Pay-As-You-Play MMORPGs?

grubber33 wonders: "With exciting MMO games like World of Warcraft and others existing, the current monthly fee plans that all MMO games that I'm aware of aren't necessarily worth it for people that don't have as much time to play games as others. For instance, I have about 3-5 hours to play games per week, if I'm lucky. On top of that, I like more than one game but I'm still interested in MMO games. I was wondering what Slashdot thinks about newer MMO games implementing some sort of pay-as-you-play system or at least having that option alongside the current monthly fees."

Comments

Free is the only way to go.

[Tibor the Hun]

My first ever MMORPG is Anarchy Online, which I've started playing last night.
If it wasn't for their BitTorrent download, and a free year of playing I wouldn't even consider it.
But now, I might not hesitate to pay the full price for an expansion pack, if that need comes up a few months from now, a few months after playing it for free.

Re:Free is the only way to go.

[Divide By Zero]

Watch out - as soon as you buy that expansion pack, you start paying monthly fees. According to the "*Conditions" on their website: "Should you wish to upgrade to any of the expansion packs monthly subscription and client fees will be added."

The first hit is always free.

ibgames's Federation...

[Tickenest]

at www.ibgames.net used an hourly rate system for a long time. 60 cents an hour it was. They eventually went to a monthly subscription, so I don't think it was too successful.

Just how little do you value your leisure time?

[Teppy]

If you have just 3-5 hours/week to play "exciting MMO games like World of Warcraft", I take it that you're working. They charge, what, $15/month? So that's around a buck an hour for you.

My question is, where are you working that $1/hour spend on leisure time is too much? (Or did you mean to post this under "Troll Slashdot" rather than "Ask Slashdot"? ;)

Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time?

[Jahf]

Add the cost of something like World of Warcraft (say, $45 average w/tax) and safely assume that you're buying 2-3 games/year + maybe 2 expansion packs at around $35 each. So $160 - $225 for the games per year (and that seems a bit low to me based on the gamers I know).

Tack on at least $13/month for a subscription if one of those games is an MMORPG. That brings the min total up to $314/year. And again, that is a bit low compared to reality from what I see.

Now let's assume a power gamer ... a new game or expansion pack/month (average cost $40) is about normal and 2 MMORPG subs is candy. We've just gone to $792.

Don't forget around 25% of the cost of your PC/year to keep up with games (meaning that at a minimum games require a new PC every 4 years, again, conservative) and easily 100% for the power gamer. Assume a base cost of $400 for a PC capable of playing a modern game and $2000 for a gaming rig.

That doesn't count feeling the burning need to optimize your bandwidth/throughput so that you enjoy those games more which will likely increase network costs by 25-50% (in some cases easily 100% more for that fine sDSL connection) so we're somewhere between $414 for the minimal gamer to over $3000 for a power gamer.

Now if you want to make the power gamer into a social power gamer (either by going out with the "gents" once in awhile or by helping host LAN parties ... I think the end cost will be about the same) you're beginning to not only assume a significant chunk of change but I think you're also going to have to look at a neglected spouse or LACK of spouse.

* Makes consoles alot more attractive

* Means that the Power Gamer likely never leave the house :)

* Definitely shows the attraction of something like Anarchy Online ... reasonable PC requirements, free download, free play for the basic module.

Now ... this doesn't mean I don't see the attraction of something like World of Warcraft, but I do think the 2 extremes illustrate that the MMORPG world is still evolving how to make money.

I personally do believe that having to pay for the MMORPG box is a bit nuts ...

1) the people who have the bandwidth to play an MMORPG often will have bandwidth to download a DVD of material and get an online key to play.

2) any MMORPG worth buying will make FAR more back on subscriptions. Charge me a minimal download fee and then let me play for a couple of hours free to see if I like it. No cost to you if I stop playing and I don't feel ripped off (in other words, more likely to try a future product from you).

3) any MMORPG that is GREAT enough to suck me in for hours and hours can make a lot more money off the power gamers by charging by the hour.

Make the subscription fee tiny, perhaps $2.50/month ... that would include the cost of maintaining my data in the system and 1 hour online time as a teaser. After that charge a floating scale ... hours 2-10 are $1.00/hour (or 2, whatever). Hours 11-30 are $.60/hour. Hours 30+ are $.40/hour.

No, those hourly figures aren't low ... they are high! Let us check into the basic and power gamer scenarios again ...

1) basic player is between 4 and 20 hours/month (and the parent to your post fits this nicely at between 9 and 20 hours/month). He pays $2.50 for his monthly upkeep and 1 hour fee. He pays between $3 ($1/hour for hours 2-4) and $15 ($9 for hours 2-10 and $6.00 for hours 11-20). That's a total of $5.50 to $17.50 for the average player.

Face it ... the "average" MMORPG player is alot closer to 20 hours/month than 4. The power gamer in my experience with friends is anywhere from 30 to 60 (or more but that gets out of reason) hours per month. 60 isn't so hard ... connect 8 hours each day on the weekends and you're over 50% there. Note that a person sp

pay again?

[Tomahawk]

Personally, if I had to fork out about 40 quid for a game, and then pay by the month to play it online, I don't think I'd be forking out the 40 quid in the first place.

Also, like the writer said, I don't get much online play time. If I had to pay my the month to play online, I'd be paying more per game hour than someone with a lot more time on their hands.

Access to the servers should remain free. Either that, or the game should be a lot cheaper (free even), and a cost per hour or cost per day model setup for online play.

But they can't have it both ways.

T.

Re:pay again?

[MindStalker]

Yes, but say a game cost $50 dollars, wouldn't it be reasonable to offer a few free months. Some do this, but some don't give you any free months. The thought of spending $50 for a game to turn around and not be able to use it untill you've shucked out more money.
I guess I could understand this if there was a hardware component, like buying a cellphone to get service. But cellphone companies consider the phone a loss leader meaning they pay for some of it so you will sign up for the service. It would seem to make good marketing sense to give away the game to get people signed up for the service. This is something Anarchy Online has been doing for a while (before the free year offer they have been offering free download and free month for a long time). Personally I'm shocked it didn't work better for them, I guess the game had too many problems out the door. Either way, generally you often have to give something away to sell monthly services, the fact that MMORPGs havn't is personally surprising. But being a believer in capitalism, I can really only blame this on the consumers who allow themselves to be ripped off.

Re:pay again?

[battlemarch]

Sure they can. And many of the game companies are doing just that (having it both ways).

They have made a conscience decision to do without your business. My point is, that although it would be nice for the casual gamer to get or feel they get more value out of their gaming dollars as compared to more dedicated players, having a tiered payment structure along side the standard monthly subscription plan isn't likely to happen.

Frankly, from the developers point of view, I just don't think it's worth the hassle. There are lots of people like you that won't pay for the box AND then pay a monthly subscription on top of that. Well, that's your right and more power to you. That makes up one group. Another group is the casual gamer. They will either pony up the standard monthly subscription fee or not. Those that don't aren't THAT much more likely to do it at a lower fee I think. Again, my perception (and perception, what we believe to be true, whether right or wrong guides what we think and do) is that a tiered subscription model will not attract enough users to make it worth while for the company. I suspect that it might even decrease revenue as some people that paid the full monthly subscription move to the lower tier.

I don't think many casual gamers compare the "value" they get from their monthly fee AS COMPARED TO those "dedicated" players who are getting more value for the same money. I perceive that they simply compare what they are paying (or going to pay) versus how much fun they have or expect to have. Usually people play games to have fun or to be entertained. When I come out of a movie, I ask myself if I was entertained enough to justify what I just paid. So the powergamer gets more entertainment value than the casual gamer, frankly, so what. I really don't mean to be callous or for that to sound harsh.

I think the answer lies in simply providing a fun, challenging gaming experience for all users. This especially means the casual gamer since overall they use less resources but pay the same fee. Yes, I realize what I just said. The casual gamer is probably a more preferred customer assuming that they are paying the full monthly fee (and aren't a support nightmare). I play games to have fun, to be entertained, to be challenged. I develop games to have fun, to present a challenge and to entertain people. It's also good for the ego to watch folks having fun in an environment you created. It may be a labor of love, but don't get me wrong, we are also in the business to make money. The hardware and bandwidth aren't free nor is food on the table nor the clothes for my kids. The trick is making money while entertaining all of your customers, giving them value for their money. But the "value" per dollar and the experiences doesn't necessarily have to be exactly the same for each user.

Project Entropia is pay-per-play

[david.given]

...sort of.

The way it works is that playing is completely free. However, equipment in the game costs game money, and the easiest way to get game money is to spend real money on it.

It is possible to play without spending anything, but you'll end up having to do a lot of grinding in order to make enough money to buy a piece of equipment that will let you make some more money, etc. Spending will let you shortcut this to a fair extent.

(Currently I've sunk $10 into it. This bought me some decent armour, a low-level newbie gun, and some ammo for the gun. So far, I haven't managed to break even when hunting, but that's because I'm crap at it. I'm also practicing sweat gathering, which is sort of like milking except they tend to maul you at the same time. You end up with lots of little bottles that you can sell.)

One interesting side effect of all this, plus the fact that equipment wears out and needs to be repaired, is that everyone is obsessed with money. Poke around on the 'net and you'll find detailed analyses of how much a weapon costs to use: per hit, per unit damage, per swing, etc. Newbies are better off with weapons with low cost per swing/shot; experts are better off with low cost per unit damage. All equipment wears out and needs to be repaired.

The first time I killed an animal I got 0.78 ped loot from it (== 7.8 US cents). The record is apparently 29000 ped (== just under three thousand dollars)...

There are other ways you can make money in-game: hunting and sweat gathering are the main ones open to newbies, but there's also crafting, shopkeeping, mining, plus all the various service industries like guides, distracting animals while other people shoot at them, trading, etc. PE has a thriving economy.

If you're interested, give it a try --- just download and run. It is, after all, free.

Guild Wars

[crashmstr]

Guild Wars (still in beta) is currently set up so that there is no monthly fee. You buy the game at retail, and play online for free. "Chapter" expansions then will be a purchaseable item, but only required to access new chapter areas or items. So for someone who plays only occasionally they only pay once, or only pays more when they are ready for playing the expansion content.

Neverwinter Nights

[Psmylie]

You may want to try Neverwinter Nights. I know, I know, it's not exactly an MMORPG, but there are static servers out there, the ability to interact with others online, and no monthly fee.

Consideration: Time cards

[Sandman1971]

I haven't seen any comments regarding this. Currently, a few MMORPGs allow you to purchase monthly cards in store in lieu of having to use a credit card. A possible way of doing it is to allow players to buy timecards with a set number of hours on them instead of being valid for just one month's worth of gaming. IE: buy a card with 50 hours for 25$. That card could last you a week like it could last you a year, depending of how often you played.

Re:Don't see it happening

[Grab]

Depends. I play *rarely* (maybe 3-5 hours a month, if that) so I can't justify $40 on the game and another $15/mo. I could maybe justify $40 on the game if I knew whatever else was proportional to time spent. If their billing system is anywhere near sensible (ie. relying on email and computer billing, not sending paper copies) then they should make a profit on the deal. Given a choice between making a smaller profit off me or no profit at all, they'd be better going for the former. And that means a charge structure designed for casual players.

Grab.