Where Is The Metered Pay Model For Online Games?

bturnip writes "I just cancelled my account with the game A Tale in the Desert. I really liked the game- it had a fresh interesting approach, a Linux client, a non-linear style of game play, and was just fun to play. The graphics were pretty good, the sheer amount of stuff to see and do was impressive, and the online community was extremely helpful and friendly. My problem? I didn't play often enough to justify paying $13.95 each and every month. Is isn't that the price is outrageous, I'm not having any problems paying the bills, I just didn't play enough to make it worth my while. Where is the metered pay model for the casual gamer? If a certain game has a monthly fee of $15, and the average player plays 40 hours a month, a metered model might offer 40 metered hours for $25. Hours could be set to expire after a set time, say 4-6 months. Some months I might pay more than a monthly subscriber, some months less. This is a win/win situation. I can have more fun playing my character at my own pace without feeling I need to play more often to justify the montly cost. The game gets money that it would not get otherwise. If I end up playing often, maybe I end up as a monthly subscriber. The downside I can see for game makers is the overhead of running two billing models, extra work in tracking hours spent, etc. What are the other downsides? Is the potential market for this type of billing not worth the effort?" Along these lines, I think that Planetside would have been a huge success if it had launched with a different subscription model.

Comments

Don't feel like you have to play

[Shimdaddy]

You paid for something you enjoyed... don't worry about it any more than that. You should never feel that you have to amertise something after you've made the decision to buy it -- especially if it's not a large expenditure. In my experience, trying to "get your money's worth" ruins the fun, whether it's eating too much at an all-you-can-eat buffet or by playing an MMO past the point of fun.

Another good way to look at it is by percentages -- was the game worth $14/(your monthly salary)? This helps me justify (or reject) stuff all the time, because it puts purchases in perspective of their size.

Lose the big gamers?

[Aziel777]

A large portion of their player base are the players who do play for 40 hours a week. If they decide to charge these guys $100/month because they play nonstop, then they are going to go to a different game. Unless your thinking of letting players choose which billing model they want to use. Although I think the majority of people who would be interested in these games would be willing to pay the flat fee, and by letting them pay a smaller amount, they might not earn as much profit, even if they do pick up a few extra people.

Health-Club Membership Business Model

[justanyone]

You're forgetting the famous health club business model:

- Sign up as many people as possible in January and Feburary when everyone's fat from Christmas and being inside all the time and bored with life;
- Make things seem interesting for a while with 'fun' programs;
- Gradually make things seem less interesting;
- HOPE NO ONE SHOWS UP.

Health clubs make their money on people paying for a membership they rarely use, or at least start out using and then don't keep up with.

The MMPORG business model seems the same. They have less server cost if fewer people show up; They just want people to show up occassionally and keep paying their dues, guiltily or not.

I suppose you'd like it even better if

[MarkusQ]

I suppose you'd like it even better if...

• There were different rates for peaks hours and off-peak hours, so that when you were feeling cheap you take that into account
• You had a variety of rate plans to choose from (say, some with a base of pre-paid hours, or others with "anytime" hours) and so forth so that you could choose a plan to suit your needs
• Some games came bundled with a computer, or you had the option of getting a new computer "free" if you signed a long term contract with a game
• Every game came in two dozen flavours, all basically the same but with a non-systematic assortment of the features enabled or disabled
• There were different payment plans available for new players, existing players, active players in other games, etc.
• Some payment plans cost more than you wanted to play, but came with a piece of paper that, if you filled it in exactly right and sent it to the right address, on the right day, you might get most of your money back.
• The payment plans were only available for a limited time, and the next time you looked into it they would have subtly changed.

If I'm right, you may want to go cell phone shopping.

For my self, I far prefer a company that simply tells me what their product costs and then lets me decide if I want it.

--MarkusQ

Reason we never went to a per-hour model

[Teppy]

(BTW, I'm lead designer of A Tale in the Desert)

Actually the main reason in this case isn't a business one. Many of the challenges in ATITD are formulated with the assumption that most players have a single character (account). For instance in "The Test of Octec's Ghost" you are given twelve identical crystals, and are given the task of trading to assemble a collection of twenty different crystals and using them to build a huge animated statue. I intentionally designed the Test in a way where there would be a scarcity of crystals overall.

Now I realize that even as-is, some people will just buy an extra ("mule") account, but most do not. Setting up a strictly hourly system would, I believe, tempt a lot more people to do so. And it's a slippery slope: Once that happens, the game would likely develop a culture of people buying their way through challenges, and that doesn't strike me as much fun.

There are some business reasons as well that other posters have hit upon, though for some MMOs such a model may make sense. FWIW, bandwidth costs per hour are negligible: $0.0065/hour by my quick calculation.

One thing I gave serious consideration to, and may still do in a future Tale - is a separate casual server that limits players to 10 hours/week, but still charges $13.95/month. Why would anyone opt for this? By *far*, the biggest complaint and reason that casual players leave ATITD is a feeling of being unable to compete with the hardcore 40-80 hour/week crowd. The game then becomes about playing the smartest 10 hours/week you can, rather than grinding.