I'm not making money off GE, I shouldn't pay for it!

[willg101]

This is one thing that's really starting to annoy me! People say that because they are not making money off GE, they shouldn't have to pay for it.

There are three big reasons why I don't think this statement is true:
-Do you look at anything else and say 'I'm not gonna pay for it, becuase I won't make a profit from it?'
-This is Makslane's living. This is what he does! He works on GE for you, so that you can buy his work!
-$15 is not a lot to ask! C'mon, I make more than $35 a week, and I'm only 14!

I didn't post this to tick people off, but simply to try to open some eyes!

If anyone else agrees, please post here.

[Game A Gogo]

here a little speech: Makslane take all of its time working on GE and some of you tink you can have it free, If you want to recieve you must give.(I always give and never receive, and thats only for my(I dont know why??)) anyway you get it

[BeyondtheTech]

I just watched a movie with my wife tonight and the two tickets alone cost more than $15.

I'm sure these people who complain have purchased at least 3 Happy Meals at McDonalds or a pizza pie delivery, both of which are at least $15 from where I live.

If you don't like the pricing structure, which is beyond all fairness, I suggest you spend countless hours creating your own game and multimedia development environment and see if your time and effort is worth anything to anybody.

Minimum wage is anywhere between $5 to $7 an hour in the United States. Two to three hours-worth of your time for the price of a full professional copy of this program is a bargain compared to the hours he has to put in to make sure you get the features you want.

Last but not least, I had Bubble Buster Advanced produced with this game engine and popped it up on PocketGear and Handango. Within the first month they cut me my first $100 check, and look how many downloads I have now, 7776. Heck, if I mandatorily charged a quarter just to download my game, I would made just $2000... that's 130 times my initial investment in Game Editor Pro.

Is everyone who's complaining here prepubescent, stupid, or just plain cheap?

[ondy1985]

I usually do DirectX games in C++. I don't think that anyone of you (exept for Makslane himself) knows what a great work is behind each game you can play on your PC, sitting on your fat bottoms, pressing keys on your keyboard and having fun. Hours and hours spent in front of an flickering monitor just to have a stupid window with some sprites showing there. But there are people, like myself, that do this every day and when the game is finished, there's no talk about earning money. The game is released for all players for free. I'm always happy when I receive an email in which someone congratulates me to the game and thanks me that he could play it. And that's the true reward.

But my programming skills are not good enough to make games also for PocketPC. That's why I use GE. I like. I really do, but if I have to pay for it to make games, you will have to pay for my games to play. That is the rule of bussines.

I'm not saying that GE should be free for all. Just for freeware developers. No limited functionality, no annoying texts, just a loading screen with GE logo shown each time a game is run.

I wish everything in the world wasn't about money...

[BeyondtheTech]

Where does the line get drawn for the statement "if I don't make money off of it, I shouldn't pay for it?"

Should you not pay for a copy of Windows XP, or your computer, for that matter, if all you're going to be doing is surfing the net and downloading your MP3s and not turning it into a means to start a business or something of a productive nature?

Again, if you don't like the option given to you, you have every right to choose another option to achieve your result. Just don't be surprised if you have to end up having to reinvent the wheel and create your own game environment and development system because you're too selfish or unwilling to put what little money is required to take what is readily available and essentially "hit the ground running" with your game idea.

What you do with your time and how you conduct your efforts should not have to be imposed on others, nor should you expect it from anyone.

Look, we all pay for tools, whether or not you believe it. You could sit on the floor and eat the insides of a raw carcass, or you can sit in a chair, at a table, in a room, in a house, with utensils, eating processed and cooked food, with garnishes and condiments. I'm sure you are or have paid for all those "tools" and "methods" one way or another, whether it's calculated into the price of the meal, or your contribution back to your family. Anyone with the smallest inkling of business-sense would know that even those supposedly "free" salt and ketchup packs in McDonald's are tied into the cost of every item on their menu.

Again, it's all about where you draw the line, and to those people who think they deserve a free ride because they plan on giving others a free ride... just ask yourself one question: If you're literally planning to give someone a free ride in a car, someone's gotta pay for the gas, and it's likely going to be you, unless you think "Daddy" is going to just keep filling your tank and changing the oil for you. And at $63USD an OPEC oil barrel, I'm sure "Daddy" will be the first one to tell you to stop being a g-dd-mn taxi.

There's really no justification to these people's concept and I wish the topic would close right here and now, as I can understand willg101's frustration immediately. Perhaps if your parents started demanding rent money and funds to use the washing machine and dryer in the house, you'd understand the value of money, and the cost of time and effort.

[NyahKitty]

Just out of curiousity, how would one prove that he or she is producing only freeware?

What measures could be taken to regulate such a thing without it becoming grievously exploited?

One method might be on a per game basis, so if you start selling a game you created, then you pay Makslane some money for each copy of the game you sold. Rather like the whole MP3 patent fee issue. On second thought, that seems rather undesirable.

The reasoning which is the foundation for the proposed Freeware Arrangement is understandable. Money is tight for most everyone on this planet and it's a real pain getting nickel and dimed to death. Bottled water and oxygen bars (places where they sell air to breathe) come to mind.

The Honor System is only as strong as those who hold to it.
In this day and age, the proposed Freeware License has the potential to add a degree of complexity to how things are done now, so as to make this problematic at best.

The similarity regarding the argument for a freeware license, when compared to "information just wants to be free" is striking. This leads me to ponder the two questions at the start of this reply as well as what has been pointed out by so many others: such an arrangement is instinctively perceived by the majority as a direct threat to the livelyhood of the individual responsible for creating and supporting the software we've all come to enjoy in short order.

This being unmistakenly evident, an arrangement for Freeware licenses might have merit within a limited set of circumstances, unfortunately most people in today's highly competitive economy can rarely enjoy the luxury of making such allowances.

Consider what your response might be if you were gaining your income from creating and selling games and then someone submits a request for a free license of your game because he feels he is an exception to your pricing structure.

Hopefully this reply has shed light on the issue, rather than aggravate it further.

[ondy1985]

Now I see you're right. All game developers should stop doing freeware projects just now. It is fooolish to give something to someone for free. How stupid we were! And I'm going to write to right places and make the word "freeware" forbidden to even speak of.

[NyahKitty]

Perhaps there is miscommunication:

- Freeware is great. Those who choose to create it are at liberty to do so. More power to them.

- Programs for sale are financed by the money they cost and supports those who make a living from this. Thus the challenge in these people to give away their hard earned work and also spend time regulating freeware licenses so everyone plays fair.

- At least in principle, the creator and owner of a work has the final say-so regarding what is done with that product and what price, if any, it should hold. Not everyone will agree with this, but this does not side-step his own right to decide.

- I too wish money did not rule our lives. It hampers progress in life. It is the way the system works right now, so I simply endure it rather than the alternative of no system of doing things.

- There are freeware game creation softwares available online. The choice is one of pro's and con's... not injustice.

- Now that you've received the response from the GE online community, why not email Makslane and ask him directly. He knows his own circumstances better than any of us combined. Who knows? He might already have a solution or at least an explaination in mind. I notice you are irritable right now... why not wait a little, so you can cool off, then email Makslane.

[ondy1985]

I'm not angry, irritiated or whatever. The price of GE is absolutely Makslane's thing. I just say, that as long as I have to pay for GE you can't expect me to do freeware. And I don't think I'm alone with this opinion.

[Game A Gogo]

I'm not angry, irritiated or whatever. The price of GE is absolutely Makslane's thing. I just say, that as long as I have to pay for GE you can't expect me to do freeware. And I don't think I'm alone with this opinion.

Im with you

[willg101]

I still think that Makslane is entitled to whatever he charges for GE, no matter what you do with it, though.

[ondy1985]

Indeed.

[NyahKitty]

I just say, that as long as I have to pay for GE you can't expect me to do freeware. And I don't think I'm alone with this opinion.

Precisely.
Sorry for crossing wires like that.

[Crusader]

I am with you!Lets be patriots!

[Parrot]

That IS a pretty stupid argument. It's like saying that you shouldn't have to pay for Microsoft Office because you're not using it to write a novel or manage your business or in some other way to make money off it.

There are free alternatives for making games (as well as word processing and spreadsheets). If you don't like the cost of one program you can go and find another. Programmers are only going to be able to charge what people are willing to pay for their software after all.

It seems to me that at least a good number of people have found that Game Editor is worth the price.