SS Rebirth 2

[TurboSlug22]

1. Concision

 

2. Old thread was too long, this is a new idea & a new thread

 

3. Continuum at cost looks like a no-go for many reasons (But before we drop that idea completely, PoLiX can you please touch base with Ghost Ship Et Al. and see if there is any way we can get a contract with BDE and a clause in our continuum service agreement that allows us to distribute the client freely as well as make it available at cost with proceeds going to rights holders.. maybe there's some life in that idea)

 

4. Here's the 'new' idea: I'd really like to get the continuum client posted for free on games websites like steam etc.. there's no way they'll do it if there's nothing in it for them so I expect they will want us to pay them to have it posted. Personally, I have $1000 that I can put forward and Id like to see if we can maybe get a fund of some kind going where we can approach steam and make a reasonable offer to them.

 

And before that lovely fellow Ori warns all of you that im trying to steal your money, perhaps we can let PoLiX or someone else you all trust handle the fund.

 

Anyone willing to donate to get steam to post the client?

 

I CAN guarantee that if continnuum was on steam, we WOULD have a HUGE boom in our population. The reason why: I have 200 people on my steam friends list ( that sorta thing happens when youre awesome ) and when I log in and start playing SS - a popup will appear on each of those 200 people's steam clients saying "TurboSlug22 is now playing Continuum" And they will click that message and ask me "Hey man, is that game any good?" Like they do with every other new game I buy.

 

Regarding our proposal to steam, here's what im working on so far:

 

"

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to consider our offer. I represent the Continuum community and we are very interested in making our client available on steam's storefront. With our population slowly dwindling over the years, we are very confident that our community and yours can come to an arrangement that can benefit us mutually.

 

Continuum is one of the first MMO's, that is fun enough to have stood the test of time by maintaining our community for over a decade. Continuum's strongest feature is its very unique fast-action gameplay that we believe is a genera of its own. We would be proud to see our client made available as free additional content for steam's users to enjoy.

 

Due to the isolated nature of our community of roughly 10,000 active players, you may be surprised at how many of us havnt heard of steam. I guarantee you they will have after they've had their dreams realized and their future secured. It would truly be a godsend to our community. I expect that many of us would become loyal to steam as both new customers and great sources of word-of-mouth advertising if we are able to come to an arrangement.

 

Our selling points in summary:

*10,000 relatively untapped potential customers

*Free content for steam users

*Minimal resources required to make a 5 meg client available

*Reaffirmation of steam's brand image - steam cares about the gaming community

 

We eagerly await your reply,

 

-me"

 

Please criticize .. and also, for Christ sake, this is a rough draft, lets not flip out about it being not correct.

Edited November 14, 2009 by TurboSlug22

[L.C.]

4. Here's the 'new' idea: I'd really like to get the continuum client posted for free on games websites like steam etc.. there's no way they'll do it if there's nothing in it for them so I expect they will want us to pay them to have it posted. Personally, I have $1000 that I can put forward and Id like to see if we can maybe get a fund of some kind going where we can approach steam and make a reasonable offer to them.

 

Anyone willing to donate to get steam to post the client?

I don't really have money to donate, but I do everything within my power and resources to support and contribute to the game.

 

I CAN guarantee that if continnuum was on steam, we WOULD have a HUGE boom in our population. The reason why: I have 200 people on my steam friends list ( that sorta thing happens when youre awesome ) and when I log in and start playing SS - a popup will appear on each of those 200 people's steam clients saying "TurboSlug22 is now playing Continuum" And they will click that message and ask me "Hey man, is that game any good?" Like they do with every other new game I buy.

QFT. I think having the game available via Steam will do a lot of good for the community. Subspace is a good past-time when people are bored and have nothing better to do.

[»LtNirvana]

I suggested this idea on your other threads >.<

 

Sites like fileplanet and these game host sites have free games on there... ask them what kind of deals they work out with these games to get them on there free in the first place, then figure out which proposition works best for us.

 

This still has to be handled like a business deal and if you have no business negotiation experience or contract negotiation skills, i suggest you have us appoint someone to be a POINT PERSON for something like this that would massively impact the community.

[Gravitron]

FilePlanet is really good for having massive exposure.

A guy uploaded Armada Online there once, and for some reason they featured it at the front page, and on that week the server was booming with newbies.

[L.C.]

One of the things that still needs to happen is to mirror subspacedownloads.com's database to major free file hosts like FilePlanet, FileFront, etc. I just have to collect up enough energy and motivation to retry this after my over-persistent previous attempt to get a copy of all the files easy.

 

I do wonder if it would be possible to get Subspace its own website at FileFront and FilePlanet...

Edited November 14, 2009 by L.C.

[TurboSlug22]

Ok, so lets pool our barganing chips together here and see what kinds of things we can offer steam of value.

 

We have the ability to add LVZ banner ads to our zones and similar banners to our webpages. - problem here is that this involves a lot of coordination and convincing to get individual sysops and server admins to post the banners. This means we need everyone's buyin in order to make that offer to steam. Frankly im not holding my breath but perhaps this is not entirely unreasonable.

 

And of course we can pay them.. in that regard, I really do want to put a fund together for "advertising" That we can use to pay off steam and other DDS sites to host our client and as well to post our own banner ads on games websites and etc.

 

My question is, where can i send that money?

 

What other offers can we make to steam that they might find interesting?

 

Next question is, well... ive already got some contact info for an admin with steam who can negotiate these deals so..... I'm confident i can negotiate with them but if someone else here feels more confident than me, please say so.

 

Is anyone out there willing to match my $1000 towards this fund?

Edited November 14, 2009 by TurboSlug22

[»Blocks]

We have the ability to add LVZ banner ads to our zones and similar banners to our webpages. - problem here is that this involves a lot of coordination and convincing to get individual sysops and server admins to post the banners. This means we need everyone's buyin in order to make that offer to steam. Frankly im not holding my breath but perhaps this is not entirely unreasonable.

Dude, I don't mean to bash on you, but hell no. I don't want advertisements in my free game. On websites is another issue, but that's up to the website admins. I can't imagine that Steam would bite on this either.

 

My understanding is that the people at Valve are pretty cool folks -- our best bet would be to appeal to that. We're looking to revive one of the first online multiplayer games. It's player-run. The installer is tiny compared to the other games there. We don't pose any competition to existing games they produce or distribute. If you play it like they'd be crushing a cute kitten by not hosting us, we might have a 10% chance at getting hosted.

 

What you want to do with your $1000 is your own business, but historically, spaceships and money do not mix well (except in HS).

[TurboSlug22]

We have the ability to add LVZ banner ads to our zones and similar banners to our webpages. - problem here is that this involves a lot of coordination and convincing to get individual sysops and server admins to post the banners. This means we need everyone's buyin in order to make that offer to steam. Frankly im not holding my breath but perhaps this is not entirely unreasonable.

Dude, I don't mean to bash on you, but hell no. I don't want advertisements in my free game. On websites is another issue, but that's up to the website admins. I can't imagine that Steam would bite on this either.

 

My understanding is that the people at Valve are pretty cool folks -- our best bet would be to appeal to that. We're looking to revive one of the first online multiplayer games. It's player-run. The installer is tiny compared to the other games there. We don't pose any competition to existing games they produce or distribute. If you play it like they'd be crushing a cute kitten by not hosting us, we might have a 10% chance at getting hosted.

 

What you want to do with your $1000 is your own business, but historically, spaceships and money do not mix well (except in HS).

 

yea, i dont think steam cares too much about adspace - im sure they're swimming in it. And ya, i agree, it sullies the game to have ads.

 

What you said about appealing to their human side... when i read what you said it rang true, thats totally the angle to take here - if we give them puppy eyes and ask them to take us under their wing - we've got a great shot at it. Plus it wont hurt to throw money at them...

 

What youre saying about spaceships and money not mixing... its got a nice ring to it... but please remember that this money is changing hands in the opposite direction than what normally causes problems for us... I think we're ok to pay valve to host the client for free. I think theyre going to ask for more than $1000 though, can i get some help on that?

[Gravitron]

Why in the world would they ask for $1000 to host a free game? I think they're hosting other stuff for much less if at all...

 

At any rate...can I have your $1000? I want to buy some items in a game's item shop. For that much, I'll become uber strong.

[TurboSlug22]

Why in the world would they ask for $1000 to host a free game? I think they're hosting other stuff for much less if at all...

 

At any rate...can I have your $1000? I want to buy some items in a game's item shop. For that much, I'll become uber strong.

 

They would ask that much because if a game was posted on their servers for sale for $5 and 10,000 people purchased it and part of that money goes to the rights holder then we can deduce that their revenue would exceed $1000. Therefore, if valve is to be compensated for hosting a game for free, we ought to expect that they'd want to be paid an amount that would match what they would expect to make in sales if the game WERE available at cost.

 

Ie, we'll have to compensate them for the revenue they'd stand to make if it was posted for a cost instead of being free (which it would be)

 

So, i think we're gonna need more than $1000 to garner their interest

Edited November 14, 2009 by TurboSlug22

[»Lynx]

They won't be hosting our servers, and in order for the game to work on Valve we need to change our source code (which is not happening) or reverse engineer the client to make changes, then repack.... which may not be a sufficient way of changing things. Like I said, if you can get the games client on a DDS then that'd be enough and it *certainly wouldn't cost even nearly $1,000. Blocks had a very good point about the game - touching the sympathetic nerve would probably be much better.

[L.C.]

1.

@Lynx Valve would not be hosting our servers. They would be hosting the game client installer and add Continuum to their listings.

 

2.

For a game as small as this, I can guarantee you that it would cost Valve nothing to publish and host this game. There are many free games out there, many of which are small-indie, arcade, and fan-made. There are also a lot of Half-Life and Half-Life 2 mods published for free (of course the argument here is that it routes back to their product, so publishing community mods would only be a plus for them).

 

3.

At first the idea of in-game advertising sounds nice and interesting, but I don't think that will work.

 

4.

Humbly appealing to Valve would be a good shot. I wouldn't necessarily say that we need a "more trusting" person to speak with them, but rather someone who is good at negotiation and speech. In fact, I would be perfectly ok with Turbo being that person -- he would definitely be better than what I could accomplish when it comes to speaking to people.

 

One guy in Australia raised enough money in their local gaming community to pay Gabe Newell to fly out to Australia to see their Half-Life 2 mod.

 

Blocks had a very good point about the game - touching the sympathetic nerve would probably be much better.

+1 Edited November 14, 2009 by L.C.

[TurboSlug22]

They won't be hosting our servers, and in order for the game to work on Valve we need to change our source code (which is not happening) or reverse engineer the client to make changes, then repack.... which may not be a sufficient way of changing things. Like I said, if you can get the games client on a DDS then that'd be enough and it *certainly wouldn't cost even nearly $1,000. Blocks had a very good point about the game - touching the sympathetic nerve would probably be much better.

 

I'd like to have both angles ready to go actually - pinch the sympathetic nerve and also... offer them money if they refuse - but only if they refuse

 

 

Incidentally can you elaborate on what changes are needed exactly to the continuum client? I dont think any are needed, i own X3 off steam and its identical to the version available on cd as far as i know

 

can you elaborate?

Edited November 14, 2009 by TurboSlug22

[L.C.]

It might be wise to include that Subspace/Continuum is an excellent past-time game to play when people are bored and have nothing else or better to do.

[TurboSlug22]

It might be wise to include that Subspace/Continuum is an excellent past-time game to play when people are bored and have nothing else or better to do.

 

Its included in the notion that our game has stood the test of time and many of our gamers are 'lifers'

 

I dont want to get too wordy saying its fun & shit - saying we still have players after 10 years speaks volumes to them... they know about stuff like that - killing floor is already dead and its brand new - for instance

[L.C.]

I think your paragraph is too wordy then. Too little text and too much text could have reverse affects -- and just by looking at your paragraph, do you think anyone at Valve would be interested in reading a foreign/alien paragraph that big (just by looking at it and not reading anything)?

 

By the way, I like your "selling points in summary."

Edited November 14, 2009 by L.C.

[TurboSlug22]

alright, broke it up into 2 paragraphs to address wordieness

 

I dunno how else to convey all our selling points in fewer sentences

 

I think we're covering a lot of awesome selling points there... any ideas to condense it?

[»LtNirvana]

Fileplanet is a good idea too because they have billions of games on there for free.

 

The first step with any of these companies really should be asking them what kind of deals they work out with games to have them hosted free in the first place so we can see if any of those methods is workable for us at all.

 

Also while you seem capable you also seem very overly ambitious and you make me nervous. I really think if you are doing this for the SS community you should set your ego aside and open the door for us having a point person that we appoint like Polix or MM etc. Someone with no ego, who's all business, and who knows the community inside and out.

[»Blocks]

The two paragraphs you have are too lengthy, assuming, and unprofessional to be attractive. The "pitch" needs to be succinct -- with an elevator pitch you have the benefit of a captive audience for 20-30 seconds, with a "cold-call" email you need something to grab their attention to hold it (and hold it in high esteem) for more than ten.

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

I am writing to you to propose making the game Continuum available for download on the Steam distribution platform. Continuum is a free, player-run, massively-multiplayer, two-dimensional space shooter game that is well over a decade old. The Continuum community is looking to expand its player base, and we believe that distribution on Steam is the prime way to do just that.

 

More information and the client download can be found at . I look forward to hearing from you concerning the possibility of this proposal.

 

Regards,

Fatty McFatfat

Not saying that that's the right message for the job, but I think it's the length/style that it's gonna have to be in an email. Explaining SubSpace versus Continuum is too complicated for such a message, so I just stuck with Continuum.

 

It would be good to stick some of TurboSlug's selling points in there though. I didn't mention how distribution could be beneficial to Valve because it could be seen as pandering, insulting, or requiring of more information than is provided at the time. The first paragraph could do with being a bit longer. I didn't include the sympathetic element explicitly because it didn't seem to fit.

 

This is the sort of thing that might actually go over better in a paper letter(?). You could get away with a longer message that way, and then continue communication over email. A paper letter is probably less likely to be handled and ignored by some low-level lackey.

 

Edit: BTW, someone should update getcontinuum.com to say it runs on Windows 7.

Edit2: And more importantly, remove the line referencing the "glorious 10th year anniversary in 2007-2008." -_-

Edited November 14, 2009 by Blocks

[TurboSlug22]

Fileplanet is a good idea too because they have billions of games on there for free.

 

The first step with any of these companies really should be asking them what kind of deals they work out with games to have them hosted free in the first place so we can see if any of those methods is workable for us at all.

 

Also while you seem capable you also seem very overly ambitious and you make me nervous. I really think if you are doing this for the SS community you should set your ego aside and open the door for us having a point person that we appoint like Polix or MM etc. Someone with no ego, who's all business, and who knows the community inside and out.

 

I have no ego involved here

 

Here is my ss experience: Awesome idea "A" comes into existence - nobody agrees on implementation, nothing happens

 

The community needs action - it needs success and it needs failure, because every failure is an opportunity in disguise. Lets just carefully do SOMETHING.

[TurboSlug22]

The two paragraphs you have are too lengthy, assuming, and unprofessional to be attractive. The "pitch" needs to be succinct -- with an elevator pitch you have the benefit of a captive audience for 20-30 seconds, with a "cold-call" email you need something to grab their attention to hold it (and hold it in high esteem) for more than ten.

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

I am writing to you to propose making the game Continuum available for download on the Steam distribution platform. Continuum is a free, player-run, massively-multiplayer, two-dimensional space shooter game that is well over a decade old. The Continuum community is looking to expand its player base, and we believe that distribution on Steam is the prime way to do just that.

 

More information and the client download can be found at . I look forward to hearing from you concerning the possibility of this proposal.

 

Regards,

Fatty McFatfat

Not saying that that's the right message for the job, but I think it's the length/style that it's gonna have to be in an email. Explaining SubSpace versus Continuum is too complicated for such a message, so I just stuck with Continuum. It would be good if we could stick some of TurboSlug's selling points in there though. I didn't mention how distribution could be beneficial to Valve because it could be seen as pandering, insulting, or requiring of more information than is provided at the time.

 

This is the sort of thing that might actually go over better in a paper letter(?). You could get away with a longer message that way, and then continue communication over email. A paper letter is probably less likely to be handled and ignored by some low-level lackey.

 

Edit: BTW, someone should update getcontinuum.com to say it runs on Windows 7.

 

This wont be a cold call - i plan to first bombard them with questions.

 

Their page says they dont talk about numbers until we give them our bit. It puts the control in their hands. The reality is i cant give them our bit until i know how much revenue they WOULD make if the client was sold for $5.. .so i get to ask them fun questions... And im sad to say it, but Ori is to thank here... We need to ask them about how many users they expect to see our client and by extension how many people do they expect to download it - only then can we gauge a quantity to pay them for compensation for hosting this thing for free...

 

Good point about the pandering - maybe something like "We feel proud to expand steam's free content with our client" instead of saying that its good for them

 

Edit: Ori, you seem to like to repeat yourself, can you go into more detail about anything else you might like to know about steam's storefront?

Edited November 14, 2009 by TurboSlug22

[»Blocks]

This wont be a cold call - i plan to first bombard them with questions.

 

Their page says they dont talk about numbers until we give them our bit. It puts the control in their hands. The reality is i cant give them our bit until i know how much revenue they WOULD make if the client was sold for $5.. .so i get to ask them fun questions... And im sad to say it, but Ori is to thank here... We need to ask them about how many users they expect to see our client and by extension how many people do they expect to download it - only then can we gauge a quantity to pay them for compensation for hosting this thing for free...

 

Good point about the pandering - maybe something like "We feel proud to expand steam's free content with our client" instead of saying that its good for them

 

Edit: Ori, you seem to like to repeat yourself, can you go into more detail about anything else you might like to know about steam's storefront?

If you haven't contacted Steam already, please DON'T. I realize this is your idea to pitch the Continuum client now to different distribution platforms, but I think you're going about it in a counterproductive manner. Contact with Steam should be done in an exacting and professional style, which you haven't shown anyone you're capable of.

 

We are a charity case more than we are a legitimate business proposition. Steam isn't going host us for any amount that's worth paying them.

[TurboSlug22]

This wont be a cold call - i plan to first bombard them with questions.

 

Their page says they dont talk about numbers until we give them our bit. It puts the control in their hands. The reality is i cant give them our bit until i know how much revenue they WOULD make if the client was sold for $5.. .so i get to ask them fun questions... And im sad to say it, but Ori is to thank here... We need to ask them about how many users they expect to see our client and by extension how many people do they expect to download it - only then can we gauge a quantity to pay them for compensation for hosting this thing for free...

 

Good point about the pandering - maybe something like "We feel proud to expand steam's free content with our client" instead of saying that its good for them

 

Edit: Ori, you seem to like to repeat yourself, can you go into more detail about anything else you might like to know about steam's storefront?

If you haven't contacted Steam already, please DON'T. I realize this is your idea to pitch the Continuum client now to different distribution platforms, but I think you're going about it in a counterproductive manner. Contact with Steam should be done in an exacting and professional style, which you haven't shown anyone you're capable of.

 

We are a charity case more than we are a legitimate business proposition. Steam isn't going host us for any amount that's worth paying them.

 

*Sigh*

 

I told you,

 

I'm not contacting them without you guys

 

Steam is a big fish - gamersgate is a little fish - it was also very attention getting wasnt it? Great now lets focus on the prize please

 

Edit: Incidentally, i dont need to show you im capable of anything other than taking your ideas and putting them in motion. I am also not in any way attached to being the guy that contacts these people, however, im very confident i can handle it:)

Edited November 14, 2009 by TurboSlug22

[TurboSlug22]

I think blocks might be right that it might not be worth it to pay them to affiliate with them, we should be able to achieve an acceptable alternative through arrangements with other organizations.

 

I dont think we should totally rule out the idea of putting together a fundraiser for this in the event that nobody interesting wants to host our client though..

[L.C.]

I would say that you should go with the assumption and hopes that Valve will publish and host the Continuum client for free, rather than anticipate paying for it. As mentioned before, they already host a lot of things for free. Compared to most of those, Continuum is hardly near the same filesize. I don't see a reason why they shouldn't accept Continuum for free.

 

First, I think we should try and see what kind of reply Valve would give. Then we can think more about money (if necessary based on Valve's reply). I want to know whether they accept or decline, and if they decline -- why?