Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="PapersAndPaychecks" data-source="post: 5052932" data-attributes="member: 28854">I do think it's possible to define a retro-clone as a "success" or "flop", even if it's released as a free .pdf.  You count the number of downloads a day.  Some proportion of the downloaders go on to become players--though I do not think the conversion rate is very high, and I do tend to assume that many of the downloads are repeats, where someone has lost a copy or wants a copy on a different computer.When I first released OSRIC, I measured its success against the number of downloads I was getting for other free material.  For example, I have a number of .pdfs of adventure modules uploaded to Dragonsfoot; the least successful of these gets 20-25 downloads a day, while the most successful is just over 50.  I defined "success" for OSRIC as over 100 downloads a day.In the event OSRIC rather significantly exceeded (and though I haven't checked recently, I do not doubt that it still exceeds) my early guess.  Luckily for us, wiser heads than mine had bought a generous hosting plan so the document didn't come offline during those first few weeks.I don't have the numbers for LL or S&W but I would be astonished if they were much behind OSRIC, and one or both might very well be ahead.BFRPG I think may have achieved fewer downloads, though it has (and richly deserves) many loyal and vocal fans.</blockquote>