Swords Into Plowshares

[SoulsFury]

I'd be much more willing to spend the money for a charity book if it were going to a charity that benifits people in the United States. I'm sure the Afghan Girls need money, but there are enough people in the United States that need money. Perhaps if it went to the Ronald McDonald House, a local orphange, a campaign to stop teens from smoking, D.A.R.E., money for families of killed soldiers in Iraq, etc more people would go for it.

Nik

 

[tburdett]

No by now you've heard about Swords Into Plowshares being available for free.

In its for-sale lifetime it sold around 400 copies.

Sunday night I put it online for free. I just got the download stats for the site, and on Monday it was downloaded 2,400 times.

Imagine if more of those people had bought the book, and how much more money for charity that would have generated....

I suppose that about 1/5 the "freebie customer base" is a pretty good number. Well, hopefully people will like the free download enough to (a) contribute money for the Afghan Girls Fund on their own, and/or (b) buy my next charity book.

I tried to buy the book but you had already stopped selling it. RPG Now couldn't explain to me why this happened, but I eventually found the answer on your website. I will watch for your next charity release.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I'd be much more willing to spend the money for a charity book if it were going to a charity that benifits people in the United States. I'm sure the Afghan Girls need money, but there are enough people in the United States that need money. Perhaps if it went to the Ronald McDonald House, a local orphange, a campaign to stop teens from smoking, D.A.R.E., money for families of killed soldiers in Irag, etc more people would go for it.

Nik

But then comes the problem that not everyone is American. There's a good amount of European players that buy RPG products.

 

[Nik_the_Pig]

Could also be that people are happy to have for free what they wouldn't pay for, even if it is a minute amount that goes to a good cause. I wouldn't pay a cent for something that only mildly interests me but will snap up in a sec something for free if there is but a chance a tiny bit of a free be would be of use.

And along the charity bit (but not wishing to start a flame war so maybe I should keep my trap shut), I'm amazed people still have the charity begins at home bit going. $5 isn't going to fix much for a victim of child abuse/ a homeless person/ the mentally ill/ a war widow/ whatever in my country but used to provide education/food/development in Africa/Afganistan/etc can change a whole community's fortunes about, save numerious lives, break cycles of famine and so on. It may not stop nutters from doing terrible things, as most of those come from positions of wealth and power anyway but hopefully it will provide us with more allies in our struggle against said nutters and enable the people who are left to pick up the pieces to have the skills to be able to do so. END RANT. sorry.

 

[sparxmith]

Paypal Link

Actually, I'm a big fan of the idea of putting a paypal link next to the product. Accepting donations from such a userfriendly source as paypal would probably go a long way.

Here's an example of a site that does this:

http://www.aarg.net/~minam/towns.cgi


Just my two duckets worth

--Sparxmith

 

[johnsemlak]

Actually, I'm a big fan of the idea of putting a paypal link next to the product. Accepting donations from such a userfriendly source as paypal would probably go a long way.

I personally find paypal about as userfriendly as a refrigerator manual written in Babylonion, but maybe that's just my experience.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

My experience has been the opposite. I find PayPal too easy to use. Either that or my work translating Babylonian refrigerator manuals has finally paid off!

Best,
Nick

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Edit: Double post.

 

[johnsemlak]

My experience has been the opposite. I find PayPal too easy to use. Either that or my work translating Babylonian refrigerator manuals has finally paid off!

Best,
Nick

It probably is nice for people who have their paypal account set up. I found setting up my account a hassle (especially living abroad). I usually can do my online purchasing with a credit card no problem (which I don't mind, I'm used to using credit cards online).

In addition to my experieces I've read a lot of negative feedback on paypal, which hasn't helped my opinion either. Some people have positive feedback though, obviously, so it clearly is very useful to some people.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I'm certain. I've heard plenty of bad things about it, but I've been fortunate enough to have received good service from PayPal. I was actually mostly joking around that I probably spend too much money with it on a tight budget (while poking fun at my grad school work, which is probably about as useful as examining Babylonian refrigerator manuals). I probably use PayPal as much as I use my debit card to purchase things online.

Best,
Nick