Re: Forming Co. ???????

From: gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)

Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 04:02:16 +0000

In article <+9an-!l.dani@netcom.com> dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) writes:

>Two aspects.  First, note that most PBMs go out of business, and most of
>the rest aren't pulling in big bucks.

This is true, and your suggestions (minimizing the moderation cost,
making inter-player diplomacy very important) are excellent ones.
Monster Island is probably the best example of that kind of game.

However, $100k is probably a bit of overkill, although probably a good
number to scare people with. An MBA friend of mine did a business plan
for a class. Assuming that he did the programming himself, a $25,000
initial investment and a $6/turn charge ($3.18 of which is labor,
materials, and postage), he can break even at 100 turns per week.
Making a reasonable income would require 300 turns/week. For games of
this type (say a version of BSE which was still more computerized than
BSE is these days), it's a pretty risky venture. BSE peaked at
something like 1500 turns/week but that was after many years and it's
probably much more expensive to run than my friend's plan. Monster
Island probably has a pretty slim profit margin despite the very
simple turn input, although it's much better from a business viewpoint
than BSE.

Disclaimer: I'm probably full of shit. My friend does plan on
launching a gaming company, though.

References

Forming Co. ???????
<34RIPSE@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Tue, 25 Aug 1992 15:24:48 +0000
Re: Forming Co. ???????
dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Wed, 26 Aug 1992 00:19:38 +0000

Referenced By

Forming Co. ???????
<34RIPSE@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Tue, 25 Aug 1992 15:24:48 +0000
Re: Forming Co. ???????
dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Wed, 26 Aug 1992 00:19:38 +0000