I had an idea for a very cool and useful feature where you'd be able to view a game play clip of the RGR games. Most likely I'd have the clips embedded into the 3D box art flash clip.

I know a place where I can get the clips, it'd just be a matter of adding them (and most I'd be able to batch add). The average video clips is about 2.5 MB and is around 30 seconds long. So this means that if I were to host them, which I probably would, that'd be a bit of bandwidth. So this means that we'd have to come up with an idea to provide this added feature without me losing to much bandwidth.

Some ideas:
1. Only make the videos available to members who have donated
2. Upload all the videos to a youtube account and embed the youtube videos (time consuming though)
3. Make a 'Gold' membership feature that costs $5 a month and gives users special features, this being one of them (gold membership could also grant users permission to play cd based systems in the future)
4. Charge Viz to view each individual video
5. Add an item to the item shop that costs like 10,000 Viz which unlocks the ability to view the video clips

I'm liking the gold membership or the item shop idea. Although I think that 10,000 would be a bit much just for previews of the game when you can just can on to something like youtube to find the same videos. I think something like 5,000 to 7,000 would be better.

Zamiel : Well it's far more convenient though to have it all in one place, would be annoying to go look up every single game you're interested in on Youtube. Plus these videos would load instantly right on the page. I could reduce the Viz price of it but you gotta figure, the take up the same amount of bandwidth as the average game in the RGR.

Oh yeah. I forgot that the games are about that size. The cost doesn't seem to bad when you put it that way. I'm liking the gold membership the best though.

Perhaps you can require a certain amount of donation instead of the item shop option. Or the gold membership, I'm definitely interested in that for the cd games.

I like ideas #3 and #4 the most. #3 I think the gold membership idea would be the best if there were a couple more exclusive features. #4 Making another thing to spend vizz on would probably make things a little more active on the site as well.

tRIUNE :
Zamiel :

If I ever was to offer CD based game systems in the Retro Game Room, due to their large size and the huge increase in bandwidth, I'd have to only make them available to those with a paid membership of some sort to help pay for the extra bandwidth increase and that membership would probably cost $5 a month (or $50 a year). What do you guys think, do you think you or others would be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee of only $5 a month in order to have extra features and to be able to play CD based systems?

If the main thing is that I could play disc games then no but I could see other people paying for it. There aren't any websites, at least to my knowledge, that let you play disc games online and a lot of people aren't techy enough to use emulators. If the other features are good enough I could possibly pay 5 dollars a month, which isn't that bad for all the games you could want. Sort of like a disk game buffet lol.

Zamiel : Yeah there'd be other features like files for each games such as instruction manuals, sound files, etc. Also I'd throw in a bonus PC Controller with Vizzed logo on it for those who purchased a 1 year gold membership

A official Vizzed controller? That would be well worth it right there XD Sound files from the games wouldn't be bad either. Could sprite sheets and maps be included in this? Stuff that can be used with the RPG Makers? I'm also guessing that their would be a special status that you get with purchasing gold too. Like your name being in gold or something. I could see myself paying for some of this stuff.

Well it depends on my employment status, I'm definitely interested in the $5 a month, but I'm barely making by on my budget right now. Since you said 'in the future' I would definitely subscribe to it.

Zamiel : Maps, sprite sheets, you name it, pretty much any file for each game. Not a bad idea with having a status change with the Gold Membership, maybe a bold Gold underline?

I like the idea... but I wonder if linking to something like youtube would be easier and cheaper. Not sure how much of an issue youtube would have with having 30 second clips of games on their site.... but they don't seem to take issue with other video game footage being used on there so I don't see why a youtube account with all these videos wouldn't work fairly well.

geeogree : The Youtube solution would be the best solution if it weren't for the hassle of uploading them all to youtube and than manually embedding them to vizzed

fair enough...

"I know a place where I can get the clips, it'd just be a matter of adding them (and most I'd be able to batch add)."

I think I must have skipped this part or something.... you already have lots of the clips... Well, I still think that would be a cheap alternative. I think you should avoid making people pay until you absolutely have to.

I would go with getting someone to add them to Vizzed's YouTube and embed the code.
Reasons? I cant see anyone donating for game trailers (though some might), I dont think it's worth it as a "special feature" for a paid membership (or at least it seems a very small feature), and I dont really think we need to load the server down with more stuff at this time.
Oh and more people will probally see them there.

I wouldnt pay per month to use the site to play CD based games, they just take too long to download and I would wait till all the problems are sorted with the current systems first.
I would rather perfect what we already have then add more in other words.

I'm not sure about this, I don't think people want to pay to watch someone else playing a game they would rather pay to play it themselves. If we were talking about movies that would be a different story but I think clips should be free to everyone if they get added.

Since you seem to have issues with youtube (didn't someone already take vizzed's name?) you can just use facebook to do it. And each time you add a clip its like advertising it since all your 600 + friends will see it on their wall probably.

Davideo7 : As for the CD based games, yeah paid membership is the way to go. Actually here is a membership plan I got on magnum you could probably use or get ideas off of:

1 Month = $5 (0% Savings)
6 Months = $25 (17% Savings)
12 Months = $42 (30% Savings)

DarkHyren : The added benefit of the youtube thing is I could have the link placed to that specific game with each video. But again, a huge task. Wonder if there are any good youtube batch adding programs, would make the job easier for sure.

I do agree though, I don't plan to add more systems until we've perfected and completed what we have. The CD based system idea definitely wouldn't be something available any time soon.



JigSaw : I can't just afford to add the clips for free though. And if I were to charge for it, it wouldn't be the only feature users would be getting. The facebook idea would be good but here's a rule they have: "You or one of your friends appears in the video." - so looks like youtube would be the best route, especially since I could have the site's link embedded and youtube seems to be a great place to advertise. So doing this with youtube is like a double whammy.

Not sure if there are any batch adding programs, though if we were to split the task up amongst a few people we could probally get it down fast.

Facebook could be an option if you are able to play it right to the Facebook admin.
It says "our users agree to upload only video of a personal nature that is about them or their friends, or created by them or their friends" so if you could convince them that Vizzed made all the videos it is uploading it could work as a backup to YouTube.

But I'd prefer to have them on YouTube, I'm certain we would get more hits then just people from vizzed looking at what the games are like, which might bring more traffic here as a result.
The user "Vizzed" Last Sign In was 3 years ago and they have no videos, so I wonder if you could get that account freed up?

DarkHyren : I tried contacting Youtube about freeing it up, no luck. I'll try again tomorrow though. Some prick went and took 'vizzed' as a user account on multiple sites