From: mxmora@unix.SRI.COM (Matt Mora)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Mac game developer seeks advice
Date: 24 Nov 92 00:39:11 GMT
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, California

In article <1992Nov20.161734.9206@gvl.unisys.com> dave@prc.unisys.com (David Lee Matuszek) writes:

>I have to say I agree completely with Mr. Dong.  There seem to be one
>or two posters (I haven't been keeping track of names) who seem
>determined to vent their spleen on this game, and treating Mr. Dong
>with the same kind of disrespect most of us reserve for virus authors.

I don't know if I'm one of the two posters that are "dumping on"
Mr. Dong but I do have a strong opinion about his comments. In many
of the things I read from Mr. Dong I hear him complain over and over about
how dismal the shareware system is, and that he can't believe that no one
has paid for his game. Maybe he needs to take a step back and look at 
what he offered to the net and ask himself why aren't people paying for my
game instead of accusing the distribution method. He should have done
a lot more beta/user testing and got feedback on his game. I don't
know what version he is on but he still seems to be asking basic
questions on how should this game operate. (should the ship stand still or not)

>So you think the game stinks.  So what?  90% of the stuff I download
>gets trashed immediately after I check it out, another 5% lingers on a
>week or two.  If I review such software in a posting, I simply say I
>didn't like it.  I might even say it's not worth downloading.
>However, I don't try to see how rude I can possibly be to the author.

He just seems to have a bad attitude about shareware and the people
who are supposedly pirating his game. Its unfortunate that his postings
come across as not being very nice.

>I don't know whether the complainers are simply acting like spoiled
>little children who believe everything on the net should be perfect
>for them,

It doesn't have to be perfect. But don't complain about loss of sales
if its not.


> or whether they are carrying out some personal vendetta
>against Mr. Dong, possibly for personal or racial reasons.  I hope
>it's just a matter of "If you don't see them face to face, you don't
>have to be polite."  If so, the problem will go away by itself as the
>individuals involved gain a little more experience on the net.  Given
>the current level of these attacks, though, I rather expect that
>someone will take issue with Mr. Dong's "5 cents" comment and post to
>the net exactly how many pennies it really cost them.

I don't think they are acting like children. Mr. Dong kept on blaming the
wrong reason why no one was buying his game and the net pointed out the real
reason. Welcome to USENET.




Matt (hoping the games I release don't get this treatment :-)) Mora

P.S. Some advice for Mr. Dong. Release this version as freeware. Get lots
and lots of user feedback. Rewrite your game and release version 2.0 as 
shareware. You might then get some results. Also assume you will get
no shareware payments. Then when you get one you'll be pleasantly
surprised.







-- 
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Matthew Mora                |   my Mac  Matt_Mora@sri.com
SRI International           |  my unix  mxmora@unix.sri.com
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