The Buddy Store...Worst Idea the Buddy Team has ever had?

So I just check the forums and find a new section called The Buddy Store. I proceed to start checking a couple of threads and notice the absolutely outrageous cost that some of the projects cost, and see that profiles are actually for sale in the store as well. I see that some plugins that used to be completely free are now costing more than a license for the bot itself actually costs.

What ever happened to the devs being against the sale of plugins and the advertisement of such products for sale? Do you think it's acceptable to charge the same for a plugin that it costs for a 3 session license?

 

As Far As I Know: these plugins aren't free, they were sold somewhere else for the same amount.
Now you can buy them here within the "shop"... Well I don't see the diffrence.. Okay its easier for users, they don'thave to search but ....
we don't have to use the ship if we don't want. you yan see it as a nice dictionarry of the different products (3. Party)

 

I can give you an example of a plugin that was completely free and now costs money...Brodies plugin. It was offered for free and now it's what, 35 euros? 15 more euros than a license itself costs.

My main problem with this is I can see every profile moving forward costing money. Why would a dev release something for free when they can list it so easily on the Buddy Store now?

 

The Buddy Store is a regulated marketplace. We do have no influence on the end user price tho. However i believe that supply and demand will bring the cost of the additions of our bots to a market price, where users do wish to pay for that added value.

We do bring up the Store, because due to the huge community and developer base, there are now hundreds of pages for this 3rd market, it does not make it easy for the user to chose from, nor doe he know if he can trust this page/s.

With the Store we allow only registered developers to offer their products. And again, if a simple profile/plugin costs more than the bot and is not worth it, then probably no one will buy it.

 

That's theory and conjecture, Bossland. This is basically the same BS that every app is using these days. Pay to play. Oh, I got a cool bot I can't do jack squat with unless I continue to pump more money into it.

I remember a time where you guys encouraged open development of additions to your bot and were completely against people charging for these additions. What's with the complete reversal in your thinking now?

It's good to know you at least look at these forums, Bossland. I've sent you several emails concerning the attitude and complete lack of customer service skills one of your moderators has and I've never gotten a response.

 

Brodie still has a free version of his plug in as far as I can tell, he's always had a free and a premium one, you can just get the premium one here now too.

 

Honorbuddy or any other product we offer is no pay to play app, you might have noticed that we offer quite complex products. But with the growth and popularity there are so many more ppl in here starting to write their own classes, additions, profiles.

I remember when we released Gatherbuddy, it came out with 4 or 5 profiles, all written by me, that where the only profiles used for the first few months, and then there came people like Tony, not known by anyone and started contributing. Kickazz, HV and like a ton more.

That people are still here and they still contribute, new ones come and share with the community, however as i pointed out, Honorbuddy seems to have a huge 3rd market, we are not creating it right now, it already exists and grows. We are just giving the developers an easy opportunity to access our systems to offer their products, either for free or paid.

What it will be long term, i can not say. I think that this will have a huge impact on the normal user, as now he will have the chance to setup his bot with exactly what he wants, either free or paid.

About lack of customer service, everyone has his downsides, i am happy with the ppl i work with. If i was not, they would not be working with us anymore.

 

Here's another example of a product that shouldn't be in the store...Necrophilia the DK profile. Right now it's 20 euros for a CR that can't even be used until 6.0 or WoD comes out.

How does that benefit the community as a whole? How can you guarantee that people are going to actually get this project? Weischeiber has disappeared a couple times on users and stopped supporting projects. Are you, as the buddy team, going to offer refunds if a situation like that occurs again? And furthermore, are you going to take action against developers that pull such actions?

 

Brodie's plugin still has a free version, Iìm using it right now xD

Buddy Store

 

Are you guy taking a cut of the sales of products sold through the Buddy Store? If so, what's to stop developers from continuing to sale their products on their own site and completely forgoing your store?

 

my plugins were up there at one point and if they ever appear there again, they will be free as they always have been.

 

i guess i see the support and updating a problem... at any point a developer can stop updating or have interest in maintaining his profiles / CRs / plugins etc... so it leaves people out of pocket with a broken product.

 

I love the store. I used to develop for a Runescape bot and always wanted HB to come out with something like it... even bugged a few of you about it before..
I've actually held off release of a few things for months because I heard of the store.

I love the store for free and paid. All of the profiles, botbases, plugins etc that I could release on the forums would be open source. I don't like that. There are some things I'd like to include and use in my projects that I use in others that aren't bot related. I don't want the world having access to it so easily. I love the streaming and I don't have to deal with auto updaters and crap like that.

I am absolutely not a web dev. I don't want to have to setup a website and deal with the hassle of payments and ddos like I know others have. I don't like having to manage a database of users and require login systems separate just so they can buy my stuff.
(Likewise I hate having multiple logins to remember for different peoples sites that I bought from)

Almost every single project on the store is already sold, and for roughly the same amounts, on other sites already. All they're doing is putting it on an official store. HB even gives devs the ability to grant access to the users that have already purchased their products on other websites. I think that's pretty damn cool. Not everything on the store is a paid thing. There are free, trials, and even beta items!

If you look at the store, almost every paid thing still has a free version on the store too.
If you really don't trust the dev, then don't buy something from that person? No one is forcing you to. No one is forcing you to use anything other than you do already. Which many of us already buy and use things from others on other websites. Not a damn thing has changed there. You just don't have to get lucky with google searches anymore to find the projects.


I think it is a fantastic idea. Just my opinion anyway <3

As far as Necrophilia goes, it says it's in alpha stage and won't work fully yet in big bright red. If someone wants to go buy it to support development, then go for it. When it's done people will have full access. He chose to sell it instead of setting up as a closed beta. If you don't trust the dev to finish then don't buy it. Kinda like a kickstarter but for bot development it seems.

 

This is like waving a red flag in front of an angry bull.

 

So Pook, does the Buddy team take a cut of the sales you make through the store?

 

I don't understand what's stopping you from writing your own CR/Plugins if you don't like what the developers are charging for them. Why do you think you're entitled to products which took weeks, months or even years in development which you didn't put any work into?

 

From being here for many years. I was a little turned off when I first heard people selling profiles and CC's. But once I finally bought them I realized that I was supporting the dev and got constant updates.

 

Buddy shop is good idea, but there must be some sort of regulation and quality control. I am afraid of situation when buddy shop will look like android market where 99% of paid apps are crap.

Imho there should be some rules, like keep paid product regularly updated, provide support (max. 24h wait time) etc. just like any other paid product
Also when dev stop updating his product, delete it from store (keep last update for ppl who bought it).

Also implement some sort of comments/user rating

 

There's a 3 simple reasons why I hate that they're now allowing devs to sell their CR/Plugins/Bots:

1. Paid to play is simply evil. I hate companies that try to monetize items that never should've been paid items in the first place.
2. The buddy team was created as an open community. The Buddy team enforced it as such for years.
3. This sets a dangerous precedence moving forward. If the Buddy team is accepting even 1% of the profits from the sales of these items, they are partially responsible for everything produced and posted on their site.

If I want a refund, who gives it to me? Does the dev or does the buddy team? As I'm buying the product directly from the Buddy team now, they better be responsible for giving me my money back. If the Buddy team is giving the money directly to the dev, are they going to have funds left to issue refunds when they have unhappy customers?

If I'm unhappy with the way something I paid for is being produced, supported, or if the project is abandoned, and the Buddy team was the one that took my money, guess who I feel is responsible? You guessed it...The Buddy team.

The absolute worst thing that the buddy team could do for their business is to accept 1,000 purchases that are paid for through a company like Paypal, and then they have 1,000 people file disputes with Paypal when they're unhappy when a dev ups and abandons a project. Guess what Paypal does? They instantly refund everyone with a dispute and lock the account down and they don't let the Buddy team access their funds. I used to work for Paypal, I know for a fact that that is exactly what they'll do. Paypal doesn't care that the money is going to developers, all they care about is who accepted the money.

The nice thing for the Buddy team when they force third party devs to accept their own money is that they have no responsibility at that point. With the Buddy store, they pretty much have full responsibility for everything posted. Are they going to force a developer to continue developing? How is that going to work?

 

while I do agree with your views on the dangers of the current position, I think we should look at it how it currently is. The items on the store are well maintained by trusted devs. I don't think you should worry too much about the money issue - Bossland is extremely educated and cautious in terms of virtual currency from what I've seen and I'm sure this went through him first and foremost.

Buddy Store