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Hi, first it's been a while since I've been to these forums
.I have been helping Grant on a few projects. On one of the sites I noticed that he said Tib Sun was now free. He at first thought Ra2 free would be a bad idea.
Here is my Proposal.
Since EA has finally started releasing their games for free and it would seem Red Alert 2 is the next in line. I have a proposal to EA as the game might be profitable(minor) to a website willing to run it.
Recently, I have been playing free MMO games mainly FPS style shooters.
http://www.gamehi.com/
http://crossfire.z8g...x2.aspx?newsid=
QuakeLive.com
These games make their cash from advertisement and a in game Cash Shop, which allows players to buy add ons in game. Most free MMO's are RPG, FPS, 3rd Person Shooters, and Racing. There really is no free to play rts game worth playing. EA's only competition is itself or what ever site that would decide to run them.
Some of these games have thousands of players who play across the world. Sudden Attack (gamehi) is the 2nd most popular game online in South Korea and is right there with StarCraft. Sudden Attack was made in '04 and it's graphics aren't great, but it has excellent game play.
With good advertisement, I believe Strike-Team could make a decent amount of money off of Red Alert 2 and maybe even Tiberium Sun. You have to let people know the game is free and what's it about. Youtube videos are a great way to get people's attention and you could have a great video made up.
Things EA would have to allow.
- Control of the game too ST or a website that would run it.
That's pretty much it.
Cash shop ideas all if possible.
-Rendering units different colors
-Programs like MF for competitive players
-Customized Interfaces, Buttons, ETC....
-Clan symbols on the ladder
-Cap clans too 25 players and make them pay to expand (Those games I listed make a **** load off of this.)
-You could allow them to design their own symbol and it cost extra
Advertisements of course for the website
Then there is all of the people in China playing this game and that's where the cash shop makes your money. Z8games' Crossfire is really big in China and they spend a good amount of money on it as it's free, but you can buy extra's. The clan add-on is your money maker and if you could render the units that would be another. Clan symbols would also be a good source, especially if you aloud custom ones. Of course, you would have to find a way to accept Chinese currency. You would have to at least have a server close to them to make them want to play, but it's for profit reasons.
Obviously, the main problem that everyone has about free serials is how do you stop the hackers? Well honestly, unless you patch the game well enough your not going too and I for one don't think it should be patched unless we include YR. Then of course, there needs to be some kind of balance patch. I would believe you could patch the hacks though. Wasn't Pisc able to block map hacks in 1.7?
Not able to patch the hacks? Then you would run separate tournaments with a Anti Hack. One of my projects with Grant is Suddenleague.com A online league for the sudden attack North American server. We have had a Anti Hack made that will catch most hackers. I will not say what it does unless you ask in PM Olaf, but I will say you can make it for Ra2 as it would be very simple and take you no time at all. This will 100% catch map hackers and as that is all you worry about. It will do the trick for tournaments.
As you can tell this proposal was well thought out. I would hope EA would allow something like this proposal to happen as Red Alert could still be profitable to someone and there is no competition in this market.
- PyyMP
Edited by neogrant, 27 August 2010 - 02:26 PM.
