[MUD-Dev] Many MUDs in one? (was: Geometric content generation)

[Matt Mihaly]

On Thu, 11 Oct 2001, Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 08:30:40AM +0000, Matt Mihaly wrote:
 
>> That's Achaea. Play forever without ever paying a dime if you
>> want. We don't care, and we don't discriminate in terms of
>> customer service.  You'll eventually get hooked though and want
>> to spend money. If not, then we're not providing a good enough
>> game, so we don't deserve your money anyway. And if you really
>> can't afford anything, well, you're providing content for the
>> other players anyway. When you get old and have bought everything
>> you need (though that's not really ever possible) you've got a
>> number of possible elder games to indulge in that don't cost
>> extra money.
 
> <nod> It's a small world; a friend of yours (or possibly a friend
> of a friend) told me about Achaea, and I noticed the wierd payment
> model.

Well, it's not that weird I don't think. It's the retail business
model, which is much older than subscription services (if not in the
MUD world).

> So, my questions:

>   Is it actually making money?  How long has it been doing so?

Yeah, it's an unqualified success. Been generating revenue since
1997. Actually, we had originally planned to have hourly charges,
but had to give that idea up and rejigger the business model. 1997
was the tail end of the days when you could get away with hourly
charges (and could make a bundle doing it too).

I guarantee you that we'll see games backed by big companies
combining our business model with subscription services (which is
what I'd do on a big game. Allowing utterly free play becomes
problematical with the kind of numbers the big games have).

 --matt

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