On 08-Nov-2007, Alex Hudson wrote:
The idea, as I understand it, is that they will release a demo of the game and a pledge people can pay into. Once the pledge reaches a certain amount, and people pay up, the game is released as free software under the GPL.
The comments from LWN posters are pretty much what I would expect: asking for $40,000 seems to be asking too much. Yet, that would only buy ~6 man-months here in the UK, if that, which is practically nothing for a new game. And that would be at cost, too - and you can't run a business without turning a profit.
If they sold the game on a proprietary basis, at maybe $8 a pop, they'd only need ~5000 sales to break even and I doubt anyone would be complaining about the price. Psychologically, there is a lot going on there in terms of price, even before you get to "why should I pay for something so others can have it for free?".
Your comparison seems to point to the way out of this knot. Instead of saying "We need a total of $40 000", why not say "We need $8 each from at least 5 000 people; if you can pay more, that's welcome"?
If the latter *still* isn't attractive, then I don't see the point of that particular comparison.