Is the forge a sustainable solution for SW (will it be here in another year?).

[jharp]

Hello all,

I'm concerned about the long term viability of the forge system for SmiteWorks. I hope they intend to support it long term, whether or not it is a profit centre, but I don't know.

As of now there are 254 free products on forge and 113 paid products. These paid products, assuming current pricing has always been the price (false but all I have to use), have yielded SW $10,500 (approximately $60-70/day). I suspect that in the next 1/2 year, SW will see far less than $10k given that the bulk of products have been purchased and converted from elsewhere. I highly doubt there is a large populous waiting to buy the currently released forge products. Nor is there a large number of already created products that have not been converted to the forge system.

Given the costs associated with supporting forge, supporting the free products, storage costs, bandwidth costs, ect, is the forge likely to be here in a year? I have concerns. Help settle those concerns.

Thanks,
Jason

[SilentRuin]

Hello all,

I'm concerned about the long term viability of the forge system for SmiteWorks. I hope they intend to support it long term, whether or not it is a profit centre, but I don't know.

As of now there are 254 free products on forge and 113 paid products. These paid products, assuming current pricing has always been the price (false but all I have to use), have yielded SW $10,500 (approximately $60-70/day). I suspect that in the next 1/2 year, SW will see far less than $10k given that the bulk of products have been purchased and converted from elsewhere. I highly doubt there is a large populous waiting to buy the currently released forge products. Nor is there a large number of already created products that have not been converted to the forge system.

Given the costs associated with supporting forge, supporting the free products, storage costs, bandwidth costs, ect, is the forge likely to be here in a year? I have concerns. Help settle those concerns.

Thanks,
Jason

Forge was done to support community developers as they had no place to put their extensions after DMsG kicked them out. And as they were getting a cut of any sales of those - they are getting a bigger cut in the sales of these. And no, your price is inflated as most paid products started out on sale to allow anyone who did not want to stick with their DMsG updates to get the auto ones in Forge on the cheap. Then they bumped up prices. At least that is what my experience was.

Do they get more money for adding new features? They do not. But it helps sell the overall product and keep it selling. They never made much on providing "extensions" by 3rd party devs - nor will they ever. That direct sales is not where they profit from in extension support - free or paid.

[jharp]

Interesting point on the low initial price. I was certain my number was high but good to get some confirmation.
Thanks

[damned]

I believe SmiteWorks are hoping that some publishers will chose the Forge as an easier route to get their products on to the Fantasy Grounds tabletop. It is faster for the publisher than going through the current approval process and the consumers expectations of Forge products might not be quite as high as they are for stuff in the main Store. I suspect that once some more commercial products become available there might be more $$ being spread around.

I think the Forge is a necessary part of the FG platform.

[Zarestia]

You also have to keep in mind probably less support cases because of not updated extensions and such, less noise in general I would suspect. The "value" of the FG platform should have also increased with the Forge, it doesn't necessarily need to self-sustain as it's not a separate product.

[superteddy57]

I certainly like seeing the buzz around the Forge and how our community is engaging with it. Helps with my troubleshooting with reported bugs.

[LordEntrails]

I've always envisioned the Forge as an overhead cost reducer for SmiteWorks, not a profit center. i.e. by giving community devs access to the test channel with their extensions they cut down on the amount of support tickets from people who are having problems because of out of date extensions. Plus it adds to the value of the community, and hence the product.

Of course, it's really Doug who's opinion matters :)

[SilentRuin]

Of course, it's really Doug who's opinion matters :)

What? And here I thought I brow beat him into it! I'm obviously devastated at the news my opinion is not preeminent! ;)

[ddavison]

It’s a valuable part of our infrastructure. It will take some time to pay off the investment in resources, but it won’t take many resources to keep it maintained. New feature requests are lower priority now that we have the main features in place.

[LordEntrails]

Thanks for the statement Doug. I was hoping to summon you forth :)

[jharp]

It’s a valuable part of our infrastructure. It will take some time to pay off the investment in resources, but it won’t take many resources to keep it maintained. New feature requests are lower priority now that we have the main features in place.

Wonderful.