Do we know how much money he makes from advertisements?
Yes
Maybe he is independently wealthy and has nothing better to do but GR. The facts are that we do not know his financial circumstances. Therefore, we should avoid making assumptions.
But you are making an assumption. You are assuming that Evill has lied about this. He has discussed both his financial status and how much advertisements cost. We all also saw how many months he went without any advertisers with the .com crash.
For those of you who throw blame towards the non-premiums for not supporting GR, maybe GR does not need financial support from people who use it.? Double check that, I said maybe.? For all we know, Scott Kevill is getting support from the developers of the games that are hosted through a variety of means.? I have made no assumptions here, but I have also used only the facts that we know.
Wrong Noto. You have not used all the facts we know. All the facts that you know maybe.
The bottom line is this:? Scott Kevill cannot put his business into the hands of teenagers with monetary limits, nor can he put his business into the hands of $50 donations here and there.? It is his business , and it is soley up to him to find the proper means of supporting that business.? If GR had to shut down due to the lack of financial stability, the users of GameRanger cannot, and should not, be blamed.?
I think you are 100% wrong here Noto. First, your example. Want to use a fitting analogy, use the demo version of Ghost Recon maybe. There are two version of Ghost Recon, one you can have for free that is limited, and one that you have to pay for which is not. The one that is not limited costs you $50 (wow, that was correct when GhR came out too).
Now, you can choose to be a freeloader. Choose to not buy the actual product. But when that publisher stops making games for the mac, goes out of business, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Those that take advantage of the demo for months and years even, but never shell out the cash.
Oh, as for the business model, if it didn't work, how does MacSoft, MacPlay, Aspyr, etc stay in business? Selling to those teenagers with monetary limits at $50 a pop like that. Now way they survive, is there?
If GR were to open it's doors to more than Mac users, more games, and more features, and then charged in smaller increments for smaller periods of time, he could be quite successful, if he isn't already.? But, that is merely an assumption since I do not know the inner workings of GR or Scott Kevill, and I doubt that many of us do.
Then GR also wouldn't be unique. I and many others would also leave it. There is a reason we game on the mac, and not on the PC. A good amount of the people that paid for premium could afford a Dell along with their Mac, just for gaming. But we choose not to. I know that Gemini and I had this talk when he bought a Fragbox. He hated the PC gaming community. GR has a small town feel, where you get to know all the players pretty quickly. The PC side doesn't have that. I know, I came from the dark side.
BTW, an earlier note, you mentioned Punkbuster. Punkbuster is by game, not platform, and has nothing to do with PC or Mac. I have 3 Mac games I know that use PB.
Well, we all think we know what GR could be and what it is, but honestly, I do not think any of us really have a true perspective of Scott Kevill and his business strategies, or lack thereof in some of your views.?
I am sure that statement does apply to you, based on this post.
In defense of the non-premium users of GR, the only thing they miss out on is the hassle free voice communication that is built into GR, and that's only if you have a microphone in the first place.?
No, GR offers them a place to play games, to chat, parents can activate a profanity filter. You see, your attitude is what pushes for a Premium Only gameranger. Paying for GR is not just about what added premium features you get, it's about supporting the work that goes into GameRanger.
I liked being tracked, but GR does not offer this (until it comes out, it's not offered).
Nor is it offered by any other free gaming service. You could always spend the time and money and effort to make a web site like AAO tracker.
I like being able to communicate vocally to anyone on a server, but GR does not offer this in the games that it supports.?
It does for premium users. We can use any chat we like.
I like being able to have one user on my computer running for my girlfriend or sister while I play on my own user via fast user switching, but GR does not allow for this.?
Again, it does for premium users. So this one you are really off base on.
I like being able to play with friends who are not using a Mac computer, but GR has disabled this feature in games where it was allowed before.?
At many a users request. Many of us don't want PC users in our games, for various reasons. Others, like me, hate it when a game room says there are 7 open spaces, but they are actually full because dipshits that were banned from GR are IP joining games (which really pisses me off when they join my servers without asking). It also makes it much harder to keep the TK'ing assholes out of your hosts.
Many people were very vocal in their complaints about IP joiners ruining games.
In my own view, I feel that GR offers something at first, but right after it offers a new feature, an old one is taken away, and maybe not from everyone, but perhaps just from the people who are not able to support with $50 USD.
And, like you said, beggers can't be choosers. If they can't support GR, or choose not to, than they have no right to bitch. It's like bitching that the demo version of Ghost Recon doesn't have a map you want to play. The free demo version isn't supposed to make you real happy, it's supposed to wet your whistle for the real thing. So I don't blame Evill at all for making the gap larger between free and premium, but he has so much in the free version it would be like Aspyr giving away the full Raven Shield, but selling a map pack for $50. He has to scale the free GR down, as well as building up the premium features.
