Wololo gives back
It’s the end of the year, Christmas is here, and “traditionally” for me it’s time to summarize what I’ve done with the money coming from this website.
I started working on Wagic 4 years ago, and one of the goals was for Wagic to be able to finance itself. I had come up with complex business schemes involving DLC, but it turns out that was too much work (and legally questionable since at the time Wagic only supported Magic the Gathering), so I ended up relying on donations. Donations are a great motivation boost, and I got a few of those for my work on Wagic or HBL, but not enough to make Wagic support itself (basically, pay for the costs of the server). I soon moved to an ad-supported website, which is more intrusive than donations, but guarantees a more “regular” income. The site finally became able to finance itself last year (if I’m not counting the incredible amount of time I spend developing Wagic, HBL, writing in this blog, or monitoring the site and the forum), which was great news for me.
Although I cannot disclose how much the site makes (it’s part of the contract with google adsense), I sure hope you guys know I’m not here for the money (I have a job that pays well enough that I don’t “need” to have any additional income). This year’s money was used for the following:
- Pay the server fees (that’s the obvious thing, and the reason the ads are here)
- A cash prize was awarded to my favorite open source entry in the genesis competition
- A cash prize was awarded to the winner of Wagic’s mod contest.
- I donated to the website opengameart.org. This site encourages artists to share their work in a GPL or Creative Commons license, and this is a great source of assests if you are looking for graphics to put in your hommebrews/indie games. These graphics are all free, of great quality, and most of them can even be included in commercial games, provided you follow the licence requirements. In order to provide new graphics on a regular basis though, this site needs some money once in a while to finance some commisioned work, hence the donation. See my article on how to get free graphics for your games here
- I secured some money to donate to WTactics.org (it is pending their approval to be sent). I’ll talk more about this game in another blog post, hopefully. They are creating an open source card game, what these guys are working on is in direct line with what Wagic aims to be, and I hope we can work with them at some point in the future.
- Some of the money was sent to the Red Cross, something I’ve done every year since Davee’s Hen 3 years ago.
- I usually donate to Wikipedia.org, one of the best sites in the world, and a huge source of knowledge for me and many people. They promote the free sharing of knowledge and culture, something that I value a lot. That being said, this year I felt more affinity towards the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an association that protects our rights in the digital world, so this is where I decided to make a donation this time. The EFF is constantly fighting against lobbies that try to restrain individual freedom in the name of money or “security” (totalitarianism is usually a closer approximate).
So, well, I guess my message is “think twice when you install adblock on your web browser” (or you can also donate if you enjoy/enjoyed Wagic or HBL, but if you prefer, please donate to one of those sites I mentioned above). Merry Christmas and Happy new year if I don’t blog by then (ha, who am I kidding?) 🙂
On an unrelated note, the Beta for Wagic 0.17 is slightly delayed because I ran into serious performance issue on the PSP, and they are not completely solved yet, but I’m getting there.
Hello Wololo,
Just like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Thank you for the many years of psp news
Hektik
Merry Christmas to Wololo and all the wololo.net users!
Also, I would like to thank Wololo for everything he’s done for us (and he’s done a lot).
Merry Christmas.
Thank you so much for Wagic, HBL, and your news updates……. this has always been the site I go to first for PSP related news.
But Wagic is just way more than anyone could ask for…… I’d like to eventually see the GUI become a little more windows friendly and i think everyone would love multiplayer…….. but even as it is, it is an amazing, and very high quality homebrew.
Heeeeeeeey! Ok if you expect that because since you ported Wagic to the PSP, gave us news, hints for hacks, homebrew lists, helped the psp scene a lot and showed us what you did with the money you got from the website I am going to cry saying ohhh thank you, thank you, I hope you be happy in this holydays and stuff? (leave tears out and with trembling voice) You are not gonna get it… Ahhh I am just kidding with you, Thank You very much for everything you have done for the scene and for the CFW for Dummies.
Sorry for the double post! We need a video game president, that guy is Wololo! Vote for wololo video game president/emperor 2012. I say 2012 because on December we are all going to die.
Merry christmas Wololo and everyone else! Wololo, keep up this great work 🙂
You forgot to mention THAT money you generously dropped at sony for the vita this year.
This one was from my personal bank account, not from the money of the website.
Yeah, but for us it is also a donation. Because you sacrified your money for us. Thanks a lot!
Btw Merry Christmas!
Thanks for all these years =)
I wish you merry Xmas & Happy new year!
Just saying, when I wanted to check PSP scene news, I came here.
Merry Christmas!
And keep up the greats works!
I love this site 🙂
You’re a great man Wololo!!!!! you give too many donations to other websites and red cross!!!! I’m pretty sure if you die right now you’ll go to heaven
Merry Christmas Wololo! 🙂 I really enjoy reading your blogs. Keep it up! 🙂
merry christmas WOLOLO ..
thanks for a great psp site ..
“Almost One Year Since Total Noob Gave Back The Life (TN HEN) On My Our PSP”
Cheers for all your hard work
cant wait to see what comes next
Merry Christmas to you and all psp users worldwide
Merry Christmas. and lets hope the PSVita gets hacked very soon (even when i highly doubt that).
btw, i use adblocker, mainly because flash ads really slowdown my crappy computer. but i always thought that you only get money when we click on the ads. not just by loading the page.
wow,you are a good guy.
merry christmas.
Merry Christmas!wololo
Happy Axemas! Thanks again for your hard work, that goes to everyone else who also helped the pep scene strive.
merry christmas to you and family wololo and a big shout out to coldbird too if your thete
I hope you always support and develop your website. I will pray for your website to be more developed and more advanced in the future. never give up and keep the spirit. thank you