I just quit my job, so after I finish my notice period -- I'm going to be able to really dedicate myself. However, unfortunately, I don't plan on increasing the limits or taking investors for this particular game.
I know I joke about it, but your "softness" in terms of comping players excessively, and paying "good will" payments to anyone with a real or imagined grievance is going to become a problem if you don't get a handle on it.
I understand being generous at the start to build goodwill and a customer base, but when you're giving away 100% or more of your profits I'm not sure it makes sense.
a) I'm greedy, I don't want to give 90% of my winnings to investors
10% of 1000 BTC is more than 100% of 10 BTC. Investors allow you to attract whales. You can always increase your commission rate if you want a bigger share of the profits for yourself - it's not a black and white decision.
b) Whales just unbalance the bonus pool
Yes, but only while they're playing, which is a small percentage of the time. They tend to cash out early or go bust. And while they're playing they create a buzz that's worth more than any paid-for advertisement. People love to watch whale action.
c) I can't comp like a money-hater if I have investors (So far 6.08 BTC in comps given out. Woah.)
Well you can - but only with your 10% (or whatever) of the profits.
d) It's too twitch based, not in the EV sense but in the sense a few milliseconds of lag or latency often is the difference between a successful cash out or not. By limiting peoples bets, I kind of protect themselves a bit
You can make it clear that the game is subject to the vagaries of network lag, and that players can protect themselves by using the auto-cashout option. My connection is horrible but I was happy to play using auto-cashout, with the option to 'twitch' cashout when I got "that feeling".
e) I'm never going to be able to convince everyone its fair (like look at abreezy's complaint, no one can tell if I feigned that network issue or not to stop him cashing out ) -- the more money people risk, the more this is an issue
You can't, but you don't need to. Even on a site like Just-Dice (where it was mathematically provable that it was fair) we had people who didn't (or didn't want to) understand provable fairness claiming we were cheating them. There's nothing you can do about people who are unable or unwilling to understand how your game works. You just need to make it clear in the FAQ that you can't prove various things are fair, and that by playing they are accepting those risks.
f) I envision it as a social game, where people actually try get the bonus -- not play obvious to it.
"oblivious", right? That's a fair point. I don't think "social" is the word - optimal play probably involves focussing too hard on the numbers to ever chat to anyone. But competition for the bonus works at the "whale" level just the same as it does at lower levels - so long as you have enough whales. Maybe run multiple tables, so players who don't want the bonus to be dominated by someone betting whole BTC amounts can have somewhere to play.
For now, I'll step aside and leave the investor/whale market to guys like dice.ninja =)
That's fine, but I think it's a shame. You seem like a good trustworthy guy, which is what we need in the Bitcoin gaming space right now. I think that by limiting your max bet to 0.1 BTC you're missing out on a lot of publicity, action, earnings, etc.
