a rant

im proud to say that never in my many years playing frhd have i ever played without an ad blocker while playing on a computer (didnt have one on when i played on an ipad for like a year or two ion remember) fudge kano lets get this game back in the hands of ppl that care about it.

 

Canvas Rider was fun. I spent so much time on the forums and playing tracks trying to get records and a ton of time creating really terrible tracks lol. FRHD seems to have a little more of a monetization aspect, but is definitely still playable. I get the emotion based on how much time you've poured into it but my honest assumption is that this is not a very profitable game (yes, really).



According to similarweb, they only got 250k page visits in November, which is likely less than $1k of revenue total. Not enough to have a single fulltime employee working on the game.

I think we should be grateful to have what's here honestly as web based games are nowhere close to popular at this point. The time for a site like this to even continue operating is likely limited which is unfortunate to say. It has been a great community from FR to CR to FRHD but all good things have to come to an end

 

there's no point in speculating how much money Kano is currently making from this game. but the web version is not the only source of free rider revenue.

for example, the Free Rider HD mobile apps (which has not been updated since 2018 for the iphone version, 2019 for android) have in-app purchases:



if you choose to play the ad-supported version, you get 15 second and 30 second video ads between every few tracks, and banner ads across the bottom of the screen. with over 500k downloads on google play, and we can assume comparable numbers on the apple app store, there's no point in denying that they have been profitable.

in fact, the daily track, which is hand-selected by Eryp and Totoca12 (for free, of course), is in the mobile app as a feature where you can only restart as many times as you have hearts, which can be refilled with another ad or by gems which can be bought. another profitable mechanic that only keeps making money by grace of the community still perpetuating it.

so here's the mobile app in a nutshell: you can play user-created tracks (made for free) against user-created ghosts (made for free) on user-created track lists (made for free). and through this process, you can get served ads that make money for Kano, buy gems that make money for Kano, buy hearts for play time that make money for Kano. or if you'd rather, the kids can play slots:



I don't think anyone is expecting Kano to assign an employee to work full time on this game. personally I'm not expecting them to do anything at this point. there have been no updates of any sort since 2021 when Char left, as far as I'm aware. whether or not your estimation of an alleged 250k monthly page visits/$1k a month is accurate, Kano managing to mismanage their game into obscurity by neglecting their community does not absolve them of their past wrongdoings.

fact is, they have ill-gotten gains from stealing from the community: by stealing the tracks made for Canvas Rider and other sites, by stealing from Maxime's hard work and progress made on his own remade version of the game, and stealing from the work done by every trackmaker, ghoster, and contributor here. there's varying degrees to which all three of these are accepted in a capitalist system, but I truly do not care how acceptable you may find it.

we do not have to be grateful that Kano has kept the website up by placing the weight on our shoulders while reaping all the rewards.

 

I can’t lie, slots is CRAZY

 

Like I said, I get your perspective. I would say, though, at this point the community probably has no leverage as the game is not popular anymore and probably not profitable anymore. I’m not really saying to be grateful to them, just to be happy that the game is still running. I could see them seeing the server space as too much of a cost in the future. I never played or drew tracks for any money, so I mostly hope people can enjoy it for as long as possible

 

I was thinking about this today, and how I’m sure it applies to other people, but it really applies to me. This game provided me an outlet when I moved, and was what I turned into a safe space (for better or for worse because god knows I went through a rough patch here) when I most needed one, and although my activity has been on and off, once I’d decided I wanted to really start making “real” tracks, anytime I’ve been inspired to do so has rarely been for clout (although recognition is nice) and definitely not money, it has always been because I love making cool pieces of art and I like this medium and the creativity of those who play this game. Whenever cash has been on the line of a contest I’ve participated in, it has never been the driving factor for me to participate or try, it has always been personal. I love the amount of effort people put into this game.

side note, reading old threads or old versions of the game adds a slight bit of heartache to my experience here. I joined just after bhr was taken down, and right after the influx of activity in 2020 was, so I’ve been experiencing a large amount of downfall in this community, and seeing a wider variety of users who cared about this game, and just the different types of interactions that were had, and the pillars of the game I look up to, and even just seeing old internet communities, makes me yearn for a time I never saw.

I don’t know why but I’ve always thought of eryp for being uppity because of how quiet he is, but I have grown a great deal of respect for all moderators, authors, CODERS, and anyone else who has become an influencer of this community. It would have gone to absolute **** a long time ago without you. I <3 you eryp

 

I think the biggest fact of the matter here is that the only caring, activity, or influence towards this community, has only come from this community itself. The only life that’s ever been put into it has been from us, and all profit, no matter how big or small, without even contact of any sort is equivalent to taking a dump on the front porch of our work, and then lighting it on fire. The actions from Kano haven’t just been disrespectful , or negligent, they’ve been purposefully rude and unapologetically apathetic towards any work we put into it.

I tried reaching out to them once, using the help emails for another game they’d made. They weren’t kind at all, and I was a naïve 14 year old kid. Come on man

 

is this tplacella

 

see that kid? this is him now

 

**** free rider lore is deep. may as well add my two cents.
I first played Free Rider 2 in 2008 at school. I used the TrackMill website, and I thought that was the official site. I saw FR2 shutdown slowly and 99% of the tracks - including mine - disappear. I felt so ripped off because there were times where every few years I would return (to TrackMill) and play the top ~10 pages and relive the old tracks. Now they're all gone. And obviously these ones will be too, probably sooner than later. Anyway icbf writing.

Fun fact 1: My first free rider account, I actually stole, by logging into a strangers account. I didn't know what the word 'register' meant when I first started playing, yet I wanted an account. So i randomly entered people's usernames and used the same for the password. If you're reading this, 'soggy' I'm sorry, but also what a **** name and password.
Fun fact 2: When publishing FR2 tracks (after getting the account ) I used to manually type out the track codes because I didn't know what it meant when it said 'copy the track code'. I'd spend like 20 minutes typing out the random letters and numbers for a tiny track. I used to think other people would spend days making tracks because of this and how big their maps were

rate 10 if justin bieber is gay

 

sheeshh yall just goin at it

 

Agree with everything. Even if I've only been playing frhd for around two years and i don't know **** about trackmill, bhr, canvas rider, fr1, fr2, fr3. I love this community and it feels like a home away from home for me. like I can be myself.
Idk how I found out about the game at first, probably through an ad, but since I started making tracks and clicked that glorious log in with Google button, I've felt a deep connection with the game; and it's very helpful, and fun community, and members. I even introduced it to two of my best friends, who im no longer friends with, and who are no longer active. But at the time, they absolutely loved it. Even if you all are technically strangers lol, I feel like you aren't and if you're my close friends. (c r i n g e)
this game really was the definition of love at first sight and from the moment i started getting really into it, i started searching for apps and editors on chrome web store and play/app store (i found them! (but yeah when i downloaded the app all i saw was a ripoff of the web version, so i instantly deleted it and played mobile frhd on safari))
It is and was so cool drawing and playing frhd tracks. i remember i was at the airport waiting on my flight and i deadass whipped out my laptop and started doodling on the offline editor. i felt right at home drawing black lines on a white screen. and that's what I've been doing for the past couple years. i may suck at making tracks but i love making them and playing other peoples works. and to me that's what this is. frhd is an art form. i don't play frhd to kill time and to get bad grades, although that's what some people think... (looking at you @Trainer.Bob)i play frhd for the sheer fun and exhilaration i get from playing it. I love all the things that happen here, to the jokes and fun members, to the serious and wholesome things, like the Pour your Heart Out thread. And I especially play free rider HD to see people's white, blank, dull, editor come to life.

 

I missed this thread so I am bumping. I agree that the takeover of the game was stupid, and kano probably thought they would be able to develop it into further success. They were wrong to think so, we know this today, but i understand them for trying. Ira is the one who was most in the wrong from my perspective, but he understandably saw an opportunity to earn money from something that technically was his product, but he currently didnt earn anything from.

However I want to share my understanding of the current situation and how the outlooks are for this game moving forward:

So we have two opposing teams here; we had maxime on one side, who i think should be viewed as a person who worked on the game with a sense of passion. And he did this effectively as a one-man project. However we have to keep in mind that he did this without having to consider other people's ideas, or a company's need to cover expenses like wages etc. This allowed him, and probably kept him motivated, to keep developing the game in ways that made the game more interesting and better to play, without neccessarily directly leading to more players and income, atleast not intentionally. There would be less pressure on maxime to make money out of the game, basically, as he had other types of inceome. So he did it just for fun you could say.

On the other team we have kano, a company with an obvious, and understandable, interest in making incomes to cover expenses like wages, and the further growth and development, if not just the survival of the company. So the switch to figuring out ways to optimize income instead of prioritising improvement in user experience is understandable i think. I think char did his best to try and meet the demands of the community and his employer the best he could. I remember he said he spent some of his free time working on updates to the game. I also remember kano tried to engage more developers for periods, but they quickly had to move on to other projects, probably because they had to distribute their resources better, moneywise.
Nowadays (and for most of the years actually) i dont think free rider makes enough income to justify putting much resources into it. they probably have to distribute their resources the best they can between the games they have, prioritizing the games with the greatest possibilities of creating the best money to cover their expenses.

Should they sell the game? to us its and obvious yes, but to them its a project that keeps making some type of income to them, so that they can spend more resources on developing games with better chances.
I think that the lack of updates and engagement from kano represents how bad kano is doing economically. And it would be an understandably bad decision from their part to sell the game, or allow other alternatives of the game to exist. Atleast if Kano isnt thriving, since they would lose "easy and free" income (but, that isnt enough to justify the expenses of a dedicated employee).

What is the answer then, that would keep the game improving, for our amusement? well its obviously allowing players with good coding skills to improve and update the game for free, based off of true passion for the game, while they keep earning money off of it. They have thought about this most likely. The dilemma with this is also obvious; You cant trust the database, game, etc, entirely on people who you do not know who are, and that you dont have a contract with. neither can you hire someone without making them an expense with certain rights regarding incomes, taxes, etc.

This is my understanding of this whole situation today, and i hope that more of you will share my understanding of it. if this is correct, which i am pretty ceratin of, we should not expect any more updates to the game or site in the future, but only hope it exists for as long as possible. AFter frhd, a community and database around this game wont exist anymore, not for long atleast, as this kind of game is way beyond its era. Evident by the work and resources kano spends on it.