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Apparently Toady has had several 6 figure opportunities just to license the name that he's turned down. The game is made for the love of making it and what lit

Apparently Toady has had several 6 figure opportunities just to license the name that he's turned down. The game is made for the love of making it and what little money they made was always just about allowing them to keep doing what they love. The resulting good will from their 20 years of labor and refusing to sell out paid off in the end when they needed it. Honestly, I'd have bet that if they released the "premium" version for free on bay12 but $30 on Steam they'd still make the majority of what they have.

bombcar 4y ago
Yeah, they've been "comfortable" for years now, the main reason to "sell out" if you will was to ensure that health insurance would be available.
- nasmorn 4y ago
  How can you be comfortable if you don’t even have health insurance. Seems like an oxymoron to me.
  - colordrops 4y ago
    When you are young it seems like you don't need it. Usually there comes a time though where you realize you should have it.
  - NoraCodes 4y ago
    In America, healthcare (insurance and out-of-pocket) can be a major contributor to cost of living for anyone with anything more than the occasional cold. It's especially bad for self-employed people like the Adams.
    - anamexis 4y ago
      You seem to be in agreement.
- davemac8 4y ago
  That seems to be an uniquely American approach to the situation ...
DonHopkins 4y ago
It reminds me of Justin Hall's story about holding out and refusing to sell "bud.com" to Budweiser. Instead he just hung onto it, and eventually used it for his own bud delivery company, once recreational cannabis was finally legalized. He was much happier that great three-letter domain name be used for something he loves, strong kind bud, instead of something he hates, weak piss beer. https://bud.com https://bud.com https://bud.com/history-of-bud-com/ https://bud.com/history-of-bud-com/ >In 1999 I was contacted by a lawyer Steven M. Weinberg, representing Anheuser-Busch, makers of Bud beer. >We chatted by phone: “So, you’re a college student!” >Actually I graduated the year before. >He continued: “Well, how does $50,000 sound for bud.com?” >I replied that $50k should be the interest generated by the money someone pays for bud.com. This is a three letter, actual word, dot com domain, and if I’m going to see it on every beer can you make forever, I should at least be well compensated. I remember reading that the marketing budget for Budweiser beer that quarter was $16.1 million. BUD was the company’s stock symbol. >I wasn’t going to sell lightly, and they weren’t going to bid against themselves, so we didn’t get anywhere. The story about his fight to register the four-letter domain name fuck.com is also hilarious: https://www.links.net/webpub/fuck.com.html https://www.links.net/webpub/fuck.com.html
- zamadatix 4y ago
  I'm torn on this story. On one hand I'm really glad he got to keep using it personally out of the gate and eventually was able to later use it again for the intent it sounds like he gave when registering, couldn't ask for anything more for a short domain. On the other his reasoning for not selling was really unrelated to any of that. His response was standard squatter logic - I registered it first and you have a lot of money + will actually use it heavily so I'm not selling unless it's for tens of thousands of times what I got it for. It wasn't like he responded "I think I will get more than 50k of use out of it" or "It's more than 50k of inconvenience for me to change my email" it was straight up "I replied that $50k should be the interest generated by the money someone pays for bud.com. This is a three letter, actual word, dot com domain, and if I’m going to see it on every beer can you make forever, I should at least be well compensated". Kind of ruins the inspiration when the thing he actually held out for was rent seeking. On the third hand Budweiser is indeed really shit beer...

bombcar 4y ago

Yeah, they've been "comfortable" for years now, the main reason to "sell out" if you will was to ensure that health insurance would be available.

nasmorn 4y ago
How can you be comfortable if you don’t even have health insurance. Seems like an oxymoron to me.
- colordrops 4y ago
  When you are young it seems like you don't need it. Usually there comes a time though where you realize you should have it.
- NoraCodes 4y ago
  In America, healthcare (insurance and out-of-pocket) can be a major contributor to cost of living for anyone with anything more than the occasional cold. It's especially bad for self-employed people like the Adams.
  - anamexis 4y ago
    You seem to be in agreement.
davemac8 4y ago
That seems to be an uniquely American approach to the situation ...

DonHopkins 4y ago

It reminds me of Justin Hall's story about holding out and refusing to sell "bud.com" to Budweiser. Instead he just hung onto it, and eventually used it for his own bud delivery company, once recreational cannabis was finally legalized. He was much happier that great three-letter domain name be used for something he loves, strong kind bud, instead of something he hates, weak piss beer. https://bud.com https://bud.com https://bud.com/history-of-bud-com/ https://bud.com/history-of-bud-com/ >In 1999 I was contacted by a lawyer Steven M. Weinberg, representing Anheuser-Busch, makers of Bud beer. >We chatted by phone: “So, you’re a college student!” >Actually I graduated the year before. >He continued: “Well, how does $50,000 sound for bud.com?” >I replied that $50k should be the interest generated by the money someone pays for bud.com. This is a three letter, actual word, dot com domain, and if I’m going to see it on every beer can you make forever, I should at least be well compensated. I remember reading that the marketing budget for Budweiser beer that quarter was $16.1 million. BUD was the company’s stock symbol. >I wasn’t going to sell lightly, and they weren’t going to bid against themselves, so we didn’t get anywhere. The story about his fight to register the four-letter domain name fuck.com is also hilarious: https://www.links.net/webpub/fuck.com.html https://www.links.net/webpub/fuck.com.html

zamadatix 4y ago
I'm torn on this story. On one hand I'm really glad he got to keep using it personally out of the gate and eventually was able to later use it again for the intent it sounds like he gave when registering, couldn't ask for anything more for a short domain. On the other his reasoning for not selling was really unrelated to any of that. His response was standard squatter logic - I registered it first and you have a lot of money + will actually use it heavily so I'm not selling unless it's for tens of thousands of times what I got it for. It wasn't like he responded "I think I will get more than 50k of use out of it" or "It's more than 50k of inconvenience for me to change my email" it was straight up "I replied that $50k should be the interest generated by the money someone pays for bud.com. This is a three letter, actual word, dot com domain, and if I’m going to see it on every beer can you make forever, I should at least be well compensated". Kind of ruins the inspiration when the thing he actually held out for was rent seeking. On the third hand Budweiser is indeed really shit beer...