Charging money for Fleet Ops: the Warpin business model

[Tryptic]

posted on October 4th, 2011, 10:16 pm

Last edited by Tryptic on October 4th, 2011, 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

So I was thinking the other day, how come the devs don't get paid to do what they do?  Well, because not everybody would pay for the game and there are a lot of copyright issues.  So how can we charge money for a free product?  That's when I got an awesome idea:

Fleet Operations will remain free to download and install, provided the Armada II executable or CD is around.  But if they decide they want to uninstall it, they will need to pay the Fleet Ops devs $20 USD in order to get the uninstaller.  The mod will create several hidden seeds on the user's computer so that if it is not uninstalled using the official installer, it will silently reinstall itself the next time they connect to the internet.  Eventually people will have no choice but to either reinstall their operating system or pay up!

See, this way we can get a whole lot of people to install the game and join our community, and if they ever decide to leave then the devs will get some money as a thank-you for their hard work.  It's the perfect business model for a small gaming community like ours!

What do you guys think?  I got the idea while thinking about fed warpins and it just seemed to make sense!

posted on October 4th, 2011, 10:33 pm

That is not advisable and would be cause to report the Fleet Ops installer as a virus!  If the developers did that, I (and probably several other members) would come down so hard that their ban-hammer would be busy for weeks!  In fact, I perceive this thread as bait for flame wars.

[Lost_Spaceship]

posted on October 4th, 2011, 10:42 pm

Last edited by Lost_Spaceship on October 4th, 2011, 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

No, it's not good idea.
This violate the personal's liberty right. And violate the consumer law.

Remember, we aren't the Borg. We are Federation. 

The best choice would be turn Fleet Operations independent of Armada II, sell in CD~DVD on the shops to collect funds.

Or other thing, turns the Fleet Operations popular creating community in Facebook, Twitter, any social networking, consequently will increase the number of players and donators too.

posted on October 4th, 2011, 11:39 pm

Honestly, something like that would get FO blacklisted from any mildly respectable modding site.

posted on October 4th, 2011, 11:43 pm

Probably wouldn't reflect on the Devs that well, either. Can't see it catching on.

posted on October 4th, 2011, 11:55 pm

  I really hope you are joking.

posted on October 5th, 2011, 12:34 am

  I really hope you are joking.

So do I as if this was ever to come to pass, I would reformat my hard drive, re-build it (takes me 3 hours last time) and then forget about the game and move on.

Plus as I just said, people can get around it every easily by doing a back up of their install before they install FO and just load the backup every time they wish to uninstall FO. Pretty easy to do and at worse they'll only have to install a couple of programs that they installed after they did the backup.

I doubt the Dev's would do that, they are pretty upstanding guys and while I wouldn't pay for this, if they went stand alone I would, however that would be tricking for a Star Trek game, they'd have to do something like Syf, I and the MSFC Studios Team are doing with Red Ash or TUN has done with Sigma and make something from scratch in a new made up universe.

But yes in conclusion that is a pretty crappy and rough idea and would do a lot more harm than good. If you have the money and wish to pay them for their work I would recommend you use the donate system to help support the site and mod.

posted on October 5th, 2011, 12:52 am

Pretty sure this was meant as a joke, though why it was posted is beyond me  .

Fleet Ops will always be free and there will never be any sort of mandatory monetary things attached to it.

posted on October 5th, 2011, 1:10 am

I reaally don't think he is serious guys.  Despite what I might think about him I would like to think he is at least not that crazy.

[trekkiefan2]

posted on October 5th, 2011, 1:19 am

Last edited by trekkiefan2 on October 5th, 2011, 1:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sorry Tryptic, but I have to disagree with you on this. Paying to uninstall like this would just be wrong. Dont get me wrong, the devs do amazing work here and deserve alot of credit and fame for it; that's what the donating is for, and that'll be the first thing I do once I have the money But forcing people to keep the game (or at least trying to) wouldn't exactly be a way to encourage new members

I assume you're joking about this, it seems like a REALLY bad idea, no offense

posted on October 5th, 2011, 1:33 am

Okay, I better step in now.  I was having too much fun reading your responses, I probably let it go too long.

OF COURSE IT'S A JOKE!!!!!

I saw it on a Dilbert cartoon and it made me think of warpins.  Seriously, who would make people pay to uninstall a game?  I thought it would be funny because I usually post such long suggestions.

It would also be highly illegal, not to mention something the devs would never do.  Either you guys are terrible at understanding sarcasm or my sarcasm skills have seriously degraded.  Thanks Adm Zaxxon for defending me 

posted on October 5th, 2011, 2:01 am

Sarcasm never translates well in text, only in speech and person. Plus that was a pretty crewel joke in my books. Sitting there and laughing/having fun at people. You've really disappointed me personally. I thought members of this community were much better than that, I suppose not everyone can not disappoint me.

posted on October 5th, 2011, 2:05 am

Well, sarcasm is hard to convey through text. Besides, people have suggested crazier things with a straight face. It did remind me of Myth 2's accidental scorched earth policy though. I can only imagine how panicked the Bungie staff must have been when that was discovered, lol.

[trekkiefan2]

posted on October 5th, 2011, 2:17 am

Last edited by trekkiefan2 on October 5th, 2011, 2:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

OF COURSE IT'S A JOKE!!!!!

Figured as much. The suggestion seemed a bit extreme, not to mention it didn't seem to be the kind of thing you'd support. I wasn't sure though, you seemed fairly serious about it, I would've been pretty upset if you were serious, even more so if people were agreeing with you. Sarcasm really doesn't go over too well with typing I do agreee with Majestic though that your joke was in pretty bad taste, although I'm not nearly as upset about it as he seems to be. A better way of letting us know about the cartoon would be to first say: "Here's this cartoon I found on such-and-such", it could've avoided alot of potential bad blood.

I sincerely hope that there are no lasting bad feelings over something as silly as this How 'bout we all agree to not hold these simple things against one another?

posted on October 5th, 2011, 2:44 am

Sarcasm never translates well in text, only in speech and person. Plus that was a pretty crewel joke in my books. Sitting there and laughing/having fun at people. You've really disappointed me personally. I thought members of this community were much better than that, I suppose not everyone can not disappoint me.

Shoot!  After all these years, after all these times I was sure I'd come up with something to make you happy with me   If I keep disappointing you, then...then what's the point of living? PLEASE FORGIVE ME, SUPREME LEADER!  I DID MY BEST!!

I suppose you're right, this is harder than it looks.  I'll go back to being Ultra-Serious-Man now.