Capitalist Community.
Written by Levo // September 19, 2009 // Opinion // 3 Comments
A couple of days ago Miles released a blog, discussing new features that have been placed into this years FM data editor. The data editor is part of the game that most people who buy the game won’t be too interested in, the data editor is used by many for two reasons 1) the most obvious, cheating. 2) to make your own data update, taking control of the summer transfers during times when SI are distracting developing their latest installments. But the interesting thing is these new developments that have been made in the data editor will now allow us add our own leagues & nations as well as teams. The latest FM-View podcast with Jordan touched on the potential goldmine that the FM community is currently sat on, can is this latest data editor become a free resource in the ability to print money?
Now firstly the FM community has been sitting on a potential business model for a while, the market maybe small but it is reasonable to make a quick buck for anyone who is able to tap into the market that is the size of roughly around a 1 million people globally at the moment and consists of more then just the community. FM sites have tried a businesses models before, SUSIE and FMG have both tried out a premium membership models. But in truth the premium model lacks value to the actual consumer, who cares when they get the download straight from the site or a mirror? As long as they are getting it for free surely they won’t see much added value in getting it directly from a server. It is a model that is produced from these sites mainly to cover any costs of running the site and all claim that money doesn’t fall into the personal bank accounts of those involved. But these models also rely on having a member base that is prepared to pay for this the premium account and come back on a regular basis. SUSIE have a current membership of 51,186 and is one of the most active sites on the web, but even SUSIE have a small percentage of people paying a monthly subscription.
For those sites that have been producing products for the Football Manager community for so long have been doing so for the love of what they are doing, a hobby. But why shouldn’t a hobby be used as a profit making scheme? Some of the best businesses men and women have started out turning something they love into a money making. Alot of these guys on the community have talent, plying their early traits and developing skills and sometimes careers within the community. Creating an environment where these graphics can be downloaded and paid for at a click of a button could be key in creating a business model that could work making the experience easy and simple. One of the key turns offs in internet retail is the complex way some websites setup their checkouts. The market is there and the demand for such developments in the game, again without doing in depth research into figures and talking to a few people I don’t know for sure, but surely this type of things has been modeled somewhere before. The one that comes to mind from the top of my head is EA’s The Sims, which has spawned a community of people who will produce items that you can dress your Sim with, decorate your house with or just admire within the front garden and many of these sites do charge for the privileged of downloading these products. If FM was only on a console we would be having to purchase Xbox of PS points to use as our currency to update to add on things in the game, such as maps if we were playing Call of Duty.
The community may rage up in arms about such a change in culture and the fact that they have to pay for something, but what iTunes and Spotify have shown in a competitive market is that it is possible to turn freely available (pirated) products in to money makers. But what we have to remember is there is a huge silent majority that come to these sites looking for such content who don’t make themselves known to the rest of the community. Taking what they want and leaving. I think that the pricing for downloads will be a minimal amount of money, something that an average young person can spend a percentage of their pocket money per download, some sites may want to include super packs for discounted prices.
But has Sports Interactive just opened up a new line of revenue for the community? The data editor surely is one of the biggest potential for profit, especially now that they have added the ability to add your own leagues to the game. Imagine the money that could be made on creating add-ons to the game that SI don’t currently allow you to do. One league that comes to mind straight away is the German league, a massive league that is currently left out of the game, (some work here for Q?). But then your own fantasy leagues, done with quality and with enough appeal can raise a decent revenue from like minded individuals that also might want to take control of a Premier League 1990/91 and see if this time they can take Liverpool to an extra point and win the league.
Much time and effort has been put into these sort of projects in the past and with the added incentives, such products will breed quality due to the laws of capitalism and competition. Market these right and you would see them sell pretty well. There is always a demonstrated demand for data updates, we all know how picky any FM player is (even those not in the scene) and how much they want their FM database to be as update as possible, I have just seen Jason Manford requesting an update from Miles (but maybe that has alot to do with him being a Manchester City fan), surely it would not be unreasonable for the likes of FMupdates to get paid for their efforts? After all they are done with quality and alot of time and effort.
3 Comments on "Capitalist Community."
It’s far from a bad idea but there are two fundamental flaws.
1- you’ve so many fansites that competition is rife and because of that people will undercut other sites in order to come out on top. That will see priced downloads going for free or sites charging creators for hosting them and expecting profit or creators expecting a cut.
2- you can’t even write an article on the Scene without it being stolen. Only last month I found a foreign site who’d ripped everything from my forum icons to my Twitter page design!
The only way that this would ever work is for webmasters to come together and discuss a joint venture. Imagine the Scene as an icon on the PSN rather than a collection of sites underselling each other.
To be honest it brings me to a point I just made at Fanboys, we should really start to work as one site rather than rivals becuase we don’t actually achieve much as we are now.
TG/Fan Boy/Uber Blogger
1. True undercutting maybe a problem and it would not be any bad thing to allow users to come together in some sort of coalition or cartel to make sure that prices don’t drop or are undercut, maybe have one online store for the scene at SUSIE or something like that. Just an idea, but it demonstrates that there is different ways around these things.
2. The piracy issue of material I do agree that can be a problem but Jordan has already mentioned ways in which that can be combated. Good enough marketing of your own site and material will mean that with intelligence you can become the first person to be found when someone is looking for a particular product.
Jordan C:
The trust agent is important for any business and this is what I think is the best tool for anyone who might want to make money. It will help combat piracy, raise the quality of things that are going to be charged for and therefore raising the value of such items. I think it is added value of paying for these things which is the most important aspect if we want to make money from anything.
You mention the TT&F and having Wwfan and Millie behind the project that was endorsed by Collyer himself adds value and I am sure that there would be many people willing to pay £5 for such expertise that went into the guide. If it was placed within the shops a guide to FM could possibly demand around £15 at the start of FM’s business cycle.
Anyone with the expertise I think there is still a huge potential especially with a lack of anyone else doing it, to tap into the pockets of users of the new game. A marketing plan, a quality product and an convenient way to purchase the product would surely make enough money to at least pay for a few copies of FM2010.
Excellent article, Levo. You’ve highlighted an avenue of attack that many people in the scene either don’t understand the underlying concepts or don’t realize the vast potential of having over 1+ million people playing this “niche” game. You’re right, there is enough of a market to turn your passion into profit and get rewarded for your efforts.
As you’ve mentioned, SUSIE & FMGLive have both tried business models before… but I think you fail to realize that just attempting to make money is not a “business model”. A model is a multi-faceted plan to create a product/service with an itemized marketing campaign, stages of development (6-12 months minimum), scalability control, traffic building with customer handling techniques, etc.
If you’re looking for success in any endeavor, for profit or not, there has to be a distinct reason for EVERY action you take in line with your current business model. Sure, it’s all well and good to throw up content and that’s that, better than doing nothing… but it’s more likely to fall on deaf ears & blind eyes. It’s similar to a quote I often say regarding sites – the “build it and they will come” attitude.
Another issue is that you must come across as a “trust agent” in order to get any pull in a marketplace, especially if it’s a niche area. It’s hard enough as it is online to get money out of wallets when people are used to getting it for free – it’s more pure capitalism though, so if you can offer something that is so much better than free content and foster yourself an authority, visitors will be infinitely more likely to purchase.
An FM scene example could be FM-Britain’s TT&F09, a 52 page comprehensive tactical PDF with Excel worksheet & 72 base tactics. Although it was free, it’s been downloaded over a HALF MILLION times and translated into 10+ different languages. It was written by the SI forum tactical mod, FM-Britain admin, primary match engine tester for PaulC and he’s has been writing in-depth tactical articles for the past 3-4 years. It’s hard to type in “FM tactics” into Google without finding something from “wwfan”. Compare that credibility with anyone else that attempts to sell a FM tactics guide and you’ll understand the concept of what a trust agent is. You don’t think people would have paid $5 for this through Paypal? Obviously not 500k, but even if 2% did, that equals $50,000!
Athough “That über secret blogger” brings up the valid point that piracy would be hard to control and undercutting will exist, you can significantly reduce this to a virtual nil in three ways:
1. Having a product that is so good, it’s well worth the price.
2. Making it visible and very easy to purchase. (even if a good searcher can find it free, they’ll pay for convenience)
3. Promoting/marketing scheme so encompassing that it attracts potential customers before your competition gets a hand on them.
As I said on the FMV podcast, it’s fun to talk about all these great things in the works, but once you’ve got a consistent detailed business model – JUST DO IT.