@Headhunter180 I wouldn’t encourage him… he would probably do it :-@
I wouldn’t say that choose your story had stories of less quality - it’s just that it’s much easier to grab it and go. That’s how I started writing The Court initially. So you’re obviously going to have a lot of people with a less capable grasp of the English language and the intricacies of stories, like character development and narrative, suddenly able to have their stories available. That does not in any way mean that there aren’t some really good stories there. Endmaster’s were mentioned, but I would also like to say Snow by Sethaniel is a particular favourite of mine. If you really want to know how to say more with less, check it out. Also, chose your story is more based on the story rather than game elements because of the basic editor compared to the advanced editor. Thus it can end up being more interactive fiction than a game.
But just because they are free does not mean the games here should be free. The internet has had some wonderful results in the way of communication of ideas and a resurgence of grass roots movements that can now affect the international community instead of just local issues. It’s changing the whole world, the way that we think and interact with each other, but not always for the better. A big part of this is the strange entitlement some feel to everything and anything. Music, games, movies, tv shows, books, basically anything that can be shared online. Piracy, if you have the money and opportunity to buy what you are copying, is a dreadful and despicable action, particularly in the indie community, where it can destroy a good band or developer simply because they don’t have draconian anti piracy technology.
Now, some musicians have free concerts and put up their music online so it can be downloaded. I fully support this because frankly, music is expensive.This does not mean that no one should be able to profit through their music. That crushes little bands and instead brings less talented but less risky bets onto the charts because they are supported by large companies.
But I think I’ll end my rant here before I end it ends up tl;dr material.
@Trywm thanks for making a good argument unlike the rest of these clowns. i think i understand a little bit better. everyone else can suck it. im done posting
@Antitorpiliko & @RVallant
You misunderstood. Or perhaps I wasn’t specific enough or worded it wrong. I’m not saying they cost money because they have more depth. I’m saying that the authors choose to only give short demos and charge money for full games because they want to make money, and it’s their choice to ask for a fee to view/use their work. And that choice of games usually have more depth. Because they do. Not to say that there are not good games on that site. But at least 2 thirds of those games are 5 minutes long and are full of fake choices that lead to the same point anyway. But I acknowledge that their are some wonderful works on that site, like the ones Trywn stated. :-bd
If @bocoom wishes to scream like a little girl because he dosent get a product for free that’s his problem. But he has no right to act like a pig and use foul language against other members of the forum because he cannot comprehend what others are trying to say. That, I believe, is against the rules of the website, as if this “clown” had even taken the time to look them over. And if he has an issue with writers asking for compensation for their hard work, then he can go over to choose your story and act like a troll there.
The problem is not that you want free shit dude I would submit we all want free shit the problem is that you seem to think that obligates people to give it to you
…Completely understand him. And I agree heavily. But you can’t start flaming the hard working people that make COG games. Not to mention that websites are not free. Also they could spend their time working overtime for money instead of making us games. Making games like the ones here takes a lot of time and effort. If you have a problem next time simply calmly address it. Nothing will change by you flaming. Except that you may be banned. And everyone else, do not feed fuel to the fire. It just keeps getting bigger. So next time I hope everyone shows more self-control.
‘The Race’ took 6 months to write and was published free. Despite this I have made a little cash from it. '‘Blackraven’ has taken 11 months so far and I have no idea what price I will choose, but I’m leaning towards $1. The game is larger, longer and more in-depth. A lot more time has gone into this project and naturally I’d like a return for my effort. As much as I’d love to release it free for as many people to play as possible, it’s hard to justify - and I’m only doing this as a hobby. You can’t expect CoG to release their games for free when they put so much more time (per day), effort and money (making apps isn’t free) into their offerings.
I absolutely don’t begrudge CoG for charging for games. A lot of development time is going into this. Not only the games, but also apps, choicescript etc.
They are however going into an extremely competitive market. There’s a sizeable number of free story game sites around (FF Project, CoS, Project Aon), some of the content on those is very high quality. In the commercial ganebook market you have old hands like Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson. And all this is without getting into the grey legal area that is a abandonware.
So, to an extent, I do agree with RVallant, I have no issue paying for games, but they do need to be of a quality that makes them consistently better than the large amounts of free stuff I have access to.
Bringing in published writers won’t necessarily guarantee that. The fact someone can write novels etc. doesn’t mean they’ll always have a decent grasp of how to write good game narrative. (That’s why I didn’t like Hero’s Rise. It was a great story, with well crafted writing and an interesting background. Where it fell down for me was as a game).
That problem may resolve itself over time though. Hopefully, writers will be writing several games for CoG. If that happens, it will be much easier to tell if I’m going to like a game before buying it.
I’d happily pay for anything by Heather Albano, simply because I’ve played enough of her work to know I’m likely to enjoy it.
@bocoom are you that fucking poor or bored hell maybe even both that you need to post such a forum topic? ,COG is a business not some site where people work their asses off just for people like YOU to just come and play for free,i do admit i miss when COG was free but now that I’ve been playing more of not just COG games but games in the forum aswell i think some charge is due for due for the great stories people have been writing,for example Vendetta’s Rise Of A Gangster and JimD’s ZE definitely deserve to be paid for,Not only for the great quality of the writing and exciting stories but also for the length of the stories and the insane amount of time they have put into making the games,and thats only to name two of the many kickass games I’ve seen here…furthermore most if these games aren’t even done and have been free so far so for you to talk shit saying “oh wtf is up with all these games costing money” is pathetic and disrespectful…they could put incomplete or super short games up and charge you for each update so instead of complaining shut your stupid ass the hell up and leave stop coming here if you think the games are so bad you fucking imbecile. Oh and btw learn how to spell .-.
My position won’t change then, as I disagree. I don’t think COG has more depth ‘usually’ or otherwise, that’s why I advocate quality control on this site for the paying market. It’s all good those authors wanting to make a quick buck but, people will wise up and the problem is, these authors will potentially harm sales for other people because the customer will assume the newer authors are potential quick-buck makers themselves.
I digress though, like I said I don’t really want to debate the pay or not issue. One thing though, CYOG’s offers being full of fake choices isn’t something that bothers me. I was brought up on CYOA books, Lone wolf is a classic example (I’ll hasten to add, all his published books are now available for free online at Project Aon, that’s well worth checking out) and in my view CYOA have always had ‘specific’ outcomes where false choices generally lead to the same position in the story unless it was a ‘the many deaths of you’ choice.
So I’m not picky about this, but it is something I’ve noticed a lot in the newer generation of gamers (and no I don’t presume to put you in this category btw!), you only have to look at the backlash at Bioware for the perceived ‘false choices’ of Mass Effect and so on, whereas the older generation who glorify Baldur’s Gate (as an example or Jade Empire) recognize the experience as more important than the choices themselves.
And that brings me back to the original point really. Nothing here has been stand out value for money in terms of experience. Zombie Exodus is fantastic and was afaik mostly free, in fact to me the only one game that is probably universally liked (bar the above) on this forum and in reviews elsewhere that is pay-only is Way Walkers University, every official effort has been received rather lukewarmly or have had dire demos. Quality needs to be pushed to allow the site to shift into the pay zone and once that has happened and I do believe if the current writers here (see: Vendetta; Rise of a gangster, Heal, Cavalry commander, Rise of a Tyrant, Red Empire - all looking to be at this moment, very very good games) continue the way they’re going then that’s pretty much a given. Even so, -correct me if I’m wrong- but it says a lot that these writers are drawing better interest than the ‘officially backed writers’ and that needs fixing in some respect via site support and endorsement or just not picking the writers that COG are currently picking for some reason!
Apologizes if any of that offends anyone. Just my 2 cents. =)
I don’t think COG is out of line to charge, but they have to maintain a certain quality if they want to keep up their popularity. They can keep charging all they want, of course. This is a business, but the customer base will gradually decrease if they can’t keep people interested. Pictureless interactive fiction is already a hard sale. My problem with “To the City of the Clouds” wasn’t that it was pay-only. It was that it felt like a very lazy game that had been pushed out quickly. Star Captain, at least, had a good concept and a decent execution. I liked it. Heroes Rise had craft and care behind it. Eerie Estate Agent had an amusing premise and it delivered on what it sought to be. But “To the City of the Clouds” simply felt phenomenally rushed and didn’t even deliver on its basic premise.
I agree that the games on the forum are gaining more popularity for good reason. The concepts are more interesting and unique and the execution is simply better in many cases.
