Would you pay to play?

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Aug 26 2003, 11:12 am
In response to Deadron
I mean, we're talking a few swallows of Coke here.

Or, if you're a yuppie, a tiny dusting of a snort. =P

(Okay, maybe that was a little inappropriate.)


But yeah, I do think people overestimate the value of money for some things and underestimate it for others. For example, I pay somewhere around $30 every month to go see a movie in the theatre. But if someone were to say, "Feed starving children in Africa for only 20 cents per day!", I'd just look at them and walk away -- feeling slightly guilty, but that'd soon pass.

I think it's a matter of tangibility. Buying the rights to play a game online is an intangible concept -- paying for food in Africa is an intangible concept. Buying a new PC game from the store is a tangible concept; going to the movie theatre is a tangible concept.

In other words, if you don't get a CD, a ticket, or something else from it, somehow, the material instinct screams, "YOU'VE BEEN HAD!" then adds, "And would it kill you to go buy some Cheetos?"
Aug 26 2003, 12:54 pm
In response to OneFishDown
OneFishDown wrote:
If I paid $1 for a game I'd expect it to be at least 1/40th as much fun as a $40 game, and I don't think that any BYOND game is worth $1.

I could list off hundreds of $40-$60 games that I wouldn't even take for free. Price doesn't assure quality.

The 1/40th as much fun idea is flawed. The next time I spend $20 on a pair of sandles, I guess I should just assume that they are 1/5 as good as a $100 pair of sandles. Regardless of whether or not I like the style of the $20 pair better, and they last just as long as the $100 pair.

There are tons of BYOND games worth $1. There are also tons of BYOND games that charge money and aren't worth playing regardless.
Aug 26 2003, 12:56 pm
In response to Spuzzum
Spuzzum wrote:
In other words, if you don't get a CD, a ticket, or something else from it, somehow, the material instinct screams, "YOU'VE BEEN HAD!" then adds, "And would it kill you to go buy some Cheetos?"

That's a good point. I bought Macromedia Studio awhile back online, and I paid an extra $10 for them to ship me a CD with what I had bought on it, rather than just rely on their download service.
Aug 26 2003, 1:17 pm
In response to OneFishDown
OneFishDown wrote:
Deadron wrote:
People have paid much money, for example, for games like Shapeshifter. I think it's safe to say Shapeshifter is worth $1.

Sure, its safe for you to state your opinion, I think.

If I paid $1 for a game I'd expect it to be at least 1/40th as much fun as a $40 game, and I don't think that any BYOND game is worth $1.

I'd say Shapeshifter is 40 times better than the random $40 game you'd find on the shelf, easily. And Shapeshifter is an excellent implementation of a genre that people spend far more time playing than than FPS games and MMOGs. BYOND is actually perfectly suited for creating the kinds of games that more people in the world play every day than what we tend to think are popular games. Quake and Half-Life and Starcraft don't hold a candle to the online popularity of Hearts, Bookworm, Chess, Backgammon, etc. More people pay for those games too.

As one list of best games ever said recently, Tetris is the one computer game that people will be playing 100 years from now, after we're all (most likely!) dead. I can assure you no one will be playing any of the current $40 games on the market.
Aug 26 2003, 6:42 pm
In response to Deadron
Umm...some of you people don't seem the age you said most people are here.
Aug 26 2003, 8:04 pm
In response to Jon88
actually there's an MMORPG out right now that cost no monthly fee, however I don't remember the name... it's made by a big industry.
Aug 26 2003, 9:41 pm
In response to Darkfirewolf5
That's because they're not. =) There are obviously exceptions to the average age.
Aug 27 2003, 5:00 am
In response to Jon Snow
Man thid became a big thread quick!
Aug 27 2003, 5:45 am
In response to Jon Snow
Would it be Runescape by Jagex? Cos that is free, but you can become a member and pay monthly for additional stuff!
P.s. What does MMORPG stand for?

~GokuSS4Neo~
Aug 27 2003, 7:02 am
In response to Crispy
Crispy wrote:
That's because they're not. =) There are obviously exceptions to the average age.

I'm the average age...multiplied by some unspecified number...
Aug 27 2003, 7:38 am
In response to Gokuss4neo
Gokuss4neo wrote:
Would it be Runescape by Jagex? Cos that is free, but you can become a member and pay monthly for additional stuff!
P.s. What does MMORPG stand for?

AcronymFinder: MMORPG
Aug 28 2003, 2:22 am
I would, and have paid for in the past, P2P text MUDs, a genre of online game BYOND can handle just fine. I'd also pay for a well done and interesting MORPG that wasn't just a leveling tredmill. Since a good RPG shouldn't matter if the graphics are 2D or not, or at least to me it doesn't.

I would not pay for an sort of icon building/trading type of "game". Look how well the Sims Online did, EA can't pay people to play that game.
Aug 28 2003, 9:39 pm
If I like a game and I have to pay for it I generally do(depending on how expensive the game is and how much I like it). Also if I can get about the same thing for free I won't buy it. For instance I don't buy any Tetris games since there are plenty of free versions of it on the Internet(the only exception being handheld copys since there are no free versions of those).

So if your game provides an enjoyable gaming experiance that I can't get cheaper elsewhere then I'd pay for it.

And 2$ a month isn't very expensive so the game wouldn't have to be too outstanding just entertaining and of slightly better quality than the stuff I can get for free elsewhere on BYOND.
Aug 29 2003, 4:57 am
In response to Grei
Yes they could. :D
Aug 29 2003, 1:36 pm
In response to Grei
Grei wrote:
I would not pay for an sort of icon building/trading type of "game". Look how well the Sims Online did, EA can't pay people to play that game.

They messed up the game and made it un-fun. However people have been willing to pay more often for the Sims gaming experience (as in single-player Sims games) than for any other game currently out there, usually by many times over, so the Sims gaming approach is worth paying for to many.

They just messed up one instance of the game, the multi-player version.
Aug 30 2003, 9:42 pm
Sure if I enjoy the game and the crowd who plays it.. I'd find a way to pay. MUDs many years ago charged and offered a lot less than BYOND does today and people were paying $20 a month on some of those. Just getting a crowd interested and hooked is the key. Goes back to good game design.

Cheers!
LJR
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