#all things that they put behind paywall should be in base app | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thanakite · 3 years ago

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The price of an actually decent laptop that at minimum has the potential to last longer is so fucking irritating to me

The only "affordable" laptops these days seem to be Chromebooks which can be barely used if you ask me as you are limited to having to put everything into a Google drive and largely cannot install new software onto it or anything so unless you do basically nothing on your computer it is not enough for you (plus you're handing even more of your soul to Google if that's a thing that bothers you)

Like I was reading through some lists lately and any actually good laptop is going to be $1000+ and that isn't including the price of some of the things you have to add to them

You can get some moderately okay laptops for $500-$800 (still an enormous expense for many), but realistically these are still not that great, durability is an issue and one wrong move could leave you fucked or at minimum dealing with something irritating until you can afford a new one, a lot of laptops are being made with less and less USB ports (some are apparently even shifting to having USB-C charging ports which is an issue because while we do need to be better about universal chargers laptops should have a separate set universal charger from a phone especially if the laptop in question is going to be used to run programs that will rapidly drain the battery, as I have literally already had times where my charger was slow enough that playing an app drained it while it was plugged in and needed a chunk of time before it was ready again which isn't going to translate well for people who need to do things like that on their laptop for long periods), they have much less RAM, and the base level storage can be an issue if you need a lot of software or have a large number of big files

None of this even addresses that most laptops now no longer come with CD players so if you want to use one you have to buy a portable one that connects to computers, and then use a USB port (if you even have one since many Chromebooks don't have any) and then you can use it, that Bluetooth devices are/can be spotty in their connectability and die much faster than other others that connect whether wired or wirelessly through a USB port, that if you have to pay to store all of your shit in Google Photos then you are essentially renting storage for your laptop from the people who removed it as an option (can still be said if you use another laptop and or storage brand) , and so much else

Like, I cannot use a desktop computer because of chronic conditions that prevent me from being upright for extended periods, I have to have a laptop, and many others are also in the "Can't reasonably use a desktop computer" boat for a variety of reasons (a major part of which can in fact be space as the housing market continues to limit how much space a person can afford to a severe degree and also portability as you'd either have to be completely fine not being able to take it places or become heavily reliant on a method to move everything on your computer around in a portable manner without just getting a laptop too)

This is a huge issue even if you don't think it is, as society is moving more and more into online spaces but actually being able to afford a laptop that suits your needs (and could also help you more long term) is behind a paywall to keep people poor

It reminds me of the boot issue, where a richer person can afford to buy the $200 boots for work they are doing and it will last them a very long time (more than paying for themselves in the end) while a poorer person might only be able to afford the $20-$50 ones that they have to replace every year (or every 6 months or whatever). This is it on a bigger scale, a richer person can afford the $1500 laptop up front and it can last them a long time (still not incredibly long since planned obsolescence is a bitch) and do everything they want while a poorer person might only be able to afford the $800 laptop and can do most of what they want and a much poorer person will have to scrimp and save to even hope to afford the cheap Chromebooks which will not do most of what they want and will continually cost them money until it breaks after a year or 2 (like maximum) and they are forced to buy a new one

Makes me so frustrated

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worldiary · 4 years ago

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I agree with @mens-rights-activia . There are big concerns about this product, but I actually think it's a worthwhile experiment. The concerns I see most often about this product are the following:

1. Fanfic is going to be a disaster. Tumblr seems to be either uninformed or unconcerned about the legal ramifications of folks putting fanfic behind a paywall.

I agree with this concern and Tumblr should figure it out. I'm sure with all the hububb (and their own legal team), they'll realize that if they're making a cut off of our subscriptions, they can't wash their hands of the issue. Plus, Disney is absolutely brutal. Many of these big companies are. They need to come up with clearer guidelines. And also perhaps consider what kind of monetization best suits fandom creators. If they can have guidelines so we can still support those folks safely, that would be great.

I know folks are concerned that it's going to take all of Tumblr down, but I'm less concerned of that because Redbubble has figured out a semi-happy medium where they aren't dead. Redbubble's approach isn't going to work for Tumblr, but it does give me hope that there is a happy medium somewhere.

I would also ask Tumblr @staff to consider something a little more like Brave's tipping system (or integrating with Brave's tipping system) where you can load the browser up with money and then based on how long you spent on different sites, it recommends who you might want to tip. Their lawyers can determine if that's just as risky as putting content behind a paywall. It's possible that the "posts+" concept is safer because you can clearly legally point to the fact that "Yes, I draw fan art, but everything behind my paywall is an OC". I don't know. That's for lawyers to determine. But if tipping is less risky from a fanfic perspective, then that might be a better fit for the style of content Tumblr tends to create.

2. There's so much broken with this site, you shouldn't trust them to run this and/or they need to fix other stuff before it's worth trying this.

I disagree. Predominantly because: (a) WordPress just took over and they have a whole plan to revamp the backend. I trust that that's in progress, and therefore (b) I have faith that a company can do multiple things at the same time. The team is 200 people. The infrastructure folks are not the same as the product folks (speaking from experience working in tech companies).

I can kinda see the trust thing when it comes to "hey if you're paying, you'll want a functioning experience". But I think the trust thing about "DON'T LET THEM HOLD YOUR MONEY" is overblown. They're using Stripe. They're not building fintech infrastructure. If you trust Stripe, then you're probably fine.

3. Tumblr's cut is too high, how dare they

This is a misunderstanding. Folks see the 30% cut on mobile (which a cut set by and going to Apple and Google) and think it's Tumblr's cut. But it's not. It's demanded by Apple and Google and there's nothing Tumblr can do about it. Except maybe decrease their cut from 5% to 2% on mobile, but that's not gonna do much for you. Just don't pay for anything through an app ever. In a lot of cases you're paying a surcharge because of Google and Apple. Check out the Epic v Apple lawsuit for more.

Furthermore, Patreon's cut is 8-12%, Substack is 10%. Tumblr's 5% is cheap by comparison. Some might say you're paying less because they have so many little things to work out.

4. How dare they try to monetize, we will go down with this ship!!! I hate the people who run this!!!

I know this has been a really deep rooted culture here. And it's fine and it's funny. But I think it's a little silly here because this is literally the best philosophical approach (NOT execution, per se) to monetization we could have asked for. Like oh...Tumblr wants to be a sustainable business by allowing creators to make money??? Instead of just ads where they're the only ones making money?? We're... we're upset about this? We're upset about the opportunity to support creators without having to go to YouTube or Twitter or something? Do you know how much cooler WordPress is compared to Google or Twitter?

(I've also noticed that folks don't know WordPress owns Tumblr now. Please read the "Julia Alexander: The Tumblr community has watched as executives from Yahoo and Verizon came in and tried to grow something that they really didn’t understand" section here to get a sense of them).

I can name writers that I enjoyed on Tumblr that left years ago because they had no way to further their career here. It was better for them to be on Twitter, etc. Allowing followers to pay for your work is actually a feature folks were asking for years ago.

Also, we talk a good game about wanting to be here when Tumblr dies. But I've seen the way we talk about Twitter. We'd lose our fucking minds if Tumblr actually had to shut down.

5. What about the porn???

First, I think it's important to update folks that the ones who got rid of the porn and the ones who own Tumblr now are completely different companies. It doesn't change anything practically, I think some people just don't know that.

I agree that this matters to folks. And Post+ doesn't solve for that issue. I recommend folks keep asking for it, and hopefully if it's important enough to enough people, Tumblr will jump through the infrastructure hoops to figure out how to allow it. If you want to read more of the Automattic CEO's thoughts on why porn is complicated, check out this interview. You want the "Nilay Patel: Obviously, Verizon decided that adult content was going away. You tweeted last night, “If people want big policy changes here, put pressure on the app stores of Apple and Google, no one else has any leverage.” What did you mean by that?" section and the one below.

Furthermore, allowing people to pay for NSFW content is even more complicated than serving it for free. Stripe is the one that labels "adult services" as a restricted business that cannot use their service. Even if Tumblr supported NSFW content well right now, Stripe wouldn't let them allow that on Post+.

If this is important to you, keep asking Tumblr about it. If they know it's worth it, maybe they'll figure something out. But just know that it's not going to happen in a day.

In conclusion, I think this is a worthwhile experiment. It has issues that need to be worked out. But it's a worthwhile experiment. It's also going to be a huge test of if WordPress can execute better than any of the previous Tumblr overlords. (Which is funny because I don't think the staff of actual Tumblr has changed that much, but it's still going to be seen as a test of WordPress' process). I know some of you disagree with me and I think that's great. That's what keeps Tumblr interesting: different view points. And your concerns are going to push staff to make the product the best it can be. Just remember to be constructive in your feedback.

If you got all the way here, here's a gold star: ⭐

Y’all, they aren’t saying the entire site will be monetized, just the people who choose to use the feature

but we could literally use this post plus thing to get porn back on the site among other things

also tumblr as a site is not generating money, I guarantee you this is a way to get revenue for the site which is much needed and could actually get more people hired to actually run the site better.

need I remind you, this site lost close to 1 billion in worth and it has billions of posts and millions of accounts so think about the sheer cost of running a site like this. Those laughable ads they’re running sure ain’t bringing much revenue either.

It’s not ideal, it’s an imperfect idea(legal issues with fanwork has to be sorted out) but realistically tumblr as a website, with its current model, will not be around for long unless it can find a way to sustainably make revenue and this is the model that a lot of sites are headed towards

No one wants this but I’d rather not be able to have access to certain posts than to lose the entire site

Just wanted to properly make a post because I don’t think people are fulling considering the “why”

#tumblr+#tumblr

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marketingspecial · 4 years ago

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How to Sell Digital Marketing Services and Digital Marketing Services Package

If you desire to package and sell digital marketing services. Several services may suit under that parasol, but you know there's a market for encouraging people to do great online.

But your sales process to bring those people may be a little unexpected. It may be a little irregular. You may not have a method at all.

So, how do you sell your digital marketing services to your new clients? First, you necessarily know your inherent client requirements. Second, place your pricing according to the business problem your proposed client is facing. Third, cultivate a sales process that provides your prospective client to make the choice instantly and positively.

The article here will provide you a streamlined baseline for how to imagine marketing your services more productively. Let’s get started.

Content:

1. How do I Sell My Digital Marketing Services?

Know What The Customer Needs

Avoid This Typical Misconception!

2. How Do I Price My Digital Marketing Services?

3. How Do I Pitch A Client For Digital Marketing Services?

4. How Do I Land Marketing Clients?

5. What Should My Digital Marketing Business Model Look Like?

The Broken Business Model

A Better Way (Let's Use An Analogy): Flying Is Faster

Your Services Should Have A "Flight Path"

Take Your Clients Exactly Where They Want To Go

How do I Sell My Digital Marketing Services?

Let's begin at the opening: What is the most powerful sales strategy for digital marketing services? How should you be considering it?

I think there are two major points below:

The primary is to recognize that the person that buys your digital marketing services is a person. An actual human is seeing to execute this purchasing judgment. That person can exhibit a type of age, gender, social status, and interests, but at the end of the day, it is a person attempting to create a purchasing decision. Any information you offer is composed to assist this person to execute that purchasing decision as speedily and as reliably as possible.

The second important point is to recognize that your best customer is doing digital marketing already. So there's some level of web presence that survives, and they're attempting to optimize that web presence.

So to recall about that for a secondary, your best customer might be:

in the e-commerce business, like Nike, trading thousands of skews each particular day.

operating a membership site, with the majority of their offering, the bulk of their communication with clients, behind a paywall.

in the content business, like the Wall Street Journal, creating thousands on storing thousands of articles on their website each day.

in the software business allowing several varieties of apps and downloads and software tools.

Your most loyal customer may work in one of these models or some hybrid of these models. But the case is that your most loyal customer previously has an existent web presence, and they desire you to support them better optimize, to get still more benefit from that presence.

Know What The Customer Needs

What do these clients need? What might they be searching to purchase? Let's put them in three sections here.

1. Beginner: The opening client previously has an existing client base, but their web presence may not be blended into how commerce is typically done, so they may utilize the phrase, “We require to put ourselves out there.” They're attempting to utilize their web presence to push beyond their regular community, their regular physical location, their built organic possibilities.

So for them, a web presence means increased reach. The opening client knows that they don't have all the foundation they require, and they're willing to make the primary investment. It becomes your job to quantify what that focus investment requires to be and what they can assume from that primary investment of time, energy, and money.

2. Intermediate: The intermediate person has most possibly made the primary investment, but it was an incomplete investment. They have a system, and it more or less works. They have some things that are fixed up, but they’re broken and require to be corrected. This is presumably some version of a break/fix that requires them to appear in their world.

Someone requires to view the website, look at the setup, and fix what’s breaking so it happens more efficiently and they can start to depend on it more. Do you know what I suggest? The intermediate person more or less is seeing for a break/fix answer.

3. Advanced: The advanced customer is seeing for speed. They already have the primary setup. It works and they know it goes, but now they require it to happen quicker. And they have metrics in place to mark that speed. So they begin using phrases like ROI (return on investment) or ROAS (return on ad spend).

They're happy spending money, and they know they may have to produce a notable investment, but there's a way that they estimate the investment when it reaches back. And so you've got to be ready to look at their circumstances, see what has the most possibility for return on it, improve and scale the return.

Avoid This Typical Misconception!

Now there's a really valuable point that I have to call out here. It's a typical misconception that we perform when we sell digital marketing services. It's necessary to trade to the sold, not to the obstinate. What you desire to be capable of doing is trade with people who are already doing digital marketing.

The misconception that we do as specialists is that we view the opportunity—if a business would just do this if a customer would just do that—and so we start to “convert” things to customers. The problem is that the person you’re selling to hasn't previously understood for themselves that a chance or ability is present.

If you're selling to obstinate people, that means you have to satisfy them that a specific web property, web strategy, web component is a great idea. And if you have to satisfy them, that's a huge lifting on your part, and if you have to satisfy them, then they don't spend the premium for it.

You desire people who are previously traded on the concept that digital marketing is an excellent concept, that digital marketing investments are valuable investments, and that if they spend with you, they can see a compounded return on their energy. You are required to sell the people who are previously sold. Be wary of becoming an “evangelist” and trading with people who are currently stubborn.

Image Source: Search Engine Journal

How Do I Price My Digital Marketing Services?

The primary framing of hourly work, project-based work, and retainer-based work is forever sound and will ever be suitable. You can pick from those three, as they link to your customers and as they link to your company.

Let's view the pricing here a touch. We can scroll down to the “average price of monthly retainer” map here to assist us. What is the average price of the monthly retainer? You can recognize that the huge preponderance of services is traded for between $251 and $7,500. That's quite an expanse. You can sell for more than that if you wish or you can sell for less than that if you wish. But you get a notion of where the winning spot is for how the pricing of assistance is typically structured. If you believe about it in terms of a month, it'll match somewhere along with this range, typically between $251 and $7,500 a month.

Now let's discuss why that cost range might live. If you desire to credit more for your services, execute the prices go up, what do you have to do?

Scope: You’ve got to be ready to take on more scope. These could be easier projects, just completed on a bigger scale. So instead of maintaining one content piece or 10 content pieces, maybe you are leading a thousand or 5,000 content pieces. The larger reach enables you to push the price up.

Complexity: If you desire to push the price up, you’ve got to take on more complexity. Maybe you're handling some pieces of content, but the topic is rocket science. Well, that's more complicated, and that enables you to alter the cost of your services up.

Opportunity: Another component that enables you to credit more for your expenses is opportunity. That could be a matter of income, or it can be a matter of price. If there's a chance in the marketplace that your customer is conscious of and your digital marketing achievements can assist them to acquire that chance, well, that's deserving revenue to them. That's deserving more to them.

If they know that if they don't do something in the marketplace, it'll cost them money, if there's some kind of marketplace effect if they don't do this stuff, they're conscious of that price. You are keeping them from that price, repeatedly, which permits you to alter the price up.

So if you desire to charge more for your services, be at the high end of the company, these are the sorts of things you require to deal with.

Now, what sorts of stuff drive the cost down? If the cost is more economical, why might that be the crisis?

Existing infrastructure: If your customer has existing infrastructure, if they previously have a team, if they previously have software, if they previously have assets, the more that they have, the more comfortable the project is to accomplish. So there's just no call for a premium to be paid if they've previously funded the premium in the form of existing infrastructure.

Existing organization: Another thing that can push the cost down is if your customer has an existing organization. Right now I'm speaking about people. If they particularly have people in the position to do the work previously, if they have workflows in spot to do the work previously, then they don't require your team, they don't require your organizational workflows. Those things assist keep the cost down and a little more gentle.

As you think about working with customers and discovering a cost point that makes sense, all of these choices require to be recognized, because at the end of the day you're attempting to resolve the dilemma facing your customer. If your customer has challenges that push the cost up, so be it. If your customer has a response that keeps the cost more economical, so be it. What's most significant is that your pricing exhibits the outline your customer is experiencing.

Image Source: Boris Austin | Getty Images

How Do I Pitch A Client For Digital Marketing Services?

If you're seeing for an automatic step-by-step method to sell your digital marketing services, what might that seem like? Well, the primary process starts by knowing the correct people. From there you get to contact, that contact leads to a discussion, and that discussion becomes a closed sale. This is notable much how the process works.

Now the error we make is that we usually have the wrong mindset as we move through these levels. Let's see how you should be considering as you take every step.

Identification: When you recognize people in the marketplace whom you may be capable to serve, what you're seeing are puzzles you can answer. These are people with a current web presence, and you can say by seeing their web presence that something is not 100%; something could be developed. There's something about their situation that shows the difficulty to you.

Contact: So when you reach out to get contact, the offer that you're making here is an offer to have a discussion. So if they have this dilemma, “Hey, would you like to talk about it?” That's all you're attempting to get done. You're not attempting to sell in this contact. You're just attempting to see if a discussion makes sense.

Conversation: When you communicate to that person in this discussion, you are verifying that the problem that you think exists. If you're right and the problem exists, then you can move ahead. If not, then you should attempt to know what's going on so you can move to the following course of action. This conversation is about validating, not pushing their hand to move ahead as a customer.

Sale: When they select to become a customer when they choose to close, then the work starts quickly. You don't introduce any other bureaucracy; just get begun resolving a puzzle that you thought been in the initial place.

Now, a timeout for brief sanity checks here. I know that what you're seeing here seems simple. We under-appreciate how easy and how classic the sales process can be.

The number one error that we make is attempting to push people down this series of events. We're so focused on gaining our sales, hitting our numbers, getting that closed sale, that we don't leave an adequate period for the person on the other side to walk down this process with us. So yes, this method can be very mild, but it's very essential to drive it professionally so that both parties can be pleased with the outcome that's built in the end.

How Do I Land Marketing Clients?

So if you're passionate, you're focused and you desire to begin this process immediately now, what do you do? I suggest that you go with tried, reliable, and established approaches.

Go with friends and family: There are people in your network who know who you are, who appreciate what you do, and it does sense for you to reach out to friends and family heads to get your first point of impulse.

Use social media: You have people who follow you, who have united with you, who are in your online webs, and it just does sense to leverage those networks beginning to develop on your first momentum.

Use freelance networks: There is a kind of them, and they're all composed to put people in the head of you who can make the purchasing decision, and so you can bid on that work and get your primary drive of possibilities from programs like Upwork and others. (Read here: Top 10 Best Freelance Websites list in 2021).

Are there subtleties? Yes. Are there complexities? There positively can be. But whatever process you like to go ahead with, what’s necessary is the primary insight that you're utilizing your method to support this person obtain a purchasing decision. The more obvious you decide for this person, the quicker they can say, “Yes,” and work can begin. Best of luck.

What Should My Digital Marketing Business Model Look Like?

So you’ve reckoned out your pricing, you know how to pitch your services, and you’ve arrived some customers. Now I need to discuss how you package your services so you can explain them adequately and deliver them better.

The Broken Business Model

Here's what most digital marketing agency do: You ask the customer, "Customer, what do you require us to make? Do you desire a new website?" And the customer says, "Absolutely, we require a new website."

So you dig into your vat of digital marketing services, and you pick out the big long listing of possibilities: SEO, SEM, logo creation, digital marketing this, a digital marketing that, PPC, CPM, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. You explain all these various events that your customer could apply to better set up their digital marketing appearance.

Your client's eyes roll to the end of their head, you drop them, and also if they choose to purchase and become a customer, they're not assured what they acquired. Then they ask you 100 more questions, you have 40 more follow-up conferences, and the project takes bigger and bigger and bigger, and less and less satisfying for you.

It's a discontinued model. I have no thought about why or how we got into functioning that way, but I know that's how it works for most people like you. So let's turn that ever, and let's think about it a different way.

A Better Way (Let's Use An Analogy): Flying Is Faster

Here's an analogy. Your customer is attempting to travel from Point A to Point B. There are three methods they can travel: they can drive, they can walk, or they can fly. When you walk, that's the slowest option. That's a matter of months to get over a long span. If you drive, that's a matter of days or a matter of weeks to travel a long span. But when you fly, you can get there much quicker. That's a matter of hours.

Now you and I both know that flying is the premium choice. You know it fetches more for that, but if you require it done, and you desire it done right now, flying is the only choice. So what I'm saying to you is that you should perform your services like you are the flight alternative, and you should reveal to your customers the flight way to get to where they desire to go. Let's draw that out.

So I built the airplane analogy, and I just pulled one on the board. Now, sign, I went to school for business, not for design, so don't judge my airplane.

Your Services Should Have A "Flight Path"

The point here is that your customer starts over here, and the desire to be above there and your work is to compose a plane that gets them there as fast as humanly possible.

But here's the stuff about flying on a plane: there are some pieces that you have to do before you can get on the plane. You've got to backpack your bags, you've got to push yourself to the airport, you've got to park your car, and you’d extremely be at the gate by a specific time so you can get the flight. These things have to happen.

If you'll do that, then here's what happens: There's a pre-built plane; the plane's previously built. There's a cockpit, there's a pilot who's operating the plane, flight attendants are waiting to assist, and there are places for you to sit in. Right? All you have to do is get a seat, and the plane can take off.

Now some interaction happens while we're on the plane, a bit of experience that happens while we're on the plane, but the huge preponderance of the plane is previously developed. The promise that the airline gives you is that if you'll do your job and take on the plane, we'll take you accurately where you require to be.

Your assistance should be composed in the same way. So let's assume how that might be applied.

Take Your Clients Exactly Where They Want To Go

If you're doing digital marketing services, there are several pieces that your best customer requires to previously have in place, right?

They require to have a current web presence if that's great.

They require to previously have an objective customer.

They require to previously have metrics that matter to them.

These are things that should previously be in place, and so you've got to be transparent with your customer about what should previously be in place.

If they'll get those pieces in sequence, then you can beckon them onto the plane where things are previously set up. There's previously a captain to fly the plane, there are previously flight attendants, there's previously a seat waiting for them. They can jump on that plane, they can experience the manner, you go through that manner with them.

And when they get to the extreme action, they are accurately where they are required to be. Whether that's more views, more likes, more shares, more revenue, more customers, whatever amount is important to them, they’re specifically where they desired to be.

The rub for you is: are your services created this way?

Do you challenge your customers to get their act together before you begin working?

Do you get it clear to your customers that there is a pre-built process designed to take them where they require to go and it’s previously staffed and waiting for them?

Do your customers previously understand that there's an elegant design that you get them through the process that is simple and pleasant for them to take?

Have you got it clear that by the time they go to the ultimate step, they will be precisely where they need to be?

Your services should not only be explained this process, they should be composed this way so that when you do the promise to your customer, you and your team are previously prepared to help it for them.

If you're not preparing this, that may be why you're possessing stress selling your services. I’ve posted articles describing how to set this method into work for specific digital marketing niches. So whether you’re a web designer, copywriter, social media marketer, or what-have-you, you’ll find information and examples tailored to your work.

Original Content Source: How to Sell Digital Marketing Services and Digital Marketing Services Package

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un-enfant-immature · 4 years ago

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Special raises $2.26M to build a subscription platform for online creators

Special is a new startup offering online video creators a way to move beyond advertising for their income.

The service was created by the team behind tech consulting and development firm Triple Tree Software. Special’s co-founder and CEO Sam Lucas told me that the team had already “scrapped our way from nothing to a seven-figure annual revenue,” but when the founders met with Next Frontier Capital (Next Frontier, like Special, is based in Bozeman, Montana) they pitched a bigger idea — an app where creators charge a subscription fee for access to premium content.

While Triple Tree started in the service business, Lucas explained that the goal was always to create “a product company that we could sell for $100 million.” Now Special is announcing that it has raised $2.26 million in seed funding from Next Frontier and other investors.

It’s also built an initial version of the product that’s being tested by friends, family and a handful of creators, with plans for a broader beta release in October.

With online advertising slowing dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, YouTube recently highlighted the fact that 80,000 of its channels are earning money from non-ad sources, and that the number of creators who receive the majority of their income from those sources grew 40% between January and May.

One of the main ways that creators can ask their viewers for money is through Patreon. Lucas acknowledged Patreon as a “very big inspiration” for Special, but he said that conversations with creators pointed to a few key ways that the service falls short.

Image Credits: Special

For one thing, he argued while contributions on Patreon are framed as “donations” or “support,” Special allows creators to emphasize the value of their premium content by putting it behind a subscription paywall. patreon supports paywalls as well, but that leads to Lucas’ next point — it was built built for creators of all kinds, while Special is focused specifically on video, and it’s built a high-quality video player into the experience.

In fact, Lucas described Special’s spin on the idea of a white labeled product as “silver label.” The goal is to create “the perfect balance between a platform and a custom app” — creators get their own customizable channels that emphasize their brand identity (rather than Special’s), while still getting the distribution and exposure benefits of being part of a larger platform, with their content searchable and viewable on web, mobile and smart TVs.

Creators also retain ownership of their content, and they get to decide how much they want to charge subscribers — Lucas said it can be anywhere between “$1 or $999” per month, with Special taking a 10% fee. He added that the team has plans to build a bundling option that would allow creators to team up and offer a joint subscription.

Lucas’ pitch reminded me of startups like Vessel (acquired and shut down by TechCrunch’s parent company Verizon in 2016), which previously hoped to bring online creators together for a subscription offering. In Lucas’ view, Vessel was similar to newer apps like Quibi, in that they directly funded creators to produce exclusive content.

“It’s a billion-dollar arms race, with what used to be a technology play but is now a production studio play,” he said. Special doesn’t have the funding to compete at that level, but Lucas suggested that a studio model also provides the wrong incentives to creators, who say “Hell yeah, keep those checks coming in,” but disappear “the moment the checks stop.”

“I almost think it’s an egotistical play,” Lucas added. “The company thinks they know best what a creator should produce for an audience that doesn’t exist yet. We say: Let them do it on Special. Do whatever you want, as long as you follow our terms of service, and own your creative vision.”

It might also seem like a big challenge to recruit creators while based in Montana, but Lucas replied that Special has more access than you might think, especially since the town has become “such a hotspot for extremely wealthy people to buy their third home.”

More broadly, he suggested that the distance from Hollywood and Silicon Valley “allows us to not follow the trends of every new streaming platform and [instead] truly find those independent creators underneath the woodworks.”

What went wrong with Quibi?

#TechCrunch

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magzoso-tech · 5 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/scroll-launches-its-subscription-offering-ad-free-access-across-300-partner-sites/

Scroll launches its subscription offering ad-free access across 300 partner sites

After a long period of invite-only beta testing, Scroll is officially launching today, offering ad-free access to sites like BuzzFeed News, Business Insider, Salon, Slate and Vox for an introductory price of $2.49 per month.

CEO Tony Haile previously led analytics company Chartbeat, and he said he founded Scroll because of his frustration with the way news sites were becoming dragged down by ads and trackers — and despite those performance-slowing/privacy-defying practices, publications were still struggling to make money.

“Basically, we were trying to think through: How would the internet have evolved if it didn’t have to rely on ads [from the start]?” Haile said. “What would the economics look like?”

The solution that he and his team came up with is a subscription where consumers pay (the price is starting at $2.49 for the first six months after launch, then goes up $4.99 per month) for “a that’s web that’s twice as fast, with no shadowy trackers, no ads, no pre-rolls.” Publishers, meanwhile, make more money than they would have by showing ads to those same visitors.

The consumer experience may resemble what you can already get with an ad blocker, but Haile said it offers a few key advantages. For one thing, you won’t run into the issues you currently might with partner sites that detect ad blockers. For another, it works smoothly on mobile — once you’ve logged into your account on the Scroll site, you should be able to visit any of the partner sites and view them without ads, and you can also read via the Scroll mobile app.

Plus, there’s what Haile described as the “good karma” of knowing that you’re supporting the publishers behind the news and stories that you actually read.

He noted that every reader’s payment is dispersed separately, based on their own “engagement and loyalty,” rather than putting all of the subscription revenue into a single pool. So your money will never go to a site that you’ve never visited — and you’ll even get a monthly report showing which publishers your money is supporting.

Haile said Scroll has already signed up around 300 partners. (TechCrunch isn’t one of them, but I hope that changes.) The startup estimates that a normal page view brings in only $0.011 through advertising, versus $0.016 with Scroll. And the startup also offers a revenue calculator to help publishers confirm that they won’t be losing money.

Speaking of publishers, Haile said he’s trying to bring a “broader range of sites” into Scroll, representing a similarly broad range of viewpoints — again, because the money isn’t going into a single pool, you don’t have to worry about supporting a site that you don’t like (unless you’re doing a lot of hate clicking and reading).

Still, he will be exercising some editorial judgment: “I’m too fucking old to deal with Nazis. I don’t want to give them money.”

Of course, many (non-Nazi) publishers are also experimenting with their own paywalls and subscriptions. Haile argued that Scroll is complementary to those efforts, because it allows publishers to offer a better experience to readers and make more money from them, even if they’re not yet “superfans” who are ready to sign up for that specific subscription.

“We don’t get in the way of that,” Haile said. “We’re trying to solve that other problem, to make the internet not suck.”

#Miscellaneous

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sheminecrafts · 4 years ago

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Special raises $2.26M to build a subscription platform for online creators

Special is a new startup offering online video creators a way to move beyond advertising for their income.

It’s also built an initial version of the product that’s being tested by friends, family and a handful of creators, with plans for a broader beta release in October.

Image Credits: Special

What went wrong with Quibi?

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#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

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technicalsolutions88 · 4 years ago

Link

Special is a new startup offering online video creators a way to move beyond advertising for their income.

It’s also built an initial version of the product that’s being tested by friends, family and a handful of creators, with plans for a broader beta release in October.

Image Credits: Special

What went wrong with Quibi?

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3icBtUW ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

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truemedian · 5 years ago

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The Scroll subscription service is an ingenious web technology hack

Welcome back to Processor, a newsletter about computers and also sometimes other things. You are probably expecting me to spend several paragraphs making fun of Google for creating yet another messaging product, as The Information reported yesterday. Not gonna do it: it’s enterprise-focused and from what I can tell about Google’s cloud business right now, a haphazard message app strategy is the least of their worries. Instead, the thing that blew my mind yesterday was Scroll, a new $5 per month subscription service that gives you a bunch of websites without ads. I kept on experiencing successive waves of small revelations when I thought about it. I’ll disclose now that Vox Media (and therefore The Verge) are partners, but I had no idea this service existed until it was announced yesterday. First: although I don’t have any specific reason to distrust Scroll, this still feels like a data privacy time bomb. Scroll won’t sell my data, but what if the company that snaps up Scroll does someday? There’s a prominent button for deleting your data, at least. Scroll’s privacy policy is refreshingly readable and candid about what it gathers and what it does and doesn’t share — including being honest about sharing information with governments when required to by law. It also notes that your data could go along with a sale of the company itself. Basically I suggest you find the “delete your information” button and remember where it is. Second: Scroll’s entire method of stopping ads is an absolutely ingenious repurposing of third-party cookies. You log into Scroll, it sets a cookie, and then the websites you visit see that special cookie and don’t serve you ads. It’s not even ad-blocking, they just don’t get served. It is actually quite elegant, but if you take a second to think through the chain of communications and deals that are required to make it that elegant, it seems like a hellacious hack. Then again, as Nilay Patel said to me today, isn’t most web technology a hellacious hack? There are a few more details — Safari in particular is stricter than other browsers and so it requires an extension. Brave will also need some extra effort to work with Scroll. (Scroll has a snarky footnote about them.) Third: it’s a much easier solution for websites to get paid than asking each of them to roll their own subscription. It tracks where you visit and automatically divvies payment up between those partner sites. I could (and eventually will) quibble about the percentage Scroll is taking: $1.50 out of $5, or thirty percent. As an independent startup, I’m not going to begrudge Scroll its revenue, and it likely needs a bigger cut to stay in business than Apple or Google do on their App Stores. If the company hits scale, though, I’d like to hope that it will find a way to reduce that cut. Fourth: hang on let’s think about that hellacious hack again! Although you have to constantly have Scroll email you a “magic link” and then ensure you open it in the right browser, it means that you are getting your paid-for ad-free experience in the app of your choosing. Unlike Apple News (disclosure: another Vox Media partner), you aren’t forced into a not-especially-great app. You don’t get a link that seems like it goes to a web page but actually just goes to Apple’s app. You can also use it on any device you own, not just Apple’s products. Also unlike Apple News, this subscription isn’t really a subscription. For publications that put articles behind paywalls, Scroll won’t get you in. On the whole, though, I much prefer Scroll’s system to Apple News. It works better with the existing web and the existing apps we all use to navigate it. A subscription system that turns off ads, pays publishers, and doesn’t lock me into any particular app while also doing a pretty good job of keeping my login active? Seems good to me. Still, I’m not quite going to go quite so far as to endorse Scroll (and not just because Vox Media is a partner). Deciding to sign up is between you, your level of trust in Scroll’s privacy policies, your ad-blocking conscience, whether you care about the current list of partner publications, and the cost. Fifth: Scroll puts a white bar at the bottom of every webpage it’s active on, ostensibly so you have the benefit of getting share links and an audio reader mode. No thank you times a thousand, Scroll. However, one benefit of using web browsers instead of Apple News is that web browsers are relatively open platforms and so you can use them to alter the web pages you visit (at least on the desktop — on mobile things are still often locked down). So, for example, I have a little script that I cobbled together after a day of Googling that makes it easier for me to format the links in this newsletter by automatically changing the web page I store them on, Pinboard.in. My favorite method is an extension called Tampermonkey. I wrote a little script for it that hides Scroll’s annoying bar. Other than some preliminary settings, it’s literally one line. It should work in Chromium-based browsers. Here it is, offered with zero support and absolutely no guarantees that it’s any good at all. Bonus sixth revelation: Tampermonkey offers a Google Drive-based sync, and since Microsoft’s new Edge browser runs on Chromium, my script auto-synced from Chrome on a Mac to Edge on Windows and Just Worked. The Internet! Sometimes it’ll surprise you.

Tech contends with the coronavirus

└ Apple is limiting China travel and has closed one retail store due to coronavirus outbreak └ iPhone maker Foxconn says coronavirus outbreak won’t affect production └ United Airlines suspends some China flights after coronavirus outbreak └ Facebook, Razer, and LG are restricting employee travel to China amid coronavirus outbreak

Big reads from The Verge

└ To contain disease outbreaks, health officials rely on people’s trust You’ve probably formed an opinion on how anti-vaxxers have affected public health (the right opinion is that it has been for the worse). But similarly online misinformation can rush to fill the void of faster-moving health crises. Nicole Wetsman looks at the intersection of health, internet censorship, and trust: If one crisis is handled poorly, there will likely be less trust during the next one. Not only that, but the spread of misinformation can have real-time impacts on what people believe. That erosion can weaken public health response. └ How Amazon escapes liability for the riskiest products on its site The outcome of some of these cases could determine the fate of Amazon’s marketplace. Is it like an eBay or a Craigslist, with Amazon as a middleman, or is Amazon the retailer? People tend to think of Amazon as the latter but Amazon thinks of itself as the former. Great report here from Colin Lecher. According to court records viewed by The Verge, Amazon has faced more than 60 federal lawsuits over product liability in the past decade. The suits are a grim catalog of disaster: some allege that hoverboards purchased through the company burned down properties. A vape pen purchased through the company exploded in a pocket, according to another suit, leaving a 17-year-old with severe burns. └ BoJack Horseman’s finale signals the end of a Netflix era Julia Alexander has an excellent, focused history of Netflix as seen through the lens of its original programming decisions.

More news from The Verge

└ Everything we think we know about Samsung’s next foldable phone └ Everything we think we know about the Samsung Galaxy S20 └ Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip fully revealed in leaked images The minimalist screen on the outside is an interesting choice. I will be very, very curious to see if this “ultra-thin glass” is actually more durable than plastic. We’ve all sort of been assuming it will be, but it’s no sure thing. └ Moto G8 and G8 Power leak with hole-punch displays and midrange specs If battery life and a big screen are your top needs in a smartphone, it’s worth keeping an eye on these. └ Filmic DoubleTake lets you record from two iPhone cameras at the same time Apple hyped the heck out of this app, now it’s finally here and Becca Farsace has run it through some paces: With the Discreet mode, I was able to film from the Wide and Ultra-Wide, both at 1080p, at the same time. The H.264 .mov exports are really clean and take very little time to transfer to the camera roll. Pair a clean export with the iPhone 11 Pro’s excellent lens calibration, and you have a perfect punch in from a single phone. └ UK defies US and refuses to ban Huawei from 5G networks └ Google Translate will transcribe translations in real time on Android One step closer to the Babel fish. └ Neil Young says the MacBook Pro has ‘Fisher-Price’ audio quality You might think this headline is overstating how fiery this Vergecast interview is. But I promise you it is understating it. └ Pokémon Home cloud storage service will launch in February for $3 a month So if Nintendo creates a pokémon and then you catch that pokémon and then you put that pokémon back in a Nintendo server farm is that like throwing the pokémon back? Have you really caught anything? Are you just renting pokémon? Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy. Read More Read the full article

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waynekelton · 5 years ago

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The Weekender: Arnold ex Machina Edition

I don’t know if you could tell but I’ve been doing a lot of random things this week. Early Jan is usually a slow time so might as well experiment to fill the void. Been doing a bit more news as interesting stories have cropped up, and also been refreshing our Apple Arcade coverage to try and get a read on where to take that.

Black Desert Mobile seems to be doing very well for itself at the moment, so we’re going to be updating and maintaining our guide on it for the moment. It’s genuinely a beautiful game, even on mobile, and if you enjoy MMORPGs then you should definitely check it out. Don’t let the free-to-play trappings put you off - there’s barely anything gated behind paywalls, but it is very grindy.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away...

New Releases

End of the Universe (iOS & Android)

Immortal Rogue released around 11 months ago and was one of the highlights of mobile rogue-likes in 2019. Developer Kyle Barrett has returned this week with another creation. This one swaps an immortal vampire-thing with a star fighter. It’s a shooter designed for one-touch player, and has rogue-like elements as well as lots and lots of space monsters. We haven’t had a chance to play it yet, but we’ll add it to the review pile. Here’s some gameplay to tide you over in the meantime:

youtube

App News & Updates

Speaking of Black Desert Mobile, they’ve added yet more content to the game this week with a new PvP Guild War mode. Here’s an official summary:

Guild War is a PvP mode specifically made for guilds, where Adventurers can engage in battle against enemy guild members in the open world of Black Desert Mobile. Guild masters and officers can declare war by entering the enemy guild’s name in the guild window. At least 10 guild members are required to attend within 48 hours along with a payment of 3 million silver from their guild fund.

You can read more in the patch notes here.

While we’re on the subject of MMORPGs, it seems there’s an official Final Fantasy XIV spin-off game in the works for mobile in this genre. It will be set in a parallel universe to the main FF15 game that was released in 2016. It’s being developed by developers JSC and GAEA in conjunction with Square. Enduins has more details.

If I were to ask you what you thought the most talked about game on Twitter was in 2019, what would be your answer? It’s not what I thought it would be, but it was in the same ballpark - Fate/Grand Order is the winner, with Fortnite coming in second. PocketGamer.biz has the full top-ten list if you want to check it out.

Last and certainly not least, our good friends over at Tiny Touch Tales are working on a new game due out on January 15th on both iOS and Android. From Mr. Rauers himself:

Maze Machina combines a simple turn-based swipe to move mechanic with a tile based item system that allows for endless combinations of tactical attack, defense and utility moves on a small 4x4 grid. Short game sessions allow for quick bursts of tense gameplay which you can hop in and out of at any point. In various modes and high score challenges you can measure your skill against other players.

We’ve missed having a new TTT game to play around with. Michael’s already lined up to do the review, but because he’s also away on holiday we might not have it ready for launch day. Will be done ASAP, though. Here’s a trailer:

youtube

Best App Sales

There’s honestly nothing worth shouting about this week as far as I can see, although feel free to suggest anything you’ve seen you think readers should know about.

That’s all for this week - see you all Monday!

The Weekender: Arnold ex Machina Edition published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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edwardpotts · 5 years ago

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Why, When, and How to Use App Remarketing: 5 Key Scenarios for 5 Big Verticals

Remarketing is not a marketing buzzword for stalking.

Admittedly, when done wrong, it can come across that way to would-be customers that see your logo or products lurking around online, following them everywhere they go. But when done right and with tact, it can do wonders for app growth.

So, when does remarketing go from creepy to cool?

When you take the time to answer these questions:

How does remarketing fit into the app lifecycle?

Which specific situations warrant putting remarketing into action?

Why is remarketing the best way to engage users in these scenarios?

Who should I target with remarketing ads?

What types of campaigns should I run?

Don’t worry; you don’t need to toil over these answers alone. We’re going to address them in this article.

Why You Need App Remarketing

As a mobile marketer, you already have push notifications, in-app messaging, and personalized email in your toolbox – so why would you also need app remarketing?

Because in a world where 62% of iOS users and 31% of Android users have disabled push alerts, the average person uses 30 apps per month, and working professionals receive about 121 emails per day, your app is competing pretty darn hard for attention.

Combine these statistics with the fact that 90% of marketers have vouched for the effectiveness of remarketing, and you’ve got some solid reasons to add this tactic to your arsenal.

When You Need App Remarketing

One of the great things about app remarketing is that it fits into every stage of the app lifecycle. Here’s how:

Smarter acquisition – You can export the characteristics of your most valuable app users and use “lookalike audiences” to target ads at similar people.

Higher engagement – Remarketing gives you another way to reach users outside of the app and stay top of mind.

Meaningful growth – Remarketing deepens relationships by increasing the likelihood of conversion and maximizes the lifetime value of users.

Improved retention – You can use remarketing to bring back app users who are at risk of churning and decrease app abandonment.

How to Run App Remarketing Campaigns

All brands can benefit from remarketing, but the specific types of campaigns you should run vary depending on the type of app you have.

In this section, we’ll better flesh out these use cases (with a focus on boosting ROI by converting power users) for different categories of apps.

Media

Media apps offer free and paid subscriptions to content, such as music, videos, and in-depth articles. Often, these apps employ a paywall business model so only a limited amount of content can be consumed at no cost.

This is where remarketing can help.

Use Case: Show remarketing ads featuring personalized content based on what users listened to, viewed, or previously read in your app to elicit an upgrade.

Goal: To increase the number of users who move from a free trial to a paid subscription.

Who to Target: All users who have listened to/read/watched at least three songs/articles/or videos in-app (this can be further segmented by favorite music genre, most-watched TV show, or favorite news section).

Sample Messaging: “Get unlimited access to all of your favorite episodes of X. Watch anytime, anywhere. Upgrade now.”

eCommerce & Retail

Ecommerce and retail apps are not immune to the common shopper’s dilemma: to buy, or not to buy? People start off on the path to purchase, but for one reason or another, they sometimes fail to complete the checkout process. Remarketing can remind these users of the awesome products they left behind and nudge them to pull the trigger.

Use Case: Show remarketing ads containing items from users’ in-app shopping cart and offer an enticing promo.

Goal: To drive more in-app purchases and convert users from casual browsers to customers.

Who to Target: All users who have either viewed or favorited an item in-app or, have added an item to their shopping cart, but failed to check out.

Sample Messaging: “Still interested in X? Here’s 20% off because X will look absolutely stunning on you. Check out now.”

Games

Gaming apps are addictive, but they are also at risk of becoming one-hit wonders if people loose interest or simply stop playing. Remarketing can be used to both challenge avid gamers (by highlighting new levels, tasks, or competitors), and motivate novice players into not giving up (by offering extra lives, hints, or in-game items).

Use Case: Show remarketing ads to people who conquered a game level, but haven’t been back to defeat the next one. And if your game has gated features, also use remarketing to prompt regular players to unlock these bonus features.

Goal: To keep players engaged and increase in-game purchases.

Who to Target: All users who successfully completed a game level, but haven’t had a recent session with your app.

Sample Messaging: “You’re so close to unlocking the next level! Play again and we’ll give you X extra lives.” Or, “Looking for another challenge? We’ve released X new levels for $X. We dare you to beat them.”

Travel & Lifestyle

Travel apps are unique in the sense that people tend to interact with them in bursts. When people are planning a vacation, they will likely become heavy users of travel apps with frequent app launches. But when they’re not thinking about going somewhere far away, people will have much fewer sessions. That’s why it’s more important than ever to use remarketing to swiftly convert those active users.

Use Case: Show remarketing ads to people who just looked at certain travel packages and bring new deals to their attention to drive bookings.

Goal: Move newly active users along the booking funnel from in-app search to the ultimate in-app action (i.e. the purchase of a vacation package, flights, hotel, etc.).

Who to Target: All users who have more than three app sessions per week and have searched for packages for at least one destination.

Sample Messaging: “The beautiful beaches of X are waiting for you. All-inclusive packages are now $X. Book your escape.”

Technology & Finance

Business and technology apps exist to help people make smarter money management decisions and be more productive throughout the day. Realistically speaking though, this is easier said than done. People can be notoriously bad at shaking bad habits and often need an extra push or two. If your app offers coaching services, financial advice, or premium features that can protect people’s wealth and improve their daily lives, use remarketing to bring these add-ons to light.

Use Case: Show remarketing ads to people who consistently use your app and could benefit from additional assistance managing their finances or other day-to-day tasks.

Goal: To increase the number of users who purchase in-app services.

Who to Target: All users who have set financial or productivity goals in-app and track more than 10 transactions (or have more than 10 sessions) per week.

Sample Messaging: “Struggling to save? Don’t know how to budget? Talk to an expert and get financially fit today.” Or, “Stop feeling swamped. Streamline your day with our new X tool. Get this feature for only $X.”

What Should App Remarketing Ads Look Like?

Before we conclude our discussion on why, when, and how you can use app remarketing to grow your app, it’s crucial to mention that even the best-intentioned and most well targeted ads have an Achilles heel.

And that’s remarketing creatives (i.e. the banners that typically accompany your ad).

Nothing can kill a remarketing campaign quite like a poorly designed, unbranded, boring visual.

Your ad needs to catch someone’s eye and show people what they need and love. It should be personalized. It should reinvigorate users with fond feelings for your app.

Luckily, we’ve broken down all the best practices of exceptional app remarketing banners right here. Combine these with the use cases you learned above and you’re ready to rock.

P.S. If you're still looking to learn more about app remarketing, you can find more great content here.

Why, When, and How to Use App Remarketing: 5 Key Scenarios for 5 Big Verticals published first on https://spyadvice.tumblr.com/

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ericmwatson-blog · 8 years ago

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Card Fighters Clash Arcade: a Speculative Video Game Design Document

Alright guys, the point of this whole thing is that I think about games constantly and it would probably be productive to actually WRITE those ruminations down, rather than just think them.

Anyway, earlier this week I was having a think about SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. There’s a definite sense that SNK positioned Card Fighters to be the Pokemon of the NGPC. Like that game, it focuses on 1v1 battles with collectible characters and has two versions, each of which has exclusive characters. Obviously it didn’t take off like Pokemon, but it was one of the more successful games on the system and easily the one I’ve put the most time into, probably around 100 hours over the two versions. Unlike other NGPC games from SNK, this one wasn’t based on an existing Neo Geo property, though it drew characters from both SNK and Capcom’s extensive backlog and so I started thinking about what an arcade version of this game might look like, which I think is an environment that lends itself to 1v1 games better than a portable system which requires two consoles, two games, and a link cable.

To begin with, there are, as I can see, three major problems with an arcade version of Card Fighters. The first is that the game requires some kind of asymmetry of information, in that each player should only be able to see their own cards. This could be solved traditionally with a dual-screen cabinet design, though I don’t think a card game is “flashy” enough to warrant a unique cabinet design and this wouldn’t work with a Neo Geo cabinet.

The second issue is that the player would have to have some mechanism to store their cards/decks/player stats. It’s worth noting that the Neo Geo actually had a proprietary memory card that allowed players to transfer data between cabinets and systems such as this are fairly common for modern Japanese arcade games.

The final issue is that the arcade isn’t exactly an environment conducive to deck-building. I think the best solution with a traditional cabinet, say a Neo Geo, would be to give each player 60 seconds or so between matches to modify their decks as well as allowing players to pay a quarter to have three to four minutes to build a deck. It’s not an ideal solution, but in the conventional arcade paradigm, I’m not sure there is another.

That said, technology has advanced since the Neo Geo was introduced in 1990, giving us the smartphone, which I see as a solution to all three problems. By pairing the game with a companion app, players would always have access to their decks, could build decks when away from the arcade and without monopolizing a cabinet, and would have a second screen to select which card to play. They could easily link to a cabinet through bluetooth.

Having a companion app brings in a whole host of new possibilities. Imagine having the ability to find new cards though geolocation services like Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go was a huge deal for about a month, so imagine how well that game could have done if it actually had a robust and compelling battle system. Of course, a huge part (arguably all) of the appeal of Pokemon Go was the pokemon themselves (which explains why only the original 150 were included, though the decision not to expand to later generations is baffling). I can’t say I think SNK or Capcom’s roster have anywhere near the appeal of Pokemon, but there is some recognition there.

Additionally, one of the more controversial elements of Pokemon is the selection of gym locations, which have swamped restaurants and businesses with players. Here however, the battling locations would all be arcades, movie theaters, malls, and actually fighting would be behind the paywall of the arcade cabinet.

Obviously, arcades are pretty much dead here, and like I said, Terry Bogard doesn’t have the same level of popularity as Pikachu. (Though what if it were SNK vs Capcom vs Sega? That could be rad.) Finally I think some significant changes would have to be made to the battle system to actually gain any purchase with players. I think Card Fighters Clash is a ton of fun, but it’s also hugely unbalanced. It would need some changed mechanics and an entirely new set of cards to even begin to compete with the likes of Hearthstone.

This is just a fun thought experiment, but damn if I don’t want Hearthstone x Pokemon Go with an SKN/Capcom/Sega theme.

#writing #cardfighters #snk vs capcom #gamedesign #arcades #neo geo #neo geo pocket color #ngpc #snk

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