I’d Buy It If…
Posted February 19th, 2004 @ 08:18am by Erik J. Barzeski
From Brent Simmons' list of "I'd Buy it If" tactics comes this:
I just played the demo of your game "Rock Star" and I enjoy it immensely! 🙂
However, there is one feature that kind of ruins it for me… I think you should allow people to to turn off the "disappearing answer options." I would enjoy the game much more if there were just 5 fixed answer options all the time.If you could see fit to add that as a preference feature I will probably feel compelled to register the product 🙂
Other than that the game seems perfect...kudos!
That's probably not gonna happen. We've got several reasons why - among them the fact that it'd change the game for some people and that Rock Star has no "Preferences" on purpose. It's a $9 game (right now), so c'mon dude! Giving anyone an ultimatum is rarely the best approach.
We can't be goaded that easily. Your $9 is not really enough to warrant $1000 of our time. Would 112 other people really buy if only we had this "feature?" I doubt it.
Donate Life
Posted 19 Feb 2004 at 8:37am #
We're all pretty busy working on PulpFiction, anyway. B-)
Posted 19 Feb 2004 at 10:44am #
Actually, I've already bought and registered it (about 10 minutes after downloading and playing it for the first time), and sent that to you as a suggestion/feature beg.
So, unless you got that request twice, it doesn't fall under the "I'd buy it if..." category.
If you did get that request more than once, maybe you should look at it when you've run out of ideas and are bored. 🙂
Posted 19 Feb 2004 at 11:36am #
TH, it wasn't you that wrote the email above. You were only the second to have done so.
We may do this in a 1.1 update, but we're focusing on PF currently. I simply don't like being given ultimatums and I'm trying to point out that there are better ways to ask a developer to support something. Make a case for it that doesn't involve "or you won't get MY nine bucks!"
Posted 19 Feb 2004 at 11:39am #
Contrast this with another email we got today:
In other words, this guy wrote a very good letter to us, and he got immediate attention. The result: another satisfied customer and a better product, and developers who believe in what was done to satisfy him.
Plus, heck, FTPeel is $19. "You won't get my money otherwise" in this case carries about $10 more weight. 🙂 (Please note: this is sarcasm.)
Posted 19 Feb 2004 at 2:12pm #
I develop shareware in my "copious spare time"(tm) and I've seen these "if only"-feature requests myself. That's why I make a point of requesting things only if and when I have registered or will be registering anyway.
And just for the record, I didn't really think you were referring to me. I just wondered whether I had written my request misunderstandable - english is my second language and some subleties will always evade me
Posted 19 Feb 2004 at 4:11pm #
I don't really see a problem with people saying stuff like that though -- it isn't really an ultimatum, per se. If there was this fantastic new drawing application, every artist would say "Sure, I'll give you the 500-800$, but it's gotta have Photoshop import". The point is, people see a feature that gives a product worth -- there isn't anything wrong with them telling you about it, and it's a hell of a lot more useful than them keeping it to themselves and you just automatically losing the sale.
Posted 19 Feb 2004 at 4:17pm #
Steven, your points are well made (and taken). It's a thin line: at what point is a request so unreasonable that (and at what price point) that you just want to say "fuggit?" 🙂
Posted 19 Feb 2004 at 8:18pm #
I've already bought Rock Star 🙂
The one thing it REALLY needs is a pause button. I just got a phone call while I was playing it and all I could do was quit.
Posted 19 Feb 2004 at 10:08pm #
Mike: It *has* a pause button. Just press caps lock, it'll pause after the current song (that's the cheat safeguard).
Of course, that doesn't help in my case, since I don't have a caps lock key on my keyboard (b/c I'm not using it anyways)...