If you love your game, set it free....

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Gareth,

It's obvious you can communicate clearly - you do so in other threads. Do so here. Part of what the Forge is about is respecting other members, and this "rollseyes" comment in no way respects anyone or clears up the confusion as to what you might have meant.

To clarify, which idea in the above thread reminded you of sending out software that has features disabled?

[Brian Leybourne]

I would imagine he's talking about cut-down PDF's without the whole content of the text, released free in the hopes the cumsumer will like it enough to buy the full PDF (or print, or whatever).

I happen to think crippleware is very effective, and no less so in the case of RPG's - there are a great many that offer PDF quickstarts (which is crippleware, really) in the hopes you'll like what you read enough to upgrade to the actual game.

Brian.

[contracycle]

Yes, that is the comparison I was drawing.  Essentially, a literally broken product ships; a typical example is some graphics apps that allow you to to generate images but not save them.  Another good example is the HeroMachine that is highly limited, allegedly, with the for-pay version.

I say allegedly because I have not paid to see the full version.  This of course is because I have severe reservations about purchasing non-physical products.  One bad disk crash and my "commodity" is toast.

What I think about crippleware is a bit more complex.  I'm perfectly happy with some, like Terragen, that provide whole but restricted functionality.  And were it not for my reservations above, I would probably have bought it.  But I think its a tricky technique, becuase it risks kinda offending the viewer.  If someone takes time downloading it they may feel still didn't get good value out of the broken version, and become hostile to something that is more an advert than a product (even a broken product).  Which is why crippleware can have a negative connotation.  

If its too crippled it might offend and if its not crippled enough it might as well be free.