Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!eagle!jtreworgy
From: jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Software developing on Amiga (was Re: No more Cinemaware???)
Message-ID: <454@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
Date: 10 Aug 89 13:46:51 GMT
References: <9180.AA9180@heimat> <1989Jul30.210112.10525@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <925@corpane.UUCP> <4639@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM>
Lines: 38

In article <4639@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM>, wayneck@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Wayne Knapp) writes:
>    5) Pirates kill a large amount of impulse buying, which can
>       easily amount to 80% of your sells.  I know this because
>       less than 20% of the sells every bother to send in registration
>       cards. 
> 

If you are a software developer who relies on impulse buying to sell a program,
then you shouldn't be developing software. What I assume the above statement
means is that 80% of your sales do not depend on the quality or longer term
enjoyment of a program. This is bad, and any program which has had it's impulse
buys killed by people who've seen it already doesn't deserve the sales.

> Now the numbers can move some, but the essence is that your $3,500,000
> is off by an order of magitude.  Sorry about the cold water, but is 
> very hard to make a living writing Amiga software.
> 

I won't deny that.... but what I know is that most of the people who develop
software for the Amiga are doing it because they love the Amiga. Not because
they are trying to get rich. And even if they didn't get a dime out of it they
would probably do it anyway. (I am not justifying anything here... I just think
this is true. I don't do much on the Amiga yet in terms of writing, but when I
had a commodore 64 I wrote tons of software... good, polished, working games,
utilities, productivity software, etc... and I never tried to sell,
sharewareize, or whatever it... I just gave copies to my friends & user
groups. I enjoyed it.).

Anyone who is writing software for the Amiga, and doesn't like what they are
doing, should get out of the business NOW & not inflict software on us which
isn't a labor of love.

-- 
James A. Treworgy               "You should have seen me with the poker man,
jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu     I had a honey and I bet a grand,
jtreworgy%eagle@WESLEYAN.BITNET  Just in the nick of time I looked at his hand"
Box 5033 Wesleyan Station                           -Paul McCartney
Middletown, CT 06475