Skepsiis
2012-06-25, 09:38 PM
In summary, would people be interested in having the option to fund the development of specific features they want to see in game?
I am talking about some kind of system similar to the way kickstarter works with the crowd sourced micro funding but without a timer.
There could be a list of features in a 'Feature Funding' tab in the store from the 5 year plan and you could select one and choose to make a donation. Once that particular option reaches its target goal for development funding, it is slotted into a queue and work begins after the current project and others earlier in the queue are completed.
Say I want them to work on adding entry/exit animations for vehicles so I find it in the list (assuming it is there) and can see an empty to full bar showing the funding progress is at 87% of its target of £50k or whatever and can click a donate button to chip in another £10 towards the cost. Perhaps give the people who donate a pat on the back with some exclusive cosmetic item to show their devotion or open up access to some private discussion forum where they can talk about the feature to make them feel special and even more involved with the process.
It would be up to the devs what is available in the list of course so they have overall control and it wouldn't just be a list of everything but what they themselves want to nudge forward in the short term.
This list could be public and include rough estimates on the time they would take so that people can see at a glance the direction the game is taking with a lose idea of when. Maybe tie-in a dev blog to keep the really interested people updated, and so people can see their donation in action, and include all the usual social networking links to drum up some awareness or spread the word.
This would be a good way for the players that want to get directly involved with helping to support the dev team (instead of buying random stuff from the store you may not really want just to put money into the game) and you get the choice of what your money is actually going towards.
Depending on the success, it may need some regular trickle funding from SOE to make sure things the developers really want are eventually implemented (or would it? maybe this would show up a particularly disliked planned feature). If the system proved popular it also has scope to expand into other areas like funding expensive elaborate game events for example.
What do you think? I am sure the general concept could use some refinement, but would the core idea be something that you would want to be involved with?
I am talking about some kind of system similar to the way kickstarter works with the crowd sourced micro funding but without a timer.
There could be a list of features in a 'Feature Funding' tab in the store from the 5 year plan and you could select one and choose to make a donation. Once that particular option reaches its target goal for development funding, it is slotted into a queue and work begins after the current project and others earlier in the queue are completed.
Say I want them to work on adding entry/exit animations for vehicles so I find it in the list (assuming it is there) and can see an empty to full bar showing the funding progress is at 87% of its target of £50k or whatever and can click a donate button to chip in another £10 towards the cost. Perhaps give the people who donate a pat on the back with some exclusive cosmetic item to show their devotion or open up access to some private discussion forum where they can talk about the feature to make them feel special and even more involved with the process.
It would be up to the devs what is available in the list of course so they have overall control and it wouldn't just be a list of everything but what they themselves want to nudge forward in the short term.
This list could be public and include rough estimates on the time they would take so that people can see at a glance the direction the game is taking with a lose idea of when. Maybe tie-in a dev blog to keep the really interested people updated, and so people can see their donation in action, and include all the usual social networking links to drum up some awareness or spread the word.
This would be a good way for the players that want to get directly involved with helping to support the dev team (instead of buying random stuff from the store you may not really want just to put money into the game) and you get the choice of what your money is actually going towards.
Depending on the success, it may need some regular trickle funding from SOE to make sure things the developers really want are eventually implemented (or would it? maybe this would show up a particularly disliked planned feature). If the system proved popular it also has scope to expand into other areas like funding expensive elaborate game events for example.
What do you think? I am sure the general concept could use some refinement, but would the core idea be something that you would want to be involved with?