Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!jason
From: jason@madnix.UUCP (Jason Blochowiak)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: ShareWare blues
Summary: There's also a small sermon on copy-protection in here
Message-ID: <818@madnix.UUCP>
Date: 1 Sep 89 11:47:48 GMT
References: <8908281936.AA23048@trout.nosc.mil>
Reply-To: jason@madnix.UUCP (Jason Blochowiak)
Organization: ARP Software, Madison, WI
Lines: 53

In an article orcus@pro-lep.cts.com (Brian Greenstone) writes:
>Comment to message from Doug Gwyn
	Btw, Mr. Gwyn: At this point I can't lure anyone with promises of a
better version of things, because there aren't any. With Animated Watch, all
of the releases after v1.0 were bug fixes, and with the AppleWorks DB viewer,
I don't feel like working on anything that has gotten me so small a reward.
The only thing that keeps me going at this point is my interest in programming,
and the knowledge that what I'm doing is also educational. The most powerful
thing I've written (haven't completed it, but it works) is a somewhat
sophisticated (11,000+ lines of 65816) programmer's editor for APW, but only
about 8 people are using it, including myself. Hopefully, the things I'm
working on now are of significant enough caliber to move me out of the
ShareWare arena.

>Yep, shareware just doesnt pay off... Ive tried it.  But I have noticed that
>because of all of the FREEWARE games that Ive been writing and using them to
>plug my game Xenocide, that Ive been making quite a number of sales that way. 
>I highly recommend that method and also, releasing a game as freeware really
>makes people appreciate you as opposed to begging for $15.
	Ahem - BEGGING? In my most recent ShareWare release, the message the
user sees while using the product informs said user that said user is a thief
if said user doesn't pay for the product. I don't think that begging is the
appropriate verb.
	As an aside of sorts, I recieved a moderately large check (greater
than the sum of the previous two) for the Animated Watch recently. I'm not
sure if it's related to my whine post (if it is, and the sender sees this -
thanks, I have written a letter, I just can't find any envelopes having just
moved) or not, though. So, I'm a bit less bitter now than when I made my
previous post, but I'm still not content... :)

	I'm just curious as to how you measure the amount of advertising
you get from the freeware games. I personally got one of the games, played it
for 10 minutes, deleted it, and forgot that there was any connection between
you as an author of Xenocide and it... Then again, I'm not much for games.
	Btw, as for copy protection: I was witness to an interesting spectacle
at a user's group awhile back. The user's group was VERY vehemently anti-
piracy, but when a heavily copy protected game came out for the machine, it
was cracked and _the user's group librarian was passing copies out_! Copy
protection is the sort of thing that just gets people angry; it doesn't help
much of anything. The pirates nuke the copy protection on things within a
month, so they have it. Awhile later, the folks at Central Point come up with
parms for Copy ][+, and so the casual users can copy it if they feel like it.
So, all in all, not very many people benifit from the copy protection, but
resources were used on it that, as others have pointed out, could have been
used on something else.
>-Brian


-- 
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				jason@madnix.UUCP
	"I am opposed 180 degrees" - George Bush, master mixer of metaphors.
	 	    (Is the IInix mailing group still out there?)