Re: Business models

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Mark Collins wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>
> To: <linuxgames@sunsite.dk>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 1:04 PM
> Subject: Re: Business models
> 
> Spot the contridiction (I've made it pretty obvious):
> 
> > (SuSE send me free copies of
> > their distro every new release for example).
> >
> > I didn't think anyone would pay me for doing it.

That's not a contradiction.

It was not a case of: 

    "Dear SuSE, if you send me free copies of your
     stuff, I'll let you place an advert into TuxKart."

...it was a case of:

    "Well, those guys did me a favor - so I'll put
     their logo into my game as a way of saying
     'thank-you' (and BTW, I have to have adverts for
     *something* for the game to look right)."

It was the same with the Philips logo (they sent me a
GeForce card in return for using TuxAQFH in some trade
show demo's of their settop box), and Slashdot (they
put up some complimentary remarks about TuxAQFH)...
that kind of thing.  In no case did I get favors in
return for putting in the adverts...although I might
have tried that if I'd had the remotest inkling that
this might actually get me some income.

So, I'm not saying that in-game advertising for
money is impossible - in fact I'm very excited to hear
that that soccer game actually did that.  I think this
is an interesting way to fund OpenSource games - and I'd
certainly like to explore the options.  However, the
adverts in TuxKart are emphatically NOT like that.

So, Mark - can you give us some idea of how much was
paid for those soccer adverts? $100? $1000?  $10,000?
How were they paid - per game sold?  by the prominance
of the adverts in the game?  Did they make you do things
like pointing the camera preferentially towards their
adverts (for example) during action replay's and such?

If this it truly a viable possibility then I think it
would do a lot for the OpenSource games situation...providing
it's done *tastefully* of course.  In the case of TuxKart
and your Soccer game, there had to *be* adverts - or the
graphics wouldn't be convincing.  However, if Nike adverts
interrupted your Quake sessions every 15 minutes, you'd get
pretty pissed about it!

Things like a 5 second: "This mini-game sponsored by Burger
King" might be OK though.

-- 
Steve Baker   HomeEmail: <sjbaker1@airmail.net>
              WorkEmail: <sjbaker@link.com>
              HomePage : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
              Projects : http://plib.sourceforge.net
                         http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net
                         http://tuxkart.sourceforge.net
                         http://prettypoly.sourceforge.net
                         http://freeglut.sourceforge.net


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