Nintendo charges $20 a year for Switch online gameplay. and they software-enforce the online gameplay, meaning if you’re not a member, you can’t connect.
Considering Nintendo Switch is 9 figures of subscribers worldwide (hundreds of millions) , and Dreamcast online is at most 4 figures (thousands), you would shut down a network that’s struggling to find users if you charge at the gate.
Of course you could hope simply entusiasts foot the server bill, and hope that’s enough.
If could, I would like t contribute a few things.
One is I got a Copy of 4 online games. If you need physical copies of games in order to get information on the online components, I’d like to donate them: Bomberman, Daytona USA, Outtrigger, and Unreal Tournament, TEMPORARILY if donating them helps the testing process to get the game working online. I assume getting the online code won’t "consume" the GD ROM, like breaking a video game cartridge shell might, if I understand ROM dumping right. If donating them gives me those games online, and I get them back when you guys are done, in working online order, where do I sign up? If one has to consume the game tho extract data, eh, who’d be the hero to donate their game? I guess whoever can find a cheap ebay copy and send in a second copy.
Second, if I remember right, first the online service was free. Then it was gated by a $10 / month (That’s $120/year, twice as much as Xbox Live NOW!!!) fee. And all games were retroactively gated, like Chu Chu Rocket. Then in its final year, the SegaNet gate was unmanned, making Ooga Booga a free game when before you need to pay.
If it’s true that you can change the nature of the game at the server level to both allow free gaming and to put up a toll both, and I think I saw a server message when I was connecting to one game that referred to DreamcastLive.com, then I’ve got a good fund-raising suggestion.
Why don’t we put unclickable text ads in the messages. For $1 a month, or $10 a year if paid all at once, you buy one "ad raffle ticket" Assuming 250 people contribute a dollar a month, any time you first log in online, and after a game and you go back to the lobby, a random ad appears. So if just 250 contributors pay a dollar a month each, then your ad had a 1/250 chance to show up. I would like to advertise a couple things to the Dreamcast Community.
This can also do many things. One is you can offer Sega and their third parties a venue for advertising their current generation games to an old school audience. So Sega can get so many permanent ad raffle tickets , and Hudson on Bomberman, etc...
Second, If someone wants to advertise more aggressively to the DreamcastLive audience, they can buy multiple raffle tickets. So if you want to pay an extra $10 a month, like Sega used to charge, you can get a 10/260 chance that your ad is shown instead of a 1/250, assuming the dynamics above.
Third all this advertising will turn it from being a "charityware" product to a truly free product, and if you want to support it, you get something back from the Dreamcast community when you give to it.
Fourth, you’ll give people a reason to open their wallets if one were more selfish.
And Fifth, it will encourage more usage, because people don’t like to take advantage of a charity, but if it’s a business model, it’s mutual support.
I’m on Social Security Disability, and would like to contribute. I am inventing a product that might come in handy to DreamcastLive users. if it gets made, I’ll make sure the dreamcast community isn’t ignored. The idea is a game-paging system where you can be told when someone is currently online wanting to play a game, and you’re on a summoning list, like a doctor always on call. it was supposed to be for Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and the 3DS/Wii U/Switch, but if my way of making it works out well, one time quick labor resources would be needed to make it work for Dreamcast Live. it’s designed to bring people together who normally get empty game rooms on their favorite games, and the Dreamcast in 2019 qualifies as that.
Who knows, it might inspire a resurgence in PS2, Original Xbox, Game Cube, and Wii online games.
The ads don’t have to be clickable. Radio and TV ads were never clickable. If you come up with a memorable ad, you’ll get customers with either just text or a still jpeg.