Price for Cartridges?

[+Harriet the Spy]

I noticed in the description for the available cartridge that there is a section for price. In the future will we be charged for cartridges from Groundspeak? Or does the developer charge and receive the money?

[Jeremy]

We're raising the possibility that authors in the future may want to charge players to download and play their experiences. At the moment, however, we're releasing all of the cartridges created by the Wherigo Media Team for free and there is no functionality available for authors to charge for their creations.

 

Once the Wherigo Player is networked you can imagine a time where you can open your mobile phone or connected device and see what cartridges you can download and play at, say the zoo, a Civil War battlefield or even indoor activities when other location-based technologies become available. From there you can order and download an experience at the location you are standing.

 

We've learned from experience to set expectations early.

[+sTeamTraen]

Once the Wherigo Player is networked you can imagine a time where you can open your mobile phone or connected device and see what cartridges you can download and play at, say the zoo, a Civil War battlefield or even indoor activities when other location-based technologies become available. From there you can order and download an experience at the location you are standing.

 

A few weeks ago I visited an outdoor exhibition. As part of the entry fee you got to lug a large device around (about the size of a 1985 model mobile phone) with buttons on it. You had to juggle this and a schematic map of the place. When you got to somewhere which looked like place #3 on the map, you pressed 3 and got the audio story of what that spot was about.

 

It would be really cool for the attraction owner to be able to give out Wherigo-enabled devices instead. This would save the paper map, play the story of place #3 when you arrive there, and - within the limits of the screen size and available memory - allow for multimedia content.

 

At present the main drawback I can see is that people won't want to leave a $500 deposit for the Colorado unit. So this would need some kind of dedicated Wherigo hardware, perhaps based around a stripped-down PDA to minimise the theft/resale value. (And of course, if the PDA wasn't running Windows, that would keep the acquisition costs down too.) But there would be money in it for the content developer, and maybe Groundspeak could license the Wherigo technology for a small fee too.

 

Commercial solutions already exist for this (eg http://www.ophrys.net/pdf/en/neo_product_ENG_US_V2.pdf (PDF)), but you're paying a premium price for the hardware and I suspect it's out of reach of smaller sites.

Edited January 5, 2008 by sTeamTraen

[+rundvandringar]

We're raising the possibility that authors in the future may want to charge players to download and play their experiences. At the moment, however, we're releasing all of the cartridges created by the Wherigo Media Team for free and there is no functionality available for authors to charge for their creations.

 

Once the Wherigo Player is networked you can imagine a time where you can open your mobile phone or connected device and see what cartridges you can download and play at, say the zoo, a Civil War battlefield or even indoor activities when other location-based technologies become available. From there you can order and download an experience at the location you are standing.

 

We've learned from experience to set expectations early.

I fully understand that this will take some time before it takes off, primarily because of the restrictions on suitable devices (inexpensive ones) and content. From a potential authors point of view the commercial aspect is quite relevant because it is not possible to get quality local content worldwide without the involvement of some commercial interest in the respective countries. My wife and I we are writing gps-enabled guidebooks for walks primarily in Sweden and would love to take this opportunity to get more people outdoors. To add games, cultural, historical, tourist, nature etc content into this type of package is a fantastic concept which I believe a lot of organizations will like. The possibility to charge for quality content is an important part of this.

Good luck/Anders

[blauweogen]

Hmm, well I was hoping to publish a cartidge for a small price in the near future. Also some for free. I would like to make them all free, but well, I need some income. I would like to see Groundspeak make a portion of sale and be able to upload to their site for people to buy/download.

 

Don

 

I have to say again, I can see huge potential with this as play anywhere and local!

Edited January 10, 2008 by blauweogen

[spyboy]

I agree, the ability to make a little income will make the catridge designs much better than free ones IMHO. Also, I can imagine authors adding catridges as an addon to their stories, especially mysteries, so the reader can play along.

 

Hmm, well I was hoping to publish a cartidge for a small price in the near future. Also some for free. I would like to make them all free, but well, I need some income. I would like to see Groundspeak make a portion of sale and be able to upload to their site for people to buy/download.

 

Don

 

I have to say again, I can see huge potential with this as play anywhere and local!

[blauweogen]

I agree, the ability to make a little income will make the catridge designs much better than free ones IMHO. Also, I can imagine authors adding catridges as an addon to their stories, especially mysteries, so the reader can play along.

 

I agree, good idea on the addon cartriges!

[+terahex]

This kind of relates to my thread about Intellectual Property. I don't mind sharing some games and info, as long as it doesn't take money out of my pocket. I could see this very useful to my brother who teaches a Geology field camp. He could record the field trips and sell them much cheaper than someone having to attending the field camp.

 

Commercial solutions already exist for this (eg http://www.ophrys.net/pdf/en/neo_product_ENG_US_V2.pdf (PDF)), but you're paying a premium price for the hardware and I suspect it's out of reach of smaller sites.

 

Interesting site. I was a little confused. Do you have to have a Neo product to run their Guided Tours. That would limited its value.

Edited March 4, 2008 by terahex

[+FluteFace]

I agree, the ability to make a little income will make the catridge designs much better than free ones IMHO.

 

Although it is quite possible that payment for cartridge building may produce "better than free ones," it is certainly no guarantee. Please don't assume that a person who creates "free ones" is incapable of building a cartridge on par with, or even better than, somebody who is paid for their efforts. In my experience, money alone has never been a predictor of quality.

 

Edit: Oops, typo!

Edited March 7, 2008 by FluteFace

[Ranger Fox]

That rating system is going to be very crucial, then, for the pay-to-play cartridges. I'm wondering if it would be possible to give away a few free downloads to people in order to get those first few reviews. If not, I'm wondering who will be the first person to put down money on the chance at having a "better" experience.