Well, okay, here goes nothing. *sigh* I had an idea about a week ago when thinking about how many bronies can't afford fan-made merchandise. Mostly, I assume, this is because people tend to make a profit. But even a small profit of 5% or 10% can mean the difference between being able to and not being able to buy that plushie, that custom, or pay for that art commission. Now, I have nothing against people making profits, for some it's paying the bills, but for some it's extra money to buy themselves something nice on the end of the month. Well, I had the idea of perhaps, getting together the people who make all those things for fun, as hobbies and are willing to let go of the profit in order for those bronies that weren't able to afford something that would for them perhaps symbolize their membership in our community. The idea pricing idea would be something like this: for customs, physical objects and alike, the commissioner pays shipping and the materials required to build it, while art (in digital from) is a deal between the commissioner and the artist. When I shared this idea with a fellow brony, I also came up with the following, which is essentially an idea attached to the aforementioned idea. To make physical copies of fan-made games such as Fighting is Magic, Ponykart, Fallout: Equestria (A Fallout 3 Total Conversion), Legends of Equestria, et cetera. With their permission of course. With simple calculation I discovered that it would cost less than £5 ($8, 6.5€) with worldwide shipping for full colored cases with custom covers and colored CDs/DVDs. And that would conclude my two ideas. And now, I'd like to request some constructive criticism and would like to give note that I do not mean to offend anyone by saying they're overpricing. Truth be told, most of them are worth it.
I hate to sound all negative, but here's what I think: With your first idea, I think that the main reason for the high price is because of the shipping/postage costs. Although I may be incorrect as I'm not an expert on this stuff. As for the second idea, not only would you have to get permission from the game creator, you'd have to get Hasbro's permission (as they own MLP). And since Hasbro is a large company, even if they were to agree, they would try to maximise profits. The first idea could work, I'm not sure how they price fan-made merch. However, the second idea sounds awesome, but unrealistic. Again, I apologise for the pessimistic tone.
In all reality, the merchandise is overpriced because those who make it feel a connection, being at trotcon, i saw how artists didnt like to let things go.
Slug has to sell his printed art at a high price to not lose money. I think it cost something like 25 to print out high quality pictures.
Indeed, I we cannot know for sure how much it actually costs, but by artists joining the group they would guarantee that they are making little to no profit. And I'm not a copyright expert myself, but I believe it states somewhere that if you are not making any money out of it, and it is limited in numbers, copyright is not broken. And I believe that Hasbro has a heart for its fans proven on the example of White Dove Creations where it merely stated to stop advertising on DeviantArt, but not to stop selling altogether. This is saddening, and I'd hate to come out as a jerk, but, if you have a connection to what you make, you shouldn't sell it. I'm sure every/a lot of artists makes a bond with his creation and don't want to let things go, but if that means the buyer who is, or should be, just as happy to own the said creation to give a lot more than they can afford it's not right. True, this way artists try to make the most money, so I believe that the artists who join this group would have to refrain from using the bidding system as it puts the more wealthy in advantage. Yes, I witnessed this myself when I should have been charged about 50$ for a 20 feet banner. And that's on cheap paper. But, if the commissioner just wants the painting done, and not printed, that's his choice, is it not? And that is the goal of this group, not to lose money and not making a lot it. On another note, in addition to the idea about printing games, we might as well print music albums from brony made songs.
A lot of artist don't charge for their work. SmittyG made a 12 photo set of Dash. You can pay or just download them. Same with jackle's new single. The commissioners choice is what they want. I've never heard of any artist force someone to be a print.
But every artist does this as far as I know. Only the My Little Sweet Heart book cost money and that all went to charity.
I wouldn't know about the everyone part, as I've encountered a few that do, but I'm glad you mentioned charity. Giving money to charity is always a good cause, but in the financial situation that we are, I don't believe all people can afford to give money to them. I'm sure some can barely buy themselves something nice every now and then from the money they saved from their allowances/jobs. And if they can, maybe they'd want to give that money to a different charity other than the one the artist/author chose.
I don't think that affording it is a big problem. Balloon party managed to raise $10000 in about 2 days. And that was all donations, paying for it was optional.
Well, yes you see, my concern is those who can't afford to donate. The Balloon Party made an excellent system when they offered a donate and a download for free option. As I said, for some it is not, and for some it is a problem to afford donations.
Care to name them? We? Do you mean bronies or you? Not to be rude or anything, but if you don't like where the money is going then don't buy the book.
I don't think it would be nice of me to go pointing fingers at people. First, to comment the second sentence, what if somebody wants to buy the book, but doesn't want or cannot afford to donate to whatever fundraiser because he/she is saving up money for something else. Secondly, I am a brony, and I do not have a big wallet. But I don't think I am the only one with this problem, I mean I'd love to be the only one with this problem, but somehow I think there are more countries like Greece than there are countries like the USA or Germany. Of course even in Germany and the USA there are people with less money, and in Greece there are people with more money, but the facts are that the average wallet depth in Germany and the USA is a lot deeper than the one in Greece, or many other countries around the world.
They send me the names in a PM or something. Unless I see names or proof, I don't believe any artist forces people to buy prints. I'm pretty sure the book will be free at some point. 6 of the pictures are already free. People will have to wait. That's just the way of the world. The world is crap right now. Also like B-dog said before, you'd have to get Hasbro to allow you to distribute their product. If something like Fighting is Magic were released on a disk to sell then Hasbro will shut it down. They are a huge company that wants money. Not to mention the Fighting is Magic is going to be free anyway, all of the pony mods for games are free too. Why make physical copies to sell when almost all of this stuff is free anyway?
This reminds me of a story. Someone asked a brony musician (I think it was Eurobeat), if they would put their music on itunes. Eurobeat replied "Why would you want to pay for something that I've given to you for free?". The moral of the story is that, if possible, bronies will normally share there work for free (especially if one can download it). Although I'm not too sure what the profit margins are for things like plushies and physical merch. If the creators do make a large profit, then your idea would probably work.
Let me add that most bronies have the option to donate to them. So after you get it for free you can give them money if you want. Plushies are different though. Depending on the fabic that crap is expensive, also one plush went for 9,000 dollars. For real. On less Mulp was altering screen caps. I'll see if I can find it. This is as close as I could find
Oh, ehm. I think we have a misunderstanding here. I never said I know people who force people to make prints. I thought you mean you don't know people who charged a lot of money. I thought I just had a lot of bad luck and only encountered people who did. Yes, but imagine this scenario. A brony invites his friends to his house and they all stop and admire his DVD collection. Then, out of the blue, he pulls out Fighting is Magic. Squees would be heard. Of course he can burn the free download to his CD, put it into a nice case, with custom color print and print one of those CD stickers you print your theme on and then stick them to the CD and make the CD looks shiny. But why not have this group make it for him, and a lot of others. Higher quality, and for some, probably cheaper. Maybe there's even an option of putting in a manual, just for a more realistic feel. Same goes for music, except the copyright issues. But somehow I think copyright can be bypassed at some point. Hmm, how about this, the group doesn't sell the CDs, but gives them away. Instead they send specified donations that the group specified for the country as I saw most postage is country/continent based.
I don't see the point in pointing a free game on a disk. You just have to download it. Putting it on a disk is just adding a unneeded step. The music doesn't seem to have the same copyright thing. Balloon Party was a pay what you want EP. The music was still for sale even with it being ponies. Not sure how it works. Well if people were to start making CD's to ship out all over the world then they are going to lose money themselves.
