11-30-2011, 06:37 PM
I think the two main approaches to ponder are:
1) You want to get a fixed sum of money out of each player roughly equal to what you would have sold the box for
2) You want to get a steady stream of money that equals or exceeds what you would have gotten from a subscription
#1 is where you can do stuff like charging people in order to let them carry more gold, or charging them to learn higher recipes, etc. So maybe you can be a warrior for free but if you want to be a warrior who can craft swords, it'll cost you a total of $20 to completely unlock the sword crafting tree. If you want to be a warrior that can craft swords, potions, shields and armor, it'll end up costing you $80. Come up with a list of one-time fees which CAN be ignored but which serious players will tend to want.
#2 is where you need to find something that people will keep paying for. After they've purchased every shoulder parrot, every fancy hat and every crafting tree, what happens to your income stream? Ideally I think you'd want to find something that most people would be willing to pay $10/month for to keep getting.
The thing that has to be avoided, though, is "rich kid syndrome". This guild kicks everyone's ass because they spend $200/month each.
Although I could be wrong about that, really. There is probably room for a "rich kid's game". The entire collectible card game industry was built on this concept. You didn't spend $50 on Magic: the Gathering and go around the country winning tournaments. You spent $1000. Or more. Potentially much more.
I still frown on free-to-play because like Vllad says, there's more room for the company to screw up. I don't want to find out, $50 in, that it's actually a rich kid's game and I need to pay $50/month to really be competitive in the endgame.
1) You want to get a fixed sum of money out of each player roughly equal to what you would have sold the box for
2) You want to get a steady stream of money that equals or exceeds what you would have gotten from a subscription
#1 is where you can do stuff like charging people in order to let them carry more gold, or charging them to learn higher recipes, etc. So maybe you can be a warrior for free but if you want to be a warrior who can craft swords, it'll cost you a total of $20 to completely unlock the sword crafting tree. If you want to be a warrior that can craft swords, potions, shields and armor, it'll end up costing you $80. Come up with a list of one-time fees which CAN be ignored but which serious players will tend to want.
#2 is where you need to find something that people will keep paying for. After they've purchased every shoulder parrot, every fancy hat and every crafting tree, what happens to your income stream? Ideally I think you'd want to find something that most people would be willing to pay $10/month for to keep getting.
The thing that has to be avoided, though, is "rich kid syndrome". This guild kicks everyone's ass because they spend $200/month each.
Although I could be wrong about that, really. There is probably room for a "rich kid's game". The entire collectible card game industry was built on this concept. You didn't spend $50 on Magic: the Gathering and go around the country winning tournaments. You spent $1000. Or more. Potentially much more.
I still frown on free-to-play because like Vllad says, there's more room for the company to screw up. I don't want to find out, $50 in, that it's actually a rich kid's game and I need to pay $50/month to really be competitive in the endgame.