They can open-source it all they want. Just have to make the users understand there will probably still be a subscription fee to pay for the support services to maintain the product at its current capabilities.
Open source doesn't mean free. Just means that the product isn't being sold. Making the users pay for services to keep the product free... I don't see as problem. As long as the proceeds are only used to maintian/improve the product.
I did attempt to addressed this factor in my post. The movie or game MAY or MAY NOT be good. Let me expand the explination this a tad bit further.
It happens for both products; people talk about both movies and games. There is usually plenty of input from a lot of different resources to find out if you'll like it before you invest your money in either product. In fact, most games provide demos to give users a preview for free in attempts to entice them or free game play on paid service for X number of days. I know of no movie that offers free watching the first 20 mins to let me know if I want to pay to watch it.
If you don't do the research for the product you want to spend your money on, I have no sympathy for you.
Ok everyone is gonna have their own opinions on this. Let me put this into the light of how I perceive games and time to play.
OK, figure a movie by yourself in my area is going to run you roughly $9 for a 1.5 hour movie (granted you pay the same for a 60 min or 300 min movie). Then you buy soda ($5), popcorn ($3 for a small), and maybe candy ($3) and your out another $11. So for roughtly 1.5 hours of entertainment which may or may not be good, you're willing to pay $20. All bases on my area, market, and personal tastes to spend at movies. Now add a date to that, and cost goes up roughly 2x.
So you paid $50 for a 40 hour game which, again may or may not be entertaining, typically is interactive, can be saved, and played multiple times. Add in a MMO, ranging from $5-20 a month for how ever many hours you invest in it. Figure a full time gamer addict plays 16+ hours a day for a month, they get around 480 hours (guestimation not accounting for non play days and what not). Or the gamers that are casual that get maybe 5 hours a week for about 20 hours a month.
I really don't understand how people will pay approximately $20 for a 1.5 hour entertainment that doesn't involve you directly, typically walking away happy, and yet complain about paying $50 for 40 hours of entertainment that does interact and make you part of that world.
Thats why Xbox 360 comes in at 40% instead of the lowly 16% it might pull.. Don't ask, pulling figures from the air... Figured the guys had a typo... put Xbox in where Wii probably will come in.
Ditto. I've been very impressed with the versitility in SunRay allowing emulation of virtually any OS you want through it if you have a front end server to host it. SunRay isn't just for SUN, though that is the primary intent.
Nice try, but extremely flawed thinking.
In the US; TV, Radio, and Education has never been free. Each product is funded through every person in the form of taxes.
You may not be supporting the local TV or Radio stations with the latest music, but your federal tax money is being used to support these products. Even the main stream TV and Radio is paid for through advertising. Is it free to joe bloe public? Not really, because if you didn't buy the items being advertised, then that funding would go away and then the stations wouldn't have any money to operate on. Its a very vicious cycle, even if its not directly apparent to you.
Public Education is typically paid for through your city, county, federal, and state taxes.
Do you see an upfront cost when using these products? Typically, no. Though I know quite a few "public" schools that will charge for admittance and books.
When I buy a vehicle, its without the ads. You want to put your advert on my vehicle, we can discuss a drop in the price or a monthly fee for as long as I choose to run your ads on my vehicle.
If a MMO puts ads in the game, then I will make the same deal with them. If they don't want to deal with me, thats their loss.
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They can open-source it all they want. Just have to make the users understand there will probably still be a subscription fee to pay for the support services to maintain the product at its current capabilities.
Open source doesn't mean free. Just means that the product isn't being sold. Making the users pay for services to keep the product free... I don't see as problem. As long as the proceeds are only used to maintian/improve the product.
I did attempt to addressed this factor in my post. The movie or game MAY or MAY NOT be good. Let me expand the explination this a tad bit further.
It happens for both products; people talk about both movies and games. There is usually plenty of input from a lot of different resources to find out if you'll like it before you invest your money in either product. In fact, most games provide demos to give users a preview for free in attempts to entice them or free game play on paid service for X number of days. I know of no movie that offers free watching the first 20 mins to let me know if I want to pay to watch it.
If you don't do the research for the product you want to spend your money on, I have no sympathy for you.
Ok everyone is gonna have their own opinions on this. Let me put this into the light of how I perceive games and time to play.
OK, figure a movie by yourself in my area is going to run you roughly $9 for a 1.5 hour movie (granted you pay the same for a 60 min or 300 min movie). Then you buy soda ($5), popcorn ($3 for a small), and maybe candy ($3) and your out another $11. So for roughtly 1.5 hours of entertainment which may or may not be good, you're willing to pay $20. All bases on my area, market, and personal tastes to spend at movies. Now add a date to that, and cost goes up roughly 2x.
So you paid $50 for a 40 hour game which, again may or may not be entertaining, typically is interactive, can be saved, and played multiple times. Add in a MMO, ranging from $5-20 a month for how ever many hours you invest in it. Figure a full time gamer addict plays 16+ hours a day for a month, they get around 480 hours (guestimation not accounting for non play days and what not). Or the gamers that are casual that get maybe 5 hours a week for about 20 hours a month.
I really don't understand how people will pay approximately $20 for a 1.5 hour entertainment that doesn't involve you directly, typically walking away happy, and yet complain about paying $50 for 40 hours of entertainment that does interact and make you part of that world.
Well thats my 2 cents.
Thats why Xbox 360 comes in at 40% instead of the lowly 16% it might pull.. Don't ask, pulling figures from the air... Figured the guys had a typo... put Xbox in where Wii probably will come in.
Ditto. I've been very impressed with the versitility in SunRay allowing emulation of virtually any OS you want through it if you have a front end server to host it. SunRay isn't just for SUN, though that is the primary intent.
Nice try, but extremely flawed thinking.
In the US; TV, Radio, and Education has never been free. Each product is funded through every person in the form of taxes.
You may not be supporting the local TV or Radio stations with the latest music, but your federal tax money is being used to support these products. Even the main stream TV and Radio is paid for through advertising. Is it free to joe bloe public? Not really, because if you didn't buy the items being advertised, then that funding would go away and then the stations wouldn't have any money to operate on. Its a very vicious cycle, even if its not directly apparent to you.
Public Education is typically paid for through your city, county, federal, and state taxes.
Do you see an upfront cost when using these products? Typically, no. Though I know quite a few "public" schools that will charge for admittance and books.
When I buy a vehicle, its without the ads. You want to put your advert on my vehicle, we can discuss a drop in the price or a monthly fee for as long as I choose to run your ads on my vehicle.
If a MMO puts ads in the game, then I will make the same deal with them. If they don't want to deal with me, thats their loss.