Re: MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?

From: madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)

Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 16:12:29 +0000

>>Yes, and no matter how you argue, that's why it won't be likely that you
reach a large target audience. For $100, I can play almost as long in a
regular MMORPG like Anarchy Online, and still play whenever I like,<<

You're wrong Enno.  *That's* not the reason he wont reach a large target
audience.  There are a great many players out there prepared to pay the price
of a great game.  $100 a year is comparable to the cheapest commercial
DungeonWorld position.  The absolute minimum a commercial DW position is going
to cost is about $78 a year (26 turns @ $3.00 per turn).  The vast majority of
players spend a lot more than that per turn.  A fair few pay $1000+ a year in
turn fees.

You may not understand why those players would choose to join a game with a
turn a week or a turn a fortnight (DW is the latter in the main) as compared to
Anarchy Online or similar, and pay $100 or a lot more a year to do so, and its
not my place to try and explain it to you, but the fact of the matter is that
there is certainly a very large body of players out there who do enjoy this
sort of game and who don't enjoy Anarchy Online and its ilk, as can clearly be
seen by looking at the player bases of commercial games like Phoenix, Quest,
Middle Earth, Legends and DungeonWorld.

Don't get me Wrong, AO looks like a bunch of fun.  But its obviously not for
everybody.

There is a market for great turn-based games, and it is a market full of people
who don't mind paying a few bucks for a quality turn report.  However, its a
*very* competitive market, because the bar has been raised a great many times
in commercial PBEM.  If you don't have a game that can cut it, you're quickly
going to see that by the commercial success you experience.

The only reasons I can see why he might not have success have nothing to do
with your somewhat blinkered idea about what gamers will pay for, and
everything to do with the reasons so many other games have failed.  Poor
design.  Poor playability.  Poor marketing.  Poor support.  Burn-Out when its
not the instant hit he might hope for.  Lack of Investment in Money and Time
over the long term.  System problems he hadn't envisioned.  Or just plain lack
of talent in making this sort of game.  These are the potholes to be avoided
for success.  If he *can* avoid them, then its certainly possible to make a
good living out of PBEM.

>>Our price is 16.25 euro per quarter (1.25 a week) in our case. Even so we
have a hard sell, because there are too many free games out there, and many
players are willing to substitute a lower-quality free game for a
higher-quality pay-to-play game. <<

I don't find I have a hard sell at all, and many of our players pay a lot more
than 16.25 per quarter.  Maybe you just dont have a game which has a large
commercial appeal?  Or perhaps you need to get some advice on promotion and
target audiences?  I'm not suggesting either is the case, I have no idea, I'm
only offering what I've found to be the two most common reasons why games
struggle to find quality commercial players.

Steve T.

References

Re: MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?
Enno Rehling <enno@despammed.com>
Mon, 13 Jan 2003 08:41:02 +0000

Referenced By

Re: MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?
Enno Rehling <enno@despammed.com>
Mon, 13 Jan 2003 08:41:02 +0000