If an FPS/RTS/MMO hybrid game were produced, how much/month, if any would you be willing to pay to play it?
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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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.
$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.
EvE - works out at £12.95 a month.
Personally I hate pay per month games - but I made an exception with this!
Make it like the stock market, where there's a chance of making money if you play things right. :wink:
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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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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.
nothing
which is exactly why i havent connect my xbox to xbox live...
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.
Quote from: AcneVulgaris on October 07, 2008, 12:29:09 PM
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.
A logical conclusion. However, there is a second route of action:
Instead of putting ads in a Free to Play area on a full game, I'd reccomend making a demo, with maybe some ads to the full game (and sponsors) on it, then making the full game a one time payment (like a normal game). Gaming companies still make a ton of money that way.
Quote from: Steeveeo on October 07, 2008, 02:57:20 PM
A logical conclusion. However, there is a second route of action:
Instead of putting ads in a Free to Play area on a full game, I'd reccomend making a demo, with maybe some ads to the full game (and sponsors) on it, then making the full game a one time payment (like a normal game). Gaming companies still make a ton of money that way.
Yah, but just remember that he has to pay a constant fee for internet hosting, so if he doesn't get enough business or if he ever reaches a point in which people are no longer learning about the game, he won't get any revenue and will probably crash.
If it wasn't for that, I'd say that's the best rout.
I don't want to charge anything up front, that'll be too much of a barrier....I'm after the monthly subscription fees to fund further development. I'm building an asset distribution system into this so that it will be easy to constantly add things to it without upgrading the client code. I'd push out a new client maybe twice a year, or when there were bug fixes.
My internet hosting is covered...I had to run a T1 to my house anyway to get broadband out here in the boonies, and I'm going to designing the networking so I can support enough clients on the T1 to make enough money to survive on. At that point if the T1 gets swamped, I can look into getting more bandwidth out here or setting up a data center in town.
The idea is to be more service oriented and interactive...getting ideas from the users in forums, and setting up voting for features to determine which ideas get built.
Make SP free and MP pay/reward.
I'm guessing pay by credit? If only I had a card....
Just get those little Visa gift cards, that is how I pay for everything. You can get them at like walmart or walgreens for a few dollars + what you want to put on it, and many banks also offer them for like $1 or free (like my bank).
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I would probably be taking paypal too. I'm also considering giving credit to people in exchange for assets.
I will never touch paypal again after they stole a little money from me...
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im with overmind on that one. paypal is absolutely shocking.
They're no more evil than the credit card companies. I'd also accept checks delivered by carrier pigeon, if that floats your boat.
haha
Quote from: AcneVulgaris on October 11, 2008, 02:16:29 PM
They're no more evil than the credit card companies. I'd also accept checks delivered by carrier pigeon, if that floats your boat.
*Figures the costs of buying a carrier pigeon against the costs of credit rates*
hmm.... at this rate, the pigeon is winning :lol:
Maybe the pigeons aren't such a good idea...I have a lot of great big hawks around the house.
Carrier pigeons....with LASERS strapped to their heads.
Yup, still cheaper. ;)
When the red dot appears on your forehead, put the sammich down and back away.
Quote from: AcneVulgaris on October 06, 2008, 03:54:40 PM
I think are under served by the RTS FPS side of the mainstream game industry.
fixed ;)
I think I remember Bs'er posting some pix of him playing 10six or something like it where it was a persistant world enviroment like Eve-online where when you log off, thats just your character everyone else plays around the clock and his poor little base got mauled while he was away.
When i changed the gameinfotxt or whatever it was that let me put up 21 player strategy games in battlezone1 A few people at the time got a good taste of what a all out intense persistant world warfar game was like.. since the server host passed around, if you were lucky the game you made would actually be up like 20 hours later. grey scrap everywhere, multiple people per team (team not alliance)
anyways..
money/month is ok if its got a good reason behind it.
One reason is usually the bandwidth cost for games that are some what serverside and or the multiplayer experience is only established through the developers.
EI) planetside, eve, wow.. etc etc..
steam had a neat way of doing things.. some people hate it and boycot it, but that is simply childish regaurdless of the size of ones ego.
the valve games through steam are protected by vac(valve anti cheat) to play these games online you must own the game on your steam account, there is litterally no way to play with people online with a pirated copy.
and they have a instant messenger (friends list) that interfaces in game via super imposing, like X fire i guess...
imo that feature has become a little more imposing and less evasive over the last few revisions, also lost the ability to play chess/checkers/cardgames in the friends list at some point :O
when you tie paypal in through a creditcard you can bounce off fraudulent charges and such, so done right paypal is a sure thing.
find a way to support western union while your at it and your good to go. :P
Actually you can disable VAC and play on non-vac (aka, pirate) servers, cheating seems to be pretty rampant on those though.
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I think about 10$ each month, provided it's a good game. I like the idea of an evolving game and some form of refund or free playing time for modders.
If you think about going with the adds I have an idea you may like: if you're in some sort of city environment you could make in-game billboards with real-life adds on them. Just a thought.
Well good luck with your game!
Yes, billboard ads are ok as long as no spyware (glares at EA) is deciding what to show.