I was checking things out on the new site, and this intrigued me. The money doesn't sound like much, but when you think about how popular BYOND memberships are becoming, and even if you just did monthly updates and didn't think about the money, it could add up pretty quickly with so many players. Every game that's actually had time spent in it usually has at least 50, or more, of those dedicated players that usually just play that game. That's a dollar a month(assuming they play yours exclusively) per person.
That could be 50$ a month right there, even more!
Of course, that will only work for a few of the really good ones, but that would just be more motivation to better your game. Make your game the one people want to spend time in, and adding BYOND Member perks, makes those people buy memberships, which means even more money goes to you, aswell as to the administrators of BYOND itself. All I can say to that is, Tom you sneaky, clever bastard, nice idea!
This will also cause us to see better games, more games worth playing, etc., and maybe even less "Power Trip" admins, because owners will pay some serious attention to player happiness if money is involved.
That said, I do have some thoughts concerning fangames. A lot of BYOND is made up of fangames, hell, MOST BYOND games are based on some sort of game, comic, TV, etc. universe, and even though the profit is marginally small, people would still be making money from fangames, which is illegal.
So is this system going to ignore fangames, or did the BYOND Team find some sort of loophole where making 12 dollars a month from that DBZ game was okay?
ID:38300
 Jan 19 2008, 3:40 pm
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I think it will, and most of all, I find it rather honorable that you're taking the time to design something that will benefit Developers in thus way. "Money makes the world go round" as they say, and it's nice considering most of your audience is composed of players, making talented developers an important contributor to your profits as far as BYOND Memberships themselves go. Even if the benefit is small, it's nice to know you care.
I'm thinking perhaps just having someone take a look at games that are submitted, and making sure the content itself is original. Quality should have no say on a pass/fail, because cashflow will be directly based on quality anyway. A problem I forsee in this, however, is fanbased additions being thrown into games after they've recieved a "Pass" stamp. In this regard, I'm not sure what could be done, but perhaps punishment would be in order at that point. | |
Actually, I would see where a person could get a pass and add content that is not theirs. How anyone would deal with it, I'm not sure.
However, I may have a solution. A form could be created for each game. This form is strictly for problems of game content. If the game developer receives any money at all for their "original game" but some how has an icon, image, etc. that resembles something that was not created by the developer themselves, players would have the option of filling out this form. They provide a screen shot and are truthful in their accusation (cough-photoshop-cough). Should the accused be found guilty, the game should be removed from the hub and the user banned. Unfortunately, how one would get thier money back would be kind of hard...would BYOND themselves have to give the money back? I don't know, just throwing ideas out there, but I agree with Dixon and I like his idea very much. Now I want to make an original game. ^_^ Oh...and hey Dixon, how you doing? :3 | |
How about this, if your game is in a official BYOND guild and if that guild is not anime, then you're allowed to use this new award system. Also, I know there are games in the official guild that are fan games. Maybe allow the guild admins have the power to deselect games from being able to get an award.
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a) even with 100 players probably only 10-20 have membership accounts
b) This system is obviously done to encourage developers to do an IsMember() check and basically do the pedalling of member accounts for the byond team. Providing more than your pager (back) but also in game content as well. Which is clearly pushed on the page for this. Basically whore out the in game balance and integrity for pennies a month, and these kids who own rips are stupid enough to do it. c) haha, dont give it to fan games? well that would defeat the purpose. Nobody cares if you pay a kid who makes a DBZ game 3 dollars a month, Legally its immaterial. The truth is the fact that byond makes money and 90% of the games on it are fangames is the only thing worth worrying about, not to mention the same page that has adwords also features graphics from animes on the frontpage and delivers gateways to these games. Face it, if your worried about legality for the pay system, the indirect revenue byond has been getting for years is more significant anyway. Theres absolutely no concern, byond is fine, narutofan makes thousands from selling accounts that allow you to download full episodes of the show and manga from the sites webservers, just face it there are bigger fish to fry on the internet for these little anime companies. And in all reality they dont even give a damn because byond especially is not impacting sales of a TV show or the hardcore 3d games they release. | |
Maybe because that's illegal?
Edit: As for Narutofan. It's kind of shocking it hasn't been shutdown yet, and that tart Tazmo arrested. Oh will, I'm sure it will happen eventually. | |
while something may be illegal, you can rarely and pretty much never be sued for punitive damages. Youd only get sued for actual losses that the anime licence holders can claim and then obviously an injunction. What losses can anybody prove byond caused them? Pfft how can you compare a byond game to one of the high scale games they make? Also theres no real money being thrown around here. 25 cents and 5 cents dont realy matter worth a damn. My point still stands that if byond is going to continue having an anime guild, and hosting anime pictures and links to anime based games on the main site then they have already taken that basic legal jump. Yeah its illegal, but immaterially so, which is the same case if you start giving out nickles to game developers who own fangames.
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It's still illegal.
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Masterdan, the loss is money. Just because it's a minimal amount doesn't mean they won't sue.
We all know you're just not happy because all your 'hard' work is making you nothing, and now the games that deserve the money get something out of all this. | |
Pseudonym stated:
Masterdan, the loss is money. Just because it's a minimal amount doesn't mean they won't sue. We all know you're just not happy because all your 'hard' work is making you nothing, and now the games that deserve the money get something out of all this. Oh snap. Burned. | |
Surely it's only illegal for the party /receiving/ the money.
Have an option for game hubs to turn on the receiving of money. Plaster all over the option that if your entry is a fan game, the owner of the franchise that it's based on may sue you. That way, BYOND wouldn't get sued, only the stupid fangame owner ignoring the warnings. | |
Murrawhip wrote:
Surely it's only illegal for the party /receiving/ the money. Supported. | |
Pseudonym wrote:
Masterdan, the loss is money. Just because it's a minimal amount doesn't mean they won't sue. I dont give a shit about money on byond. If i wanted to make money on GOA i easily could. Just like that 3thousand dollars i made off Gekisen (or did i). :P Anyway, nobody should care about this wimpy amount of money, And your lack of understanding on how companies and suing works is saddening. You should understand what materiality is and what the deep pockets theorem is. | |
Masterdan wrote:
:P Anyway, nobody should care about this wimpy amount of money, And your lack of understanding on how companies and suing works is saddening. You should understand what materiality is and what the deep pockets theorem is. MUDs frequently get shut down for IP infringement. Wheel of Time, Dragonlance, The Pern series - the authors have all gone on various C&D sprees, leaving a swath of shut-down MUDs in their wake. It's not just restricted to literary circles, either. A group got together to remake Chrono Trigger (or Cross, I confuse the two) in 3D. The company that owns the copyright to that IP got wind of it and sent them a Cease and Desist, threatening legal action if they tried to continue or relocated their project. Most of these MUDs were non-profit "just for fun" games, as was the Chrono Trigger game. Time and time again IP holders have proven that they not only can, but will protect the integrity of that IP, no matter how large or small the playerbase of the offending game is. More than a few of the MUDs I referred to only had a playerbase of around 20 or 30 people. It's all up to the company itself. If they think you're sating some kid's need for Naruto stuff to the point that that kid's not going to go out and buy a bunch of Naruto-related paraphernalia to get his fix, they might consider taking action. I'd say something about the "artistic integrity of the property" that a lot of writers bring up when they C&D stuff, but I doubt the owners of Naruto, Dragonball, and so on really care about that particular facet. The fact that BYOND remains lawsuit free is not a testament to its legal immunity. It just means that no one considers us a threat to their IP, or they simply don't know about us yet. You're right on one thing, though - the tiny amount of money that might be made from a BYOND Anime game isn't foundation enough for a C&D. Not on its own, anyway. The money's just fuel to the potential fire. Even if it's only a few dollars, that's enough to say "Hey, they're profiting off of our property!" | |
Evre is 100% right. Too bad about that Chrono Trigger game too... That was actually looking really good.
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host megaman wars more plz or get sum admins to help u cuz its fun
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Young_M_11 wrote:
host megaman wars more plz or get sum admins to help u cuz its fun What's a "sum admin"? | |
Surely Inu- is working on megaman Wars.
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And Masterdan,I've aslo known If you want to make a naruto game version Of Megaman Wars like the Chars and Stuff or stay with Naruto GOA.
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We are on the fence on this one (one reason it's "Coming soon"). The legalities are a concern, certainly, and, more so, I'd like to promote original content. So the current thinking is to make this a fairly loose-criteria "opt-in" program where hopefully we (or whomever we appoint) doesn't have to do too much work monitoring games. The monitoring of fangames back when we had the BYOND commerce was a real nightmare, and I don't want a repeat of that.
Overall, I'm really looking forward to this new profit-sharing. I have been long searching for a sustainable business model that benefits both us and our audience, and it'll be interesting to see if this accomplishes that goal.