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

[Tom Hunter]

ceo at grexengine.com wrote:
> Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:

>> How to make a MUD profitable?

>> Options:

>>   2. Subscription. Players increasingly play more than one game,
>>   subscription is a barrier to revists. This can be overcome, but
>>   I also believe subscription leads to designs choices which are
>>   optimal for retaining customers, but detrimental to gameplay.

> I think this area is a lot less black and white than many think it
> is, mainly because of naivety or inexperience with pricing models.

I think that point number 2 is often true but but (as the second
post hints at) it does not have to be true.  Flat subscription is
bad because it discourages innovation and makes customer service
problematic.  Innovation is discouraged because your innovation has
to be popular with many of your subscribers since you have not used
pricing to segment them.  Customer service is problematic because
your high service customers are paying the same amount of money as
the ones who never bother you.

You could offer different game experiences for different
subscription prices.  I know that many people in the game industry
object to this but I think that is naivety and inexperience talking.
Most entertainment and luxury good pricing is variable.  Cable TV
does not have one price for all the content, theater and music do
not have one price for all the tickets.

> $10/month seems to be a de facto automatic baseline for MMOGs -
> even amongst those who just picked the number "because everyone
> else does it" (even though that's no longer the case, the number
> has stuck). $X/month also seems to be a common target amongst
> people I run into who are hoping to start a small commercial MUD.

Its worth noting that the $10 a month figure has moved up because
some one (I don't remember who was first) priced their game higher
and the rest of the industry discovered that the same people who
were paying $10 a month were willing to pay $13 to $15.

> But I've seen online games (non RPG, non MMO) with a $5/year
> pricing model - with several hundred thousand
> subscribers. Obviously, this is a gross simplification, and
> glosses over the cost of each customer, but a lot of people don't
> seem to stop and think about the possibility that reducing
> per-customer revenue by a factor of 20 could increase customer
> numbers by a much greater ratio.

This is a valid point but I think it deserves exploration because
its just one piece of something more complex.  The question is one
of value and how you offer it.

The example above is an aguement that people will find it attractive
if you offer them: The Same For Less.  Therefore more people will
buy your product.  This does two things for you.  If your product is
actually the same as a competitor it allows you to take market share
from the more expensive competitor.  If two companies are selling
the same apple but one is selling it for $1 and the other for $2
most people will buy the $1 apple.  If your product is unique (most
games fit here) then it enlarges your market by letting people with
very little money buy your game.  In a country like the USA where
the average income is over $30,000 a year your not adding that many
people to your potential market at $5 because just about everyone
can pay much more than that.  If you were selling the game in China
where the average income is in the hundreds of dollars this strategy
might make lots of sense.

The Same For Less is just one of the potentail offers you can make.
There is also More For More.  Pay me $25 a month and you get access
to unique content.  Or pay me $49.99 once and you get the latest
expansion to EverQuest/DAOC/Insert Name Here.  Anyone who is selling
in game items on ebay is following this strategy and it puzzles me
that so few of the game providers in the MMORPG space leave this
option to third parties rather than offering it themselves.

> Maybe not. But...the variation in pricing models for subs-based
> games still seems to me surprisingly low?

I agree completely and I think its a very bad thing for the
industry.  Pricing strategy controls many aspects of game design and
customer service.  Less sophisiticated pricing strategy creates an
economic imperative for less sophisticated design.  If your pricing
strategy will not allow you to charge your players for your work
will you do the work?

Tom Hunter
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