Re: Marketing IF games


1 Dec 1995 05:37:53 GMT

Jason Dyer (jdyer@indirect.com) wrote:
: Shareware IF is certainly sellable, if you have:

: 1) A _very_ good game. (Trinity-level quality.)
: 2) A fairly well known author.
: 3) An advertising genius.
: 4) Divine intervention.

And maybe 5) A parallel universe where text adventures are respected by
more than a small dedicated niche audience and where people actually pay
their shareware fees.

From all the evidence I've seen I think it's extremely silly to consider
writing text-based IF as a way of making money. And I really don't understand
some of the bitterness that seems to be expressed here. You can't make
loads of cash writing IF - so what? Is that why we're here? To make money
in mind-mangling amounts and retire to a Caribbean tax haven?

I hope not! I personally am here because I find writing IF rather fun...
an entertaining distraction. Programming I find an intellectual challenge,
and I hope that some of my writing may be a marginally interesting read,
even if I never ascend to the heady heights of great literature. Money
has very little to do with it.

- Neil K.

--
    Neil K. Guy  *  neilg@sfu.ca  *  tela@tela.bc.ca
        49N 16' 123W 7'  *  Vancouver, BC, Canada