How feasible do we think this might be as a business plan? I'd think with a low investment, the number of users needed to make it profitable would be rather small--say around 2000 subscribers. Of course, it'd have to be pretty darn good MUD, but I can't help thinking 2000 people would pay to play some TOME or DoomRL or Dwarf Fortress MMO. Are there any commercial microMMO's out there?

I doubt people would pay to play MUDs, but if you can get adverts on it, it may become somewhat profitable. Just not uBer profitable. But then again, if the price is low enough, say 5$, people may pay to play Dwarf Fortress. Did you know they even did an article on it in GI? So now that it has some recognition, they could sell it for a (Very) small fee, I believe. But Dwarf Fortress wasn't a MUD, I don't think.

Quote: Are there any commercial microMMO's out there?

Several. Maple Story is a sidescrolling action MMO with a decent fan base. No subscription fees, no download fee. They make it profitable by offering in-game options. Want a facelift? For a price... A haircut? Cough up a few bucks... Not only can you buy facelifts and haircuts, but they sell temporary in-game store licenses, and other things I'm sure are offered.

Also, Runescape is profitable and also free to download and play. No monthly fees, etc... How does the (sole) creator of Runescape make any money? Upgraded accounts. Kinda like GDnet+ users.

I think the best way to make money is not to charge the users, but to get your game to be free, and attract users, then use the popularity to make profit. Adverts, ingame goods, upgraded accounts, etc...

What makes people play your game? It's fun, it's free. How do you make money? Offer extra features, or simular.

I think if it was a REALLY good MUD, then people would pay for it if it was a one-time fee of maybe $5-10. It would be harder if it was a monthly subscription though.

There used to be many subscription MU*s, although I think it was an annual fee. There still are some that people pay to play, mainly to help keep the game up.

MicroMMOs I know of: Horizons, Vendetta Online, Tales in the Desert, Runescape, and I'm not sure if Puzzle Pirates counts.

As a business plan, though, I'm not sure why you want it. There's no financial investment needed to start a MUSH, just time. I guess if you mean the hosting costs, most MU* hosters charge between $5 and $20 a month, which is peanuts. I'm assuming you mean a text-based one. If you mean a graphical one, then yeah, you can probably get an engine and libraries, and on a budget of $40,000 or less, make a decent game and have a thousand people subscribing.

Achaea is well-off commercial MUD. Ther are no monthly fees to play, but users can purchase in-game items through micropayments.

I think making profits from a MUD can be done, but subscriptions are not the best idea. A said above, a MUD is a low cost, low profit game. Have some micropayment options, and if you have a java client (that users load up from your webpage perhaps) place some banner ads by it.

Now, I've never actually made profits from ANY kind of game, so feel free to discredit anything I say.

You might want to check out the companies of Simutronics, and Ironrealms. Both offer examples of profitable MUDs. The former offers a traditional subscription plan that if memory serves me right is more expensive than the popular MMORPGS. Their flagship products are Gemstone IV and Dragon Realms. It's been a year or so since I checked them out, but they seemed to be doing rather well population wise and have been around for quite some time. (500 on during peak times a year ago.)

Ironrealms offers four Mud's with similiar playstyles. The previously mentioned Achaea is an Ironrealms product, their first and most popular (400 or so on during peak time). They also offer Lusternia, Aetolia, and Imperian. They have a great pvp system that you should check out if only for the sake of research. As concerningluke mentioned, the muds are free, but to really advance you need credits. Credits can be purchased through their site with cash, or purchased from other players in game with gold. As the games are competitive in nature, (the crowning achievement of Ironrealms is their pvp system) people seem more than willing to part with 300 dollars or so to max out their characters. I guess if you can't beat the Joneses in real life, might as well do it online.

Of the two marketing strategies, I much prefer the second, although I honestly can't say which is more profitable. I was all together very impressed with the Ironrealms model. They're definately worth checking out.

I agree that the way most likely to be successful is one where you offer a free game with commercial "upgrades". However, as the previous poster mentioned, it is very easy to make a game in which the only real way to compete is to pay; in this case, you haven't made a free game at all, you have just made a free chat server that shares communications with a commercial game. To advertise it as a free game would in my opinion be dishonest.

So, if you go that route, my personal recommendation would be to work hard on balancing the game so that people playing for free are on as level a field as possible. In the short run the other way might be more lucrative, but I feel that for the model to be successful in the long run it has to be fun to play for free (to get people into it). If it isn't fun, people will stop checking it out in the first place, and then who will be forking over money?

Good luck with your project. I would love to see more successful MUDs around, they are a certain breed of fun not found many other places!