Forums » Suggestions
Crowdfunding!
We want content!
And that's why I am suggesting crowdfunding to finally happen. I am aware ideas of this were raised years ago when Vendetta tried the kickstarter project but it didn't work out. But I do not remember this suggestion ever getting its very own thread or the devs saying that this cannot happen. (If there is a statement against this suggestion that I overlooked, let me know!)
So the idea is simple. I am suggesting micro crowdfunding for various content goals. Started ones that are not finished and even new ones.
The VO website would get a new link called "crowdfunding" (probably best placed below "Billing Options"). On there, the developers list popular content projects (best would be if only up to 10 projects are running at once. If there's over 50 projects, we may never finish one...). What's popular could either be decided by the developers picking popular, realistic suggestions or by the players voting certain suggestions into the list.
How it will work is as simple as the idea itself. Next to each listed content project, the developers add a total estimation WHAT it would cost to get working on that project and place it on TOP priority until it is totally finished and added in. Of course the page will also have to list how much has already been pledged/donated and possibly even by who.
Once a project is paid off, the developers use all that cash to work on that project with highspeed. Nothing else should get in between then, except of course for really important things (E3, the server crashing etc.). The projects will be finished in the order they were paid of. This will give players in incenitive to better pay off their desired projects fast. Let me give you an example of how I expect this to look:
Project 1: Trident Type P&S
"little info text about what that is etc."
Estimation of money needed to finish this project within the next 2 weeks after the money transactions are complete: 1500$ (may be unrealistic... I just picked a number.)
Money already donated: 800$ (View list of donators)
Donate Now! (Pay Pal etc.)
I'm not sure whether it would be wise to have it work on a pledging basis like kickstarter so that they only come and take your cash if the project is successfully finished or if it'd be better to immediately donate the cash right away. You devs will know better what system to go with.
I trust the developers with the money calculation. I won't even care if you put the price of pizza consumed while coding into the total estimation needed of Project XY. Do it. But help us to help you, Guild Software!
Constructive criticism is of course welcome. But let's not just talk this time. Let's do something.
And that's why I am suggesting crowdfunding to finally happen. I am aware ideas of this were raised years ago when Vendetta tried the kickstarter project but it didn't work out. But I do not remember this suggestion ever getting its very own thread or the devs saying that this cannot happen. (If there is a statement against this suggestion that I overlooked, let me know!)
So the idea is simple. I am suggesting micro crowdfunding for various content goals. Started ones that are not finished and even new ones.
The VO website would get a new link called "crowdfunding" (probably best placed below "Billing Options"). On there, the developers list popular content projects (best would be if only up to 10 projects are running at once. If there's over 50 projects, we may never finish one...). What's popular could either be decided by the developers picking popular, realistic suggestions or by the players voting certain suggestions into the list.
How it will work is as simple as the idea itself. Next to each listed content project, the developers add a total estimation WHAT it would cost to get working on that project and place it on TOP priority until it is totally finished and added in. Of course the page will also have to list how much has already been pledged/donated and possibly even by who.
Once a project is paid off, the developers use all that cash to work on that project with highspeed. Nothing else should get in between then, except of course for really important things (E3, the server crashing etc.). The projects will be finished in the order they were paid of. This will give players in incenitive to better pay off their desired projects fast. Let me give you an example of how I expect this to look:
Project 1: Trident Type P&S
"little info text about what that is etc."
Estimation of money needed to finish this project within the next 2 weeks after the money transactions are complete: 1500$ (may be unrealistic... I just picked a number.)
Money already donated: 800$ (View list of donators)
Donate Now! (Pay Pal etc.)
I'm not sure whether it would be wise to have it work on a pledging basis like kickstarter so that they only come and take your cash if the project is successfully finished or if it'd be better to immediately donate the cash right away. You devs will know better what system to go with.
I trust the developers with the money calculation. I won't even care if you put the price of pizza consumed while coding into the total estimation needed of Project XY. Do it. But help us to help you, Guild Software!
Constructive criticism is of course welcome. But let's not just talk this time. Let's do something.
Nice thought, but wouldnt the exposure with an "in-house" crowdfunding yield significantly less capital than through more traditional methods? I mean, how much traffic does this website generate outside of current players?
Or is that the point? This is simply to allow players to help choose the direction of the game by funding it directly? What about Elite: Dangerous' model of "seasons" of updates?
Or is that the point? This is simply to allow players to help choose the direction of the game by funding it directly? What about Elite: Dangerous' model of "seasons" of updates?
Or is that the point? This is simply to allow players to help choose the direction of the game by funding it directly?
Yeah that was the idea. I realize there's not much outside traffic. And what would non-players benefit from corwdfunding this game? Heh.
I brought this up because I remembered that there was a fair number of long term players saying they'd be willing to take part in micro-crowdfunding back when kickstarter did not work out. But I may have overestimated that. Either most of those players aren't active enough anymore to care or I was just overrating this idea and got too much expectations out of it. You see this thread isn't exactly popular yet soo...
Yeah that was the idea. I realize there's not much outside traffic. And what would non-players benefit from corwdfunding this game? Heh.
I brought this up because I remembered that there was a fair number of long term players saying they'd be willing to take part in micro-crowdfunding back when kickstarter did not work out. But I may have overestimated that. Either most of those players aren't active enough anymore to care or I was just overrating this idea and got too much expectations out of it. You see this thread isn't exactly popular yet soo...
+1, though I'd go for purchasable bling such as Liveries, or maybe "Supporter" badges.
I'm not really against this, it just requires a fair amount of time for us to build a platform that does this, wire it into our billing systems and so on. And, the last time we considered it, the time requirement seemed larger than the likely payout.
If certain things pan out in the near future though, I may elevate the priority (not a lot, but perhaps to a "this year" level), as we may be elevating our profile enough to make this more economical.
As I see it, it'd also kind of dovetail with the Trac stuff going more public. There's a bit of a tie-in between the two.. project goals / milestones (and measurement of progress), and then giving people the option to fund particular goals.
And then there's also the caveats that sometimes we have to drop whatever we're doing and go do something else for six months or more, like we did last year with the sudden "ugh, we have to migrate the entire server cluster somewhere else" excitement. That's not the most fun thing to explain to someone who spent a bunch of money to accelerate X, and then you have to go do Y, which seems to take an unreasonably long time because 50 other things go awry in the process.
If certain things pan out in the near future though, I may elevate the priority (not a lot, but perhaps to a "this year" level), as we may be elevating our profile enough to make this more economical.
As I see it, it'd also kind of dovetail with the Trac stuff going more public. There's a bit of a tie-in between the two.. project goals / milestones (and measurement of progress), and then giving people the option to fund particular goals.
And then there's also the caveats that sometimes we have to drop whatever we're doing and go do something else for six months or more, like we did last year with the sudden "ugh, we have to migrate the entire server cluster somewhere else" excitement. That's not the most fun thing to explain to someone who spent a bunch of money to accelerate X, and then you have to go do Y, which seems to take an unreasonably long time because 50 other things go awry in the process.
That's why I would go for purchasable bling rather than "I want to fund goal X". Liveries etc don't grant any player advantage, so P2W is not an issue, and it is non-goal specific.
I'm in favor in general. For GS to see if it's popular before doing a lot of work, it can be tracked on a static html page for the first set of projects without building a fancy interface, use paypal buttons or something to collect the money.
+1 for micro transactions. It's how free to play games operate. Ship skins, cosmetic weapon effects, etc.
+1 for direct contributions to top voted ideas also.
+1 for direct contributions to top voted ideas also.
+1, but I suggest a very limited number of items selected by the devs to offer. They would know best which ones would need to preceed or dovetail with others, or with current contractual obligations. If it's merely by popular vote things will be a mess. (wait for it...)
+1