If you are creating original artwork to go with the online interpretations of the boardgames, then there's less need to acquire a license for them; using the same artwork as the board version makes them look more familiar. Consider the cost of developing replacement artwork + replacement rules text vs. negotiating a license. since the legal protection of copyright of a boardgame is limited to specific instantiations (art & text), not the core ideas & gameplay.
There are two big groups of "play boardgames online" products: independent (VASSAL, BrettSpielWelt, Cyberboard) and publisher-owned (Days of Wonder, GameTableOnline), with XBox/PS3 arcade games as a smaller (less players but more revenue) third group. Nearly all of them have very low costs to play so any charge you introduce should be backed by a feature that makes it worthwhile for the players to part with their money. 1st idea! free-to-play site with very small fees to: register a non- anonymous account, allow a user-chosen screen name or avatar, save games, play games in excess of the free monthly quota of plays, invite specific users into games, invite users who may not have access to a game to play, gain unlimited access to a particular game, find a player of a similar level of skill to play against, include house rules, record win/loss statistics. Cap the costs so that players will never be charged more than the cost of the "unlimited everything" subscription in a month. Without paying anything, players will be able to do many of these actions but only for a limited number of times per month. 2nd idea! same as the above except with all the fees configurable, and a toolkit to create further games. Sell to publishers or designers on a monthly subscription basis (hosted or locally installed) and let them handle the tricky part of making it appealing to players. Offer support either on a modest monthly subscription or per-incidence charge. BONUS: publisher/designers who make an online version of their game now have a copyrighted work so can pursue copycat products with legal actions. I want to say how Carcassonne and Settlers on XBox Live are successfully because of a good-looking interface and good AI and limited choice and being locked into one distributer and low barrier to purchase, but it's getting late. Not many people get into making boardgames to make money; if your development studio is capable of making an online interpretation of a game then it's capable of making products that are more fiscally rewarding, like an online banking portal or a user-management system, --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BGG Down" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/BGG_down?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
