Is It About Time We Paid Home Brew Developers?

[Daz_Genetic]

solarice, you hit the nail on the head. The best way people can help the scene is to contribute something to the scene in any way they can. I'm a firm believer that if a coder feels they deserve to be paid, they have every right to charge for their work. I should not be made to feel guilty because I enjoy games for free. When I release my game, if anyone tries to donate, I will return to sender. If I wanted money for my work, I would put a price on it.

 

[kotd]

Read my sig hehe. Yeah I've used paypal for over a year never had a problem. Rlyeh is the man if I wasn't a student without a job I'd give more

My opinion is coding is a job and it takes a lot of work. And no one likes to work for free on a hard job so a donation is paying them for their time and I don't see whats wrong with that.

 

[The Mole]

solarice, you hit the nail on the head. The best way people can help the scene is to contribute something to the scene in any way they can. I'm a firm believer that if a coder feels they deserve to be paid, they have every right to charge for their work. I should not be made to feel guilty because I enjoy games for free. When I release my game, if anyone tries to donate, I will return to sender. If I wanted money for my work, I would put a price on it.

But not everybody is able to code, i tried Java at uni and it put me off all coding for life.


I am not saying donate to everybody and obvoiusly if you can't afford it. However im a student and i spend loads of money in the pub and on useless crap and feel that it would be put to better use going to somebody that deserved the money.

Without the coders this community would not be here we need to encourage them and maybe even new ones by offering money for a good product.

You would not be able to walk into a shop and get a GBA or PS2 game or whatever for free so why should this be any diffrent?

 

[yaustar]

You would not be able to walk into a shop and get a GBA or PS2 game or whatever for free so why should this be any diffrent?

Simple, they dont expect to recieve any money because they released it for free by choice. I believe the coders enjoy coding their games/apps/etc and see any donation as a bonus.

 

[Alpha2]

Developers are not companies, not unless they choose to incorporate in which case they can freely charge for their services, as it stands most Homebrewers and coders are simply hobbieists untill they do just that. Some of them mght be excellent and incredibly hardcore at it but that dosent mean they expect people to play for it.

A donation is an expression of gratitude for those that feel they benefit from a free product. The creator dosent expect payment he just hopes someone will be nice enough to float him a few bucks now and then to help suppliment his income (if he even has any) You can suggest people donate but you cant demand it, there's just no way to enforce that unless the developer really does one day say "okay that does it, I'm a buisness now."

As for the paying for emulators sadly some people have charged for them, I know specifically Magic engine, probably the best PC based Turbographx/pce emulator, charged 35 bucks to register so you can play it more than 5 minutes at a time. But they do have like the BEST one out there so people are ound to pay money for quality if there is no other way.... have I paid for it? not yet but only because I have the 2nd best emu and GPengine which people have graciously chosen to pass on to the public... are they the best they could be? no but I'm not made of money right now so it's the best I can do.

 

[TelcoLou]

(points to sig)

... and only because I use his emus the most. I will donate to others as well, when I see some finished, playable emulators at fullspeed, save states, etc...

 

[frolik]

it pisses me off when I read all these threads with people asking when new stuff is to be released and often claiming how dissapointed they will be if it doesn't do this and that. I doubt many of them actually show their appreciation by donating, which really is a shame as they seem so enthusiastic

although I'd like to donate to each coder who's work I appreciate, there's too many of them. I've recently felt a bit richer and given small donations to several of the authors of the products I use most, whether complete or not.

I see it as a sign of appreciation, and NOT payment for a complete product