Idea: Scenario packs for sale

[Lumituisku]

1 hour ago, Mirzayev said:

I know I'm a bit late to the conversation, but why sell scenarios? Why not include quality scenarios or operations from the community in the base install of Steel Beasts instead? 

 

One of the biggest questions from newbies is "what are the best scenarios?" Why not just include "the best scenarios" in the main game so they don't have to hunt for them? 

 Or maybe some sort ranking or review system. Because I have had that problem. Usually it's by trial and error...  That i find what works for me and what not. 

[Gibsonm]

2 hours ago, Lumituisku said:

 Or maybe some sort ranking or review system. Because I have had that problem. Usually it's by trial and error...  That i find what works for me and what not. 

 

Well there is already the option to do that.

 

The issue is it relies on people to do the ranking and to me at least, it seems almost no one can be bothered.

[Ssnake]

Besides, it's not that they are difficult to find here on SteelBeasts.com; the way I understood it was that if people would pay for scenarios this would motivate more people to create quality scenarios. I don't believe that this would be the case - but if it's really the financial motivation, like I wrote before, I'm willing to take some money and pay people for them. I also don't think that this will make a big difference because I think that scenario designers are motivated by other things than money. But I admit that I could be wrong on this.

Here I am now, the money is here. Waiting for submissions.

[Apocalypse 31]

1 hour ago, Ssnake said:

Here I am now, the money is here. Waiting for submissions.

1. There needs to be a definition of what is considered payment worthy. 

 

The scenario must meet the following criteria:

x, y, z

 

I don't want to dedicate effort on something that will ultimately get rejected because it didn't meet some hidden/unknown criteria. 

 

2. What kind of payment is being considered?

[Bond_Villian]

Without some sort of DRM being implemented to prevent file sharing of monetised content, this conversation seems a bit pointless, as you would still be relying on an 'honour' system.

A scenario/content creator that wants to monetise their stuff can do so now by asking people for payment via Patreon or similar.

I dont think theres anywhere near enough demand for this to be viable as a money maker for anyone.

Also, there is the question of fragmenting the (already small) communities by enforcing payment for some map or scenario that all members must own (and pay for) to participate in an event.

 

[Mirzayev]

@Bond_Villian I think the original intent was that these scenarios MUST use the base maps as included with Steel Beasts.

 

I'm not for the idea personally. Adding quality user-made scenarios from the community to the base software makes more sense, especially since eSim at that point would be recognizing a scenario designer for their quality work. 

[Ssnake]

You can include maps that are your OWN work, of course. But that requires that your delta map isn't based on someone else's delta map who then might sue us for copyright infringement. I'm planning to have a bunch of high resolution maps released soon-ish, so I guess it might be a good idea to create scenarios based on these because they are fresh, and it creates a nice secondary effect of making these new maps known.

Also, we know that our own maps are "safe" from the point of view that they are based on data that we either purchased for commercial use, or which are otherwise licensed as being in the public domain or whatever. In that past, maps circulated that may have been derived from data sets without proper license. I cannot accept for eSIm Games the legal risks associated with such potentially contaminated data sources. That's why I have to insist on the use of maps that get shipped with Steel Beasts, or direct derivatives of them.

 

Likewise, the scenarios must be original, or derived from scenarios that are already part of the regular Steel Beasts installation, for the same reason. There'll be a copyright assignment agreement for you to sign that assures us that the submission of the work is your work and yours alone, and that you will hold eSim Games harmless if we get sued for copyright infringement (in other words, that we may redirect the claimant to sue you, not us).

Just imagine, we'd have to remove such a scenario from the software (which is nigh impossible, once released to the public), crash-release a new installer, we might even be required to pay lawyers to hunt for duplicates of the now forbidden mirrors of the installer and to have them taken down, possibly requiring international legal action. Needless to say, very costly, a huge distraction from our core business, and I'd be tempted to recover those expenses by suing for compensation whomever sold us the poison pill.

eSim Games takes its responsibility with respect to copyright matters very seriously. So should you.

 

These are, in a nutshell, the reasons behind these "stupid limitations".

 

I'd expect scenarios suitable for single player mode. I started discussion threads to evaluate what people might like as a simple form of market analysis, like here:

 

There was another thread, but someone had to step in to make all kinds of immensely helpful suggestions how eSim Games should add feature X or fix bug Y before you could possibly start working, derailing the purpose of the thread right away).

 

[Ssnake]

5 hours ago, Bond_Villian said:

Without some sort of DRM being implemented to prevent file sharing of monetised content, this conversation seems a bit pointless, as you would still be relying on an 'honour' system.

No. There would be a contract between the scenario designer submitting his work, and eSim Games paying a fixed fee for his submission. The mission designer gets his money, the Steel Beasts players get new scenarios. eSim Games has no intention to sell scenarios separately, so the set up for some costly and potentially cumbersome document licensing scheme is not required.

[Ssnake]

6 hours ago, Apocalypse 31 said:

What kind of payment is being considered?

The kind of payment that is mutually agreeable. For eSim Games, agreeable is if the scenario is your work and yours alone, and no royalties. While royalties may seem fair at first glance, it's the practical issues with implementing them that kills the concept. They are a royal pain to set up, to monitor, and to enforce (requires that you hire an accountant to comb through the books, and if he finds that we're honest, you'd pay him for the audit). That makes it totally unattractive to handle it that way.

 

The payment itself, under no circumstances would we pay a fixed hourly rate above minimum wage and let you start and stop your clock to measure how long it took you to create something. That's not to say that you might still want to keep track of how much time it cost you, but since we can't supervise your work habits and have no way of judging how productive you are, anything based on hourly rates is highly unlikely to be successful as a basis for negotiation.

Besides, this isn't supposed to be your new job anyway but a tangible acknowledgement of your effort.

So, "a few hundred bucks" is probably a realistic expectation. How much depends on the quality of the scenario which is of course a highly subjective thing. This is the curse of monetizing creative work. There's no objective standard, and there's always going to be the clash of how much love you put into the work, and the merchant's low expectation how much money he could ever make from such an immaterial good. A purely transactional attitude towards this is unlikely to result in happiness on either side.

[Koen]

2 hours ago, Ssnake said:

… I'm planning to have a bunch of high resolution maps released soon-ish, so I guess it might be a good idea to create scenarios based on these because they are fresh, and it creates a nice secondary effect of making these new maps known …

 

Excellent !

 

Would these maps already be “fully done” ?(with houses, roads, …) 

 

In any case, I start thinking about a tactical problem for a scenario.

😎

 

 

[Apocalypse 31]

@Ssnake

I have hundreds of scenarios. 

 

How do you want to do this? 

 

Brown bag behind the dumpster with unmarked bills?

[Ssnake]

Not the behind the dumpster, don't be silly.

The old oak tree, at midnight. Much safer.

 

I suppose you may want to make a selection of about a dozen or two, group them by theme or complexity as you see fit.

Contact me by email so we can arrange the data exchange, handle the paperwork, negotiate a price, clear up how we would get the money to you. Check, direct money transfer, in principle it's all possible. Which option works best is probably determined by practicality, and that varies from person to person.

After all, except for that one guy over there, you're all individuals.

[Hedgehog]

@Ssnake
Did you get my email I sent a few weeks ago?

I never got a response....

[Ssnake]

Sorry, I'm kinda swamped.

I got it, I saw that you also uploaded the scenario file, forgot to reply.

[Apocalypse 31]

4 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Not the behind the dumpster, don't be silly.

The old oak tree, at midnight. Much safer.

 

I suppose you may want to make a selection of about a dozen or two, group them by theme or complexity as you see fit.

Contact me by email so we can arrange the data exchange, handle the paperwork, negotiate a price, clear up how we would get the money to you. Check, direct money transfer, in principle it's all possible. Which option works best is probably determined by practicality, and that varies from person to person.

After all, except for that one guy over there, you're all individuals.

Could we do small bills?

 

And what about an advance?

[Apocalypse 31]

If you're serious then I'll bite-

 

I have a new campaign in the works (not using the campaign system this time though)

 

 

[Ssnake]

4 hours ago, Apocalypse 31 said:

If you're serious then I'll bite-

I am.

It's just that I'll be traveling the next days, so take your time.