Don't forget that Yuna Software is a company which does not only develop the Messenger addon called 'Messenger Plus!'. This was explained several times already in other threads.
That there were going to be more things than just the Messenger addon was something long ago announced by Patchou also, before the whole Yuna-takeover was announced. And later, after the takeover, it has been repeated several times too.
Second, Plus!Games != MsgPlus!...
Messenger Plus! will always be free. This is, again, said numerous times before. The games aren't forced upon you either. If you like to play more games, or want more stuff for your games you are free to buy some tokens. And in the future there might probably be more stuff you can do with such tokens too than just getting some extra credits for such games. The games are from 3rd parties, and in that way Yuna gains revenue. This is 1000 times better than a forced adware sponsor in Messenger Plus! itself, imho. In fact, many people have suggested doing exactly such thing before, back in the day the C2Media sponsor was there. This whole concept and business model is also exactly the same as so many other online game companies successfully use, there is no difference.
quote:
Originally posted by Spunky
This is probably exactly what many people were afraid of, MP!L is now going to be surrounded by rumors of adverts, adware, spyware etc again because a 3rd party can charge people for a simple mobile download. I always thought Plus! would be free, because I believed in Patchou; so far, I don't put much stock in Yuna
So, I don't see how this is "
exactly what many people were afraid of". Some people were/are afraid that Messenger Plus! would become payware, or riddled with adware. Although you have a point that it is under the same trusted branding of "Plus!", it is something different.
"Plus!" is not just the Messenger addon anymore; "Messenger Plus!" is, but not "Plus!". This is the same as the branding "Windows Live" (or the former "MSN"), which is way more than just an IM client.
quote:
Originally posted by Spunky
These are not meant to be hurtful comments, but my opinion on the way things are going. Great respect to Patchou for what he has accomplished with this and I wish Yuna to do well. Just out of curiosity, were any of the community involved at any stage of these sites? Consultation, design, thoughts? It just seems to be "look at what we did" and then silence and unimpressed looks. Maybe you could do something people want next time
In regards to ways to gain revenue: it is one of the ways people want it to be. As for the involvement of the community: if we have comments, suggestions, etc, we can always contact Yuna (and please do, as the site can use improvements, like the language selection as you rightfully pointed out), that is exactly why Nathalie made that post. So why give the impression that you accuse Yuna for not getting the community involved? That announcement was _exactly_ made to get this community involved in the first place :/
Note also that the amount of players of those games already shows that they are on the right track with something like Plus!Games, at least for now. What the future will bring, nobody knows I guess (although a lot of such online game portals seem to spring alive in a burst with a massive user count before the active user count settles down)...
So, is it perfect? Of course not, and logic dictates they don't expect it to be perfect either. As Nathalie said so herself: "it is a work in progress". But that also doesn't mean you need to look at it in a big negative way just because it comes from Yuna, imho. Because from seeing some comments (not only in this thread or on this forum) it seems that for some people Yuna can't do anything good at all, no matter what they do.
I expect we can see more online services (beside games) to come our way in the future too.
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quote:
Originally posted by Nathalie
For those of you who asked why you can’t see the language support, the site works in the language (if available) defined in your Internet browser. So to play the games in any of the seven languages mentioned, please change the default language in your browser.
That seems nice, but it is unfortunalty way too limited. As Spunky has suggested: the user should always have the choice. Not everybody has the browser installed in their native tongue (especially in Europe). I strongly suggest to implement a system like the current Messenger Plus! site has, where the user always has the choice to switch languages and where the selected language is stored in a cookie for example.
Personally I think the Plus!Games site is a great alternative way to gain some needed revenue.
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