What would be an efficient use of FAF's funds to improve FAF?

@blackyps there are many threads on the old forum (eg https://forums.faforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15268) about buying copyrights.

In one of the topics I read that the Nordics responded to FAF requests. The result of the negotiations is not clear. Did FAF ask Nordic Games to sell SCFA copyrights? Nordic Games did not respond? What was the result?

I am not aware of any game company responding to requests

@ftxcommando said in What would be an efficient use of FAF's funds to improve FAF?:

Do another user group study to see the onboarding issues now since the steamlink page was made more steamlined. If it's still a big problem, we're probably losing half the retention thanks to that. If nobody cares about that being a problem, then it's pointless to cite retention as a problem holding external promotion back.

YES

What about having an ACTUAL UX assessment of the onboarding process across say 20 people onboarding. Then iterate with improvements.

@gabrilend said in What would be an efficient use of FAF's funds to improve FAF?:

A couple years back there was a community run tournament for Overwatch called "The Scrub Cup" ..

Great idea

@rowey .. " integrate faf into steam.."

We can't package ourselves around the game and, say, pay the IP owner 2x of what they normally get for a sale?

@defiant said in What would be an efficient use of FAF's funds to improve FAF?:

@rowey .. " integrate faf into steam.."

We can't package ourselves around the game and, say, pay the IP owner 2x of what they normally get for a sale?

@blackyps said in What would be an efficient use of FAF's funds to improve FAF?:

I am not aware of any game company responding to requests

All I know I learned from the old threads on the forum. Here is one of them https://forums.faforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7358

 IceDreamer:

PilOt's already spoken to them after the breakup of THQ. Yes, doing this IS possible if Nordic were to allow it, but it would require expertise, time, and money and cooperation from other involved parties on the scale of making a brand new game. Parallelisation is not easy, and in effect requires the entire game engine to be rewritten from the ground up, not to mention that if this were to happen we would want to fix bugs, change the pathfinding, and do all sorts of other things too. It's a 2 year, 5 person full time project, and it's just not going to happen.

 Crotalus:

Since Nordic Games is a swedish company I contacted the chairman/owner of the holding company, Lars Wingefors, about this issue and he redirected me to their Business Developer Reinhard Pollice. I got the following answer:

"I am well aware of FAF and its effort. Its really great and we would like to support you but unfortunately at the moment we can't untie the situation. We hope to be able to do that in the future though."

Nordic is a big company and I guess they are not interested in cooperation with FAF as it doesn't promise much profit.

Let's politely ask the Nordic Games :

• Make SCFA free on steam

• Allocate money to improve the game in technical terms.

   Ze_PilOt's:
  

  t's a 2 year, 5 person full time project, and it's just not
  going to happen.

  This is the ultimate improvement program for SCFA. If you fix only critical parts of the game, I think, 1 year and  2 person full time project will be enough.
  

• Pay monthly salaries to all major FAF developers so that they can leave their main job and devote themselves to developing FAF.

   I think the developers of faf would like faf to be their main job.
  

Koch Media is part of THQ Nordic. Kosh Media is the publisher of Iron Harvest. This suggests that THQ Nordic is not opposed to supporting projects with a small budget. Therefore, I believe that THQ Nordic support can be counted on.
Why is SCFA worse than Iron Harvest?
SCFA clearly has a larger player base.

The main question remains: what can we offer Nordic Games in return for their patronage?

Let me get this right, you want Nordic games to first make the game free, and then pay for its development?

@blodir said in What would be an efficient use of FAF's funds to improve FAF?:

Let me get this right, you want Nordic games to first make the game free, and then pay for its development?

Yes, you got it right.
For example StarCraft II is available free to play.

@defiant said in What would be an efficient use of FAF's funds to improve FAF?:

@ftxcommando said in What would be an efficient use of FAF's funds to improve FAF?:

Do another user group study to see the onboarding issues now since the steamlink page was made more steamlined. If it's still a big problem, we're probably losing half the retention thanks to that. If nobody cares about that being a problem, then it's pointless to cite retention as a problem holding external promotion back.

YES

What about having an ACTUAL UX assessment of the onboarding process across say 20 people onboarding. Then iterate with improvements.

We already did that with one of our user doing that with professional background in that field around 3 years ago. But the insides improvements are still not implemented and probably never will be...

@brutus5000 said in What would be an efficient use of FAF's funds to improve FAF?:

But the insides improvements are still not implemented and probably never will be...

What were the suggested changes, and why have they not been implemented?

Lack of time is the main reason for everything