[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Will players pay for public services?

[cruise]

Thus spake Nicholas Koranda...
> ********************************************************************
> *  REPOST
> *
> * Original Poster:  Ola Fosheim Grstad
> *
> * Sun Oct 17, 2004 2:16 pm
> *
> ********************************************************************
> 
> How to make a MUD profitable?
> 
> Options:

<snip>

There's also the AO method of combining advertising with subscriptions - 
you can play it for free with adverts, or without adverts for a 
subscription.

There's no reason it can't be a sliding scale - various bands of 
subscription that reduce the density of advertising.

In a space-based MMO I'm toying with, the idea would be to tie 
subscription and advertisements to location - if you are killed, you 
respawn at your "home" system - but each system has varying levels of 
advertising, and which system can be chosen as your "home" system 
depends on your subscription rate. It has the advantage of having an 
in-world explanation - your respawn and refit is paid for by the 
government (to encourage exploration), but the further from Earth (the 
one free home system) the higher the overhead for such insurance (and of 
course, the less industrialised the systems, thus less adverts).

I'm not sure how well it would work in practice, but it seems like 
something worth playing with.