Re: pbm game fees

From: Bruce Onder <bonder@earthlink.net>

Date: Tue, 05 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000

phil@phildee.win-uk.net (P.Shulkind) wrote:

>Well put Steve! As far as I'm concerned, PBM turnfees should be
>higher if anything, not lower, though I do appreciate the problem
>for those with limited budgets for gaming.

Me, too.  I think it's good that companies open up playtesting to the
general public.  This lets people play for free, but it's also a good
way to snag paying customers (ask any drug pusher!).

>So, we have a situation
>where those of us running full time (only a handful of firms here
>in the UK I think) are held back from developing and growing by the
>need to keep our turn fees low.

I would just market directly to the dedicated players.  Something
else you might do is offer two versions of the game.  The higher
priced game is the "Advanced" version and has features the economy
game doesn't.  You could even use the lower-priced game as a
qualifier for the advanced game -- in order to get into the advanced
game, you must play the basic game for 2 full months (a little longer
than the average game jumper; do some analysis).

Use the economy game to capture market.  Use the advanced game to
fund further design and development.

>Yep, it really makes me mad when players criticise turn fees!!

It helps to educate your prospects what the fees pay for.  A guy I'm
allied with in one game figured out that when the game goes
commercial is "should" cost 50 cents per turn!

This was based on hard costs, and didn't include profit at all.

I think the bottom line is that PBM/PBEM companies need to get crazy
and come up with a new way to do business.  That means educating
people, trying different ideas, and testing the market before
committing resources to any of those ideas.

Bruce Onder                      | We write and design computer
games.
Digital Arcana                   | Ask about our interactive
underpants.
310.519.5993                     |
310.837.8533 fax                 | Or don't.

References

Re: pbm game fees
lepag001@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Garrett R Le-Page)
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: pbm game fees
Steve Pritchard <Steve@spelbind.demon.co.uk>
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: pbm game fees
phil@phildee.win-uk.net (P.Shulkind)
Sat, 02 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000
pbm game fees
keith.langley@mdcs.com (Keith Langley)
Mon, 28 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: pbm game fees
chrisk@yogi.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Chris Kessel)
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000