Over the past few weeks I've watched the threads on the Galciv forum (www.galciv.com) about the forthcoming expansion pack of Galciv with interest. Stardock were looking to achieve a particular pre-order level before they would feel the financial risk of an expansion pack was worthwhile. The number of features and investment into that financial pack were dependant on the interest received. In the end the numbers were below expectations and the expansion pack (while thankfully going ahead) will have less features than initially planned.

This seems to be a major problem with the gaming industry. There is very little feedback from gamers as to what they want and more importantly how much they would pay for that. How many times has a sequel to a game arrived and players were disappointed because feature x was missing? How many times has a sequel not arrived that players really wanted?

I initially subscribed to Drengin net over 3 years ago in it's infancy. While this is one of the best purchases I've ever made, it doesn't give me much control over what games I want to appear on drengin.net. My initial personal preference would not be for a political machine (not being American it won't appeal to me as much), or even for a Galciv expansion but for the Elemental game to be developed. But how do I make my wishes clear to the developers and how do they decide how important my wishes are compared to other peoples wishes?

Pledges!

If there was a pledge system where I could pledge x dollars to the development of an expansion to product y, and a dollars to the development of product b, then the company would be able to make decisions on which products to develop, with how many resources and when. They could have seperate pledge webpages for each product where people could not only pledge but state what enhancements they would like to see. As more and more users pledge over time the expansion becomes more and more viable till eventually the company decides that there is enough financial demand and produces the product. The pledges are then taken and the product released.

Would people pledge money?

This is the tough question. Lets take the proposed Galciv expansion. It will cost 20 dollars and includes x features. If this was handled on a pledge system then the developer could hold off developing this until they saw either enough individual pledges or enough cash to develop. Either could trigger development. Both would also provide the developer with detailed info on how much players would pay for the expansion and what details are desired in thew expansion. People would pledge what an expansion with said features was worth to them, or better yet, pledge x for feature y. This lets players put their money where their mouth is and give developers they trust far better support.

Can players afford to pledge?

The nice thing with pledges is that they only come into effect in return for the product. If I pledge x for feature y then I only pay x (or x only gets charged to my credit card) when feature y is delivered. I pay for what I get and I can choose how much I'm willing to pay for product y. Many players are older and can easily afford to pay for their games. What limits them is getting the games they want or the expansion to the games they want.

Small Pledges?

So what about those who can only pledge a few dollars? Do they get everything for that cost? Well no, probably not. Depends on the product and what the developer wants. Best case scenario, the developer may decide that's fine. Worst case the developer could decide to put a minimum cost at the end of the development and ask those who pledge less to either pay the full cost (or a discount for putting their pledge in) or give a refund.

Big Pledges?

So what about those few rich games who can afford to pledge big bucks for their favourite game. The developer could give all sorts of incentives to those few players who can afford and desire to give bigger support. A simple acknowledgement in the credits, to adding the persons name to the game somewhere. Some developers may even be willing to give shares in return for big pledges.

So I suggest that companies, especially those with a large online following and support give serious consideration to sponsorship for the future development of games and especially for expansions and improvements to current games.

Paul.