Limited crowd funding for SF 3d modelling

[+Gunrunner 314]

Do335, once more, sorry for the tone but your own really annoyed me and the idea was, from my point of view, so ill-thought out it was insulting (come on, even defending it you admitted it wouldn't work on at last two levels if you were the target audience). But hey, if you have other ideas, I'm game, I'm much, much better at finding problems than solutions. 

[+Erik 1,812]

Do335

 

I think you hit on the real problem, thank you.  CA has never had a year where we paid our bills and had a surplus.  What is more accurate is that each month we struggle to make "maybe" 50% of our operating costs. You ever wonder who picks up the rest of bill? Well, since it's clear to me now that you've forecast our demise I might as well call it quits. So let's all thank Do335 because the end of the month is nearing, our bills are almost due, and I'm losing interest just like Do335.

 

Sorry folks, stick a knife in me, I'm done.

 

Erik 

[Do335 382]

Stratos,

 

Yep the original idea was flawed as pointed out to me and we've moved on to the patron system.

 

How it works is rather simple. If you like someone's work, support him with a monthly fee i.e. becoming a patron. In return you get certain privileges, such as early preview of projects, future goals, getting to see WIP pics a week early, stuff like this. If you're willing to support with more, you get your name on a decal like Capt. __ "Stratos" __ (insert name) on the side of the canopy. If you support even more, you get private 3DSmax tutoring sessions with... something simple, like... how to create a pilot helmet.

 

The details are purely outta my head ofc. The creator provides the tiered pricing and privilege options so you can choose something that's comfortable and good at doing (say if making videos are very cool but talking to a bunch of strangers is weird then there's no need to do that. something like that); You can setup something basic so as to make it not very disruptive time wise, or something more engaging so as to grow the patron base. This is a very grassroot thing so, a basic patron is like 1$ per month, but it can be tiered up to like 20 30.. 50$ if so choose.

 

Link to an example. This is a guy who plays Arma3 and takes patrons. What he does is playing video games for ppl to see so I'm not sure if it's even comparable to 3d modelling. However the basic layout is absolutely the same.

https://www.patreon.com/Jester814?ty=h

Interesting to note that each tiered patrons are limited to 10 in numbers, so it won't end up with say 100 1$ patrons and impossible to attend to.

 

For the patrons it's even more simple, you support someone mostly because you like what they do.  (completely hypothetical here) So if you like Ravenclaw_007's hi-def weapons and jets, or if you like WBS's quality ships or if you dig Stary's cockpits.... everytime they release pics you're like this is looking nice! Well be a patron and support them in their work.

 

There is, in no way or form, can someone else dictate what the creator works on.

 

This is a simple explanation and I'm apparently no expert, so if Gunrunner or someone else has a better description I'm all ears, but hopefully this is the drift.

 

 

 

Gunrunner,

 

For once I'd like this to be not a forum pissing contest like these things are usually perceived to be, but something constructive.

So hopefully you can find more problems again!

 

 

 

Erik,

 

Hopefully your reply is in a tone of sarcasm because if you're really giving up then I've got nothing to say. You and Dave have rang the warning in 2013 and since then it surely has been something of a concern for us outsiders as well (? if not I'm sorry for thinking too much?..). Now we know that apparently you've since then been doing it out of altruism.

 

CA has never had a year where we paid our bills and had a surplus.  What is more accurate is that each month we struggle to make "maybe" 50% of our operating costs.

Should the word be "deficit" or have I gotten the whole thing opposite??

 

Anyway hopefully you can overlook who I am and listen to what I'm saying and maybe think of a solution together. Yes it is not my problem but whose is it then other than Erik's and combatace's? What we got here is an issue in and of the system itself. Unless someone steps up, either you, me or John Doe, it's not going to solve itself from what I see at least.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Do335

[+Erik 1,812]

My reply above was and is completely tongue and cheek in response to your post preceding it.

 

I disagree with your doom and gloom position by saying since there's little support for your idea that CA is going to close it's doors.  It's no surprise to any of us that TK decided to move on to other ventures.  We have done our part by keeping the SIM active but we also recognize that the platform will eventually be entirely dead when it's code base no longer runs on new machines, etc.  We've hoped that there would be another SIM that comes along that has drawn as much interest as the SF series.  That aside it is not who we are as a community and I'm very grateful that a lot of people distinguish the two separately.  Subscriptions keep the community alive here and provide you all a place to share your content you create.  Just because modders aren't creating things for a specific game or interest has fallen off shouldn't detract anyone from supporting CA.  You on the other hand view contributions as something you're purchasing just for you. If I had that attitude, or Dave, or Alex, or the community none of this would exist.

 

If you want to pay someone to 3D model then I suggest you get with that person and determine how much it's going to cost. Then find out what it's going to take to sell said product from taxes to licensing fees. Then and only then will you be able to set realistic goals that folks can get behind. However to just ask folks to blindly crowd source something, as you've found, won't garner that much attention. There are just too many variables involved. So create it, fund it, and sell it.  If it's as good as you say there will be people who purchase it.  However a lot of folks have been there done that and it's not all it's cracked up to be.  I will almost guarantee it won't be anything anyone can retire on.  It's why the modders do things they want based on interest and ability.  They share those creations with all of you for free.  That's a tremendous thing in and of itself so before you go around lighting fires do your footwork and develop a business plan.

 

This is my humble opinion, but as I said before I will defer to those that know more than I do. They are here and maybe one day will be involved in the discussion.

 

Erik

[Do335 382]

Yes the original plan is flawed as have pointed out to me. In my previous (long) post the reply addressed to Stratos I've given a general layout of the new idea. Perhaps there needs to be another thread....

 

It is not about what I want but for CA and the community to stay alive. I'm hoping this is what everybody wants. The traditional way to do this is of course as you said, properly sell a creation. But like you said it is not what's it's cracked up to be. Staying with what we know MSFS is the one that's been doing this all along but, that community is different. Nowadays if we take a look around, commercial sims aren't what they crack up to be as well.

 

In the traditional sense, once a sim stops getting its core programming updated it is going for a death path yes. However perhaps we're living in a different day and age now. Perhaps there's a way for individual content creators to give an old sim new life. I don't think I'm alone in this for various grassroot methods have popped up since the economic downturn. Maybe something similar is worth encouraging here?

 

 

 

Imagine that John is a good 3d modeller. He creates quality mods, upload them to CA and for everybody to download. In his signature he provides a link and says, If you like what I do, be my patron. If I see this I'd give it a proper thought, and generally I'd have a decent feeling about this right? Or is this something that is considered to be destructive to the community spirit? (Nah man... really?) And imagine the positive effects that something like this could ripple through?.....

Edited September 23, 2015 by Do335