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Ok, how in the heck would I go about this? I thought about it pretty hard last night. Basically, I have another app I want to make for Central. However, it would require Flashcom. I thought of 2 ideas:
– either I have a demo server I purchase from <a href=”http://www.mediatemple.net”>Media Temple</a> which supports about 50 connections. This allows an average of 5 instances of the app to be live since I’ll allocate 5 connections max per app. That means 5 people can demo the application for a month. I’d either have to sell 1 app per month for $70 to recoup my investment. I don’t think the market is that big.
– setup a monthly fee, factoring in the Flashcom account into the price. I’d charge a $30 setup fee, and then $15 a month (which pays for the Flashcom account). I wouldn’t have to sell any to recoupe my investment.

The problem with the above is that Ultima Online, Everquest, and a few other games cost $10 a month while mine is simply a prog to allow you to play a game with 1 to 5 other people. Most people wouldn’t play more than 4 times a month, and then only for one long day or night.

I don’t see how this could work. Unless there is cheaper Flashcom hosting out there, it seems my only option is XMLSocket, but I have no clue how much hosting for that is, and I’d lose a lot of the features I want in my app.

*sigh*

I feel like I’m aiming for a niche market. I don’t know if that’s bad or what. I mean, my goal isn’t to make money, but enable people to play D&D with people on the internet. I’ve seen a few products out there, and need to research more, but it just doesn’t seem cost effective. Hrm… business stuff is hard.

Alright, fighting a little frustration here. My weekend is devoted to 2 chapters of this book as well as another article for <a href=”http://www.communitymx.com”>CMX</a>. However, the point of this post is that I’m trying to fight disillusionment here. I’ve found some tech books either rehash the documentation with tutorials in a pretty cover, simply rehash the docs and make corrections, or ignore them altogether (for good or ill). Well, I don’t know how my editor feels, but this is some bs. I am NOT going to rehash the documentation. If people buy this book, I want them to learn something they couldn’t read in the documentation. I think the book is supposed to be all inclusive, but to me, why? I’ll find out Monday, I’m sure, but in the meantime, I’m just going to rehash the docs only where I think something needs to be included. Everything else, you can read in the docs. I refuse to add content strictly for the sake of adding content. I don’t think that’s fair to my readers.

…am I wrong? Is this what your supposed to do in a technical book? Rehash the docs? If so, I’m deviating from the norm, period.