Interest In Commercial Games Or Free Only?

[gfxpulse]

I have noticed that while the gp2x will have commercial software, that most people seem to be vocal about keeping the software for it very open (understandably). I am just curious as to whether there is actually much interest in the commercial offerings (whether homebrew or pro).

Notes:

By commercial, I just mean charging for software, not whether made by a game company or some programmer doing it on the side.

I probably dont have all possible feelings covered, so, feel free to type in and reply.

The prices are just random numbers, so, call the $50 'retail' game price (Whatever that may be, 20-50ish), and the $10, 'cheap' ($3-20-ish).

Assume the software in question is of high quality, and that you have already tried a demo, shareware, friend's copy or whatever and have enjoyed it. Maybe PSP isnt the best example, (3d oriented versus 2d oriented). But assume the game is complete, enjoyable and not (as someone posted) just a Snakes game.


The options are not mutually exclusive, so, answer the highest up the scale you would go (i.e. if you dont mind paying for games, but also have donated, but still prefer open source, then answer dont mind paying, etc.) It is obvious that most people would rather have free over pay (all other things being equal).

If you really havnt paid for a non-retail piece of software, but really have always meant to, please be honest and answer 'but havnt yet' Also, I should add 'in the last 2 years or so' so as to avoid any references to the heyday of shareware, where I think most people paid for shareware at one time or another.


And, yes, I have seen some similar conversation scattered in the threads, but I thought a poll would be interesting.

And, no, I do not mean to open a big nasty can of worms

replace 'must be free' with 'should be open/free/etc' if you so choose.

 

[lucoxade]

I ticked the £10 box although I have donated more to open source projects than I have ever paid for shareware apps.

 

[Empyre]

I regularly buy shareware and donate to open projects, I object to a publisher taking 80% of the price for advertising and a box. I'd prefer to support the authors directly than give them a small slice while some middleman get rich.

Bring back the days of the bedroom coder!!

 

[TheTurnipKing]

I wouldn't mind paying for commercial or shareware titles, so long as I enjoy the game. $10 is OK, though if the commercial software is of the same quality as PSP titles, then yeah, I'd be willing to pay the same price. Otherwise it's need to be cheaper to pique my interest.

And I have no interest in paying for "Snake" or something of that ilk

 

[junker]

10$ is a good price for a commercial game! i hope we get many for the gp2x.

 

[gfxpulse]

10$ is a good price for a commercial game! i hope we get many for the gp2x.

​

I am guessing that many of the big games for the system will probably be more than this (if looking at the cost of many of the larger PDA games is any indication), but that is purely speculation.

 

[craigix]

Often when I donate I will send the person a present instead, thats why I like people who have amazon wish lists, then you can buy them a DVD or CD or similar, I much prefer doing that.

 

[DaveC]

I would buy a game but only if it it is not DRMed to one single unit. If it is than no thanks. There are too many ways that a DRMed game will stop working like if the unit it is locked to breaks etc.

 

[lucoxade]

Often when I donate I will send the person a present instead, thats why I like people who have amazon wish lists, then you can buy them a DVD or CD or similar, I much prefer doing that.

​

All very well if your just coding for kicks, but hell it must be a nice feeling to get a nice present from a stranger just because you coded something in your spare time for fun! I expect donations normaly go towards boring stuff like council tax and CD-Rs

 

[aQwaBlaz3]

I do like commerical games...games made by GPH..ya know.....to support them? Ill do emus and stuff too, and maybe like 3-4 commerical games after they go down in in price unless something really kickass comes out.

 

[Empyre]

Often when I donate I will send the person a present instead, thats why I like people who have amazon wish lists, then you can buy them a DVD or CD or similar, I much prefer doing that.

​

I once bought someone a £30 bottle of single malt whiskey (he was a collector) for a Cix offline reader for the amiga (Mid 90's if anyone remembers Cix). He appreciated that far more than the money and it made me feel good that he smiled.

 

[Ravnos]

I would buy a game but only if it it is not DRMed to one single unit. If it is than no thanks. There are too many ways that a DRMed game will stop working like if the unit it is locked to breaks etc.

​

I agree.

I also think software should be free as in speech, but I have no problem with paying for free software.

I probably won't be buying too many games since the whole reason I'm buying the GP2X is homebrew, but if someone's selling something fairly good for a decent price I'd be willing to drop a few bucks on it.

 

[nubie]

I like games .

I am usually willing to pay up to $15-20 for a good game.

I would definitely shell out the dough if someone was to come up with a really good 3D engine and start producing or licensing it for developers, then we would see some really cool games.

Anybody think we can use the second processor purely for 3d?

I bought a $13 port of Need for Speed porsche unleashed for my brothers FLU GBA SP. It actually has 3d, not very good 3d, but considering the platform not bad.

 

[Russ Meyer]

I will gladly donate $10 to anyone releasing a working emulator. Is that legal?

 

[clippa]

Bring back the days of the bedroom coder!!

Hell, yes! It seems to be the same with sitcom writing, too many cooks. You get the flash bang wallop what a picture without any soul. Give me manic miner any day over any of this modern dross.

I'm well up for paying a dev directly, you can't send love down the wires (yet), let's be honest, a lot of people, if they don't HAVE to pay, won't, it's human nature, we all flock round the bargain bins for instance. The current donation scenario smacks of charity, you had some bloke saying "well, I'll cough up a fiver once a few other people have" well, if everyone thought like that... The balance is all off, you even get people putting "I gave 10 pound to starving africans, you should do the same" in their sigs or saying "well, if he's going to do exactly what I want, I'm happy to pay him", the people spending their spare time and effort are obviously doing it for the love of the community and being creative, as such, they're not being taken advantage of, or exploited, but it's a two way street, I can understand people not wanting to hand over their hard-earned to big corporations but handing over a few quid to a dev, it's only polite. So, in short, yes, if it's something I want, I'm happy paying up to £10 (round about $17). Anything over that would be f*cking ludicrous you sell-out greedy nerdy tw*ats.
I wish I could develop for the gp2x, I never got further than fannying on in amos, and I was the worst type of lamer, just throwing pinched peices of code together and changing variables. I've asked a few programmers and they've never gave a decent answer, if you're still reading, does having to think logically all the time change who you are? or do you kind of change into programmer mode when you close the door. I mean programming is a creative process but there's nothing emotional there, can you still write poetry afterwards?

 

[Minkoff]

I'd be more than happy to pay for games... in fact, I'd almost prefer it. In addition to devs getting more of a reward than just a "thanks" from me, I like buying games because it gives motivation to play through... I have trouble with free games for some reason.

 

[clippa]

Yeah, that's a good point. When you buy an album, you tend to give it more of a chance, probably down to the selfish again, you've paid your money, you made your choice, you like status quo, you've only yourself to blame, and in my experience, the best albums take the longest to get into. Also, in my experience, if it's some random rom I've downloaded, stuck on, and thought "what the fups going on here?" I just move onto the next one. edit: i@ve no idea what I'm going on about, give me a slap if I turn up drunk in future

 

[psj3809]

I've bought a lot of games on the Pocket PC which i used to use before for emulation/games. With these there were often shareware versions so i could really evaluate them

With the GP32 games there doesnt seem to be shareware versions of commercial releases. Plus there dont seem to be many games which really blow me away when i look at the screenshots.

I would like to buy some but they dont seem to blow me away

 

[oneandoneis2]

I'd be willing to spend a reasonable amount on a good game.

But having said that, all the games I like to play are already available free - Doom; LBreakout; Tetris; freecell. . . Plus all the eumulators, of course.

So it'd have to be a pretty amazing game to make me want it!

 

[jislizard]

I wouldn't be too bothered to buy a game, there are loads already out there and I will never have time to play them all.

But if someone had made a program for playing flash games, a driver, or an obscure emu that i really wanted then i would probably look around for a free version for a while before deciding to buy it.

Most I've paid for a program was $28 for smartmovie on the ngage, and that hurt but was worth it, for the 3 episodes of CSI I bothered to encode and watch on the phone.

If someone does code something they can sell they could just wait for donations to build up to a set price before releasing it to everyone, that way people that wanted to get donate could show their appreciation, people would be donating to a developer that had already made something they wanted, not just randomly on a promise. (not knocking the developers). The developers would get recognition for their hard work. There would be no need to pirate as the programs would be released eventually and the people that will never contribute to a developer can carry on as before.

Or you could lump all the emulators/games/apps from all the different developers onto a CD, sell the cd and split the cash.

But I would still rather have stuff for nothing.