Would you pay to play?

[AcneVulgaris]

If an FPS/RTS/MMO hybrid game were produced, how much/month, if any would you be willing to pay to play it?

[OvermindDL1]

If it is like the game I want, I would probably pay a good $20/month, if not more for it, but thus far, nothing has got anywhere near close to what I want.

EDIT:  Do note, for just about any other game other then the one I want, $0.
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[Angstromicus]

Probably 0 dollars, including the initial purchase of the game. But that's only because I have satellite Internet. I MIGHT consider buying otherwise, but I find that I simply can't really afford to play games that much any more. I'm always busy now with homework or school. In my spare time, I study programming and learn how to use Debian. For me, games would probably be more destructive than Alcoholism because of the amount of productivity I'd lose.

[Steeveeo]

$50 initial, $0/mo

Monthly payments are the reason why I'd be a ton more likely to be caught playing Guild Wars instead of WoW.

[Raven]

EvE - works out at £12.95 a month.

Personally I hate pay per month games - but I made an exception with this!

[Red Devil]

Make it like the stock market, where there's a chance of making money if you play things right.   

[AcneVulgaris]

Thanks for the replies.  I came here to ask because you guys are the kind of people I think are under served by the mainstream game industry...people that like an intellectual challenge and complex gameplay.  I'm looking for a little niche I can serve, and this one is the one I understand best, so this is where I started.

Red, I was thinking about awarding prizes for tournaments as a possible motivator.  Cheating becomes a Big Deal at that point though, so I'm a little shy about it.  Maybe  dumb luck rewards are the way to go...i.e.  Find the sacred Woobiedoob in the Frobozz sector and win ten bucks.

I'm thinking really hard about how to support the community aspect, as I think it's what really completes the experience.  I'm also pondering an easy way for people to create content and distribute it when they host a game.  I see the great work you guys are all doing with the mods, and I really hate that so few people will actually get to see it because the community is so small and distribution is so awkward.

I want to be like an ISP for an evolving game engine...I charge some small recurring fee and in return I continue to extend the engine and host the servers.  I'm a coder though, and am very limited in the content I can create, so I need modders.  Have been thinking about some way to kick back cash to modders based on how much their mod gets played, but that opens a can of cheating worms too.

I don't need to be huge... a few hundred players that I could cater to would be about right.  I'm might go ad supported until I get enough going to actually make it worth paying for.

[Angstromicus]

Be sure to inform customers that the ads DO NOT contain spyware, adware, or malware! That's the secondary reason why I block ads (The primary reason being that I just find most ads really stupid or really annoying).

[AcneVulgaris]

For ads, I would probably grab the banner and stick it down in the HUD in the actual game client...I don't want to tangle with browser hell.

[CivBase]

It'd have to be a pretty good game for me to play more than $3 a month ($3 a month translates to $36 a year, $360 for 10... that's a lot of cash).  Odds are, no game that good will come out as an MMO and if it did, it wouldn't earn money fast enought in the beginning to stay in business and would likely fail.
This idea could work.... but I'd let people do a small tutorial thing or something for free so that you can get some pablicity and people will be more likely to buy cuz they know what they're getting.  I'm not much of a wiz when it comes to actual game designing or web hosting.... but I'm guessing this will take up a lot of space, how many servers do you plan to use to do this?  If it's better than common MMOs like Runescape, it could rack up a mightly heafty fee.

[mrtwosheds]

Never been keen on the pay to play concept. I look at games on the store shelf, see the cost to buy it and the cost to play it and think stfu...what if I don't like it?
If the game is distributed free however and the pay to play price is reasonable (that means small) I can see there may be something in it.

[OvermindDL1]

That is how most of those little mmo games work, the game is free, basic play is free, it is only if you want more of the advanced stuff (which you can usually do in free mode still, just takes a whole lot longer) or special stuff then do you need to pay.
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[Red Devil]

I like the dumb luck approach, which would require spawn location randomization.

The game would have to 1) be interesting enough to draw players in, and 2) be engaging (i.e., pump adrenaline) and immersive (voiceovers, ambient sounds, textures, animals, storyline, etc.) and fun (risk of losing winning equal) so that it would retain players.

[TheJamsh]

nothing

which is exactly why i havent connect my xbox to xbox live...

[AcneVulgaris]

I was thinking of having just plain free areas, and and then ramping up the advertising as a person enters more areas, and offering the option of paying to get rid of the advertising.

I HATE advertising, but it looks like the only way I will end up making any money.