Bay 12 Games Forum
Dwarf Fortress => DF Suggestions => Topic started by: Justinian on January 08, 2013, 05:29:27 am
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I don't know how well this goes over with the others here.. but is there a way to say.. with the suggestion voting list, have it but also have it show a continually monitored dollar amount. Kind of like this kickstarter website. Each feature you want to see in the game have a set amount for it. When the dollar amount gets to there then IF possible without screwing up DF, then maybe it can be implemented? I mean there are a few things that I'd gladly pay 50 bucks each to see done to DF.
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My search skill sucks so there may be better threads than the ones I've found, but these are mostly relevant and probably cover anything that would come up here. I'm not sure if I pasted them in chronological order.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=79103.msg2052432#msg2052432
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80799.msg2123628#msg2123628
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=98105.0
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=77329.0
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80797.msg2123621#msg2123621
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=77073.msg1971645#msg1971645
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Right on. and those are relavent posts. I never searched for anything relating to sponsorship. But it's hell sometimes to search through a forum. What if you post it and it is lost in the sauce so to speak? I'm talking about a full on extra page of the website. With a list of changes coming up. There are already user submitted threads on what we want, but what about if Toady were to take up a list of things he IS going to be doing in the future and list those on some new page. Then users can go there, see what they like and click "Donate". And he can set a number. whatever he wants it to be.. say.. 100USD for adding new hats. (Just throwing a random example in there for the idea. First person to say that new hats is a stupid idea should be shot on sight for being a pompous ass. And everyone should bombard you with hate PM's on how much of an ass you are.) ... Anyways, there would be a running tally underneath showing just how much funds needed to get that far.
I mean everything I've read so far is it's just kind of random. A bunch of cash pours in and somewhere along the lines a new update. I mean if dude needs money for a new computer to code with.. then put the price down on there. If it's a matter of hiding from all of us how much money has been donated, then set some sort of code so that only 25% of the money donated is shown to everyone. But most people that post on here are very defensive and afraid to come up with new ideas which is why I don't post too often because it seems that people don't just say.. nah thats not going to work because of X,Y,Z.. its more along the lines of YOU'RE A MORON FOR SAYING THAT!!..
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Yeah, there can be a bit of that, and it more often happens on topics that have been done to death like multiplayer or UI or bodily waste etc. When I link posts it's never in a "Learn to search, noob" fashion because I know that most of the time they are only easily found if you already know about them. One of the threads I linked was ultimately locked by Threetoe, I recommend reading that one for some fun if you only skimmed it (I think it was the one that had a wall of text OP). That one started getting fiery.
More on topic, I think the thing about paying for stuff to go into DF is, everything is going to go in anyway. And if there's something Toady doesn't want to add, attempting to pay him for it won't change his mind (that could be called assumption on my part but I'd say it's at least educated assumption). So what you are left with is paying for priority, or what you think should go in first.
And Toady has shown that he prefers to work at his own pace and on what he believes should be next worked on, either because it makes contextual sense to work on it at the time, or he needs a break to work on something different. Currently he's getting enough money via donations to live and work on DF at the same time so there's little reason for him to willingly adopt a payment model that would make him work in a way he'd rather not.
So what you'd need to do to have your idea implemented is to convince the donators to stop so that Toady's income stream would dry up so that he'd be more amenable to a bounty style system on adding features and content. Keep in mind that I think Toady mentioned that he's not against returning to work in some fashion if he had to rather than bend over backwards for money to support development.
Personally, I think the way it works now is fine and don't think that what you suggest would work well. Consider the game that has already been made and is still actively being worked on, consider what is in current development, and consider the current funding model that keeps Toady independent and answerable to no-one. Why would you try to fix something that isn't broken?
The answer for us of course, is to get something we want put in faster than it otherwise might be. And I can't really argue with that. There are many placeholders and lack of current features that make my OCD rage and keep me from playing properly and I would pay to have them seen to now rather than in x number of years, but they're probably nothing that you or most of the other people playing care about. So I simply wait patiently and reward Toady generously when I wish.
The answer for Toady is of course to get more money if he wants, but he's happy with how it curently is and has declined to follow any number or marketing/money-making ideas that could easily net him piles of cash. It's pretty remarkable actually.
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Well I gotta give dibs to Toady for living the big dream, if he does supposedly live off the donations solely to work on the game.
..Because his work is making his own dream-game. I'd call that a pretty badass achievement.
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He actually posts exactly how much he makes in donations each month. Here (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121197) is the most recent report. It appears he made $57,000 last year. So he's not exactly hurting for money.
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He actually posts exactly how much he makes in donations each month. Here (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121197) is the most recent report. It appears he made $57,000 last year. So he's not exactly hurting for money.
Consider that that is all before taxes and that he receives no employment benefits and it's actually not as cushy of a paycheck as people seem to think. A lot better than most minimum-wage service industry jobs, but not that great for singlehandedly developing a game that hundreds of thousands of people enjoy.
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The job security's pretty good, though.
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He actually posts exactly how much he makes in donations each month. Here (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121197) is the most recent report. It appears he made $57,000 last year. So he's not exactly hurting for money.
Consider that that is all before taxes and that he receives no employment benefits and it's actually not as cushy of a paycheck as people seem to think. A lot better than most minimum-wage service industry jobs, but not that great for singlehandedly developing a game that hundreds of thousands of people enjoy.
'tis true. I didn't mean to imply that, although my wording probably wasn't the best. Mostly, I was replying to the previous post that he completely can (and does) live off of the donations. For being in game development, self employeed, and giving the game away for free, that's pretty darn impressive. I don't think there's anyone else (at least not so high profile) that's managed anything quite like that before.