Boxed Version of PS

[tangerine]

Originally posted by hook
http://www.fsf.org/

...\'nuff said ...this link applies in it\'s fullest to both PlaneShift and Linux ...now please stop flaming each other over what\'s free and what\'s now ...there you have the official explanation what Free is.

Official ? Is FSF the authority on english language now ? Free means both free as in speach and free as in beer. It\'s their (stupid) fault that they choosed ambigous word :-P

[chrischoo]

I wouldn\'t mind carrying some boxed copies of PS if it ever gets to that stage. The only issue is that boxed versions generally cost a fair bit to produce - The coloured cardboard, printing of the manual etc does amount to a fair bit. I think that if you want that, the people who are really going to gain are those who are printing your box and manual, and probably not the PS dev team itself.

There are probably ways to work around this. Maybe a compilation of fan fiction, or a strategy guide, and similar stuff that doesn\'t cost too much to produce but adds value to the gamer\'s experience. An interesting thing to note is that I\'ve wondered why PS has not tapped on this yet since there is obviously some demand for such stuff - the fact that we have threads asking about donations and similar goes to show that there is a market (no idea abt the size of it) that exists.

Maybe it\'s because the PS team doesn\'t want to let anybody down with crabby overpriced goods? Or maybe they just want to get CB out the door? I haven\'t a clue myself.

[aircows]

Ok, well maybe there are to many complications involved with creating and distributing a boxed version of PS.  

I know that this is more of a PR issue, but regardless, I\'ll say it anyways.  IMHO, this project really isn\'t that easy to find.  The way I found out about the project was in a LinuxJournal (or some other Linux mag) article when they were interviewing the CrystalSpace devs.  I\'m sure gamer mags would eat up this stuff.  They have CDs chauked full of demos and what not every month.  I think it would be easier to distribute PS to the masses through one of these mediums.  Hell, with what this project is, you could probably have the game be the cover story.  Has this issue been explored?  I know somewhere on the forum, there was an article in a PC mag in Europe somewhere.  Really not that helpful I guess for those of us that live in US.

Just more to ponder.

[acraig]

Being popular is a double edged sword.  If we have bigger exposure we have more people interested == more possible team memebers.  But then we also get more people that think that this is a complete game and may go out and tell other people the game sucks when they don\'t understand it\'s current state.

That being said, I wouldn\'t mind producing caps/shirts/guides/etc but that is a lot of work and is more \'official\' ( ie money is involved. )  This can be something we look at after the Non-Profit organization is set up and PlaneShift becomes a legal entity.  Plus I have no idea what is involved with that.  Maybe when we get some stuff like this produced at work I can see how it is done and get some quotes for PS related stuff.

[Kixie]

the t shirts and caps should say \"how many pre-alphas have you played today?\" lol

[Wedge]

Merchandising is very easy to do, like I said, due to the fact you can have things done on demand.  So you don\'t actually have to create any inventory, it\'s all dynamically allocated.  It\'s how every web-comic on the internet is able to sell t-shirts and mousepads.  This only applies to generic type merchandise where you can just print a graphic onto it, but that seems to be enough for most folks.  That\'s just what I can tell from basic observation, I\'m sure there are plenty of places you can look into this stuff though.

[kyp14]

I think merchandise and a box version would be great aslong as the game never went p2p and never costed to download.

The boxed version would be pretty cool  and while it would cost  it would generate intrest in the game while still keeping it free and paying for other costs that may have poped up.

[Adeli]

When the Devs ask for money, worry about how to make it, until then, don\'t. The game costs nothing, production does cost though, so tell me: how can they produce paraphenalia with no funds? I believe that you all have no answer for that. Even buying cd\'s costs money, money that a non-profit organisation simply does not have.

The idea of a boxed game, is useless, when there is no means for production.

[acraig]

Non-profit doesn\'t mean non-money.  It just means that if you have to pay for something it will be \'at cost\'.  So for example, if it costs $10,000 to make 1000 shirts then they can be sold at $10 each.

[Wedge]

Ummm... right.  What I\'m saying is doing stuff like that really doesn\'t cost that much.

[Deddarus]

Originally posted by acraig
==

hehe you can tell hes a programmer

[Adeli]

But agraig, that\'s the problem....

they are tihnking of this as a means for making money, if you sell it at cost, you make no money, abiding by the claim of non-profit yes? But, it is not fundraising per se, if you make no funds. It\'s not a viable idea to raise funds for PS.

[kyp14]

I wasn\'t saying a way to make money.

I was just saying that I thought selling T-shirts would
A: be cool
B: any profit that had somhow been made could be put towards making things like say a boxed version of PS cheaper, for people who just like to have a box for the heck of it.
And i\'m not saying sell it in shops I meant on a E-shop so people who have 56k could still get a copy.

[Adeli]

Originally posted by kyp14
B: any profit that had somhow been made

that\'s my point, there can be no profit

[acraig]

Ok, well, we could sell shirts for $11 and then put the extra $1 in the bank.  At the end of the year we can save up enough for the next years costs ( ie server bandwidth/website hosting/etc ) and whatever is left over can be donated to charity or something.  This really is too far into the future to even speculate about though.