I'm relatively new on this board, but I didn't notice any threads about the different business models and strategies for making money with your game. I know there are a few die-hard developers that scoff at the thought of actually making money off of players. I honestly never understood that mentality and would like to make that a part of this thread. Also, there have been significant technological developments (some that I have participated in) that have changed the business model of monetizing games. This is ultimately going to be a LONG post because so much information is out there. Ultimately, I want it to be long to spark discussion and help to learn from each other and determine the best methods when deciding the financial directions to take your game. *INTRODUCTION* MMORPGs looking for ways to monetize game traffic without compromising user loyalty have come to a crossroad. With the number of copycat sites, the annoyance of banner ads and pop-ups, and the reluctance of players to spend money, games need to re-think how to turn users into dollars. *PASSIVE vs. ACTIVE* Passive Income is more or less an ineffective way to make money off of your website. It requires you to simply place banners or solicit donations from players. These techniques have been around forever. They require so much traffic to make any significant dent, that if you're considering it ... you either 1) haven't researched active strategies to make money with your game, 2) don't care about making money, or 3) believe that the integrity of keeping your game 100% free game is the only way to go. Active income is where you actually have a strategic business model integrated into your game that either gets people to spend money or gets people to earn in-game currency or items by participating in advertiser offers. The "Pay-to-Play" model is the best model if your game is good enough to compete with the big boys. However, the number of "cash poor players" out there dramatically outnumber those that have the money (are are willing) to pay. This model doesn't take much thought to execute...but requires a lot of content, users and gameplay in order to pull it off successfully. The "Pay for Virtual Currency" model is an excellent way for games to establish a value of it's currency by selling credits to users. Like any economy, a currency's value must be created in order to get people to work for it. Selling currency establishes its cash value. This make earning it that much more appealing to players. This is usually more successful than the pay-to-play model, but sometimes it shifts the power of the game too easily. That is why a hybrid model emerged about 2 years ago. The "Earn Virtual Currency" model gives players the ability to earn credits by participating in advertiser offers like online surveys and product trials. While some game developers dislike this model because users get spammed, most find success in it because it gives cash poor players more opportunities to succeed in the game without spending money. This model is typically very difficult to manage unless you have an virtual reward management systems like BLVD Media's rewardTool or others on the market. That was my shameless plug. Virtual reward management systems automate all of the processing of running incentive CPA offers. The system will automatically list new offers, pull old ones, reward users with in-game currency, etc. This model is very profitable since it pays about $1 per completed offer. This post is long enough (for now). I know there are other models out there, so lets talk about them. I really just wanted it as a starting point for people to ask questions, comment, slam, praise, or otherwise give their 2 cents worth.

Sorry, who are you? I tried to find your company's website, but the only link I could find (http://www.blvd-media.com/) redirected me to an https site and then gave me an invalid certificate error (screenshot)...

That's really odd about the SSL. I just tried it and while it does go to the https (which is set up to secure your login), I don't get the invalid cert error. What browser were you using?

My company is BLVD Media Group, LLC. We are based out of Las Vegas. Our url is www.blvd-media.com. We are an online adverting/technology company specializing in helping MMORPGs monetize their games through our virtual rewardTool.

Firefox won't display pages with un-trusted SSL certificates. Internet Explorer does so without complaint though.

Quote: I know there are a few die-hard developers that scoff at the thought of actually making money off of players. I honestly never understood that mentality and would like to make that a part of this thread.

If you were some guy trying to figure out how to monetise a small-time game, I would tell you not to try and sell it to players. The easiest route to making money off of it is to use it as portfolio material and get a full-time job for someone who already is capable of selling games.

Quote: Original post by Hodgman
Firefox won't display pages with un-trusted SSL certificates. Internet Explorer does so without complaint though.

Were you able to pull up the site? I'm pulling it up in FF no problem.

No it won't load (on FF 3.0.12) without putting an SSL exception in tools -> options -> advanced -> encryption -> view certificates -> servers -> add exception