Hello everyone, I'm in a catch-22 situation with a game I've just finished building. Although I already have a tentative plan, hopefully you can provide feedback and/or additional ideas. Background The game is multiplayer, browser based and text driven, taking place in a persistent universe. It is not free to play, but a skillful player has the potential for significant real world monetary gain through the process of battling other players for in-game territory. Alliances between players play a key role in the game, even when a player's allies are offline. I designed the game to blur the distinctions between the real and virtual worlds. The game's entertainment value comes from long-term strategy, alliances, deception, etc. It's not entertaining in the sense that a player can kill an afternoon in front of the screen playing it. In fact, the actual screen time is only a few minutes a day, but events in the game may take hours or even several days to unfold. So the target audience is one that would have enjoyed playing Avalon Hill's Diplomacy by mail in real time for example. The Problem In order for a player to derive any benefit from the game, either in terms of fun or potential gain, there have to be other players present in the game. If my universe is empty save for one player, that player will have nothing to do. Advertising the game in a conventional sense (banner ads, AdWords, etc.) won't work for two reasons. One is that I'm on a shoestring budget and can't afford it. The other is that even if I DID advertise, the first person to respond would find an empty universe, get frustrated and leave. Then so would the second, third, and six-thousandth. I obviously can't run a big "Game launches on such and such a date!" promotion either because first of all, who would care since I'm unknown, and secondly I can't afford it. Did I mention I can't afford it? Ok, good. Tentative Solution My plan right now is to recruit a group of beta testers for the game. I would set up an account for each tester and fund it myself, so they would have no cash risk. They would still enjoy the potential of being able to "cash out" any territory gained in battle for a nice profit. Then, once the testers are playing the game, I can begin a viral marketing effort through the game's forum, other online communities (not just gaming), YouTube, etc. I've been studying the general process and specific techniques of viral marketing for this purpose. Anyway, at this point if new players come into the game, they aren't confronted with an empty universe, because the beta testers will be in there battling it out among themselves. Other Ideas? Feedback? So that's my problem and proposed solution. Has anyone been involved in a similar situation? How did you solve it? What are your thoughts on my solution? Am I just insane? :0) Any additional ideas? These are my questions. Thanks for any help! Scott

How about a free trial? Hand out 10-day passes to everyone and their dog.

Other than that, I think you've hit a major downer for small-time online game development. It's a tricky business if you're not loaded with cash and have an IP that people drool over.

EDIT: As an after thought, a few people could be reading your post right now - why haven't you plugged the game on the end of your post? I'm intrigued at least...

Hi Deadstar,

I'd better clarify what I meant when I said the game isn't free to play. It's not time/subscription based either. Anyone can register, create an empire and get into the player's section of the site at no cost.

However, in order to actually be able to do anything, the player needs to purchase territory. The whole in-game process starts there. I figured if Linden Labs can sell islands that don't exist for thousands of dollars, then I can sell solar systems that don't exist for a couple of bucks. :)

So everyone has a "free pass" to get into the game. What I can't do though is give out unlimited in-game cash to buy territory. The player can sell that territory back to me at any time, so by giving someone $10 worth of territory in the game to get started, I'm essentially giving them a very real $10. I don't have unlimited numbers of ten dollar bills to give away (I wish, LOL).

Quote: Original post by Capitalist
So everyone has a "free pass" to get into the game. What I can't do though is give out unlimited in-game cash to buy territory. The player can sell that territory back to me at any time, so by giving someone $10 worth of territory in the game to get started, I'm essentially giving them a very real $10. I don't have unlimited numbers of ten dollar bills to give away (I wish, LOL).

So why can't all accounts get a free chunk of land? That chunk of land is different than "normal" land being unsellable, non-transferable, and otherwise valueless.

That could also help with your initial player base problem.



Next, as far as being able to sell territory back at any time -- that sounds very risky as far as business goes. You better have some good lawyers around. That type of business can run afoul of gambling laws, among other things.

Quote: Original post by deadstar

EDIT: As an after thought, a few people could be reading your post right now - why haven't you plugged the game on the end of your post? I'm intrigued at least...

Good question. First of all I was concerned about the whole "empty universe" thing and turning off anyone who visits the game now while it has no players. However, since I've already explained the situation I guess that's covered.

Secondly, I'm new to Gamedev.net and even though I've seen sites plugged on other posts here, I wasn't sure of the spamming rules and didn't want to come off that way if plugging wasn't acceptable. From your question, I guess it's ok though, so here it is! :)

http://www.market-geeks.com/HyperDonut

I'm a part-time currency trader, and Market-geeks.com is my main site (it doesn't sell anything). I built the game in a sub-domain. That's why it's set up like that.

Quote: Original post by frob
So why can't all accounts get a free chunk of land? That chunk of land is different than "normal" land being unsellable, non-transferable, and otherwise valueless.

That could also help with your initial player base problem.

You're right. That's an excellent solution; two tiered territory. I think I can incorporate that pretty easily. Thanks!

Quote:
Next, as far as being able to sell territory back at any time -- that sounds very risky as far as business goes. You better have some good lawyers around. That type of business can run afoul of gambling laws, among other things.

I've been thinking about that as well, but haven't spoken to an attorney yet. With that in mind though, I made sure that there is no element of luck involved in the game, and make a point of saying that on the home page.

The analogy I like to use is that I'm setting up a forum by which people can play a slightly more complicated game of "chess" against each other. They pay $5 to play for example, and the winner gets $9, while I keep $1 for my service. I don't know that playing chess for money would be gambling, but that's a legal question for an attorney of course.

Having looked at the rules and basics of your site...

you better have some really good lawyers before starting up. You are begging to be be sued.

You also better have a pretty big wallet to back your game.




Imagine:

I invest $10 in the game. I find an exploit. I take over a few million dollars of property. I demand to cash in.

Now what?



[Edited by - frob on May 3, 2008 10:46:53 PM]

You could do like Dark Galaxy, and I suppose many other games out there.
Allow player registration for a while without allowing them to join the universe, when you feel the number of registrations is reasonable, open up the universe and notify everyone registered by email.

Quote: Original post by frob
Having looked at the rules and basics of your site...

you better have some really good lawyers before starting up. You are begging to be be sued.

You also better have a pretty big wallet to back your game.

I agree on the lawyer part, but I don't see what you mean about the big wallet. The way it's set up, I have no financial risk of my own (not counting some kind of lawsuit).

personally i dont think the refund idea is good at all....say i sing up, play for 6 months, buy like $200 of land, and one day i decide to quit. then i just get my land refunded, and i end up playing for free, meanwhile you spent some 2 dollars woth of server per month on me alone.

Also, you would get ALOT of complaints from pepole getting their system stolen from. and if you get a high level *ss (which you will) then you have a bunch of pepole quitting and getting their remaining systems refunded because some dude is killing them.