Is "milking" real?

[sourpuss]

People sure talk a lot about devs supposedly milking - ie, deliberately dragging out production because so long as they keep getting their monthly pledge, they get more money for the same output. And there can be no doubt that devs often start out releasing significant updates regularly, which over time become less substantial, less frequent, or both. But is this always (or even mostly) 'milking'?

The accusers often talk about the 'perverse incentive' of the monthly pledge system and on paper they have a sound argument. If a dev is getting $800 a month, they make $2400 for 300 renders if it takes them three months, $8 per render. They make $800 if it only takes them a month, $2.67 per render.

OTOH, I've seen devs talk about 'churn' in pledges. That there's always a lot of people dropping off and signing up, even if the total number of pledges is fairly stable. They've said that most sign-ups occur immediately after a release. If true, that somewhat lessens the perverse incentive effect.

And I've done some writing and other creative stuff - it's hard! And if you care about it being good, that's even harder. What do people think?

 

[stevethepirate]

An example of this (according to my understanding) might be Dual Family... Creator has just been dropping "specials" that don't continue or even fit with the overall story. I've seen lots of dislike for it over on Fuck95.

 

[psyOP]

I mean, why wouldnt it ne real?

 

[xXxNeospiritxXx]

of course it's real, some developers even do it without trying not to look like it. the susceptibility rate to illness with prolonged downtime is surprisingly high among developers

 

[ArtoriasABW]

It's hard to know for sure, I usually get request to make long animations but I like to stick with 10 to 15 loops cause when I work too long with a single character I and up losing interest, imagine working years on the same project.

 

[kinki10]

most people, even when they see that a given developer promises who knows what, in what short period of time, and then when it comes to deadlines, endless postponement or after one release, it begins A dozen or so games ended like this, so there's something to it

 

[ohhagb]

I personally think it depends on the creator. I noticed in some cases the update cycles took longer and longer with the end result being the abandonment of the game all together. The paying subscribers/patreons are left hanging with some not noticing that they are subscribed.

 

[geluadelu]

It is becoming a standard.

 

[sourpuss]

An example of this (according to my understanding) might be Dual Family... Creator has just been dropping "specials" that don't continue or even fit with the overall story. I've seen lots of dislike for it over on Fuck95.

Sure, but even if that's an example, I'd say it's an atypical one. I'm talking about a kind of standard model of milking where the product is continuous (ie, normal updates like you'd expect, not standalones, spinoffs or 'what-if's) but the time between updates continuously increases and/or the amount of content per update continuously decreases.

Like, tt (Come Inside dev) still has a Patreon, still has a couple dozen pledges, still uploads "sneak previews" every month or two. Game hasn't updated in three years. If that's milking, it's certainly a rarified form of it that's not generally what people mean by it, I don't think.

 

[Earlybird]

If you can think that it can exist, it absolutely exists.

 

[hucowfarmerken]

It 100% is, you've got games that barely move the story with every update and never fix bugs(like favorite teacher) and other games that sit for years with little teasers about the new update(like summertime saga) and rake in 5-6 figures/month

 

[stevethepirate]

Sometimes there's lots of content but not what people are chomping at the bit for... People have been waiting for Sex with Nana in Grandma's House for quite sometime... It keeps getting so close, and then not happening...

But the quantity of content still there has kept lots of people from getting too frustrated...

 

[gugusty]

of course when pregnants

 

[ukalias]

I believe it definitely exists. We can debate how much milking actually happens, but not if it happens

 

[JadedSkywalker]

Do they time releases in bits and chunks to make the most money, yup. Does the serialized nature of playing a game one chapter, or update at a time lead to prolonging a story to wring as much money as they can before its obvious, sure. The entire crowdfunding, patreon model is made for milking.

 

[User_104797]

that's not the 'milking" I was expecting lol

 

[WigglyWorld84]

Depends on semantics and point-of-view. You have to define, "milking" first.

You aren't buying these games from sites like Patreon. You are not even buying a license for a game. You are, most often, paying a developer to support their life style so they can keep making their art. That is all you are paying for. So, is that, "milking?" Yes and no. Depends on your stand point.

 

[bos420p]

Unfortunately many devs refuse to complete a game in a natural way because they feel they will lose their subscribers. Many games go unfinished and abandoned for this reason.

 

[DanteXicp]

it's real

 

[Tmom]

Is "milking" real? Yes​