@insomnia said in Cheap or Free Games!:
Sega is doing it's Make War Not Love thing again this year.
With Endless Space 2.
I...am very conflicted. Very.
On the one hand, I understand it's very good.
On the other, I need to stop spending money sometime.
Animated gifs with text about what the person is saying, and it obvious that the person isn't saying all of it.
Get it right, people!
I feel that I have far too many similarities to Sokka. I obsess over silly things and don't always understand why they're silly.
Sokka: It's a wolf knot!
Katara: That way all the wolves know that you're fun and perky!
Over the past two months at work, I was drawing bees on the white boards, secretly changing words here and there to 'bee'. Managers were obsessively erasing it, but eventually one asked me why. (Once they worked out that it was me.)
My response: So someone wrote on a whiteboard BCD with a "NO" symbol around it. I had no idea what this meant so I wrote 'Bees Can't Dance' next to it. Someone printed and taped up the proof that this isn't true next to it, and I found this to be hilarious, that people were getting into this. After that, I wrote 'Bees Knees' on the white board, and below it someone else wrote 'foxs socks' and from there on we had about 10 other rhyming slang items below it, which I thought was just as awesome. And so, I started putting bees everywhere.
It turns out that BCD stands for "Bitch, Complain, Deflect", things that people do and these are things that they shouldn't, as a manager's intro to what you should do instead.
But as usual, I took it the wrong way and ran with it.
What nobody else there knows that also tickles me is that there are no bees on Typhon.
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I take my joys where I can.
@taika said in Charging for MU* Code?:
google wallet
Sorry, I skimmed and missed this. Thanks.
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My Google Wallet is now set up. Suffice it to say, it's: thenomain@gmail.com
This is not a beg for money. This is for those who've asked me multiple times what they can do.
I have updated the original post.
Thanks. To all of you.
@faraday said in Charging for MU* Code?:
@thenomain said in Charging for MU* Code?:
Just for those who are suggesting it: Patreon does not have a "tip jar". I really wish it did. A whole lot of people wish it did.
Really? Wow that's incredibly dumb. Well you can still set up a PayPal tip jar.
No kidding. There has been talk about it, but so far just talk. Patreon also changed their charging method (who gets charged for credit card transactions) and almost lost a substantial chunk of their user base. They reversed it, but clearly need a more permanent solution in order to stay viable.
I agree with anyone who says PayPal is about the only solid answer right now, though I kind of hate turning real money into PayPal money, and I have a quiet prejudice against trusting E-Bay for anything financial anymore.
@royal said in General Video Game Thread:
Horizon Zero Dawn is literally the reason I purchased a PS4.
Seriously.
I'd say it was worth it.
Need to save up for Last Of Us 2, then I shall buy it for the trifecta.
Just for those who are suggesting it: Patreon does not have a "tip jar". I really wish it did. A whole lot of people wish it did.
The Good Place season finale happened a few days ago.
Alright, why hasn’t the next season started yet?
Double Post Action Supreme.
@sunny said in Charging for MU* Code?:
Honestly, I think you should double your prices aside from the $20/hour for debugging.
Did I mention my love of this hobby plus easily triggered guilt? You are almost certainly right, though.
That said can you give an idea of the amount of hours related to each of the projects?
Setting up a new Mux server: About an hour or two, really. This doesn't include softcode or anything, except for default SGP code. I'm waiting for @Ashen-Shugar to come by and kindly chide me for thinking about charging for this because he can do this in his sleep and probably has. I am a junior sysadmin at best, but I often say "I need SQL compiled" and get "how do I do that?" in return so have tended to need to do the compiling myself lately.
Core Chronicles of Darkness setup: About 3-5 hours? There's a lot of stuff in there that I haven't streamlined yet, but I've been working on it in some form or another for almost four years now. I've tried to make it possible for anyone with light Mu*code knowhow to be able to get a good handle on it. The hardest part of this is that I haven't generalized the XP earnings system, because each game is going to do this differently.
Coded game-line setup: About an hour or so. Each time I do it I find a bug, and there are cases of game-line overlap where it needs to be set manually, like who the staff wants to be able to take some mortal/ghoul merits.
Un-coded game-line setup: This I have vastly undervalued; see above post. Uncoded splats for a coded game-line shouldn't take long (several days; Hurt Locker nonwithstanding), but a completely new game-line will take weeks.
How's that?
@ganymede said in Charging for MU* Code?:
How about something like "major project coding"? Because there are things that I'd like to have built from scratch (which you can use elsewhere), and your pricing structure doesn't take that into account.
The question of what is major and what is minor is not something I can easily define.
For example: Most CoD splats are minor, except for Hurt Locker. I should re-think $20 for a major game line's core book; I still haven't finished the fine-tuning of Demon and it's one of my favorites. Even Mage was a big project.
On the other hand, the entirety of your Mass Effect game system would be a single Major Project to me, plus I'd do it in Ares or Evennia so I'd be slow as hell while learning a new platform.
I think it's up to each artist to quote their own prices, but very important for artists to get a feeling for them and find commonality with one another.
That said, here are my thoughts:
Major project (coding Promethean): $50-150
Minor project (coding an inventory system): $20-50
Tweaking of a major project: $20-50
Tweaking of a minor project: Beer & Pizza
Code advice on any of the above: Cookies
The last two are not me undermining anything, but I love working with people toward a goal and also love teaching. Not enough to become a teacher, because of the usual lack of the former.
Not until I'm comfortable with the prices, and like many people who are doing something because they love doing it, taking payments feels like a betrayal to those who also love the hobby.
Okay, I'm opening myself up to a lot of comments and I know this, and I'm going to try and keep my fragile ego in check:
How much should I charge to code for a game I'm not volunteering for?
The Mechanipus Exodus is almost over, and I have done more volunteer work in the last three weeks than I have for any single game in the same period of time, and I know that a lot of other people have done the same in their time.
I don't want to not help games set up or fix issues, but I want to reclaim some of my time. Starting to charge real money seems like one of the only recourses besides a straight up "no" which I am well aware is always on the table.
I jokingly gave someone this list, then I thought that it's not that bad of a jumping-off point. Is this ridiculous? How could this be tweaked? Thanks ahead of time, everyone:
Game setup from scratch: $20
CofD Core installation: $50
Each additional sphere or major book already coded: $20
Major code debugging and house-rules tweaking: about $20/hr.
Minor code debugging and house-rules tweaking: Probably free
Pointers, Tips, and Advice to anyone who wants to do this on their own: Always free
Major project not listed here (new book/rules): $50-$150
Minor project not listed here (new book/rules, fun new system): $20-$50
Bug-fixing of something I did: Free, because yeah, it's mine right?
Time taken to do this: I will try to meet your requirements, but my schedule is my own. That said, try not to pay me before something is done or with this understanding.
I personally would never use these as non-negotionable, especially if I streamline the installations to a point where I could get the entire CofD core gameline books in at one go, but I feel that my time is worth more than trying to get all of this done on my days off instead of, e.g. RPing, but I've hit a wall and can't think of other options.
Thanks for reading.
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edit:
After everybody's amazing input, I'm settling right now on the above information.
I have tweaked a few of the prices, mostly having to do what falls into what category.
I have a Google Wallet at my expected email address: thenomain@gmail.com
While tips are welcome, I will feel very self-conscious if you don't tell me specifically what it's for.
Thanks to everyone in this hobby who cares about this hobby.
Has anyone in this thread delved into how RP-Centric LARPs have addressed social systems?
Philosophy is fine, but which Larps have done what that's worked?
In the end,the staff are beholden to their players, and the players are beholden to the staff. If you set up a D&D Mu* with complex dungeon crawling, inventory, and resource management tools, and most of your players hang around in the taverns and complain there is nothing to do, you can’t exactly yell at them for not engaging the game as designed.
I mean, you can, but be careful for not coming off as a complete asshole. That’s a lot of work for people to wander into and say how dull it is.
Why people pay WoD games varies hugely, and is something Gany mildly commented upon. I was using Shadow Run specifically because I know that’s a real situation. The above D&D game really happened to Nuku, who didn’t complain, and it really happened to Serenity Mush, who did.
Staff has a responsibility to help players learn the game as intended, and players have a responsibility to try and learn the game as intended. Sometimes people will meta game this, and that’s just going to happen. You scold them when they are caught, and you praise those who engage.
tl;dr: Shadow Run is written top to bottom about a certain kind of character. So is D&D. They are games about a thing and are geared toward that thing and so should be played about that thing.
The various Chronicles of Darkness lines have finally moved in this direction again and should be honored. Mad props to my old Eldritch crew, @SunnyJ, Fate’s Harvest, and several other game creators for realizing this.
Perhaps his Willpower is high enough that the system says that you can waive the roll. Perhaps the system has a bonus stay on focus. Perhaps the system is about fighting and therefore pain is not factored.
This is my point and has been my point. If the game is about a thing, you play about the thing. Imagine how dull a Shadow Run game would be if you weren’t engaging the conceit there in the title of the game!
I posit that Leia won the social roll (intimidation) and gave up false intel to make the other player believe otherwise, or only partly won/lost it (did not betray her cause, but gave up something important).
There are several systems that go this way.
Both require players willing to do this, a GM, or Apocalypse World. 
I didn't want to get into the situation where people argued which systems did what well, but address the underlying problem or problems with social systems.
That said, I do agree with the following: