[MUD-Dev] Business models for commercial text games

[Emil Eifrém <emil.eifrem@windh.com>]

On Thu, 29 Mar 2001, Matt Mihaly wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Mar 2001, [iso-8859-1] Emil Eifr=E9m wrote:

>>    * Pay-to-play. Incentive would be (1) in-game advantages such as
>>    artifacts, money or skill practices, (2) access to "value-added"
>>    (sorry) services integrated with the web site and (3) a
>>    banner-free environment [see below].

> I'm a bit confused. Do you mean monthly charges? If so, I don't
> understand the bit about in-game advantages. If it's pay-to-play (ie
> you can't play unless you pay) then how do you make something
> everyone has an advantage?

> Or do you mean selling artifacts, money, or skill practices as
> Achaea does? (well, we don't sell money, but you can buy credits
> from us and then buy gold from other players with those credits).

"Pay-to-play" was a bad choice of words. As you point out, I meant
selling in-game stuff (artifacts, money, skill practices, ...) for
dollars. Not subscription-based playing.

>> How do people in the low-end commercial games area do this? Is
>> credit card payment the end-all-be-all solution?

> Yes. However, we get a fair number of money orders, cheques, and
> bundles of bills sent to us. Sometimes when people make large
> purchases, they wire it into the company's checking account.

> There are other kinds of options, but they aren't widely spread
> yet. For instance, 7-11 sells cards that you buy for cash, and then
> use on the net as a debit card tied to a bank account with that
> amount of cash in it.

Sounds very intersting. Again, I think half the battle is won once
there's an easy and convenient method for players to pour money into
the game.  Qpass/Paypals and efforts such as those 7-11 cards seem to
be heading the right way. Thanks alot for the info and comments.

-EE [emil at eifrem.com]
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