FF:NZ How would you feel about paying for starwars.com?

Yea, it's the fan topic of the moment.

Personally, I think this is a really, really bad PR move on behalf of Lucasfilm. People will always get angry if they have to start paying for something which has been free in the past.

Now if they said they were launching a e-zine, seperate from starwars.com, as an online alternative to the Star Wars Insider, with exclusive content, then I think fans would be happy. But paying for exclusive content on a promotional website comes off like paying advertisers to advertise to you.

 

to be honest, I wouldnt miss it.
I hardly ever go there, I still get the 'homing beacon' but after a quick read of that I dont often follow the links unless they really grab me. I guess the collector in me has lost a little interest as well.

 

Putting it nicley I think charging for use of any web sites on the net is bull ***** let alone lucas doing it.....

I will not pay.... Nuff Said

 

not a whay in hell, but then i abandoned their fair site a while back.now would i pay for here? maybe

 

No.

I don't visit their site that often. But they shouldn't charge for it anyway.

 

dont go there much wouldnt miss it

 

Pay for web-site I will not.

 

I wouldn't pay. I don't use the site that much. And when I do, it's usually to look up info on a character etc, but that's not up to date anyway. I find theforce.net to be far more informative, useful and entertaining

 

It's not like Lucas is in financial troube or anything ... I'm opposed to paying to get info on a film I will be _paying_ to see anyway. I mean, Lucas gets enough of my money from ticket sales, videos and DVDs and merchandise ... to actually pay to find out about this information is just stupid. Still, looking at the poll on TFN, it's obviously not a popular suggestion ...

STH

 

Bah. I rarely visit the official site - something about it seems so contrived and sterile. So you can imagine my disdain if I were asked to pay for it.

Like STH said in his valid point, it's unlikely Lucas is in financial turbulence and I've spent my far share in SW merchandise. Luscasfilm will be easily slurping up royalties for years to come anyway.

Kitt's got a point about a people disliking paying for things when they've been free in the past. I work with mobile phones in one sector of my job and the majority of clients are so damn angsty when you tell them that these days they're going to have to pay for a handset that they might of once been given for no charge.

 

Woah, woah, woah. The way I read it, it's not like you'd have to pay to visit starwars.com as such, but there would be an exclusive members only area with Ep3 bits & bobs. And some of those things, like selects are only in the exclusive area for a short time (a week?) before being opened up to all.

I don't really care one way or the other what starwars.com does because;

1. On dialup, from NZ, I can't be bothered downloading the QT movies anyway, free or paid.

2. I can wait for some exclusives to go "general admittance"

3. It's the internet. If you look hard enough, you will find what you seek for free.

 

It's the internet. If you look hard enough, you will find what you seek for free.

Ain't that the truth!

I think it really depends on what they are offering for what cost, for me. I'm not really interested in being totally spoiled.

 

Hmmm, can't think of any "major" spoilers for Ep III.

Would a SW fan pay for spoiler material? I mean what's the point. Unless it's the whole movie you can download, but that's quite unlikely.

 

I wouldn't pay for access to any website.

as for spoilers the plot of EP3 is pretty much a given isn't it?
The Jedi die, padme gets pregnant/has luke & leia, anakin goes bad etc

not exactly rocket science......., but I wouldn't pay money for an Image I can probably find somewhere else, as for trailers etc there are plenty of other trailer sites out there, if any one wants them I have all the EP2 ads

 

s for spoilers the plot of EP3 is pretty much a given isn't it?
The Jedi die, padme gets pregnant/has luke & leia, anakin goes bad etc


SPOIL THE WHOLE MOVIE FOR ME WHY DONT YOU

 

TFN listed the cost in their interview with Paul Ens.

Price: $19.95 / year OR $3.95 / month OR $39.95 / year for Hyperspace / Insider bundle

which in NZ dollars, at the current exchange rate is roughly $34.50/year $6.80/month.

I doubt they'd be willing to give international customers a subscription to Insider as that price.

e http://www.starwars.com/site/news/2003/05/news20030530.html

^ official site announcement

 

Y'know $35 / year isn't too bad at all, considering it's the price of a book, a cd or 4 Fact Files.

I see that the Clone Wars cartoons will be in there too for viewing right after the US screenings.

Even though I don't have broadband, I must say for $35, I'm a little tempted. Webcams on set for Ep3!

There's a free look starting later this week, including a deleted AOTC scene where some jedi storm a droid control ship over Geonosis.

 

I guess I still object to this on principle ... I think its a little mean spirited to charge for "access" to stuff about a film that we're all going to shell out a lot of money to see anyway. I saw the last 2 SW film about 7 times each in the cinema, bought the DVDs, plus merchanise etc. I think as SW fans we're all lining Mr. Lucas' pockets rather well, and this just seems another way to srew the fans out of a few more dollars.

I agree ... it's not a lot of money. But I do think it's a bit of a scam. As for the "exclusive access" to the deleted scene. There was a lot of excitement in the lead up to the DVD release, with fans holding out for that particular scene. Instead, most of the deleted scenes on the DVD were pretty forgettable, and it irritates me that they held this scene back from the DVD release specifically for this purpose.

 

It's strange. If it was a book or DVD or CD-Rom that bundled all the stuff Hyperspace is going to offer for 12 months, nobody would blink twice at paying $35 for it.

But because the content delivery system is the internet, there is a mindset out there that it should be provided free.

Why is that?

The internet is a wonderful content delivery system, but until people accept that some content is NOT free, and the do not have the right to everything for free, it can never be used to its optimum for delivering entertainment like movies, shows, music, literature, videos and audio files (etc) legitimately.

 

That depends on what kind of 'content' it is. If it's mainly videos of say, deleted scenes, I'd much rather buy it in disc form. I don't know how much faster broadband would be at downloading stuff but at 56k, it took me nearly a week to dl the three Animatrix videos in the smallest sizes. It shouldn't take that long but the connection outed all the time . And even when they were finally downloaded, my computer with only 80Mb of RAM couldn't handle them. So yes, I *do* mind about paying for things delivered through the internet.

 

I think also, that there is a fundamental desire to won "things". For me, at least ... I have over 1000 CDs, and, even in the heyday of Napster, and with a broadband connection, I would still rather buy music than download it. Because I enjoy the actual object ... the art, the booklet etc. etc. as an integral part of the packege.

And yes, those Matrix movs were juggernauts, even at their smallest size, so i didn't bother downloading them for free, but will happily pay for the DVD when it comes out.

 

Like 2minutes after this stuff its out its going to hit kazaa in mpeg format which id way want more than qt and i quite pissed about the cammond deleted scene gah i have spend the time dl it

 

Hmm, seems like 'sub Accounts' off a master account are allowed, for other family members. I wonder if it's possible to have a NZfanforce family account. I'll have to investigate further ...

 

> I wonder if it's possible to have a NZfanforce family account. I'll have to investigate further ...

Only if you move in with Graal & his wife.

 

Hmm yes who wants to be my 2.5 kids?
JP has 2 already so he can't take on any more
and I've kinda inherited his little brother too

I think ace may be right a quick search on kazaa lite turned up an interesting array of SW stuff