Conquer Club

detlef wrote:everyone else: "There's raw sewage flowing in the streets. Maybe we should repair the main sewer line"
Craig: "That's a great idea, but FIRST we should have a huge tournament."

everyone else: "Everyone is dying from this disease. Maybe we should vaccinate."
Craig: "That's a great idea, but FIRST we should have a huge tournament."

everyone else: "Children are starving. We should feed them."
Craig: "That's a great idea, but FIRST we should have a huge tournament."

Nucker wrote:It is pity CC has fallen.

In desparate need of a tech upgrade and a whole lot of feature and map implementations. A decent dice algorithm plus plus.

Wham and his team have not shown enthusiasm in the 10years I have been here. More antagonism than customer management.

No development at all in the past 10 years. The occasional person who joins enthusiastic to make a difference and leaves broken spirited a few years later.

I belive CC was once vibrant. It is not an issue of an aging clientele as strategy will always be popular and risk has the potential to very strategic at a multi-player level.

There is still something that is savable in CC. The maps, the customer base that can be revised. And it's core players.

I do not know what happened in BW's life but he should sell CC to someone with vision while there is still something to sell.

AndyDufresne wrote:

Nucker wrote:It is pity CC has fallen.

In desparate need of a tech upgrade and a whole lot of feature and map implementations. A decent dice algorithm plus plus.

Wham and his team have not shown enthusiasm in the 10years I have been here. More antagonism than customer management.

No development at all in the past 10 years. The occasional person who joins enthusiastic to make a difference and leaves broken spirited a few years later.

I belive CC was once vibrant. It is not an issue of an aging clientele as strategy will always be popular and risk has the potential to very strategic at a multi-player level.

There is still something that is savable in CC. The maps, the customer base that can be revised. And it's core players.

I do not know what happened in BW's life but he should sell CC to someone with vision while there is still something to sell.

Unfortunately CC is pretty old business model -- even back when Lackattack stepped away in the early 2010's or whenever it was. It is definitely a niche product to begin with, but I'm glad it is still around in some capacity. It is definitely relic, but I think not in a terrible way.


--Andy

GoranZ wrote:Currently there are 3631 users... I presume the number of paying users is around 1500. Thus the total revenue is around 45.000$ per year.
If we include all operating expenses and taxes I don't expect Conquer Club to generate more than 15.000$ in profit per year.

I think the threshold probably is around 1000 paying users(revenue of around 30.000$) and I think it will be achieved within few years.

Anyway as is Conquer Club is down to a school/hobby project without any future.

SoN!c wrote:

GoranZ wrote:Currently there are 3631 users... I presume the number of paying users is around 1500. Thus the total revenue is around 45.000$ per year.
If we include all operating expenses and taxes I don't expect Conquer Club to generate more than 15.000$ in profit per year.

I think the threshold probably is around 1000 paying users(revenue of around 30.000$) and I think it will be achieved within few years.

Anyway as is Conquer Club is down to a school/hobby project without any future.

You are about right on the numbers if you have american / european staff. But you should be able to run the CC maps and website on as low as 8000 US dollars MAX (yearly)- if you know what your doing on a phillipines/bangladesh based staff operation (and having lots of volunteers without having extra costs to generate a new look). And + some adds income.

As long chrome/edge is basicly compatibel there is zero problem running it for years to come.

GoranZ wrote: aws ec2 instance, t4gxlarge, 4vpc with 16G ram, $98.11 month
aws rds MySQL instance, db.t4gxlarge Singe AZ, 4vpc with 16G ram, $188.34 month
aws ebs general purpose ssd 2T, weekly snapshot delta 2G, $300.20 month
This setup is over $7K per year. Obviously I don't know where the load is greater for more appropriate optimization, so this expense can easily double($14K). I make a calculation with double.
Staff even in phillipines/bangladesh is ~$12K yearly. Support and Accounting.
Taxes ~4K
Total: 30K

SoN!c wrote:

GoranZ wrote: aws ec2 instance, t4gxlarge, 4vpc with 16G ram, $98.11 month
aws rds MySQL instance, db.t4gxlarge Singe AZ, 4vpc with 16G ram, $188.34 month
aws ebs general purpose ssd 2T, weekly snapshot delta 2G, $300.20 month
This setup is over $7K per year. Obviously I don't know where the load is greater for more appropriate optimization, so this expense can easily double($14K). I make a calculation with double.
Staff even in phillipines/bangladesh is ~$12K yearly. Support and Accounting.
Taxes ~4K
Total: 30K

The average monthly salary in Bangladesh is estimated to be around 26,000 Bangladeshi taka (BDT) (as of February 2024). This translates to roughly $245 USD based on current exchange rates...i think there is some optimisation to be made with just 1 FTE..

In Bangladesh the same amount 26,000 BDT can also provide a decent standard of living for many people (cost of living)..

12K is over the moon there.. but i like your numbers Goranz..not starting a fight here

yeah, we are trying to guess as best as we can, but I think once we get to 2000-2500 active players it can be a terminating moment for CC.
Generally $31 a year is a lot if you are playing against the same enemies(not enough diversity).