I'd like to see that math, Bon. -_-;
~Nerd
Go to your little blog, I did it for ya there. But if 40% of 1,000 BYONDers pay 15$ (not counting the one's paying 30$) that equals to 6,000 dollars. Now that seems to be quite a bit of money. These new features should equal to a total of 1,560$ a year. Do you really think they need that much money?
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How do you get that figure of $1,560?
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Total pager and regular BYOND server fee=1,200 a year. Cost for updates=360$
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Here's the thing. Making people pay is all good and well but I don't think BYOND has even reached that point where they can charge. Some games already charge for extras. By doing this, many will be turned away and this will end up like Graal. Whether or not this is said to just be until BYOND 4.0 or if it's for good, I know it's done here. This is just the first step before they charge a monthly fee. Sorry, BYOND, it's a good idea but it's not ready to be implemented like that yet.
Also, I can't get money. My parents are making me use all my paycheck for a car. Tough luck for me... | |
First of all, BYOND will never be a pay per play or month or whatever you call it.
Second, BYOND has been ready for this for quite some time. As soon as people started wanting more (and thats all anyone ever wants), thats when BYOND was ready to give more. | |
Partner, great view there! I've been trying to say that this is to big of a change. You can't take someone from one enviroment and put them in another which they're not ready for. BYOND had never charged you to use it's regular features but now it charges you for pager. Soon it'll be a yearly fee to play games and then monthly. It's because with making more money they'll wanna add more and then adding more takes money away to maintain and then you get to needing more money and they'll say ,"Hey, they didn't mind before why not do it again?"
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BYOND will always be free. BYOND will *NEVER* be pay-to-play. This has been reiterated time and time again. There is no slippery slope!
Trust me, there are too many of us who know where the BYOND developers live for them to make BYOND pay to play. *gets out his pitchfork* =P | |
Your letting them pay for to use the pager...what if they ask for paying 17$ a year to play all the games and the pager. Soon....monthly....
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Before you all say it im pointing out I said IF!
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1. BYOND won't start charging. We make the games, host hte games, and do all the game work ourselves, so why would BYOND charge us to do work?
2. I do agree with what AJX and Evi said. I see some sort of compromise happening before too long, but maybe not the kind you all expect. (And no, I do not have any inside information. I am just taking a well educated guess.) | |
Yes, I've been saying to leave the pager alone. Atleast make it so we can see others and join them. Why do it like this? Don't take away what was once free. Make new features for members only.
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since the only things that are a part of the Membership service is: A full year's subscription to BYONDscape; Your own customizable BYOND website, complete with a blog and more; Enhanced pager features; Enhanced forum features (including an ultra-cool forum avatar!); and supporting development for 4.0 - i can't understand why anyone would complain! you don't need any of these things to continue using BYOND freely! nothing here is mandatory!
considering that most of this money goes towards the BYONDscape subscription *and* covering the bandwidth usage of the pager spamming you kids seemd to enjoy (granted not all do it, but it *is* a big cost), Dan and Tom still lose out a little bit. this *is* the compromise- $15/year is small change compared to what they've already given to the community for the last 5+ years. and it's not like you are going to suffer for it. you can still make, host, and publish games - which is *the core* of BYOND. the pager is just a bonus, and is now being treated like one. you want to suck up DanTom's bandwidth costs? then you gotta pay. if you don't want to, you don't have to pay. really quite simple. and if you *must* communicate with friends live- create something like Chatters, or build your own IM system with BYOND. it can be done, and it has been done. in fact, it *would* be better to do that, as you save DanTom money by running your own IM system. name another game-development community that allows you to keep doing what you are doing for free, plus provide extras for those willing to contribute? that list is very, very, short i bet. | |
Excuse me, did you say you get extra features with the pager? You mean you GET a pager. You act like the pager is no big deal. It is a very complex little bit of tech that has been with BYOND since I started (that's three years.). So now it's no longer usefull? Why not just get rid of it from the get go! If you've always thought it cost Dantom so much money why didn't you put it on some forums saying you don't think he needs to pay for it?
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It isn't complicated at all. A glorified e-mail system that boasts the ability to tell you if someone's online or not. It's also inefficient and clumsy. You're fighting a battle you cannot win. People will pay the fee. Even if only a few pay the fee that's cash BYOND would not have had without the update. By petitioning and complaining you only appeal to your minority. I don't care if you can't use the pager. I can - i'll be paying. End of story. Even if only one person gives over $15 that's cash in DanTom's wallet to keep BYOND alive. A change in situation may have caused this request for support - the increase in fanbase increasing the toll on the servers etc.
If paying for pager removes a sizable portion of the fanbase this is a sad fact. But it will reduce the problems DanTom have seen as worthy of requesting a fee. | |
Soooo your saying it isn't complex? Which means it doesn't require much work.....ooooookay.
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I would like to congratulate everybody posting here for not flaming anybody else. Other posts on similar topics turned into flame wars for little kids who are incapable of justifying their idiocy. Congratz all :)
On a more relevant note, I disagree with what Bon said about 'do they really need that much money'. Frankly, I think they deserve having some extra spending cash because of the work they put into the gaming community alot of us spend most of our time on. It isnt even the fact that a membership is being made that bothers me, it is that it is taking away things that other people already had access to, that we could still have access to in smaller quantities without impeding the member's abilities in any way shape or form. | |
I am positive someone could easily create their own little 'pager' where you could add friends to your list, block people, etc. And, if they are good enough of a programmer, you probably could veen code it in so you can see what games the people are in.
And, its extremely easy to not just block keys, but IP adresses, so you probably could end up with a pretty cool copy of the pager, and since you wouldn't be using up BYONDs bandwith, how would it hurt anything? The main problem I see, is that it costs money to run a shell server, so you could easy charge a small fee, take donations, or make it possible for other people to host it (which could lead to problems of friends not connecting to the same server (but you could probably code it so you information would travel through all of the servers)) There you go, a not-so-easy solution, but an experienced programmer could probably go out and do it. | |
Im glad to see this isn't a flaming fight to. As for your position AJX I to don't think taking the pager was a good descision. James idea works in theory but as you said, it'll cost money. (as watching "The Patriot") Wasn't America fought also on the premise of taxiation with representation! I say a call to BYONDer arms to get our pager back. You can keep the other features for members. *plays yankee doodle dandee*
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P.S. I need help redesigning my little site here, anyone mind helping me?