ID:277791
 Mar 25 2008, 2:21 pm
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Lets say u see a really good game you have head about on byond, but to play on the good server you need to pay $5. Would you ever pay to play, and if so how good would the game have to be?
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It would have to be epic, like SPORE
~Kujila | |
Frankly, I don't think this is going to happen. Doesn't matter how good the game is, you're not going to make any large amount of money from a Pay to Play BYOND Game.
I think for a BYOND RPG, the model that MLaaS uses (Low level cap for non-payers) works the best. Heck, for any BYOND game... If you're looking to make money off of it, you should allow nonpayers to play (unrestricted time). | |
No no not to make money. All money charged would go back to the game, meaning you could hire better staff, and have better servers.
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The only game I pay to play is Warcraft. Beat that using Byond and I'll pay.
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A better payment model - the basic game is freely available and usable. There are optional extras - extra missions, extra levels, extra campaigns - that you may purchase for a small fee. For a slightly larger fee (maybe 2.5 times the smaller fee) you can 'subscribe', receiving all the currently available expansion content, and automatically getting any more that's released.
If the game was fun (i.e., good gameplay), I might well pay for such content, assuming I considered the price fair and the content interesting. An example of a game type that works particularly well with such a model is a strategy or tactics game - the initial campaign is free, playing other players is free, but all the other campaigns you've made cost a small amount - maybe a dollar a campaign. Don't cripple the main game, either - give players the full experience, and then make extra content available for purchase. As time goes on, you might even want to move old paid content into the free section of the game. | |
Never.
But I won't waste money on any game, I only play free ones when I'm bored. To me a game is not worth money anymore. | |
That's basically what MLAAS did. Purple did have some advantages, but nothing too big(it's biggest advantage was that it wasn't fool of noobies or newbies.) I payed whatever it cost to subscribe, and I thought it was worth the money because the game was so fun. I did get bored over time, but the added time I got from being purple was worth it.
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A pay-for game on BYOND has two hurdles to cross:
1) Market value. People have to feel as though they're paying for a product and getting their dollars' worth out of it. For instance, if your game does not have at least 1/8th of the depth and breadth of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, people will not pay $5 for it when they can pay $40 for Oblivion. 2) Stigma. BYOND is notorious for having poor-quality games, thanks to the rips; as such, you might consider selling a BYOND game like selling a never-before-used product at a garage sale: take the retail price and slash it in half, because people will assume the product is low-quality just by merit of being in a garage sale, even though it's brand new. Dantom and crew have been trying to correct #2, but #1 is definitely your responsibility, and you should always bear #2 in mind. In short: if you wouldn't buy your game for $10 in a retail store, don't expect to get $5 for it on BYOND. Monthly-pay-to-play can work off the same model, by comparing it to other games in its field. World of Warcraft is popular and $15/mo. If you want $5/mo. for your game, it had better be one-third as big as World of Warcraft, which is of course a statistical impossibility. ;-) | |
The best you can do is put money from your own pocket toward making a good game and maybe getting some reputation, so that you can build a community where people would volunteer stuff for free.
No game on BYOND will likely ever make much money no matter how good it is. | |
Also, don't just limit yourself to one payment method. Some players are willing to pay for access to a game outright, others prefer to only shell out a few bucks a month, at most. Some people will never pay for a game, either outright or monthly, but they may still like to donate a few dimes to the cause, if they like it.
A good way to give people an appetite for your extra features is to grant players full access for a short time if they are dedicated enough. ie: If they complete all the free quests in a short time, or gather all the subscriber items together, or are in some other way showing that they'd enjoy more of the game. Once the free trial expires, they would be more motivated to purchase the extras with their own money, if they enjoyed them. Also, this gives everyone the opportunity to try before they buy, something I think can help sell your product on BYOND. There will always be people who complain that your game isn't 100% free, but even if it was, they're the type who would just complain about something else. Also, the best motivators are perception of value, limited availability, and peer pressure. If you can make your players think they're getting a deal if they act quickly, and that everyone else is participating, more players will feel compelled to jump on the offer, so as not to be left out. | |
Xooxer wrote:
Also, don't just limit yourself to one payment method. Indeed, a nice way to impliment different payment methods is to offer Silver, Gold and Platinum packages. If someone is really dedicated, they may go for the Platinum package, however if they are just keen on the game; they may just get the Silver package. | |
Obs wrote:
No game on BYOND will likely ever make much money no matter how good it is. Certainly not with that attitude. | |
Obs wrote:
The best you can do is put money from your own pocket toward making a good game and maybe getting some reputation, so that you can build a community where people would volunteer stuff for free. There have been some games on BYOND that have netted their makers at least a couple grand. | |
See the thing is the team does not want money for us, we simply want the fans to pay for what they get. If many fans pay, we get better staff, servers, programers,iconers, the works. Or don't play, have some random dude living in his moms basement serve the game, have have learned coders program, and lets rip some sprites of the icons. This way your money goes back into the game you play,
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Better than pretty much everything I've seen so far.