It is very popular (everyone with an avatar on the forum has one, for example) and the price is very affordable, at just over a dollar per month.

If you buy a one-year membership, that's 18 dollars/12 months, which is 1.5 dollars/1 month.
If you buy a two-year memberhsip, that's 30 dollars/24 months, which is 1.24 dollars/1 month.
If you buy a five-year membership, that's 60 dollars/60 months which is 1 dollar/1 month.

Edit: units fail removed.

Well yes, it used to be fun when there were actually games other than naruto that people played. I went on a trip around HUBs

4 pages of (online) naruto games, naruto goa 150 players, 20 players on WOTS and then there were all the 0-4 player games xD.

I mean really...
Im working on an action game in false hopes it will be something popular in future :P

Hmm... pay for membership to get access to premium items in NGOA. YAY!




ps

why do i love to press enter after every sentence 0_o

Game popularity is earned over time and if you stick to it, more and more users will come.

Taking into account the only game that I have a long enough history to judge on, IU, that game started in '03. At the time I joined, the maximum players was around ~20 and on occasion it'd blow up to ~30. Granted, back in '03, there wasn't nearly as many people on BYOND (I remember the online list being around ~200).

In '05, things started to pick up, continued development saw the game reach ~30 players on average with occasional spikes to ~40 sometimes ~50.

This year, the game is almost always over ~30 players during off-peek times. Unless something happens to the server or we're forced to make people upgrade their BYOND versions for whatever reason. Twice in the passed month, the game has reached over 100 people at it's peek hour. During peek hour times, the game sees on average ~60 players. This makes IU one of the most popular games on BYOND outside of the anime section. It took six years of dedication to see the player list get that high (without any form of advertising minus small forum plugs like this one).

All one really needs is dedication and patience. Over time, if you stick too it, a small player base will build, and those players will bring in their friends who in turn will bring in their friends. It takes a lot of time, effort (and in this case, money), but it's worth it in the end.

Tiberath wrote:

Game popularity is earned over time and if you stick to it, more and more users will come.

I would dare to disagree here, although I agree that time, effort and determination play an important role.
Getting a community built up is by no means as easy as wait and work. There is a multitude of factors that comes into play here (pun intended).
If your game needs a critical mass to function properly, you're going to have a way trickier start than if you can support and carter for single-players as well (see Proelium and Hazordhu).
Is there a big enough sub-group of customers interested in the type of game within the BYOND community?
With games that require thought, there is only a very limited group of customers, so you'd have to advertise outside of BYOND, which is a key suggestion on most everything not Animé related.
And even if you advertise and generate enough attention, you still need to adjust the graphic, gameplay and GUI to the target audience.

Sorry for derailing the thread.
As for the topic, I love my BYOND membership and would not want to miss it.
My personal reason for purchasing was in both supporting the system I enjoy using and having an easy means of communication through the pager.
I'd say that a dollar per month is rather affordable.

Did you consider if an AI option would be beneficial for your game?

Gogeta126 wrote:

I cant create an AI intelligent enough.

What kind of game are you talking about.

You can always create AI able to do the simple tasks, you just need to know how. They may not be the brightest things, and may make decision mistakes, but it can always be done.

Gogeta126 wrote:

As the topic question states. Is it popular? Is the price too high or too low?

Honestly, If I was middle-class I wouldn't think it would be worth it, because honestly it really has no value, paying 15$ you could get 15 .info domains at GoDaddy with free hosting lasting a year each, if it cost maybe 9$ it would be semi-worth it.

Lol, what do you think the middle class is? "Oh, I can't take $18 dollars out of my $50,000+ dollar salary because it would just not be worth it. You know, maybe I can skip a few meals, then I could pay for it!" If you can't pay $18 a year for something, you obviously don't deserve to have an internet connection.

EDIT: Lol@you bragging about being "upper class"

Considering HXR has made posts in Classified Ads that he "worked on Half Life 2" or some BS like that, I think it's safe to say he's just delusional.