Where Is The Metered Pay Model For Online Games? 107
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.
WoW game cards (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:WoW game cards (Score:3, Informative)
This is true of most of WoW's competitors and always has been. Exceptions are 1) SWG deletes characters shortly after account cancelation because Sony is in league with Satan 2) UO does not delete characters immediately, but, based on the account in question, purges characters after extended periods of dormancy 3) EQ has purged meaninglessly low-level characters on dormant accounts. Otherwise, if you have a character in AC, UO
Re:WoW game cards (Score:1)
Yea me too. Well I did have a whole lot of XP from vassals during that period of time...
Re:WoW game cards (Score:2)
While I won't agree with the Satan bit, I left my account unsubscribed for over 14 months, just renewed it yesterday, and everything was still there.
So, in other words, you're wrong.
Re:WoW game cards (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:WoW game cards (Score:2)
Sony: What nefarious deed shall I execute today, oh my master?
Satan: Today's task shall be
Sony: Your will shall be done, oh most evil one. (bows repeatedly, exits)
Re:WoW game cards (Score:3, Informative)
"Account Migration
On December 7th 2005 we will be turning off the ability to migrate accounts through our three point authentication system or through our billing department. This change is being made due a necessary update to our billing system. If you have any accounts that you have not migrated by this point you will n
Re:WoW game cards (Score:3, Interesting)
The reason metered doesn't work so well in the game industry is that developers and publishers need more stable revenue. It's easier to calculate how many people were playing last month, this month and how many will play next month. Then you can figure your revenue, expenses and so forth based on that. It would really throw a wrench into the works if you had to somehow figure out how to properly account for whether users were going to play more *minutes* this
Re:WoW game cards (Score:2)
I think you're on the right track but you may be looking out the wrong window. I think the main reason they chose that model was so that they don't scare their customers. Ask anybody with a cell phone how shocking their first bill was.
Re:WoW game cards (Score:1)
Don't feel like you have to play (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re: Don't feel like you have to play (Score:1, Informative)
Re: Don't feel like you have to play (Score:3, Insightful)
$14 / (( monthly_salary * 0.9 ) - ( food + rent + utilities + transportation + clothes + health_insurance + keep_gf_happy_money + pay_off_the_credit_card_debt_from_that_one_bender_ in_college ))
In short, the question isn't "Is this worth it as a percentage of my salary?", but "Is this worth it as a percentage of my disposable income."
I make under $1000 per month, but taking your formula literally, there is very little
Lose the big gamers? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Lose the big gamers? (Score:4, Insightful)
I too have always wished they offered a "metered" pay version as well as I would probably play no more than 10 hours a week, if that even...so I can barely justify paying $10 a month, let alone the regular $12-15.
Perhaps the best solution would be to just offer both
Re:Lose the big gamers? (Score:1)
Re:Lose the big gamers? (Score:1)
If it was 10 hours a month, or 2 hours every weekend, sure $10 is a little much to pay.. $10 for 40 hours seems fair to me.
Re:Lose the big gamers? (Score:2)
Unfortunately the video game business is not about being a "good" company. Its about making money. Nice thought though.
Re:Lose the big gamers? (Score:2)
You can't enjoy a game when in the back of your mind you're worrying about what it's costing.
Re:Lose the big gamers? (Score:1)
Re:Lose the big gamers? (Score:2, Interesting)
The company has access to every online metric for their product, I'm sure they could determine a decent per-hour rate. I'd still be subscribed to World of Warcraft right now if that was the case. This way if a casual player gets alot of free time and wants to go hard-core all they have to do is upg
You don't quite understand.. (Score:2)
The answer is pretty simple: because it would mean a rewrite of their accounting software, and they don't believe that the cost of doing that would be offset by the number of people who would use it.
Re:Lose the big gamers? (Score:1)
Health-Club Membership Business Model (Score:5, Insightful)
- 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.
Re:Health-Club Membership Business Model (Score:2)
For the health club, they have to buy all the machines, pay all their employees, and light and air condition the place whether you show up or not. How often a certain machine gets used has no effect on their costs. They don't charge by the workout because it doesn't really make that much difference to them how often you show up.
An online game company is much the same way. They have to maintain servers and provide content whet
Re:Health-Club Membership Business Model (Score:2)
Re:Health-Club Membership Business Model (Score:2)
Part of the benifit of playing an MMORPG is the fact that you play WITH other people.
Too little people, people get bored, and leave.
Re:Health-Club Membership Business Model (Score:2)
Not entirely true. The machines wear (weights machines have heavy moving parts), they break (cardiac machines have moving parts and electronics) and need fixing. And nothing gives you time to wonder "Why am I paying £75 per month for this gym again?" like having to wait 5 minutes for machine when they're all in use.
Re:Health-Club Membership Business Model (Score:2)
I don't think you need to do much in the way of clever fun/not fun marketing, people will drop out all on thier own, due to the nature of physical work.
easy (Score:4, Insightful)
Players who play a lot of hours may get screwed in a metered subscription. They may end up paying higher than the flat fee because they are on more than the average player.
I like paying one fee, and getting unlimited play time for the month. If I feel I don't play the game enough I cancel the subscription.
Re:easy (Score:1)
These guys have to employ people, and having a fixed monthly subscription must surely be essential to gauging your market position and planning your expected outlay costs.
Sure I agree with the original posters desire for dynamic billing to best suit the smallest possible cost per 'fun unit' consumed, but what is the business model that is supposed to keep a game server operating and profit
Re:easy (Score:1)
You buy gold coins and can spend them to do things that earn you in game money/fun. You can also sell them to other people and buy them from other people with in game money, which means if you are good you can play for free, and if you are rich you can buy expensive clothing.
Anyway, I thought it fit right into the idea of fun unit.
Re:easy (Score:2)
Re:easy (Score:2)
Re:easy (Score:2, Informative)
Re:easy (Score:1)
Re:easy (Score:2)
Re:easy (Score:2)
Whine much? (Score:3, Insightful)
$15/month is cheap entertainment (Score:4, Insightful)
For $15 per month you can play an MMOG any time you want, for as long as you want. You get regular patches and new content added every few months. This seems like a decent entertainment bargain to me.
Re:$15/month is cheap entertainment (Score:1)
Re:$15/month is cheap entertainment (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically at fifteen a month that works out to 45 every three months, or the cost of buying a new game. Truly
Re:$15/month is cheap entertainment (Score:2, Interesting)
The thing that killed EQ for me and for many others was the raid only mindset. That in order to get an equipment upgrade for most people, you need a group of at least 20 people, all of which needed to stay focused for four or more hours at
Puzzle Pirates or GunBound (Score:3, Informative)
There is an option in puzzle pirates to play in a "dabloons" ocean. Dabloons are basically a form of in-game currency that you buy with real cash. While you need gold to buy things, you also need dabloons. You can use dabloons to purchase badges which allow you to do certain things in-game, such as play certain puzzles or lead a team of pirates. These badges generally last for 30 login days (as opposed to 30 calendar days)... in other words, they only degrade as you log in and use them. You can play Puzzle Pirates perfectly well for free, if you so choose, or you can pay to access certain features of the game. And it's pretty cheap: a badge that will allow you 30 login days of access to the most commonly used puzzle costs the real-world equivalent of a dollar. [puzzlepirates.com]
Certain Asian-style games, such as Gunbound [softnyx.net] don't require a subscription, but allow you to use money to purchase in-game items. Or you can play for a really, really, really long time to earn the gold to have those items.
Planetside? (Score:3, Funny)
Nothing shy of launching as a completely different game with an entirely different set of developers would've made Planetside a huge success.
Metered Pay Model? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Metered Pay Model? (Score:2)
1)GW isn't an MMO. Only 6 people at a time in a mob area I think? Or is it 8?
2)GW's buisness model is very frequent for pay expansions. If you want new content, you will end up paying at least the same amount, quite possibly more than a monthly fee.
Re:Metered Pay Model? (Score:2, Insightful)
On point 2, however, Guild Wars has been out since when, April? May? They have added loads of new content, and haven't released a single expansion. $15/month is $180/year. I spent $40 on GW, and have had access to it for 9 months. COnsider World of Warcraft. Over that time, the WoW player who started in April (let's just say that
Re:Metered Pay Model? (Score:1)
Re:Metered Pay Model? (Score:1)
Both of them saw various improvements in the game engine, and while Diablo 2 never saw much in the way of additional content, It was also shipped in a far more complete form.
Ultimately, I suppose I'm just tired of the insistance that GW is an MMO; it's not. Towns are nothing more than a graphical chatroom, and most of the instances are produced on your local machine, a la Diablo 2. With WoW, everything is done on their ser
Online games (Score:2)
I suppose you'd like it even better if (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose you'd like it even better if...
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
Verizon Player versus Player (Score:2)
Re:I suppose you'd like it even better if (Score:2)
Furthermore, there are what, 4 cellular providers in the USA? How many quality MMO's of substantial popularity are there? Between 4 and 10. And if many of them offered competitive pricing plans, there could be more than a d
Re:I suppose you'd like it even better if (Score:2)
Competition is good for consumers (and the market) under the assumption that they can make rational, informed decisions about the competing products. The whole purpose of the cell phone style pricing schemes (as with advertising, complex tax codes, etc.) is to make rational comparison so difficult as to be practically impossible, and thus invalidate the assumption; they are an attempt to subvert the process.
--MarkusQ
Justify your costs another way (Score:1)
Compare it to say, renting a movie (or watching one in theaters), its still quite affordable.
Stop quibbling about small sums, suck it up, and frag on.
Old school dial up (Score:2)
I guess it's basically what you feel the product is worth and whether you don't mind paying for time you aren't playing.
With the current model a 40 hour play time (using your numbers & approximates) would be about $.34 whereas if the customer paid for the metered time they would pay about double the non-metered customer.
With your television you pay a flat fee. Do you ask for money back for the TV/c
Re:Old school dial up (Score:2)
So there actually isn't a flat fee for internet access, nor does there need to be for MMO's.
As for cable and satellite, there's been more pressure recently for buying stations a la carte instead of as a package.
Meridian 59 (Score:1)
Re:Meridian 59 (Score:1)
Are you saying the vast majority of players were freaks who spent 60% of their time playing a game? Not counting sleeping, eating, and for some, actually working.
There is no way I could even make up for two periods a month in this model. And it only seems logical to give free time for the rest of the month, but that would invalidate your ca
Downsides (Score:4, Insightful)
Firstly, if the model is 'pay as you go' I would worry that it would reduce enjoyment of playing. If the longer you play the more it costs, it will always be in the back of you mind that each minute / ten mins / hour you play costs you more - breaking the immersion. If you don't worry about the cost, you can explore more freely, experiment, and just have more fun.
Secondly, if I had kids who wanted to play a MMOG, but knew it was charged by the hour, I'd be worried about them running up costs. Even if there are parental control, I think many 16 yr old gamers can beat their less tech-savvy parents' passwords by guessing them / working out common family passwords / finding the post-it note ( will Pop have a 16 character alpha-numeric password, or will he use the name of the dog??).
That's my 2 cents (a minute) worth.
Re:Downsides (Score:2)
I think a better plan would be to have separate models for occasional users. For example, $5 buys you the first ten hours in a month. If you exceed that, you have to pay the full $15-ish, but that's where it caps out. Or maybe a system that charged you $0.75/hour, but maxed out at $15 per billing cycle. Casual users woul
It's a lot cheaper now (Score:2)
How many hours to people think they need to play to make it worth the cost? I mean take something like the console version of Half Life 2 for the Xbox. Just released, list price of about $50 - with no multiplayer. You can complete the game in about 10-15 hours easily.
This is how Asia does it (Score:3, Insightful)
Case in point: World of Warcraft is pay-by-the-minute in China, and the client is a free download as opposed to a $50 boxed CD set.
Reason we never went to a per-hour model (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Reason we never went to a per-hour model (Score:1)
Complaints (compounds, hack, spit) aside, it's a most clever game. Thank you Teppy.
The reason I'm posting: the game already has an odd sort of metered payment in place, with time out-of-game rewarded. For those new to A Tale in the Desert, your character gains stuff while you are not playing. Warp time (fast travel; not available any other way) o
Re:Reason we never went to a per-hour model (Score:1)
I really get tired of the folks without a real life (or a real job) that clog most MMORPGs.
Something which surprises me (Score:1)
Brilliance! (Score:1)
Re:Brilliance! (Score:1)
There is at least one game... (Score:1)
Roma Victor (Score:2)
I have a bias but Roma Victor [roma-victor.com] has a crafting system a lot like, if not better than ATITD's and also has real-time pvp combat amongst other things. There's no subscription fee and it's been in testing since May.
Great Idea But Wouldnt Fly (Score:1)
Take it to the polls... (Score:1)
Hourly rate, with no option for the standard monthly plan. Hourly rate, with the option for the standard monthly plan. Standard monthly plan only, no other option available.
I'm sure that power gamers would definitely hate choice #1.
Casual gamers would appreciate the opportunity to 'pay as you play'.
But the moral of the story is that its always nice to h
why complain? (Score:1)
So, for less than the cost of two movies, which might give you 5 hours of entertainment, you can play an online game. If you play less than five hours a month, then yea, I can understand not wanting to pay that much, but that's the nature of the entertainment industry.
the answer to your question (Score:2)
Casual MMO players are actually more expensive than more serious ones.
The major expense in operating an MMO is customer service. Casual players on average require more customer service than regular ones. This is coming from a friend of mine who works at Blizzard.
Obivously not all casual mmo players really cost more but as long as that is true on average, it wouldn't make economic sense to charge less to casual players.
we moved away from this (Score:2)
You'd be here complaining about how you got raped when you fell asleep or had some general emergency take you away from your computer for several hours while you were logged in.
Puzzle Pirates uses this... (Score:2, Informative)
But also mind that Puzzle Pirates is vastly different from the majority of MMO's *because* it is puzzle-based, and not the "kill stuff, get bigger, kil
Re:Puzzle Pirates uses this... (Score:2)
The Doubloons can be purchased using in-game gold (pieces of eight -- poe)
About making money. (Score:2, Insightful)
They want to make revenue. They want to make as much as they can. And sadly publisher are just happier when their customers are paying an overly inflated price every month.
I played WoW for 4 months.
Minus the free month, I payed for 3, so that makes 40 Euros. Did I cost them 40 Euros when I was playing? Shit no!
The bandwidth costs next to nothing.
Support? I wrote them an Email once, they didn't
Re:About making money. (Score:1)
If your characters are fairly high level, you should try selling your account on eBay before they delete it. My friend stopped playing WoW a few months ago and sold his
Re:About making money. (Score:2)
What's wrong with that? People are happy to pay it, and they make money from it. Your post sounds like baseless whining.
Content updates? Bugfixes and stat corrections, done by maybe a few dozen people.
The sorts of people who do that cost a lot of money. You're looking at a wage bill in the millions. Not to mention the costs of running the servers. Equipment, electricity, bandwidth (costs a lot more than you think).
It's quite clear you have no
Re:About making money. (Score:1)
Ther's nothing wrong with wanting to make money at all. My point is that the costs you pay don't reflect the costs for maintainence, as one could expect. The price is inflated and unjustified.
The sorts of people who do that cost a lot of money. You're looking at a wage bill in the millions. Not to mention the costs of running the servers. Equipment, electricity, bandwidth (costs a lo
Re:About making money. (Score:2)
Justified to who? The price is obviously justified to the millions of people who play the game.
But for a copmpany of Blizzards size, maitaining a few personel keepeng an eye on their online game will hardly be anything significant.
So in other words, you don't know? Brilliant. Any more baseless assertions you'd like to make?
Re:About making money. (Score:1)
I don't think you understand the correct meaning of this term.
What I said is that Blizzard has no just reasons to charge that much for their game. You don't have to make reference to the consumer. If you want to believe otherwise, that's up to you.
So in other words, you don't know? Brilliant. Any more baseless assertions you'd like to make?
It's strange how you come to such conclusions. These "assertions"
AFAI am concerned, author=joker (Score:2)
What he thinks is costly is just the cost of two visits to the cinema, and at least the cost of bandwidth.
Even some alternatives, like playing a newly bought single-player game, cost more.
Hourly rate with a Cap (Score:1)
why not. (Score:2)
Variable rates would need to change gameplay. (Score:1)
The reason such time wasting methods are ac
Re:Variable rates would need to change gameplay. (Score:1)
WoW might be fun sometimes but often it's just sssoooooooooooo ssssssooooooooo sssssslllllllooooooooowwwwwwwww
The Devil's In The Details (Score:1)
What the original poster talked about is a big deal. A lot of people talk about how $14 bucks is less than going to the movies and buying popcorn, but the problem is that now that these games are so ubiquitous, many players may have multiple subscriptions to multiple games, which means that they will eventually pick and choose which games they prefer to keep active. Otherwise, you're paying 50 bucks with three subscriptions open.
On the flip side, others have said that we could be ch
Re:The Devil's In The Details (Score:1)
You're much
Author wasn't really playing (Score:1)
The pricing model wasn't for him, I guess, but I don't think a new one is needed.
-Jeff
Gamecards, kinda... (Score:2)
Hourly rate = no more grinding (Score:2)
The single biggest problem with a Metered Pay Model, is that if you have a night where all you do is grind through a few levels and search for an item you couldn't find, and you've paid specifically for those hours, you are likely to get pissed quite quickly. Paying monthly means you only have to feel you got your money's worth at the end of the month.
In a similar vain, if you have a night where you are going