[MUD-Dev] Indies unite?

[Dana V. Baldwin]

"Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad" wrote:

> This is a hypothetical proposition and yes, it won't happen, but
> still...

> What if players could subscribe to all independent commercial MUDs
> for 20 bucks per month? I mean all, from MUD2 to Meridian59 (just
> to pick two well known examples).

> Tehnical:

>   1. all server hardware is put into the same pool

>   2. a proxy makes sure that there is only one connection per
>   subscription

Playnet has the servers, the bandwidth, the billing systems, the
authentication, the time and likely the inclination...

We've hosted a variety of things from Furcadia to Darkspace.

But you're right probably not gonna happen, certanily not if we
don't at least talk about it. There might be a better opportunity to
try and bundle a few. You could probably draw bigger clients by
splitting the revenue by usage but in the end most games that want
to charge money are already doing so. Some MUDs are charging as much
as an MMORPG (rock on!).

I'm continually surprised at the number of independants who close
shop or don't complete the project when they realize how hard it is
to deploy the infrastructure to support an MMO, instead of calling
on the pros from Dover (or even us in this case) to help them out.

> Problems:

>   1. fixed pricing, which might exclude systems like
>   Achaea... Actually, even such systems could benefit: remain
>   free, retain charging for upgrades, provide subscribers with
>   some special benefits.

>   2. cultural issues

>   3...?

4. Not getting raked over the coals by your hosting partner with an
overblown service contract (keep your per customer cost down).
Note: A recently bankrupt MMO was spending WELL over 100k a month on
their hosting and support and they weren't supporting even 50k
players.
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