In theory though, there is now a new way for community to support open source, but running vulnerability scans in white-hat mode, reporting and patching. That way they burn tokens for a project they love. Even if they couldn't actually contribute code before.
There should be a way to donate your unused tokens on every cycle to open source like rounding up at the chekout!
Agreed that you need a rewarding core loop and also one that becomes richer over time (more characters? more actions, more power, less power...). But, I think you also need a longer term engagement element beyond the core loop: being engaged with the goals of game. If there's only one (e.g. only one ending) then if you love the game you'll try to reach it at least one. If there are more you might be tempted to try them all.
Another thing that helps and isn't discussed much in the article is the "meta" game around a game. Especially if the game has liveops and new characters come out, there are events etc. Most by themselves probably won't make someone replay. But if there's enough new stuff and a community which is constantly discovering new stuff to do then that can spark the desire to play again.
Hard to argue that the ease of use of public cloud data solutions isn't having some effect. There are ways out - like truly functioning identically on-prem and multiple clouds but it's challenging.
On the other hand, we want digital public services, to be able to pay taxes electronically, to be able to vote electronically etc.
I don't think the "don't put sensitive information on the Internet" idea really holds any water unless we expect our public services to be done with pen and paper for evermore, while everything else goes digital. (Yes, machines could be disconnected from the network and so on... but that's arguably just saying "an airgap is all you need")
This question (or the basis of the analysis) really doesn't make a ton of sense. The overriding deciding factor is really: who is the buyer and how do they want to buy. An open-core model for a strictly non-technical audience is a lot worse off than SaaS. On the other hand, if you have customers with security concerns SaaS may be off the table (still) for many of them.
This is the crux of it - the world doesn't stand still. So if you're in a small team in a space that's fast moving and very competitive then the comfortable life wont last long...
If you're in a space where the addressable market is very hard to reach or fragmented, a venture based run will probably run aground. Whereas a small player hitting a niche might be great for a long time.
Yes definitely. First we're building a physical board game for fun (and simulator is just so we can get the rules right) but.. if people like it we plan to make an online version and give it a bot interface so people can write their own.
This is a complete no-no. There really is no justification for this whatsoever.
What does "cover their bases" mean?
As them to explain what they are trying to achieve and find other ways to assuage their concerns.
The only legitimate thing is to have something in case you fail and they have "banked" on you. There is a legit way to solve that. basically if they want that tell them they should pay for an Escrow service - that will hold your code and they would receive it if you ever cease to exist. But it's important that they would need to pay those fees (they are significant.)
That should make them back down.
It's entirely unreasonable for them to demand access to source code.