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<blockquote data-quote="smiteworks" data-source="post: 7648081" data-attributes="member: 87795"><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">As the principal owner of SmiteWorks, makers of the Fantasy Grounds VTT, I can shed a little additional insight into this. Ryan's statement that there are VTTs already is very true. His statement that none of them are successful is partially true. I'm not aware of any of the other VTTs out there that make sufficient revenue to employ a large staff. SmiteWorks is still in the process of paying off a 3 year support contract with the former owners before it will be able to take full advantage of the revenue it earns; however, it consistently reports more than $120K in earnings each year. Our user base is over 23K users. That is very nearly enough to support some full-time staff, but currently it only supplements full-time work and allows us to employ freelancers. The problem currently faced by us is that we both already have very well paying careers outside of SmiteWorks. (I guess there are worse problems to have)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">This is without the support and license to redistribute content from either of the two primary D&D companies. As a result, I would agree with Ryan that Fantasy Grounds and VTTs remain a niche product of a niche industry. If either Paizo or WoTC would agree to license the products, however, I think this would grow very rapidly into an entirely new distribution avenue. Imagine what it would be with the official backing and ability to buy official content from the likes of Paizo or WoTC...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>The cost breakdown for VTT distribution</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The rule of 5 quoted by Ryan is much more favorable in a VTT environment, but mainly because it costs the same amount no matter how many copies you sell. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">With each of our other publishers, we give a flat percentage (between 30 to 45%) to the publisher in royalties. They incur nearly $0 in costs to convert existing material into product usable on the VTT platform. Sure, they had to pay the artists, editors and creative staff originally... but they can skip the entire production costs. For any past catalogs of content, there is no cost to reproduce this in the VTT market. I, for one, believe there is a viable market in out of print content conversion to the VTT world. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Why are we able to give such a large percentage and waive the cost of conversion? Simple. We either convert the content ourselves using custom built tools for the job or we outsource it to our community members (along with guidance, support and tools) to convert for us. In exchange, we pay our community devs an ongoing 15% commission on any future sales of a conversion. We maintain quality by reviewing everything that is converted and we get better engagement with the community, who actually enjoys the "hobby" portion of doing the conversion work. Because we have two SmiteWorks owners/developers working on the core engine and community devs actively developing and suggesting new ideas for our engine, we end up with a constant growth of both content and functionality. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Future Development</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The VTT market doesn't have to be simply about converting print products into material usable by VTTs. You can actually build content directly in the VTT and package it into modules for resale.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>So why haven't WoTC or Paizo taken our offer to license their content?</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">I'm not exactly sure. At one point, Lisa Stevens held the lack of a native Mac OS X version as the reason not to license the content. I applaud the stance to support all the gaming community or none at all, but I also noticed that the upcoming Pathfinder MMO is coming out for PC only at first. The simple fact on this is that it is non-trivial to support more than one OS natively. Instead, we've chosen to go the route of emulators such as Wine to provide support for Mac and Linux. It works very well and it doesn't spread our development resources thinner than they already are. Maybe it has something to do with the MMO. Again, I can't see that as a direct competitor to VTTs. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">For WoTC, it may have more to do with the ongoing work on their own VTT. That makes some sense, but I still think their tool is a long way off compared to what Fantasy Grounds and other current VTTs can do today. Besides, WoTC will have to decide if they want to really be in the software development business or if they want to continue to focus on content.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">It used to be in limbo because of the Atari/WoTC entanglements that were publicly disclosed. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">We already work with Pinnacle Entertainment Games, Alderac Entertainment Games, Green Ronin, Triple Ace Games, Chaosium, Troll Lord Games and a half dozen other small gaming companies. We've been steadily growing within each of these areas but we've yet to see the massive breakthrough I would expect from full support from Pathfinder or D&D. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">In the meantime, we'll continue to check in with our contacts at both companies and hopefully crack into the market at some point. I'm not saying that this is the path to the 3.5E Glory Days of Old, but it sure seems like a step in the right direction to me.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="smiteworks, post: 7648081, member: 87795"] [SIZE=3] As the principal owner of SmiteWorks, makers of the Fantasy Grounds VTT, I can shed a little additional insight into this. Ryan's statement that there are VTTs already is very true. His statement that none of them are successful is partially true. I'm not aware of any of the other VTTs out there that make sufficient revenue to employ a large staff. SmiteWorks is still in the process of paying off a 3 year support contract with the former owners before it will be able to take full advantage of the revenue it earns; however, it consistently reports more than $120K in earnings each year. Our user base is over 23K users. That is very nearly enough to support some full-time staff, but currently it only supplements full-time work and allows us to employ freelancers. The problem currently faced by us is that we both already have very well paying careers outside of SmiteWorks. (I guess there are worse problems to have) This is without the support and license to redistribute content from either of the two primary D&D companies. As a result, I would agree with Ryan that Fantasy Grounds and VTTs remain a niche product of a niche industry. If either Paizo or WoTC would agree to license the products, however, I think this would grow very rapidly into an entirely new distribution avenue. Imagine what it would be with the official backing and ability to buy official content from the likes of Paizo or WoTC... [B]The cost breakdown for VTT distribution[/B] The rule of 5 quoted by Ryan is much more favorable in a VTT environment, but mainly because it costs the same amount no matter how many copies you sell. With each of our other publishers, we give a flat percentage (between 30 to 45%) to the publisher in royalties. They incur nearly $0 in costs to convert existing material into product usable on the VTT platform. Sure, they had to pay the artists, editors and creative staff originally... but they can skip the entire production costs. For any past catalogs of content, there is no cost to reproduce this in the VTT market. I, for one, believe there is a viable market in out of print content conversion to the VTT world. Why are we able to give such a large percentage and waive the cost of conversion? Simple. We either convert the content ourselves using custom built tools for the job or we outsource it to our community members (along with guidance, support and tools) to convert for us. In exchange, we pay our community devs an ongoing 15% commission on any future sales of a conversion. We maintain quality by reviewing everything that is converted and we get better engagement with the community, who actually enjoys the "hobby" portion of doing the conversion work. Because we have two SmiteWorks owners/developers working on the core engine and community devs actively developing and suggesting new ideas for our engine, we end up with a constant growth of both content and functionality. [B]Future Development[/B] The VTT market doesn't have to be simply about converting print products into material usable by VTTs. You can actually build content directly in the VTT and package it into modules for resale. [B]So why haven't WoTC or Paizo taken our offer to license their content?[/B] I'm not exactly sure. At one point, Lisa Stevens held the lack of a native Mac OS X version as the reason not to license the content. I applaud the stance to support all the gaming community or none at all, but I also noticed that the upcoming Pathfinder MMO is coming out for PC only at first. The simple fact on this is that it is non-trivial to support more than one OS natively. Instead, we've chosen to go the route of emulators such as Wine to provide support for Mac and Linux. It works very well and it doesn't spread our development resources thinner than they already are. Maybe it has something to do with the MMO. Again, I can't see that as a direct competitor to VTTs. For WoTC, it may have more to do with the ongoing work on their own VTT. That makes some sense, but I still think their tool is a long way off compared to what Fantasy Grounds and other current VTTs can do today. Besides, WoTC will have to decide if they want to really be in the software development business or if they want to continue to focus on content. It used to be in limbo because of the Atari/WoTC entanglements that were publicly disclosed. We already work with Pinnacle Entertainment Games, Alderac Entertainment Games, Green Ronin, Triple Ace Games, Chaosium, Troll Lord Games and a half dozen other small gaming companies. We've been steadily growing within each of these areas but we've yet to see the massive breakthrough I would expect from full support from Pathfinder or D&D. In the meantime, we'll continue to check in with our contacts at both companies and hopefully crack into the market at some point. I'm not saying that this is the path to the 3.5E Glory Days of Old, but it sure seems like a step in the right direction to me.[/size] [/QUOTE]
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