[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Games on Linux (was: Wine presentation)

[Steve Baker]

cbbrowne at cbbrowne.com wrote:
 
> See <http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/freeeconorg.html> for info on a
> discussion of this very sort that took place some time ago on
> gnu.misc.discuss.  Some people were pretty astounded by the notion
> that it would even be _plausible_ to have a way of sponsoring creation
> of games.
> 
> The problem is of getting some money out of people up-front, and
> that's a tough problem.

Yes, and if you take payments as low as 0.50c what do you do if (say)
200 people pay the money?  You have $100 which isn't enough to do anything
with - and which is uneconomical to refund.

Hence you have to say something like:  "I want everyone to donate 0.50c
to help me finish my game - but if less than 4,000 people sign up to it,
you all lose the lot and I have to give it to charity or something."

That would be a hard-sell I think.
 
> > > So why do you think there are Mac games but (virtually) no Linux games?
> > >
> > > IIRC, there are more Linux users than Mac users out there in the world.
> 
> > I hear this a lot, but could somebody point out a source for these
> > numbers? I would also like to see the criteria.

Sorry - I don't recollect the source for that claim.

Maybe:  The Linux counter says there are maybe 10 million Linux users.

        There are about 200Million *personal* (not business) computers in
        the world (dunno where I heard that either)...so maybe Linux has
        a 3 to 4% share?

        Apple has a ~5% share of the computer market (I think
        I saw that in the M$ antitrust litegation).  So maybe they
        also have a 3 to 4% share.

...well, something like that anyway.  Just counting people I know
with computers - they *ALL* have PC's - I don't think I know anyone
with a Mac.

> > But let's assume it's true. Just because Linux has more users
> > doesn't mean that there's a bigger market out there. If I am selling
> > luxury goods, I can target the tiny but affluent suburb or go into a
> > poorer part of town but with many more people. I will probably be
> > better off going to the affluent suburb. It depends on what you're
> > selling and who you're selling it to. Let's assume that there are
> > more Mac users out there, a product for
> > insert-enterprise-software-here probably won't sell that well on the
> > Mac side as the folks who need this probably don't use Macs to do
> > it.

Yes - that's true.
 
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