[MUD-Dev] selling Godhoods

[Par Winzell]

Ananda Dawnsinger writes:
 > >From: Matthew Mihaly <the_logos at achaea.com>
 > >On Mon, 24 Apr 2000, Ananda Dawnsinger wrote:
 > >> (This is definitely NOT a Scalable Solution!)
 > >
 > >The common misperception that quality and high-end customer service is not
 > >scalable is refuted, in my opinion, by the Four Seasons hotel chain. For
 > >those of you not familiar with them, they are a hotel chain with hotels
 > >and resorts in nearly every major city or resort area in the world, and
 > >they are usually either the top, or among the top, hotel/resort in their
 > >market. They are _fantastic_. Every one I've ever stayed at has been
 > >nothing less than a superlative experience, and yet they are not
 > >cookie-cutter at all. Each one is unique, and yet each one manages to fit
 > >within the larger corporate structure very well. 
 > 
 > Well, I didn't say 'quality and high-end customer service,' I said, more or
 > less, 'supporting yourself off the generosity of players willing to pay
 > $3000 for Godhood.'
 > 
 > And though I can't remember whether or not I've actually stayed at a Four
 > Seasons, I know the sort of hotel you're referring to.  One of their secrets
 > to high-end customer service is limiting the number of rooms.  Even their
 > Las Vegas hotel -- on the Strip! -- has under 500 rooms.
 > 
 > That said, the number of wealthy folks who a) like computer gaming, b) have
 > an interest in standard MUD subjects (fantasy and/or SF), c) are willing to
 > play low-tech text games, d) have enough time to devote to a MUD, e) have an
 > ability or affinity that makes a good MUDder, and f) are willing to pay a
 > large fee for a game, on the other hand -- well, just say it's not enough
 > folks to keep the Four Seasons chain in business.
 > 
 > And this is what I meant by Not a Scalable Solution.  The online gaming
 > community is probably less than a million users.  The ORPG community is a
 > fraction of that.  The text MUD community is a fraction of *that.*  The
 > number of wealthy text MUDders is finite, fought over by at least half a
 > dozen commercial MUDs, and unlikely to grow at a significant rate.  If you
 > are looking to these wealthy MUDders for a significant percentage of your
 > income, at some point your growth will reach a ceiling.

If your assumptions are correct, your conclusion follows logically.
However, I'm not sure they are. First, the textMUD community is not
actually a subset of the online gaming one -- it has the potential
to intersect substantially with the online _chatting_ market, which
is larger by an order of magnitude at least.

Second, all these communities will grow. Mainstream online computing
is but a wee bairn and there is every reason to believe the urge to
communicate in text while surrounded by a virtual environment is a
fundamentally pleasing one. It would follow that what we see as the
market for commercial text MUDs (of _some_ kind) has very little to 
do with what the future holds.

Finally, a one-time $3K investment in a character is not actually a
big deal for almost any single middle-class adult for whom the MUD
in question is an important second (or first) home. While right now
we are surrounded by free hobby MUDs of relatively high quality, I
believe that age is passing and that we will wake up, one morning,
and realize that judged as a society rather than a playpen, for-pay
offerings are evolving to a new level while free ones mutate but do
not actually ascend.

I had many good years with free Muds, and I would not trade them --
but I think I'm slowly losing my "current MUD community" properties;
the free MUDs all feel just a little bit like academia to me, with
the same slightly oppressive group dynamics -- and I increasingly
look for the freedom of being a paying customer, indebted to no-one.

So to finalize this rather inflammatory and imprecise line of reason
I will claim that there is a huge market of potential MUD players out 
there, but that the freebie MUDs cannot hope to ever catch but a
fraction of them, simply because they do not charge.

Pär






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