[MUD-Dev] Criminalize Community Volunteers?

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu 
> [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
> Madrona Tree
> Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2000 10:59 PM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Criminalize Community Volunteers?
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at verant.com>
> To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2000 8:27 AM
> Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] Criminalize Community Volunteers?
> 
> Surely (egads - hopefully!) there are supervisors for the 
> counselor program
> now?  Or are they unpaid too?

No, no, they are paid, generally. There are often volunteer positions which
are to some degree supervisory though ("Senior Guide" or "Senior Counselor"
or whatever.

> > Well, of course they do build customer service in. Just they happen
> > to use the volunteer model (which is far from being without costs,
> > of course).
> 
> .. which I disagree with.  You're talking like this is -- ordinary.  I
> don't think it's ordinary at all.  Can you name one other non-computer
> related industry (academics isn't an industry :)) that uses 
> the 'volunteer
> model' of customer service?

I'm not making any claims for other industries--it is indeed the norm for
*this* industry, though, and has been for well over a decade. Nor am I
saying anything about whether I approve or disapprove. I just said that what
worries me is that companies may decide that MMORPGs (or in fact, many other
forms of online communities) are non-viable businesses if costs rise too
high.

Keep in mind that I was conservative in my figures. It'd be very easy to
present similar figures that had NO profit margin.

> You guys are *so smart* and *so innovative* that you make up this whole
new
> industry ... but you can't figure out how to provide (comparitively) low
> cost, effective customer service?  Bah - I don't buy it.  And if it is
true,
> perhaps you need to outsource it, or hire a Customer Service Program
> Developer, or something.

Heh. :) Well, it's not that new an industry, and it's not that new a model.
In doing what they did, the current MMORPGs are just following the lead of
well-established online services and older games. I do know Customer Service
Program Developers for online communities--they all tend to recommend
establishing volunteer programs. :) Amy Jo Kim and Jessica Mulligan are in
fact two people who have done such work in the past.

There's a sneaky fact here, which is that community members tend to WANT
there to be a volunteer program. Others have touched on that elsewhere in
the thread, so I'll leave it at that except to say that if you don't use
them for customer service, you're going to need to satisfy that desire to
help out in some other way.

>  However, I don't think that just because the first generation of
> MMORPGs set their price point at $9.95 means that all followers have to.
> Perhaps UO could keep its price at $9.95 and UO2 (or whatever they're
> calling it now) can be $12.95 ... and let folks choose if they want to
keep
> their tower and play the game with the dated graphics, or play the next
game
> for only $3 more.  Or something.

It's going to take a compelling product to break the $10 price point and
raise it back up again, IMHO. Something which justifies the increased price
in the minds of consumers--and not just today's consumers, but also those
consumers not yet in the market (many of whom are not fond of the concept of
subscription fees of any sort). There are other avenues, though, some of
which I mentioned in the article--ancillary revenue from cartoons, action
figures, premium services, etc, are definitely going to be a major part of
MMORPGs in the future.

-Raph



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