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.
Why not just program the existing scroll wheel so that when held down, it behaves like the "hand" tool in Photoshop. Press down the middle button, and then drag the document around the window.
In fact, polution does matter in ATITD - it screws up farming, fishing, and a number of other activites for your neighbors. (I'm the designer of ATITD.)
You have to understand ATITD's story. A mysterious stranger has challenged Pharaoh and his people to a series of 49 Tests, seven in each of seven disciplines. One of the Tests of Leadership is that of the Demi-Pharaoh.
People are assigned into randomly selected juries of about 7 people each, and each jury must promote one of their own. The person promoted moves to the next round, with the final round's vote taking place Egypt-wide.
The person elected Demi-Pharaoh has just one power. He or she can permanently exile (as in, game over, many months of work on your character gone, don't come back) up to 7 people. Whether to actually use this power is up to the person elected.
So it's a Test about figuring out who to trust with power. Tempers often flair during Demi-Pharaoh elections.
Anyway, if this kind of thing appeals to you, check out the game. I think we're the only MMO to launch with both Windows and Linux clients, and the first 24 hours are free. (I'm the designer of ATITD.)
We're a small game developer that has gained a bit of notoriety, at least to the point where I can't keep up with the PR opportunities the way I'd like to.
When I do pick which to do, I choose the ones where a small amount of my time can go a long way. If someone wants an email interview, that's pretty tough because it takes a couple hours away from coding. If they would like an in-game tour, that's a bit easier - I can show them the highlights of the game, and then let them explore. If they want to do a review, and just want to spend a few minutes on the phone, that's best of all - I never turn down one of those.
So, my advice is to go out of your way to make it easy on the person you're trying to reach. At least that works on me:)
With only 2000 subscribers, we're not yet at the point where we need to have paid GMs or customer support staff. However, we're close, and that's where the real costs come in. Right now, half of my time is spent on support. I work 80 hours/week, and am probably 2x as efficient at support as a non-developer would be. As we grow, we probably need a $30k/yr cost-to-employ person per 1000 players, so add to the above:
$2.50 Customer Support
So that's $4.52/month. I've heard that most of the big comapnies spend a bit more than that ($6-$8 total).
The problem with including many months of gameplay with a retail purchase is that a publisher/developer sees just a fraction of the retail price - the store and distributer take a big bite.
I know that Blizzard includes online play with their titles. Does anyone know whether you can summon someone if you, for instance, lose an item?
I suspect M$ would be thrilled if you could be held negligent for running a computer that was insecure. "Yes, WinXP has security holes, but we don't support that version any more. Upgrade to WinXP2 (now with Extra DRM!) to avoid liability."
I'm the president of eGenesis, the company that does A Tale in the Desert. Six days ago we became the first MMO game to release with both Windows and Linux clients. We even got slashdotted. Here are the numbers so far:
Out of the 4978 Accounts created: 4198 Use the Windows Client (84%)
780 Use the Linux Client (16%) Creating an account is free.
So far, 1148 of those 4978 (23%) have paid for a subscription. Of these 1148: 1043 Use the Windows Client (91%)
105 Use the Linux Client (9%)
The Linux client is somewhat harder to get working than the Windows version right now, because of different library versions installed on people's systems. The potential percentage of Linux users is certainly higher than the above. However, once you are in the game, both versions work equally well (and the Linux version seems to be slightly faster.)
Which brings me to a funny story. There was this one "logic" class that was taken almost entirely online, tests and all, except for some optional lectures. I was dating this really dumb girl at the time ("blonde, all the way to the brain stem"), who just didn't get *anything* about the class. And she kept going to the professor and complaining that it was too hard, and it didn't make sense, and so on.
So I think she ended up with a D for the class, which was probably generous, and she went to complain one final time. At that meeting the professor *admitted* to her that the whole thing was a sham. It wasn't a logic class at all. It was in reality, a giant psychological test to study how people react under extreme stress. And she was one of the subjects. She was vindicated! She knew it all along!
Now I knew the professor, and he was a really cool guy, with just a bit of a mean streak. Of course CMU wouldn't let a professor conduct a covert semester-long psych experiment on students. (And a math professor at that.) That guy must still laugh about the story he told to this poor girl. I know I do.
Anyway, my point was... oh yeah, the prior art thing.
Not true. We developed A Tale in the Desert, an MMORPG with a team of 3 full time employees, and a half dozen unpaid art interns. We've been been front page news on all the major game sites, and several print magazines.
Ask anyone that has played the game how it compares with EQ, DAOC, UO, etc.
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against . . . We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted [Frederick Mann: Obfuscation of meaning is a key element of the con games bureaucrats and politicians play.] - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
We're doing a MMORPG, set in a large (6 mile x 24 mile) outdoor environment. Our data structure is like this:
The world consists of multiple planes. Planes are disjoint areas.
Each plane consists of multiple layers.
- All planes have a "surface" layer that describes the terrain visuals.
- Almost all planes have an elevation layer of signed shorts. For our 3D client we use 1/20" increments with 0 considered sea level.
- Planes can have any number of additional layers, some of which are kept secret. Planes can be used to model underground minerals, pollution levels, walkability flag, etc.
When rendering tiles, you probably should render the intersections of 4-tiles, rather than independantly rendering each tile. That way you can define border tiles, corner tiles, etc., without building explicit grass-meets-path kind of tiles. Look carefully at the paths on "Oasis Island" in the screenshots sections of http://www.ataleinthedesert.com - they are all made of square tiles, but have a fairly gentle look.
Elevation maps don't compress well, making for long downloads in online games. Make these coarser, and use bezier splines when it's time to render.
To draw 1024x1024 tiles you'll need a LOD algorithm. Take a look at the screenshots with mountains in the distance - notice how they are a bit angular. We use a ROAM-like algorithm (easy to find online), but with geomorphing (again easy to look up).
Slashdot Mirror
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.
Why not just program the existing scroll wheel so that when held down, it behaves like the "hand" tool in Photoshop. Press down the middle button, and then drag the document around the window.
In fact, polution does matter in ATITD - it screws up farming, fishing, and a number of other activites for your neighbors. (I'm the designer of ATITD.)
You have to understand ATITD's story. A mysterious stranger has challenged Pharaoh and his people to a series of 49 Tests, seven in each of seven disciplines. One of the Tests of Leadership is that of the Demi-Pharaoh.
People are assigned into randomly selected juries of about 7 people each, and each jury must promote one of their own. The person promoted moves to the next round, with the final round's vote taking place Egypt-wide.
The person elected Demi-Pharaoh has just one power. He or she can permanently exile (as in, game over, many months of work on your character gone, don't come back) up to 7 people. Whether to actually use this power is up to the person elected.
So it's a Test about figuring out who to trust with power. Tempers often flair during Demi-Pharaoh elections.
Anyway, if this kind of thing appeals to you, check out the game. I think we're the only MMO to launch with both Windows and Linux clients, and the first 24 hours are free. (I'm the designer of ATITD.)
...Finally a technology they're comfortable with.
If there was some sort of license that made it so you were allowed to break into anyone's home and take their stuff, how many people would do it?
Lately I'm starting to think that number is not so small.
Isn't this patent business morally equivalent?
We're a small game developer that has gained a bit of notoriety, at least to the point where I can't keep up with the PR opportunities the way I'd like to.
:)
When I do pick which to do, I choose the ones where a small amount of my time can go a long way. If someone wants an email interview, that's pretty tough because it takes a couple hours away from coding. If they would like an in-game tour, that's a bit easier - I can show them the highlights of the game, and then let them explore. If they want to do a review, and just want to spend a few minutes on the phone, that's best of all - I never turn down one of those.
So, my advice is to go out of your way to make it easy on the person you're trying to reach. At least that works on me
I run an MMO; we charge $13.95/month. Here are the costs:
$0.74 Credit card company
$0.90 Bandwidth
$0.38 Hardware, assuming 2-year replacement
With only 2000 subscribers, we're not yet at the point where we need to have paid GMs or customer support staff. However, we're close, and that's where the real costs come in. Right now, half of my time is spent on support. I work 80 hours/week, and am probably 2x as efficient at support as a non-developer would be. As we grow, we probably need a $30k/yr cost-to-employ person per 1000 players, so add to the above:
$2.50 Customer Support
So that's $4.52/month. I've heard that most of the big comapnies spend a bit more than that ($6-$8 total).
The problem with including many months of gameplay with a retail purchase is that a publisher/developer sees just a fraction of the retail price - the store and distributer take a big bite.
I know that Blizzard includes online play with their titles. Does anyone know whether you can summon someone if you, for instance, lose an item?
I suspect M$ would be thrilled if you could be held negligent for running a computer that was insecure. "Yes, WinXP has security holes, but we don't support that version any more. Upgrade to WinXP2 (now with Extra DRM!) to avoid liability."
I'm the president of eGenesis, the company that does A Tale in the Desert. Six days ago we became the first MMO game to release with both Windows and Linux clients. We even got slashdotted. Here are the numbers so far:
Out of the 4978 Accounts created:
4198 Use the Windows Client (84%)
780 Use the Linux Client (16%)
Creating an account is free.
So far, 1148 of those 4978 (23%) have paid for a subscription. Of these 1148:
1043 Use the Windows Client (91%)
105 Use the Linux Client (9%)
The Linux client is somewhat harder to get working than the Windows version right now, because of different library versions installed on people's systems. The potential percentage of Linux users is certainly higher than the above. However, once you are in the game, both versions work equally well (and the Linux version seems to be slightly faster.)
Wouldn't this make an awesome pet?
Yeah, we had this at CMU back in the late 80's.
Which brings me to a funny story. There was this one "logic" class that was taken almost entirely online, tests and all, except for some optional lectures. I was dating this really dumb girl at the time ("blonde, all the way to the brain stem"), who just didn't get *anything* about the class. And she kept going to the professor and complaining that it was too hard, and it didn't make sense, and so on.
So I think she ended up with a D for the class, which was probably generous, and she went to complain one final time. At that meeting the professor *admitted* to her that the whole thing was a sham. It wasn't a logic class at all. It was in reality, a giant psychological test to study how people react under extreme stress. And she was one of the subjects. She was vindicated! She knew it all along!
Now I knew the professor, and he was a really cool guy, with just a bit of a mean streak. Of course CMU wouldn't let a professor conduct a covert semester-long psych experiment on students. (And a math professor at that.) That guy must still laugh about the story he told to this poor girl. I know I do.
Anyway, my point was... oh yeah, the prior art thing.
Not true. We developed A Tale in the Desert, an MMORPG with a team of 3 full time employees, and a half dozen unpaid art interns. We've been been front page news on all the major game sites, and several print magazines.
Ask anyone that has played the game how it compares with EQ, DAOC, UO, etc.
Well, you're not gonna be able to read about the ones who played it cool, are you?
Make the thing into a laptop. Try getting one of those puppies thru security at an airport.
Ayn Rand said it best:
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against . . . We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted [Frederick Mann: Obfuscation of meaning is a key element of the con games bureaucrats and politicians play.] - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
The world consists of multiple planes. Planes are disjoint areas.
Each plane consists of multiple layers.
- All planes have a "surface" layer that describes the terrain visuals.
- Almost all planes have an elevation layer of signed shorts. For our 3D client we use 1/20" increments with 0 considered sea level.
- Planes can have any number of additional layers, some of which are kept secret. Planes can be used to model underground minerals, pollution levels, walkability flag, etc.
When rendering tiles, you probably should render the intersections of 4-tiles, rather than independantly rendering each tile. That way you can define border tiles, corner tiles, etc., without building explicit grass-meets-path kind of tiles. Look carefully at the paths on "Oasis Island" in the screenshots sections of http://www.ataleinthedesert.com - they are all made of square tiles, but have a fairly gentle look.
Elevation maps don't compress well, making for long downloads in online games. Make these coarser, and use bezier splines when it's time to render.
To draw 1024x1024 tiles you'll need a LOD algorithm. Take a look at the screenshots with mountains in the distance - notice how they are a bit angular. We use a ROAM-like algorithm (easy to find online), but with geomorphing (again easy to look up).
Hope this gets you started.
You are a very good writer, and a fairly good hoaxer as well! I wish I had mod points. BTW, did you ever finish the story?
Try "Intellisense" on a large project. I routinely see popup times of 5-10 seconds, and the editor locks up during that time.