Slashdot Mirror
Online Games - Get Hooked For Free
Thanks to Wired News for their story discussing online games trying alternatives to subscription fees, including extended free trials, in order to ensnare gamers. The article points out: "Online games are adding millions of new players each year, but business models haven't adapted to accommodate the new playing population... casual gamers wary of shelling out monthly subscription fees are the driving force behind this growth." Nexon's Shattered Galaxy is the featured example, with Paul Philleo from the company also mentioning another development in online titles, that of (alleged) specialization: "We're not trying to operate like Asheron's Call or Ultima Online. We're going for a new, niche audience."
I haven't played it, but I like their client features:
Support for nearly all platform: Windows (XP, 2000, ME, 98), Linux, Macintosh
And their game feature list, point one:
A Role Playing Game!
(Their exclamation mark)
I will not mention that it is published under the GPL. Damn, I failed.
I wonder, if I managed to destroy a promising game by publishing this information on this site.
Maybe I can stop it, by mentioning that it is pre-alpha.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
My favorite game is a online soccer management game, Hattrick.
They have the right model: playing it is absolutely free and will remain free. Besides that, you can become "supporter", for about 20 Euro per year. Supporter gives you some extras - a guestbook and logo at your team's page, very handy bookmarks, lots of statistics - but nothing that will help you with the game. Supporter is fun, but doesn't give an advantage inside the game.
Hattrick has about 150,000 players and is expanding rapidly. Around 10%, perhaps a bit more, are supporter. This is enough for them to make a small profit.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
Here's a method that has worked well for us, and that a lot of people seem to appreciate:
1. We don't ask for a credit card upfront. We don't require a real name, or an email address, or anything else - just download the client and play.
2. Limit of 24 hours of game time, but it can be spread over as many sessions as desired. After that, it prompts for a credit card to continue.
3. Certain content (about 15 items) required a paid account. Not enough to be bothersome, but enough so that most people run into a couple things they wish they could do during their free trial.
4. Billing is done in-game - not on a website - so when someone does run into restricted content, they can unlock it instantly by entering a credit card.
5. We pay the credit card company extra (about 1%) to not require all the name/address/blood type bullshit. Again, to make it very quick & easy to pay when the unavailable content comes up.
So, how has this worked? We've had 27.5k people log in to the game. Of those, around 17% have paid for at least one month. Most shareware (which is the closest analogy to how we do things) averages 1%.
Only 3.5% of those who try the game exhaust their 24 hours and then leave. A much smaller number than that (anecdotal - I don't track this directly) pay, but only after exhausting their 24 hours. Perhaps 1%. These last two are what I find so interesting - it says that an MMORPG can *almost* behave like a shareware game. Play for free as along as you'd like, but you get some bonuses for paying.
A Tale in the Desert. This is why I should stick to programming, not marketing.