Planning for the future (Properly!)

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So I've been thinking the past few months while being stupidly busy with stuff.

We all know AG has lasted 23 years and has had many poor decisions which have harmed it/the users in one way or another, one being raising money and then screwing users over or never coming to the agreements. Or begging for expensive hardware and never coming through with promises.

Personally, I'm against fundraising but thinking about it long term even we couldn't do this which is why I ask the following question,

Should OG have a basic fundraiser/donation page for all stuff OG? this would be to keep the site/licenses updated all side projects and buying betas for the site to actually release instead of teasing it for 10 years and then losing it. (These donations wouldn't cover a farm house with a beach and a feral cat in New York.)

Currently site costs can be managed but as we all know life changes, and personally while I'm against the asking let alone accepting. I know many here wouldn't like it was on previous sites.

Some of my current ideas include forming OG as a none profit group to preserve what we do and keep the site alive even if I get too busy, along with merch for users to buy to help raise income for the site/anything that users maybe interested in. The past few months we've had a few people say they're interested in helping pay for joblots of prototype/beta stuff like the pile of midway discs or the insane amount of XDK's that are popping up.

Do you have an idea I've not thought of or have a better suggestion? please share your views :)

Ps, I shouldn't think of these things at 6am and should follow Nex's advice and sleep normal. (wish this was possible ?)
 
I donated to Assembler, so I'd be okay with that. However, another idea came to mind also. I remember the Geist Force physical copy over at AG, what if a new exciting beta or whatever was released, and members could buy a physical limited edition copy with a small profit for the site?
 
Arcadia said:
I donated to Assembler, so I'd be okay with that. However, another idea came to mind also. I remember the Geist Force physical copy over at AG, what if a new exciting beta or whatever was released, and members could buy a physical limited edition copy with a small profit for the site?
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I like this idea. People love to buy unreleased games plus they'd trully feel that this site helps them in obtaining what they seek. I'm sure a nicely presented beta release could sell for 30 to 50 USD easily. Or then again, that could be asking for trouble in the old copyright laws.
 
I think fund raising is certainly reasonable. Another idea might be charity auctions where a proportion or all proceeds from a public auction go toward supporting the site. These could be run from within the site or via an eBay charity auction if you register as a not for profit that accepts donations.
 
Yakumo said:
Or then again, that could be asking for trouble in the old copyright laws.
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That's a fair point, I guess it'd only be possible with a low profile release. For example, the Freefall 3050AD release recently had the blessing of the original developer, while RE 1.5 would attract the wrong kind of attention.
 
Yakumo said:
Or then again, that could be asking for trouble in the old copyright laws.
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Yeah that'd be my only issue with this, seeing as we'd have to obey laws/copyright the only way we could do this is with consent/rights given to us to allow such media to be created.

At best we could maybe just do a custom sealed game but with a blank disc to obey copyright if consent/rights aren't given. But actual data would be tricky.

Seeing as our end goal is to get this done properly we'd also have to think about the risks.

Merch maybe easier to do with stuff we legally own, along with chairty auctions as suggested by Shane. As a non profit we'd be allowed to do that with stuff we own/ have multiple off.

Thanks for the replies so far everyone :)
 
If I remember Assembler's effort to do a print of Geist Force correctly, he had trouble even locating somewhere that'd take a low enough bulk order at a fair price. I feel like in the end any profit made from a physical repro of anything wouldn't recuperate enough costs to make the time spent worth it. Burn out would be a very real issue, especially assuming it'd be a one-man job. You can just look at the archived Geist Force subforum to see how annoyed Assembler was getting with the whole process he committed himself to :LOL:

As far as donations go, I'm not sure who would be deciding where the money goes, but it would definitely have to be explicitly stated donations are for the site owners to do with as they please since there's no way to please everyone. There's also the TCRF, Gaming Alexandria, VGHF(Frank Cifaldi), and Hidden Palace people all who to coordinate with just to make sure you're not all in a bid match with one another over something if it's a public auction.
 
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I'd say Patreon (without stupid perks, maybe just plain custom titles if need be) and non-intrusive ads for non-members first.

That is what AG should've done years ago IMHO.
 
Bramsworth said:
but it would definitely have to be explicitly stated donations are for the site owners to do with as they please since there's no way to please everyone.
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You're correct, that's the only thing we'd have really is exactly what it can/cannot be used for. I.e we cannot buy a farm house in new york on the beach which has feral cats. That'd just be problems :P (Plus ferals are a pain to deal with having two my self just no beach home/farm.)

Bramsworth said:
There's also the TCRF, Gaming Alexandria, VGHF(Frank Cifaldi), and Hidden Palace people all who to coordinate with just to make sure you're not all in a bid match with one another over something if it's a public auction.
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You're correct here too, thankfully most of the main groups we have contact with via the Prototopia group so we try not to tread on toes haha.

End of the day we have to work as one really to keep things going smoothly.

FamilyGuy said:
I'd say Patreon (without stupid perks, maybe just plain custom titles if need be) and non-intrusive ads for non-members first.

That is what AG should've done years ago IMHO.
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I'll just leave this :P

1566875478092.png
 
I wouldn't mind donating to help crowd fund getting a beta of a game, as long as its released to the public, I dont want to send money to get a .png back, lol
 
Ouch, yeah a Patreon isn't going to work if an over two decade old site couldn't get anything.

When it comes to protos, people really only care about titles that interest them so I don't have high hopes any donation fund . The VGHF is the only successful preservation related effort I've seen, and that's likely due to the rep of the person behind it and the true preservation effort that goes beyond just using funds for public proto sales.

Hopefully someone has an idea how it could work.
 
Bramsworth said:
Ouch, yeah a Patreon isn't going to work if an over two decade old site couldn't get anything.
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It was really half-assed and nobody knew about it. It could've been much better.

Patreon or otherwise, recurring donations have their advantages.
 
I don't really like donations, because over time people don''t do donations.

On the other hand it could be quite a lot to have user grades.
- Standard
- Silver
- Gold
- Premium

Depending on an amount paid each year, this entitles you to a Beta access directory.

Ex :
- Standard (no right) 0$/year
- Silver (3 directories corresponding to 3 different systems (Ex PS1, Xbox, Gamecube) : ==> 10$/year
- Gold (6 directories (PS1, PS2, Xbox, Wii, Xbox360, Gamecube) ==> 20$/year
- Premium (full access to all directories) : ==> 35$/year

This rank's system would be trought Paypal and renewable automatically each year.

This will preserve beta games (the longer the time goes on it will require more and more storage)
To maintain the servers
to buy beta

( Collector's edition use grade system and it's very good idea)

(sorry for my english)
 
iOrange said:
I like user grades idea.
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I think it's a bad idea. It would foster an elitist mentality in some people.

That's is exactly the kind of toxicity that AG managed to generally avoid and that made it feel different on the internet.

* * *

Also, the whole paying for access to beta downloads stuff is legally very shady (making money out of what books down to piracy in a company's view) and could put the site in trouble.
 
FamilyGuy said:
I think it's a bad idea. It would foster an elitist mentality in some people.

That's is exactly the kind of toxicity that AG managed to generally avoid and that made it feel different on the internet.

* * *

Also, the whole paying for access to beta downloads stuff is legally very shady (making money out of what books down to piracy in a company's view) and could put the site in trouble.
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It's not elitist , each people can give what he want depending what he need (10, 20,35$ per year)

How much do we spend each year in video games? if we don't have 35$ / year (year not month!) , We should have made a beer caps collection.

(when we have a thread to show his collection, it's a bit like showing his dick and comparing who has the biggest. this is elitist)

It'll not be access to beta directly, but access to thread, thread by system, or maybe we can have just 1 rank . (it's not illegal)


For me Grade rank is the best solution.
 
Ryaku said:
It's not elitist , each people can give what he want depending what he need (10, 20,35$ per year)

How much do we spend each year in video games? if we don't have 35$ / year (year not month!) , We should have made a beer caps collection.

(when we have a thread to show his collection, it's a bit like showing his dick and comparing who has the biggest. this is elitist)

It'll not be access to beta directly, but access to thread, thread by system. (it's not illegal)


For me Grade rank is the best solution.
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I meant as in people in higher castes could look down to normal users. It should be reputation and meritocracy based, not pay2win status.

On most other tech community, Yakumo would be an asshole with an ego problem and Borman would be full of himself, only lurking in the extra dank underground subforums.

I'd be glad to see recurring donations, with at most a custom user title as a "reward", no need to fragment the community between premium users and regular freeloaders. A lot of interesting stuff as come from outsiders/new users in the past, such premium sections would be detrimental. I was a ten when I started helping with beta dumping on AG, I could not have afforded the DC Tier-1 subforum.

Just my 2¢, in the end it's the staff that decides.
 
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