[MUD-Dev] NEWS: Why Virtual Worlds are Designed By Newbies - No, Really (By R. Bartle)

[Hulbert, Leland]

Mike Rozak wrote:

> The time limit would be on invidivual players, and it wouldn't
> really be a limit. Basically, when the player finished the
> 100-hours of content, they'd be told they can stick around and be
> bored, or leave and go try virtual world X by the same
> author/company. (It could be more drastic; the game could start
> scrolling the games credits, but this is a bit harsh and will
> cause some players to put off killing the evil overlord forever.)

I once spent a great deal of time thinking about a business plan
devoted to this type of concept.  The idea was to build a talented
core of world-builders and quest planners.  Release a game, at
$19.95 per month (or whatever the market will bear), and have the
final goal of the game include finding a gateway to another world.
Make sure that the content on this journey takes enough time to give
you a chance to develop world 2.  At the appropriate time, allow the
final quest to be finished, and open the new world.  New players
starting from scratch in the new world would now pay their $19.95
for that.  Drop the cost for anyone staying in world 1 only to
$9.95, or whatever maintenance costs are.  Allow anyone who
completes the world 1 quest to transfer directly through the portal,
and keep their 9.95 subscription.  Add a tier 2 subscription at
$29.95 for access to both worlds.  Lather, Rise, Repeat.

Quests can be truly epic, and actually change the world, by opening
the new portal, as well as meking the world cheaper, and thus more
open to new players.  That engenders a real sense of accomplishment.
You could also give away free liftime susbscription for the first 5
or 10 people to complete the quest, adding a bit of competition.
Finally, you a have an on going revenue stream, but also still have
good reasons for adding new features and changing rule sets as the
players discover new worlds.  In addition, with a decent number of
similar worlds, you can begin to gather data on which features and
rulesets encourage the players to stick around, which should help
you tweak your product.

Lee
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