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Alternative Distribution Schemes For The MMO?
Thanks to The Adrenaline Vault for its editorial discussing ways the MMO and online gaming industry can evolve beyond its current saturation levels. The author argues: "The structure of MMOGs all but requires consumers to choose one title to the exclusion of all others... so, how can game makers continue to use this business model without collectively suffocating?" Therefore, a solution is suggested: "Scale projects back and use episodic content instead. Under the drip feed model, users pay for gameplay in small chunks rather than a periodic access fee. For example, Resident Evil: Outbreak would have translated perfectly into this type of game because its scenarios are encapsulated and self-sufficient... This approach... requires much less in the way of maintenance costs and initial investment [and] provides entertainment in digestible bursts... which means more room in the marketplace for everyone to sell their wares."
Pay per play is less appealing to the houses running the games, because there's not the potential for residual income from people who sign up, lose interest, and forget to cancel for a few months.
I think that if your business model involves relying on people to forget to stop paying for your product after they're done with it, then you are NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH.
I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
When I was a teenager, I wasted countless hours playing RPG's to all hours of the night. Now that I have a full time job, I just don't have the time necessary to devote to one of these massive games, and I therefore simply can't justify the subscription price. If content were episodic in nature, I would most likely be able to play some of these games again without worrying about the time commitment. If I bought it and didn't play it for more than 4 hours, it wouldn't matter as much.
Now I appreciate your assertion that this is a much less attractive revenue model from the producer's point of view, however, I'd be willing to bet there'd be a much larger audience for this.
Hell, don't the stats say that most game players are in their mid twenties now anyway? That demographic may have a lot more disposible income than teenagers, but they have a lot less time!
Isn't this what Neverwinter Nights was trying to do? How successful was that, both in terms of retail sales and achieving the goal of getting people to roleplay? I don't hear much about it now, so I guess it disappeared (please correct me if I'm wrong though :)
Did anyone ever play Majestic ? This was the 'MMo' that attempted to integrate itself with your real life via faxes, phone calls, E-Mail, and WWW browsing. Think: The Game.
Besides its incredibly unique method of interaction, the gameplay was also structured into 'episodes'. I think they were officially called "Chapters". This was quite nice for several reasons. As mentioned in the article, you didn't need to devote yourself entirely to playing. But it also helped structure players together that are in roughly the same place in the game. It also allowed the developers to craete the content as the game went along. I was blessed to be one of the beta testers for Majestic, and new chapters were rolled out to us about a month before everyone else. That sort of development model can really cut down on the initial investment required for a MMO. It requires less content to start, and thus a quicker revenue stream.
--LordPixie
p.s.Did anyone else play this game ? I personally loved even the unpolished beta version I played. A real shame when it went under.