Yesterday (roll20) passed 600,000 total players having signed up in Roll20!

[Honken]

I think that we all need to help FG more visible. If you use Obisidian portal as a hub for your games, you could make it obvious that you are using FG as the medium for your games.

I watch some of itmejp's Rollplay shows on Youtube, and has occationally watched it over twitch too, he have a crazy number of live viewers. I have never figured roleplaying a spectator "sport"... But they seem to sell it. And more live roleplaying seem to be available on twitch too. There was a PAX panel about digitizing tabletop rpgs that itmejp recorded and shared on soundcloud. Link here. The sound quality is not super.

I like that you (smiteworks) has been more active in the facebook group, doing blogs about all kinds of stuff geek stuff (not always role-playing related). It makes FG more visible.

FG in it's easiest form is a dice roller, a program for sharing pictures (maps and whatnot) and keeping track of your characters. Any automation above this is gravy (and/but adds complexity and steep learing curves).

I don't know if this added that much to the discussion but i wanted to get this off my chest. I hope it gives you some ideas.

/H

[ddavison]

It's funny that you just posted this. I just now discovered itmejp and RollPlay and indeed saw that they were using Roll20. I sent him and the DM, Neal, a message to see if they would be interested in using Fantasy Grounds instead.

[vodokar]

I've often thought about how to make Fantasy Grounds more viable as a business model. I currently use two VTT. Fantasy Grounds and Roll20. Out of the two, I much prefer using Fantasy Grounds and use it about 90% of the time. The only things I use Roll20 for is for games that aren't supported at all in Fantasy Grounds, such as DCC RPG. At any rate, I would classify myself as being a pretty heavy user of the software, sometimes using as much as 20 hours per week on and off since 2007. I love Fantasy Grounds and I want to see it succeed.

As great as it is, there are numerous things that would improve it, such as being able to support more game rule set development and many other things both with the software and with the website. But, it always comes down to the fact that those improvements can't be done unless a more steady income is coming in. You can't hire a new developer to work on niche official rulesets if its not feasible to do so financially.

It comes down to this. One time fee plus micro transactions for add on content (current) vs. subscription model (proposed). I have an idea for a third solution to explore, which would be a hybrid of the two.

Let's first examine each of the first two.

One time fee plus micro transactions. Pros: One time fee, and I think, very reasonable price, and you get to use the software forever and as much as you want. That's great for the customer. Con: Not a steady income for the company. Micro transactions for add on material are a good idea, but, also not really a stable and steady revenue stream. For myself, I have purchased some stuff in the store over the years, but it probably only amounts to a couple hundred dollars spent since 2007.

Also, in my personal experience, having the option for the ultimate license where the players don't have to purchase the software was a great and necessary idea for expansion of the player base. As a gm that has tried to put campaigns together several times in the past, trying to convince a prospective player to put down the money up front for the software before joining the campaign was sometimes a stumbling block. On the downside though, there has to be some amount of revenue loss involved in offering that.

Subscription Model: Pro: No large amount of money required up front. Steady revenue stream for the company. Con: Very negative to the customer to have to continue paying for the same thing over and over, which loss of that thing if they don't continue to pay.

I'll say it bluntly. Very Very Bad Idea to charge subscription to the Fantasy Grounds Software. I think it would lose more customers than it would gain. People don't like renting software. Even MMO's have finally caught on to that and virtually everyone of them has converted the opposite way, from subscription based to micro transaction based and are more viable because of it.

So, my proposal. A hybrid approach. Same Free/Payed options for the software itself with value added content for micro transactions, but with a subscription option added. So, what do you get for a subscription that would be worth it to the customer? Not access to the software, because he already owns that and doesn't have to pay to have access to it. Here are some ideas for value added services that could be covered under a subscription model.

Dedicated Campaign Bulletin Board (along the lines of wiki spaces or Obsidian Portal). Either set up your own service or contact one of those to make a business deal with them where your customers could save money going thru you verses directly to them.

PDF subscriptions to certain popular roleplaying magazines such as Gygax Magazine, Kobold Magazine etc. Contact the publishers and try to work out a deal.

Significant discounts to content in the online store for subscribers.

Work a deal for discounts at RPGdrivethru.

Those are some ideas that were on the top of my head and there are probably other things that would attract someone to hit the subscribe button. The point is, you can't ask someone to subscribe to software. You have to provide something they need on a continuing basis and that gives them additional value, not paying over and over for something they already have. Provide something of value that role-player need and they will pay for it willingly. That will make your income stream more reliable and allow for making the core product better, which will increase popularity, which will increase revenue etc.

One other idea, not related to the above, but just came to mind. We need to get a presence at the FLGS. Offer a program where a FLGS owner can log in and download printable Fantasy Grounds Discount Coupons to give away to his customers buying hard copies from him and some flyers to post in his store. It's good for the store for promoting roleplaying books if the customer is made aware of the online play option and it's good for Fantasy Grounds to get that kind of exposure. Your player base can more easily promote you if these tools are made available.

Cheers

[Carthar]

I think the major advantage R20 has is with the ability to get maps and tokens for your campaign easily.

Most people want nice maps and token artwork, but don't have the time to draw everything they need. I know I spend a fair amount of time finding suitable maps and tokens.

Integrating an art library into FG where I can get the tokens/maps I want for a reasonable price would probably would get me to spend more money on gaming. However you would have to do this intelligently, with a intuative micro transaction system, digital wallet and monetary incentive for creators.

Valve certainly makes money on doing just that with TF2. https://www.escapistmagazine.com/for...-at-50-Million

Carth

[Treegreen]

FG needs a reddit presence in /r/rpg and /r/dnd (/r/dndnext). In fact, step number 1 should be getting a link to FG on the sidebar of the DND subreddit where roll20 and some program I've never heard of are linked as ways to play online. Then, FG needs to post an update to those subreddits (as long as the mods are cool with it) highlighting the recent pricing change. As someone who started on Roll20 and then migrated here I can tell you my players really really really love the dice rolling. It adds a certain je ne sais quoi that helps make it stand out from the crowd.

[ddavison]

I will admit that I never really picked up on reddit and feel like I'm very late to the party in that regard. Is reddit noob friendly enough if I haven't been on it for the last 10 years or so and then suddenly start showing up?

[damned]

Fantasy Grounds has definitely stepped up its efforts to be more visible out there and this will take time.
All of us can help grow our hobby and our favourite tool by commenting on FG posts when you see them and if you have a "good new" story or anecdote thats FG related - share it out there.
Im busy on Steam and Google Plus and dabble a little on some other sites for some FG Con related posts.
I see some of you out there a fair bit and a smaller number interact quite a bit.
You dont need to suddenly become an evangelist but throwing teh additional Like / +1 / Comment out there from lots of different names is good.

Ive done a tiny bit on Reddit but I think Im already pretty stretched and Reddit really likes regular posters and im struggling for more time especially with FG Con coming up.

[damned]

I will admit that I never really picked up on reddit and feel like I'm very late to the party in that regard. Is reddit noob friendly enough if I haven't been on it for the last 10 years or so and then suddenly start showing up?

yes - but dont suddenly show up all evangelist.
start a little slow. its friendly enough but I know even for FG Con I used to get a few downvoters... crazy really... so just jump in...

[Nylanfs]

Don't forget that one can spin the d20!

[Irondrake]

I love Fantasy Grounds and my group uses it pretty much every session. The major complaints we've had are due to my internet connection. Since I'm the DM, they all have to connect to me. I live in the middle of nowhere with wireless internet (4G, not satellite, but just as bad). Since Roll20 is web-based, HTML 5, the connections are handled through a third-party server. That means no messing with routers...and when my crap internet goes out, the players aren't all kicked out. THAT would be a huge benefit for Fantasy Grounds. It would eliminate the hassle of set up...and is the only reason I made a Roll20 account as a "back up". I've yet to use it...I just prefer Fantasy Grounds that much more.

Other features that'd I'd LOVE to see (when I'm not hosting everyone's connection that is would be Soundcloud integration...just like Roll20, music and sound effects streamed to the clients from Soundcloud. No need for third party software setup, extra teamspeak channels, etc...its just built in. Yeah, I'm dreaming up things, but might as well throw out the wants while I can

Cards available in all rulesets without having to hack them in. Never know when I might need to toss in a Deck of Many Things...or a Tarroka deck. It'd be nice if I could do so with a minimal of effort.

Token Overlays that can be user-defined. They can be preset images, but I'd like them a little more visible than what is currently built in...and maybe selectable with the Effects system. Putting a big red X over creatures as they are killed instead of just removing them from the board would help me remember what was there and what needs to be searched

Other things I believe are already in the works, such as more dice functions...