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After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

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Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#281

Post by ryandrake »

sgerenser wrote: post #134
falcolas wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heartbreaking. Even with millions, cancer could destroy you financially. One paramedic prices having a heart attack at about $400k pre-insurance† (or no insurance). Check those limits on your plan... † Healthline has an article with another example from 2012 priced at $500k

Why would someone with millions not at least have an ACA plan? Even the worst ACA plan has an out-of-pocket max of around $10K individual and $20K family.

Personally, I don't trust "words from an insurance company." My health insurance company has more money and lawyers than I do. If I get cancer or something and they want to drain my life savings, they probably have some words on page 561 of my insurance policy allowing them to do it. What am I going to do about it, hire an attorney with my $0 balance and sue them?

Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#282

Post by codexon »

todfox wrote: post #200
dabeeeenster wrote: post #76

So this happened to a guy that worked for me. Loved video games, super talented front end dev. Made a horror game in Unity at evenings and weekends with his best friend. Launched it on Steam. Very low sales. But he learnt a huge amount about marketing and game design based on player feedback. Designed a second game, put all the marketing learnings into it, 48 hours after launch the biggest streamer on twitch was stre…

After four years working on my retro game nearly full time, and several launches, I still don't understand marketing enough to understand what to do differently. A lot of the advice out there is something like: "create a community" or "go join several communities" or "get to know other indie devs on Twitter". To me, this simply feels fake. I don't really participate in any online communities. I spend enough time in f…

Marketing is a zero sum game to get people's attention. Attention is finite resource and you are competing with others for it.

It isn't a trivial task that anyone can do, at least efficiently (paying the minimum amount for the maximum number of conversions). It is just like programming where some people never seem to get it, except you are also competing against others.

If marketing is not something you are talented at or something you want to spend time and effort on, try paying for it. Even the biggest studios are buying ads and paying influencers.

Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#283

Post by squokko »

todfox wrote: post #200
dabeeeenster wrote: post #76

So this happened to a guy that worked for me. Loved video games, super talented front end dev. Made a horror game in Unity at evenings and weekends with his best friend. Launched it on Steam. Very low sales. But he learnt a huge amount about marketing and game design based on player feedback. Designed a second game, put all the marketing learnings into it, 48 hours after launch the biggest streamer on twitch was stre…

After four years working on my retro game nearly full time, and several launches, I still don't understand marketing enough to understand what to do differently. A lot of the advice out there is something like: "create a community" or "go join several communities" or "get to know other indie devs on Twitter". To me, this simply feels fake. I don't really participate in any online communities. I spend enough time in f…

I don't think you can make yourself want to be good at game marketing - you need to partner with someone who lives and breathes that life and recognize, by ownership/compensation, that they are just as important as you to the business, and work on it together from the start (that person will have a better pulse on the audience and what they want to see and how to get it to them).

Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#284

Post by conradfr »

dabeeeenster wrote: post #76

So this happened to a guy that worked for me. Loved video games, super talented front end dev. Made a horror game in Unity at evenings and weekends with his best friend. Launched it on Steam. Very low sales. But he learnt a huge amount about marketing and game design based on player feedback. Designed a second game, put all the marketing learnings into it, 48 hours after launch the biggest streamer on twitch was stre…

Not entirely true as 15 years ago two people made World of Goo which was a big success.

Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#285

Post by timerol »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #85
thomaslangston wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's using a 5 percent withdrawal rate. A 4 or even 3 percent withdrawal rate is more likely to be sustainable. Those are also rates I see suggested more commonly on retirement planning sites.

You are assuming no compounding. You have to model it as an annuity.

That is not accurate. The 4% withdrawal rate is based on the Trinity Study[1], which showed that it was unlikely to exhaust retirement funds over a 30 year retirement. It already includes compounding and draw down calculations.

There's a whole active debate around exactly what numbers are sufficiently safe over what time horizons and what portfolio mixes. For a fun long read, see ERN's series on safe withdrawal rates https://earlyretirementnow.com/safe-withdrawal-rate-series/

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_study

Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#286

Post by happyopossum »

theptip wrote: post #27
datalopers wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they? 300,000 units * $30 = $9M - 30% Steam tax = $6.3M in a single year take out federal taxes (just gonna call it 36% and ignore SFJ/MFJ), leaves them about $2M each. I'm sure they're some sort of a legal entity in WA state and will owe the b&o tax too. They deserve it absolutely but $2M each does not put them in a position of "fuck you" [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdfeXqHFmPI

$2m in the bank is enough to easily draw $100k/yr from interest, which fits the GP’s “set for life if we make wise choices” IMO. That is way above median income in wealthy countries. Assuming you don’t try to live in SF!

> 2m in the bank is enough to easily draw $100k/yr from interest

5% interest hasn’t been avail from a bank in a couple of decades, and the fact that we’re close to it again doesn’t mean it will stay that way…

You just can’t get a guaranteed risk-free return of that range indefinitely, which is why a lot of people shoot for 3-4% when they don’t have more capital to invest in riskier but higher return investments.

Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#287

Post by happyopossum »

ajmurmann wrote: post #152
datalopers wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they? 300,000 units * $30 = $9M - 30% Steam tax = $6.3M in a single year take out federal taxes (just gonna call it 36% and ignore SFJ/MFJ), leaves them about $2M each. I'm sure they're some sort of a legal entity in WA state and will owe the b&o tax too. They deserve it absolutely but $2M each does not put them in a position of "fuck you" [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdfeXqHFmPI

The article also mentioned money going to other people working on the game. Unclear how's much that is though. Edit: this also touches on a grievance I have with progressive taxation and annualized retirement savings. These guys might have been in a Lowe tax bracket for many years and be back in a low tax bracket depending on how sales go over the years. The one time they hit it home they are in the top tax bracket a…

They could easily set up a corporation and pay themselves over 10-20 years to avoid a windfall (and max out tax advantages over multiple years) if that’s the goal…

Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#288

Post by mlindner »

DonHopkins wrote: post #184
mlindner wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing out of the normal from what I've heard from relatives of mine that I still get along fine with (other than the first one, don't know any Q people, though apparently my parents' nextdoor neighbor is one). Though worded a bit more strongly than I hear from relatives, but that's what Twitter does by encouraging short form snotty posts. If they were on Twitter I'm sure they'd be saying similar things.

Quoted post unavailable.

This is pretty normal though. Also I wouldn't say they're racist. They'd strongly object to being called racist as well. And this is in a pretty liberal area too.

Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#289

Post by pjmlp »

adventured wrote: post #234
unity1001 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The capitalist European governments that are being elected are privatizing healthcare. The first step for doing that is defunding public healthcare to make people say that 'it doesnt work - its better in private hospitals'. Then you say you have to privatize the entire system. It also funnels people to private hospitals early - when you defund public healthcare and force people into long wait times, they have no opti…

Most affluent European nations have seen net negative economic growth for the past 15-20 years, and in some cases for a generation (France and Britain). Now they're commonly seeing population contraction or flattening. They already have high taxes. They're in deep shit and it has little to do with Capitalists taking over their healthcare systems. The math was always going to take them here. Only per capita economic g…

Two things are at play, the capitalists, and the nationalists that make everything for what would be new European citzens to be shoved away, people that could be paying for those taxes instead of caged in some camps waiting years for their future.

Re: After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being millionaires

#290

Post by xupybd »

sb8244 wrote: post #156
throwaway2037 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL. Who is getting 5% risk free interest rate on USD? No one. I guess 1% after taxes is a more reasonable expected return. Remember that interest rates on retail deposits were pretty much zero for last 10 years. So, 20K USD per year. But if they can keep it up for next 5 years, then yeah, pretty much can retire on 1% interest rate forever.

Getting 4% right now at a normal bank (no high rate shenanigans) I bet I'll see 5% within next 2 months. Obviously interest rate changes drastically over time.

https://www.rabobank.co.nz/term-deposits/ 5.50%P.A. here in NZ
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