Its a shame how everything has become about $$$

[DistantJ]

I used to do free games, on the internet, when I was a teen. These days though it costs a lot of money to live. I'm basically charging for my time. I can dedicate time to making these games if I can make back that time in pay. That's pretty much how it goes; we gotta pay the bills somehow. Say you worked in Starbucks, you'd hate it if people started saying coffee should be served for no pay.

I do laugh at this 'old days' talk, as if it was ever any different. The majority of good PC apps have always been demos nagging you to get a license. To get most of these apps running you have to spend a huge chunk of your time, if you just work on one in your evenings and weekends it's months before anything is achieved, and if you're talking about games, well, it'd probably be years. You think we should starve just so that you don't have to pay 99 cents?

[nicolasgb]

Originally Posted by ShadowsFall

Right, especially hidden microtransactions. We can't even enjoy a freemium game without a worry we mis-click, costing us a good amount of money.

I'm curious as to this comment : has it ever happened to you, a mis-click in an iOS freemium? Never happened to me since you're be prompted for your itunes password ... (unless you made an IAP in the last 15minutes, then you won't be asked for your password)

[99c_gamer]

I understand you guys wanting to get paid and all. I do it for the fame. I believe that If you make something good fortune will come in due time.

I realize that Everyone wants to be the next Mark Zuckerburg but
Imagine if Facebook started off by charging people 99c to create an account where would they be today? Maybe top out at 50k users if they're lucky.

[mr.Ugly]

for the fame? ahha.. well your "low rates" suggest otherwise, mr.fame..

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=99328

[99c_gamer]

That is just work. Obvisouly im not going to make somebody elses commercial apps for free.

Another example is the dude who made linux. Became famous now he can name his price. He didnt make his money by nickle and diming people for a project he did in his spare time,

[Markus Hanka]

What, this guy is a developer?
For the fame???

[VRPgames]

One can not feed the dog with mere words.
World is full of people who want something for nothing. It doesn't work that way. Free applications are not free. You get free software because developers subsidize it. They either have full time job, another source of income, sponsorship or just successful in making paid software.
If somebody wants to sell either a product or a service they can charge anything they want for it. It's the consumers that make people rich and poor, they decide whether to use a product or not.

[mr.Ugly]

Originally Posted by 99c_gamer

That is just work. Obvisouly im not going to make somebody elses commercial apps for free.

Another example is the dude who made linux. Became famous now he can name his price. He didnt make his money by nickle and diming people for a project he did in his spare time,

ahh thats "just work".. and a developer who sells his app on the store is what?

should the guy who pays you for your work then hand out the app for free?

yeah makes sense.. then he will become the next suckerberg or torvald right.. especially if its an ipad calculator app.. if that would be free.. booom!
instant fame, no matter if he wants it in the first place.. right.. maybe he just wants to pay his bills.. bahh.. greedy bastard.. he can easily live with his parents or under a bridge.. disgusting greedy rats..

[racingspider]

I have a full time day job and two kids. When I get home, after dinner, giving a bath, reading books to the kids, etc, and they go to bed. I do my SECOND job.
Writing games. The first one I made took a year of "free time". It hasn't paid well - but the game is cool.
I've been working for 4 months on weekends and after the kids' bed time. I'm enjoying the project and hoping people love it when it is done, but to say I ought to do it for free is preposterous.
Why is my time worth zero?

[antireality]

Honestly - I love coding, and I used to love doing it for free, back when I was a teenager and there weren't things like 'cost of living' to worry about, but even then if there was no cash charge for software people would start demanding features, or set amounts of your time to be put into development and bitching that what you produced wasn't on par with that which was produced by a team of a few hundred paid employees. I gave up doing it. Even if you give in and give people what they want for free they'll still find some way to try and gouge you for more.

That said I will write apps for free when the following things happen:

*Apple stop charging for appstore presence
*My landlord stops charging for rent
*the local council stop taxing me
*Utility companies stop billing me
*Tesco let me walk out of their doors with an acceptable amount of food and cleaning products without charge...

...basically when my cash requirement hits zero I'll want zero to cover my life and will happily just sit there coding away.

Also I'd like to point out that personally I find this idea that is perpetuated by 'open source advocates' and 'app cheapskates' that charging for software somehow makes evil is offensive.
I have to live, If you really believe that then let me walk into the shop or office of whichever other industry you are in as a dayjob and ask for your goods or services for free. I pretty sure I know what the answer would be - 2 words, and the second being 'off'.