[MUD-Dev] Will players pay for public services?

[Tom Hunter]

snipped my own earlier post

<EdNote: Err, no.  Let's attribute properly.>

On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 13:03:30 +0000 (GMT)
Johan  <asteroid at rocketmail.com> wrote:
> ceo <ceo at grexengine.com> wrote:
>> Tom Hunter wrote:
>>> ceo at grexengine.com wrote:

>> Incidentally, I've been guesstimating for years that
>> $25-$35/month was a likely long term average/target for the high
>> dev-cost subs-based online (RPG) games. It shouldn't take the
>> publishers too long to realise they can market these things as "a
>> new game every month". There is likely to be a discount compared
>> to a standard retail game simply because a new retail game is
>> "more different" and so the easiest way to market these "game per
>> month" subscriptions is as "almost a game per month - not so
>> uniquely new, but with other benefits instead (like persistent
>> monotonic character/status improvement)"

> "$25-35/month?" and market as "almost a new game every month?" To
> me there is not a single MMORPG that does such huge improvements
> every month they could make this claim (unless it's right after
> launch since most MMORPG's ship in beta stage).

Of course there is not, you can't support the new content without
the $25-$35 a month fee.  The interesting thing is that people can
pay that much and if they did you could build a really good game
with lots of new content added every month.  ( Or you could build
game destroying features demanded by your newbie players if Richard
is right - but that is another thread.)

> At best there is new content added every few months. Most of the
> time there are just normal bug fixes or balancing issues, things
> that "should" never have been there to start with. If there are
> big changes, they are released as expansion packs anyway. Some
> companies do it excessively and just browse some forums about
> peoples opinions on such companies and tactics are.

> So, if an MMORPG fails to cover it's huge development costs within
> a reasonable time it's not the players fault and they should not
> be "punished" with such high monthly fee's. It is however the
> developer's fault for making an uninteresting product that fails
> to deliver long-term entertainment.

High monthly fees are not punishment.  My wifes car is nicer than
mine.  It cost twice as much.  Is she being punished by Toyota for
driving her Camrey with leather seats?  There is no relationship
between price and viture, punishment or customer satisfaction in an
entertainment product.  Price only defines who can afford the
product.

There is a relationship between economics and content.  If your
making more money you can build a better game.  This does not mean
you will build a better game, it just means you can, please don't
post confusing the two statments.  Plenty of people have spent a lot
of money building bad games but no one has built a game with really
nice art (better content) without paying artists.
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