I think it’s both nice that there’s a lot of free IF out there but also sad that there isn’t a commercial market in the last 20+ years, so there’s been notably less emphasis on packaging and feelies, which I think can really add a lot to a game. While it’s possible that competitions lead to crap (or rather, low barriers to entry do), there are also surely some good games that come out of these events. As a newbie author, I’ve entered a game into IntroComp which I don’t believe is crap (opinions vary!) but it certainly needs refinement and feedback to help me progress. I don’t want or need to make money off my efforts though. I am happy for anyone to play it once it’s complete. But I would love it if there was a way to get my game onto other platforms like the Kindle.
I might consider paying for IF games if they were truly outstanding quality (and again, that’s a subjective viewpoint). More to the point though, I would absolutely encourage those authors or developers who are doing things to help advance the state-of-the-art. For example, I’ve bought multiple copies of Aaron Reed’s Inform7 book, donated to Zarf’s kickfire project, and donated prizes (mostly Dennis Wheatley Crime Dossiers) to IF comps as a way of giving back. (If someone wanted to Kickstart a project to develop a Glulx interpreter for Kindle, or a definitive reference manual for Inform I’ll donate in a flash.)
As a very minor point, some people might find the choices in your poll confusing having both author and player perspectives. I know that’s by design, but I consider myself to be both, so I’m not quite sure what the best way to answer is.
–Zack z-machine-matter.com
Yes, I can imagine myself paying $0.99 every once in a while for an IF game.
Slightly longer answer:
I don’t have a smartphone/tablet/ereader, so I’m only familiar with the world of apps through the Kindle and Nook ebooks that I’ve sometimes bought and read on my laptop. I think ebooks in general are way overpriced, but sometimes I browse through the science fiction and fantasy selection, seriously considering the titles that are offered for under five bucks or so. I wish more ebooks were offered for $0.99, or even less. I like the idea of walking over to the bank and throwing my spare change onto my debit card so I can buy a novel to read on my computer, and I would do the same for an IF game.
I can imagine the IFDB listing commercial games alongside free ones, charging you the $0.99 to add a title to your commercial library attached to your profile, which would then allow you to download the game (or play it online if available) as much as you want. I would support something like this.
However, I don’t want our free community to go anywhere, either. If 99-cent games were widely adopted, I’d at least want the annual Comp and our other competitions to stay open and bar the commercial games from being entered. Also, I think there will always be a place for light-hearted, unpolished, perhaps buggy games. I think the IF community takes such games too seriously as it is; maybe if a good portion of the more polished games were commercial, people wouldn’t get so mad about the casual, buggy ones.