Re: Can I make money by writing IF?


28 Nov 1995 17:15:26 GMT

In article <49cs9f$934@life.ai.mit.edu>, David Baggett <dmb@ai.mit.edu> wrote:
>In article <GDR11.95Nov26183448@stint.cl.cam.ac.uk>,
>Gareth Rees <gdr11@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>>The person to talk to is Graham Cluly, who produced a couple of
>>adventure games under the name "Humbug Software" and apparantly managed
>>to sell several thousand shareware registrations.
>
>I think it would be a huge mistake to assume that model is still valid
>today.

Indeed the market has changed a lot. An important factor is that the
LTOI releases had the unfortunate side effect of devaluing IF games
greatly. "If I can buy real Infocom games for a couple of dollars
each, why should I pay $20 for a (supposedly inferior) shareware
product?".

Also it should be noted that (at least according to my sources :-))
Graham Cluley's games are crippleware. Some puzzles are impossible to
solve without he hints, which you can only getby registering. Today,
such a scheme would be far less effective, since pople would just ask
for hints on rec.games.int-fiction.

Magnus