Newell's Novel Notion

Let me be the first to say that I do not expect to update daily. Due to fortunate circumstances however, boredom has pushed me over the edge, and thus you have a little something to read today.

I had additions to yesterday's reflections on Battle.net 2.0 for StarCraft 2, but today I might just go for variety and talk about something completely different.

This is far from news, but head-honcho of Valve, one Gabe Newell had once mentioned in an interview (skip to 7:26; first part is here if you are interested in the rest) of an interesting business idea. At its core, he was interested in allowing consumers the option to contribute in funding developers to produce games. By pledging to the development of a game, developers would be getting financial support and a direction for the game, while the customers can guide developers to producing a game they will most enjoy. This serves to tie developers closer to the community, working upon the strengths of the symbiotic relationship. This idea is not exactly new - indie developers have often sought community donations, and liaised thoroughly with donators and community. Many private servers for MMORPGs adopt this business model as well.

This idea is not without problems, however. Too often I have seen promising developers and their titles fall through. If the average gamer were to lose his investment through such a case, the result can be incredibly stinging. It needs to be strongly stressed that the consumer is not just buying a vote in the game development process, but investing in a company that can flop in its entirety. Then there is the issue of monetizing community feedback to developers. The strongest opinion a developer could heed is the one that has the most money behind it. This seems unfair to those who may not have had an opportunity to invest, regardless of whether they care for the game or not. This could complicate the path of a developer, who usually aligns with a publisher to provide them with funding, to deal with market research and discover what consumers (and more importantly to some, the stockholders) want. It's cutting out the middleman to some extent, and that can be either good or bad. I suppose a possible solution is to reward via the game itself, lack of monetary gain will probably deter those looking to make a buck.

I would love to see the idea work. I love to support my favorite developers (and to some extent, publishers), and if I can pay to see them make a better game, I am quite willing to do so. Great care needs to be take however, to ensure we don't spawn forth a horrible investment model monster.