I was thinking a little bit about the MMO business model, and specifically about when and where the money is charged. Most MMO games seem to charge a subscription fee. This is not something I think can be avoided, as the revenue stream needs to be stable and sustainable while the game is being updated; the idea that the money for updating and maintaining the game is linked to the number of people playing it would also make sense. But what about the client? As far as I can tell, MMOs charge for the client as well. The player buys the boxed copy for $40 or so, and then has to pay another $5 monthly or so to stay in the game. Doesn't the double-charge aspect of it dissuade any players? Another subscription-based industry, that of mobile phones, has got two models running side by side: the original 'contract' method, by which a monthly fee is paid as well as a usage bill; and also the 'prepaid' method, where you pay for connectivity before using it. How about 'prepaid' gaming, then? A player obtains the game (I reckon a free client is best, but that's immaterial), and logs in; because they're a first-time player, they are asked to create an account. With a credit card, they can then 'charge up' that account at a given rate - say $1/hour - with a given amount of time. Then, when they play, that time is gradually counted down; they can play the game on any machine with the client on it (and the client's free, so it would get fairly high distribution because people like free stuff), using their account, and gradually ticking away their credit. When their time expires, they are not allowed to continue playing until they charge the account again. It could be taken a step further. If the player's credit card information was actually stored on the server in their account details, then they could potentially buy more time without even stopping play. They run out of play time; they are immediately given a button for 'Buy another hour.' It would be a major thing for impulse buying, especially if the player was in the middle of something when their time ran out. Also, for players who prefer a more subscription-based system, it could be set up to automatically buy them a given amount of play time per month. As a further refinement, I thought about cybercafes. How about this: Instead of counting credit on a time basis, it gets counted on an actual money value basis (buying 'play credits'). Then, the rate at which those credits are spent depends on the client. The standard 'home user' client would tick down at, say, 100 credits an hour (where 100 credits cost $1 to buy); but, the cybercafe client ticks down at 125 credits an hour. The extra 25 credits are taken by the cafe - so, for every hour you play, they make 25 cents. The values are all for tweaking, but imagine it. You could walk into a cybercafe with the game installed, sit down, and you *wouldn't have to pay anything there and then*. The cafe would just gradually be credited with your payment from the server, they'd get sent a cheque every month or something. There's also the end of gameplay factor. When the player is bored of the game, chances are they'll have some credits left in their account, so they've paid for time that they're not even going to end up using - somewhat akin to a player cancelling their subscription before the end of the month. However, they can then come back at a later time and use that credit, without having to set up their subscription again or anything. Minimal administrative costs. In summary, what I like about it:

• Impulse buying factor is high
• "Pay no money now" means players will be more likely to use the cybercafes
• Ease of entry/exit for the player makes them more likely to get back into the game after a break from it

There's also the possibility of 'prepaid gaming networks' - that is, a single prepaid account which provides credits for a number of online games. They don't even have to be MMO. So, what do people think? [edit: made the topic title a bit more specific] Richard "Superpig" Fine - saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he's not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
Enginuity1 | Enginuity2 | Enginuity3 | Enginuity4 | Enginuity5 ry. .ibu cy. .y'ybu. .abu ry. dy. "sy. .ubu py. .ebu ry. py. .ibu gy." fy. .ibu ny. .ebu "Don't document your code; code your documentation." -me
"I'm not a complete idiot; parts of me are missing." -}}i{{ [edited by - Superpig on December 8, 2003 8:34:00 PM]

I''ve never played any MMO games, but I was under the assumption that when you payed your subscription fee for a given month, you got unlimited time...

But what if you only want to play the game for a few hours? Then you lose out. And if you play the game for the entire month, non-stop? Then the developer loses out.

Richard "Superpig" Fine
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
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"Don''t document your code; code your documentation." -me
"I''m not a complete idiot; parts of me are missing." -}}i{{

I think part of what makes the developers the money is that the payment system is completely transparents. When i signed up for Everquest three years ago, i just put in my credit card info and I was set (until i cancelled it last week.. *sniffle* *sniffle*). I probably would have quit sooner if i had to go through that extra hoop to get the game i wanted. Stopping the gameplay because you have to pay is a big no-no.. i would hate to be pulled out of a game in the middle of a huge battle because I didn''t have the chance to pay. I would probably just stop playing because of that frustration.

As for paying what you play for... at first it sounds like a good idea. The problem comes when there are people like me who play a whole whole lot. Say, out of a month of approximately 720 hours, i''d play perhaps 104 hours. This would mean (at, say, $10 flat rate a month) that i''m paying about $.10 an hour. $10 is probably the most they could charge without me thinking it was too much (well, eq is $13 now..). But that means that other people who may only play a few hours may only pay a few dollars at most. So you can''t charge too much, and you can''t charge too little.

I think what might be cool is that there is a range between, say $5 and $10. In that range, the price would fluctuate exponentially based on how many hours the player plays. That way, the people who play less are still paying a decent upkeep, while the people that play a lot aren''t paying too much. What do you think?

Here it is ...

1. Make MMORPG
2. ???????????
3. Profit

Sorry fellas, I couldn''t resist.

- Ben

quote: Original post by falkone
I think part of what makes the developers the money is that the payment system is completely transparents. When i signed up for Everquest three years ago, i just put in my credit card info and I was set (until i cancelled it last week.. *sniffle* *sniffle*). I probably would have quit sooner if i had to go through that extra hoop to get the game i wanted. Stopping the gameplay because you have to pay is a big no-no.. i would hate to be pulled out of a game in the middle of a huge battle because I didn't have the chance to pay. I would probably just stop playing because of that frustration.

OK, so have the system automatically buy more credit when you run out without even asking you. It would be a fairly trivial thing to add on, and your gametime wouldn't be interrupted.

quote:
As for paying what you play for... at first it sounds like a good idea. The problem comes when there are people like me who play a whole whole lot. Say, out of a month of approximately 720 hours, i'd play perhaps 104 hours. This would mean (at, say, $10 flat rate a month) that i'm paying about $.10 an hour. $10 is probably the most they could charge without me thinking it was too much (well, eq is $13 now..). But that means that other people who may only play a few hours may only pay a few dollars at most. So you can't charge too much, and you can't charge too little.

Yes, the cost of play units would be crucial, as with any product One thing that could work is that different levels of interaction with the game could be permitted - if you don't use your Fire spells, for example, you could play with them disabled at a lower rate. The problem with that is that it starts to mess with the game design, though.

quote:
I think what might be cool is that there is a range between, say $5 and $10. In that range, the price would fluctuate exponentially based on how many hours the player plays. That way, the people who play less are still paying a decent upkeep, while the people that play a lot aren't paying too much. What do you think?

Hmm - you mean like a discount on bulk buying of play credits?

I quite like that, actually. It encourages players who are going to play the game a lot, to make more significant purchases in advance, rather than buying the credit as they go through the month... so the developer gets the money all at once, and the player gets it a little cheaper. It would also come significantly into play with the 'shared account' idea I mentioned - one credit account being shared across a number of games (you'd buy credit for all games at once). Yes, I like it a lot.

carb: I never said I was making an MMORPG, I'm just interested in how one could work from a business point of view. Unless you're just stating the business model assumed by most newbie developers

Richard "Superpig" Fine
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he's not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
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"Don't document your code; code your documentation." -me
"I'm not a complete idiot; parts of me are missing." -}}i{{

[edited by - Superpig on December 8, 2003 8:16:09 AM]

> so have the system automatically buy more credit
> when you run out without even asking you.

At least, you should advise the user ahead of time that his credits are about to dry up. Maybe a message every $1 mark from $10 down. The best would be a profile option. Also, I don''t think it would be legal to ''automatically charge'' an account without the user signing some agreement form beforehand; check with a lawyer.

> It encourages players who are going to play the
> game a lot, to make more significant purchases
> in advance, rather than buying the credit as they
> go through the month...

Users would expect some rebate for paying in advance. And how much in advance should determine the rebate. If you pay a full year subscription in advance, users should expect a significant rebate because their cash is being tied up in an investment that would otherwise earn dividends or interests. If the prepaid amount is not consumed within the stated period, you can''t just take it away; nor can the users claim due interests if you have stipulated the service contract correctly. Again, check with a lawyer.

One last advice about any prepaid stuff: check with your banker. Prepaid services that aren''t rendered will affect your balance sheet and thus your quick ratio. Bankers don''t like it when the quick ratio falls below some threshold (1.5 - 2.0 on average) because in the event that everyone decide to bail out, you won''t have the cash to pay back your customers. You are then technically ''in default'' and that affects your relationship with your banker and IRS alike. That''s what killed BIX a decade ago.

Hope this helps a bit.

-cb

Well, many people have things like their electricity or credit card bills set up to be automatically paid (a system called ''direct debit''). So I don''t think it''s illegal, though it might require that they sign special documents or something.

Oh, and I never meant that players would be able to get their money back from unused credits. That''s kinda the point; this isn''t meant to be a substitute for a bank account or anything, it''s meant to be actual purchased goods. They''re not casino chips. The only time players *would* get money back is from customer service issues (i.e. the system erroneously charged them for money/credits when it should not have done so). So I don''t think going ''in default'' would happen - if everyone suddenly upped and left, the developer wouldn''t have to pay them a cent.

To that end, it would probably be possible to transfer credits to another account. If you''re going to stop playing the game for good, you might want to hand your playing time off to a friend or something. It could even evolve into an in-game incentive - players make agreements in game using play credits as currency ("I''ll give you the Sword of Smiting if you give me 10 hours of play" type deals).

WRT rebates: ''paying in advance'' is more or less unqualifiable (if you buy now, will you use the credits today or next year?), but if you''re going to buy a year''s worth of credit at once, then yes, the price drops. There''s no restrictions on when the credit can be used; yes, you *can* buy a month''s worth of credit and then use it a few days at a time over the course of a year. Heck, you could probably even get 24 hours worth of credit free when you sign up, or something.

Richard "Superpig" Fine
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
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I don't know that I like the idea of buying blocks of time in advance, then either a) having to go in and buy more blocks in order to keep playing or b) have my credit card automatically charged for more play time.

That doesn't mean the model doesn't work, and it's been done before - with a bit of a twist. AOL (and just about every other ISP) in their early years used a variation on this model, with the difference being that you were charged at the end of the month for time you used for that period.

In fact, as you stated that's pretty much the utility model. Gas, electric, telephone - they all charge end-of-month for the time you used, rather than a pay-as-you-go model. It's tried and tested, so why not use it?

While I have no real problem with the flat fee charged for MMOs now, as a casual gamer I'd definitely appreciate only being charged for time I actually played - especially if it turns out to be considerably less than the $10-20 (US) I'd normally pay.

Offering blocks of time for a flat fee is a brilliant idea that could easily work. Let's say you offer, at $US rates per hour: $0.50 (fifty cents). Seem insanely cheap? Tell someone they're paying $30 a month, they'll call you crazy. Tell them you're charging 50 cents an hour, they'll think "wow, how cheap, hell yeah!".

Now do the math. At a casual gaming rate of 10 hours a week you'll bring in $5 a week, or $20-25 a month. Still think 50 cents is cheap? You could lower that to a quarter, or a dime, and the casual gamers would love you. The power gamers, or those with a lot more game time on their hands, might put in - what - 20-40 hours a week playing, if not more? At 10 cents an hour, at 30 hours, that still works out to around 120 hours a month - or $12 US.

If you ask for the box fee and offer, say, 10 hours of free game play you could end up with a paying customer by the end of the week (if not the very next day), and save yourself the money generally lost by the industry-standard "free month".

[edited by - EricTrickster on December 8, 2003 4:16:57 PM]

[edited by - EricTrickster on December 8, 2003 4:17:58 PM]

The only problem I could see with that is the fact that the player is getting themselves into debt.

The main example of this kind of system that I''m looking at - prepaid mobile phones - are absolutely rampant in the young teen (and, indeed, older teen) market now. I know maybe 3 people in my entire year group who don''t have mobile phones, and we''re talking about a sample of 50 to 60 people.

The prepaid nature of it means that parents never have to worry about the child building up a debt. After all, once they''ve played the game for a month, then what happens if they can''t pay? You can''t deny them the product; they''ve already used it. The only alternative is to start civil proceedings against them to recover the losses, but that''s costly and impractical on a large international scale (as you''d hopefully be running a large international game).

There''s also the advantage for the developer, in that they get the money as soon as possible, they don''t have to wait for the end of the month.

Hmm... I should see if I can dig up any papers on the business model employed by the prepaid phone industry. I maintain that it''s a pretty strong parallel.

Richard "Superpig" Fine
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
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"Don''t document your code; code your documentation." -me
"I''m not a complete idiot; parts of me are missing." -}}i{{