Special Announcement - Kickstarter

[madman]

I would not have someone in my group that was not willing to pay the money for like 4 trips to MckiD's for the software. Just sayin...

[Eru the One]

I've found that people with demo licenses tend to be a little unreliable for campaigns and I've replaced them for users with a standard license. I do like the demo license for one-shots/conventions though.

I would not have someone in my group that was not willing to pay the money for like 4 trips to MckiD's for the software. Just sayin...

But my Big Mac!

[madman]

You use the Demo? OK your out........
LOL

[Beerbelly]

Hmm, hadn't thought of that. My group has 7 regular players. We have 1 Ultimate license, but we have two other people who would like to GM (so 3 GMs). Our options as far as I can tell:

Option all standard: 7 x FGU Standard = 7 x 35 = $245 ($35 per player)
Option mixed: 4 x FGU Standard + 2 x FGU Ultimate + 1 x FGU Ultimate upgrade from FGC Ultimate = $35 x 4 + $135 x 2 + $60 x 1 = $470 ($67 per player)

Still would like to have one group license as everyone buying their own makes adding new players a pain and a recruitment nightmare ("you need to buy this just to be able to play with us, you're stuck with it if it doesn't work out between us"). And for those who drop buy every few sessions it doesn't make sense, either.

A subscription membership for standard is $4/month, or less than $50/year. Have someone new to your group do the subscription, which gets them a month free and try it out. 2 months for $4. If they like it, they can then buy it. What my whole group did years ago and anytime we have someone who wants to try it out with us does.

[mlbrown]

While there may be a place for group licenses, I am afraid it will be like subscriptions (after the kickstarter). And if they did it, I suspect it would be by subscription only and at least 3x the ultimate price (and I suspect you would find everyone would still need to buy their own copies of the books because of the license from the copyright holder, i.e. not something Smiteworks can control).

In your group, I would give two options: 1) Everyone get standard (this lets everyone get FGU as part of the kickstarter) or 2) Pass the hat to pay for the other 2 ultimate licenses (but you cannot switch to playing FGU until after the GA release since I don't think a demo license will be available until then).

The impression I have from comments here and on Fantasy Grounds Fridays is that FGU is close, the kickstarter is a way to let some of the current users (I hope all and then some) pay to upgrade at a discount and have early access so that we can be part of the final testing. This is software, someone always does something that the developers never event conceived of anyone trying. When this happens, as a developer, you hope you handled the unexpected, but that is not always the case. The goal of getting some of us to pay to be guinea pigs is to find as many of those issues as possible before the full release (in the software industry this is usually called General Acceptance or GA). Any one who does development knows that no product is bug free, the goal is to have as few bugs as possible when the product is released. If anyone else has been around long enough to remember the product, I will grant that Invisicalc was bug free (and ran equally well on all platforms).

[Egheal]

I have even been known to answer to less than civil names. *shrug*

We plan to go live at noon EST on Wednesday, May 1st.

The link will be posted once we get the final one from Kickstarter. We are previewing it for a few folks currently to get final feedback prior to launch.

Note to myself and other time zone losers : it will start at 18h (6pm), may the 1st, in France, most European countries and something like a third of Africa. Be ready guys!

[Magnimost]

What would be, in your opinion, a reasonable model for a "Group License"? And how would that be licensed and be "fair" to SmiteWorks while not turning into something abused?

A license that covers up to X players with the same license key. Everyone using that license key could be a GM or a player, one GM at a time but that could be anyone holding that key. Should be very straightforward to implement, as that's how many corporate software licenses work so I imagine the tech is fairly robust. Probably requires FG to phone home, though.

Pricing could be compared to FGU Standard $35 per player with a discount as otherwise it wouldn't make sense, so perhaps $25 or $30 per license. Or if that's too confusing, have group size tiers, e.g. up to six players for $180, up to ten for $275 and up to fifteen players $375, perhaps even bigger one for those who host online games with random groups. Just throwing numbers up in the air here.

Can't speculate about licenses with authors and publishers, as they're obviously not public knowledge and IANAL.

I would not have someone in my group that was not willing to pay the money for like 4 trips to MckiD's for the software. Just sayin...

All our group members are irl friends, and not everyone is well off financially. A couple balked at the price of FG and the CoC stuff we bought. I tried to explain it would last us several years (it lasted four) and used similar arguments, but a one-time payment like that is hard to justify to someone who is struggling with their finances (I also offered them to pay me in instalments). They didn't play for two years because of that. Recently we finally got them back to play, and weeks later we'll be asking them for more money to cover FGU and Horror on the Orient Express, again a one-time payment.

Not everyone has money to forgo four mickey dee meals for a luxury that is RPGs. Real-life friendships are more important to me than financial grandstanding. Just sayin...

[seycyrus]

...Or if that's too confusing, have group size tiers, e.g. up to six players for $180, up to ten for $275 and up to fifteen players $375, perhaps even bigger one for those who host online games with random groups.

*I don't work for SW.*

See, that right there is the sort skullduggery that just smells off to me. That REAALLLY sounds like "head over to the gaming store", and get everyone and their aunt to get a *group* discount for how many, 30? 40? more ? players in their *group*

In reality, no ones group pushes much past 6 players. Pushing this pricing model SW would have to contend with (All of sudden!) a bunch of *groups of friends* of 20+.

SW is not a charity organization.

Did I mention that I don't work for SW?

[Magnimost]

*I don't work for SW.*

See, that right there is the sort skullduggery that just smells off to me. That REAALLLY sounds like "head over to the gaming store", and get everyone and their aunt to get a *group* discount for how many, 30? 40? more ? players in their *group*

In reality, no ones group pushes much past 6 players. Pushing this pricing model SW would have to contend with (All of sudden!) a bunch of *groups of friends* of 20+.

SW is not a charity organization.

Did I mention that I don't work for SW?

I said I'm just throwing numbers up in the air. And I don't appreciate what you are implying about me and my group.

I expect most RPG groups to be 4-10 people, so a group license in that range should cater to the vast majority of groups while avoiding edge cases like you describe. Besides, people who would go to such lengths to avoid paying would get a cracked copy anyway, so the lost revenue is probably close to zero.

[esmdev]

Discounts for bulk licensing is not uncommon in the software industry.

001-010 $35
010-025 $33
026-100 $31
Etc...

It's not that much of a savings compared to what they could do with the ultimate license.

Still, I find a one time outlay of $35 to be an already low price to pay for a product that is in a state of perpetual free upgrade.