty much saturated. And so, as much as it's saturated, it is fairly irrational to try and make money in it and best move on - the mine has been cleared of ore. But let's be honest, neither me or you are moving on, are we?

When your working from an irrational base premise, it's not about rational income streams, it's about managing your own irrational behaviour. It's about looking at your own irrational behaviour, whatever it is, then seeing if there are methods which garner some chance currency out of that behaviours content output.

There may be ways - there may still be a hidden stream of ore in that mine. But you have to accept that it's not rational to dig in that mine if you were genuinely, rationally pursuing money. Instead your doing it because you love that particular mine.

So I think you need to look at your love of it rather than looking outward at fiscal models. Because if there is a secret stream of ore to be had, your going to find it via some secret part of your love of it. You need to look inward instead and chart that love, gently looking at it's nuances and compare them to market demand, seeing if any perhaps forfil some as yet untapped vein. Or find one that matches the least tapped vein you can find.

I think all the methods you describe are leverage models, rather than income models. Once you have a product that gains income, they can be used to leverage that and gain even more income. But leveraging nothing still gives you nothing.

[Seth M. Drebitko]

Well the love of it all is really my thinking behind wanting the do the webcomic model. I don't really care about making money from my game, but at the same time I don't want to miss a potential opportunity to get something in return. In this way I get to do what I love design setting, and game stuff and let as many people enjoy it as possible without having to worry about those not willing to spend more money on a new game.

[greyorm]

That's sharp, Callan. Good mention.

[pells]

Comments on those models :

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Cross-Subsidy:
This is the most commonly used method, where people direct their customer money to other products. These are your t-shirt, and book selling operations and even the ransom model has been used by webcomic operations. The trick being used by webcomics for ransoms is that while the core is free a related possible side story would be released om exchange for the ransom being met. In our end of things this could mean fiction, or even an adventure series could be released.

This is kinda of tough !!! You really need to have a solid fan base for this. Webcomics model uses t-shirts, videos, even comic book (here's an example of one guy, who I think, manages to work that well : Ctl Atl Del). Maybe TSOY, if you consider the printed copy as a subsidy, did that thing : release the rules under CC into a Wiki and sell a printed book, illustrated with more examples and a good layout.

Quote

http://www.scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/icst/icst-5/icst-5.html

[Callan S.]

Well the love of it all is really my thinking behind wanting the do the webcomic model. I don't really care about making money from my game, but at the same time I don't want to miss a potential opportunity to get something in return. In this way I get to do what I love design setting, and game stuff and let as many people enjoy it as possible without having to worry about those not willing to spend more money on a new game.

I think you can spoil things for yourself and your creative vibe here. I mean, how much money do you want to make - no one ever has enough money ever!! There is no native 'enough' with money. And thus your game will never be making enough money and so it'll be attaching disappointment to the creative process

Unless you put a cap on earning money and decide for yourself what is 'enough', like an amount per month or such like.

You can't just wander toward money because the idea of a return sounds nice...money is rather like a drug (particularly because you can never have 'enough'). You have to go in thinking about how much you want to take...otherwise it tends to start deciding for you.

[Seth M. Drebitko]

I do really, but really hate this one!!! First, it is very difficult to make money out of it (then again, you would need a lot of traffic, thus a large fan base). Second, you lose some control over the content of the website (those damned ads!!!). Third, and this is the worst : third parties, to generate "clicks" will tend to provide links to your competitors !!! So, you want to generate money, but, in fact, you're advertising your competitors ... thus dragging people out of your website. This is particularly true of MMO online : people play a little, get tired of the game and then go play other games they discovered thru the links !!!Quote

Unless you put a cap on earning money and decide for yourself what is 'enough', like an amount per month or such like.