I realize this is a bit of thread necromancy but I am easing back into the FPSC world. So, forgive me.
Quote: "Still, if we want Reloaded to attract more pro users and artists then it's inevitable that your going to see real price hikes and if some of the artists continue with low prices, such as bond1 and Errant who do real quality work, then pro artists are going to feel they can't compete and may be put off."
I am not at all opposed to see prices raising on media for Reloaded. There's been several mentions in this thread about a magical $20 price point for packs (I know the general vibe is that packs will be de-emphasized but I know that artists tend to create media in batches/collections. So, I think packs/bundles will remain relevant). In my experience with TGC, I've found the low price points to be the defacto recommended amounts but in no way set in stone. My last pack was double the regular price. TGC gave me no resistance over this. I fully intend to be increasing a la carte prices for new individual assets which pass Reloaded muster. I probably won't be altering the prices for old items because A. They are old. and B. Changing prices resets the sales counter.
Looking forward, we have tremendous opportunity with Reloaded as it has been accepted for Steam Greenlight. But be warned... if anyone thinks that the FPSC community has it's toxic elements, it has nothing on the Steam community which can be outright vicious and unforgiving. Tough love here but it's absolutely paramount that TGC starts to become more honest with product versioning. By proper industry standards, Reloaded is still ALPHA (feature incomplete). It is nothing resembling BETA (feature complete with only bugs and optimizations remaining) at this stage. For some, this is a matter of semantics but the cold truth is that details like this will greatly affect how the product is perceived by the greater public. A bad first impression is very difficult to overcome even if great progress is made after launch.
In NO WAY should any of what I have just said be construed as negative. Like I said, it's all just tough love.
We all have much to gain by simply being honest with ourselves. And that comes back to another point brought up earlier in this thread: Pricing tiers. I really hope that top artists will not continue to undercut each other in the Reloaded era. If your media is top notch and professional quality, there should be no shame or obligation to price match lower grade media. This can be as simple as deliberate price collusion among artists. This Reloaded board isn't even found on the old forums... And as callous as it may seem to say so, with that tie severed, so should the obligations of ridiculously cheap media as a form of community service also be severed. If done right, Reloaded will attract a NEW user-base which we, as artists, won't owe any favors to. Does that mean that prices need to skyrocket? Not at all. It just means that we need to begin to respect ourselves and what we bring to the table.
How can the asset store of the Reloaded era be a smashing success? Well, I have a few thoughts on this (in no particular order) that I believe will both increase sales and attract quality media authors...
1. Companion website version of the store.
TGC were once upon a time working on a web version of the store. It had fantastic potential as an alternate way to browse assets. It also allowed someone to direct/hotlink straight to an asset's information page. That simple feature is HUGE when it comes to directing interested parties directly to your media which may otherwise be buried under thousands of other things. Users must be able to browse assets outside of Reloaded. Ideally the store browser should work perfectly from mobile devices. A great time to generate sales is when the developer is at their day job or away from their development PC. It's a win-win because it allows sellers to capitalize on what I call "the development daydreaming cycle" and it allows developers to have assets que'd up and ready to go when they sit down to start working. This suggestion also reflects the fact that artists have been and will continue to be the most effective promoters of their own media. This will be especially true as we end an era of "official" media. Give us the tools to guide our customers to our assets in an efficient and direct manner so that we do not need to rely on TGC promoting our work in order to get sales.
2. Advanced seller/artist control over asset pricing and bundling.
I am thrilled that Rick has mentioned artist-specified bundling. Let's take this a step further and allow artists to do things such as setting promotional pricing (discounts that automatically expire at a specified time) for assets. Being able to manipulate prices in this manner will greatly help artists to find the sweetspots in price-points for their media and maximize sales. There could even be support of coupon codes for authors promoting their work via external sources such as blogs or facebook.
3. Require buyers to click a checkbox stating they have read the asset EULA when confirming a purchase.
This may seem tedious and most will not read it but it serves as a layer of protection. Likewise assure that artists do the same when uploading assets.
4. Artist/Author hotlinking in item descriptions.
When a buyer randomly finds themselves on the item description for an asset, they should be able to click the author's name and have the store take them to see what else that author has available for sale.
5. Author "following".
Customers should be able to follow/unfollow authors that they like. On the store main page, there should be a section highlighting new releases from followed authors. Perhaps, authors could even post announcements periodically that would be displayed in a sort of newsfeed. Again, this goes back to the idea of authors being the best promoters of their own work.
In short... TGC, if you are listening, help us to help you.
