I've read the same amount of people pro and con so I don't think the case is closed as someone said.
I add that a Kickstarter project could only work according to the size of the project itself.. that would mean something as big as Travail,Nehahra,Zerstorer,FantasyQuake, therefore very mission-pack like. 

I don't play Quake anymore (and wouldn't pay for it even if i did). Consequently, I have never played a Sock map but I always read reviews here so can assume that the quality is of a very high standard.

This whole thing reminds me of when rugby union went professional in the UK. We had guys in the junior/amateur clubs asking for payment to play or to go training. The junior clubs were not in a position to do any such thing, so the goods players went off to seek their fortunes elsewhere, and the ordinary bods stayed where they were. Some of the better players made it in the 'big time', some didn't, but at least they tried. Meanwhile the junior clubs carried on as best they could, some folded, some amalgamated, some stayed exactly the same. But everybody who wanted to could still play rugby at whatever standard they were good enough for. The amateur clubs still don't pay players.

Ability is a leveller and time moves on.

And as for the donate button... yeh, right. 

"It's difficult to read this thread and know that very many of you don't know very much at all about sock personally."

How would knowing him personally change the equation? 

I agree,

and i would pay for another map from sock,czg,kinn
duh 

i would get it for free 

Of course all depends of how much, but if I know a fellow Quaker is with no job and this is a chance to get some money YES I'M WHOULD PAY SOME MONEY WITH NO PROBLEMS, is last map was really really fantastic. 

frankly I just start drinking and start mapping and hope that eventually something reasonably interesting appears.


Thats why i like your maps so much! 

I think sock has left the building. Don't blame him when some people are getting a bit personal.

Orb you might find your the next 'sock' (shoe?) if you didn't map while drunk :P 

I think Sock's stuff is so professional because that's just how he works; I tend to be satisfied if people even understand what I was going for and don't complain too much other than the difficulty. I also tend to work on several maps at once. I think a Sock-style map requires advance planning, huge attention to detail, and focusing just on one map at a time. 

He makes maps and games in order to pay the rent. 

but I meant, even when he makes stuff for free, it displays the work habits/etc that obviously come from doing it professionally. 

...just disappear from the scene for a bit, tell everyone you'd love to work on maps but your computer died. Claim you need a top end Alienware to run your Quake editor, then when the cash comes rolling in you can spend it all on crack and hoes. 

Is he a big gardener or something? 

only runs on a cluster of bitcoin miners...pls fund 

I think crowd funding is a good idea if it gets things done. I don't think it would threaten the current order, but maybe get some neat things accomplished. I'd pay for great episodes with some new assets. 

I could see paying for a toolkit, like Quoth. Like, here's a bunch of new stuff to use in levels ... that would take a lot of extra effort to make sure it was as bulletproof as possible, was easy to use, etc.

That would be worth money because that SHOULD cause a bunch of new maps to get built on the back of it, simply because people want to use the new entities.

Just thinking out loud... 

I like that idea. 

 

I would cough a tenner, so long as there was an added gore option.... (I STILL miss my little blood-splat/pain skins mod) 

I would pay good money to get the broken bits fixed i.e. Knight and Drole damage range, shotgun grunt "reaction" time, Bob dodging etc. In fact I'd pay good money to get those monsters permanently removed from Quoth and every map that used them :D 

Convincing authors not to bother. 

http://www.patreon.com/

I only just learned of this site today, wish I had seen it earlier when this discussion was more fresh, but I think this structure is more fitting for what sock was going for. The idea being that people pledge to pay some amount of dollars for each 'creation'. Basically like a recurring donation that recurs each time something new is made (or several).

I'm not totally convinced that it would really be all that much as to be meaningful income (a few hundred bucks a map from the total of the community?), but I think this is more aligned with the goals of 'support the artist'. Indiegogo feels more 'pay so I can do this', instead of 'pay because you enjoy what I do'. 

You're just trying to get us to donate to yours, scampie:
http://www.patreon.com/SmoothMcGroove 

My cat is grey, obviously not me. 

And Scampie is most certainly not smooth. Actually neither is that guy.