You have a wonderful idea... instead of telling you my opinion on its
practicality, I would like to see someone try this model. I would be
fully willing to support you to see this model through.

Good idea! Perhaps now is the time to see if it is workable!

--- In gbadev@y..., Phil Stroffolino <pstroffo@y...> wrote:
> >A slightly different angle on the bleakness of it all :)
> >
> >Personally I don't think theres any point worrying or even
> >considering piracy as an issue - piracy is always going to be
there
> >with any software based business
>
> I agree completely. Besides being easy to work around, protection
> mechanisms like this bug me because they penalize the honest
consumer
> that wants to move the software from one unit to another.
>
> I think ID software had the right idea when they released DOOM as
> shareware instead of trying to wrangle a commercial distribution
deal
> up front. Even people that had shamelessly pirated a great many
> commercial games went ahead and sent ID money, simply because they
felt
> DOOM was so good.
>
> Anyway, consider the following hypothetical business model for
homebrew
> GBA stuff:
>
> 1) authors release demos along with a contact address for donations.
> 2) the author maintains a homepage showing the amount of donations
> received so far.
> 3) when the donations reach a certain level, the author is
obligated to
> make the final version of their game public.
>
> This way, the authors make all the money they need before_ releasing
> the game.
>
> The money an author receives will be stimulated by the author's
> reputation, the quality of the demo, and their past track record.
>
> Piracy is not an issue at all. In fact, the general public would be
> encouraged to download and play and release games (demos or finished
> products) whether or not they contributed to a past donation drive.
>
> The release game serves as advertisement for future efforts.
>
>
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