Subscription pricing From: keenuward@hotmail.com (Rob Alexander) Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 17:48:12 +0000 Hi, One of the problems I have experienced with the open-ended powergame genre in PBM/PBEM is the 'war by wallet' factor, i.e. the fact (or perception) that the most powerful players are that way because they spend the most on turn fees. BSE used to be bad for this, though Pheonix looks to be a lot better. Another issue is that when trying to explain the virtues of PBM to an outsider, they tend to balk at the idea of paying for a turn. Turns don't have much tangible value, especially when they come by email. This bugs me from time to time, too. An alternative approach is the fixed-price monthly subscription. Ultima Online et al use this an have been immensely successful. Players lay down $10-15 a month then play as much as they like. Admittedly, this gives an advantage to teenage geeks with nothing better to do. However, in a PBM game with fixed time/movement limitations this wouldn't apply. Subscription pricing is becoming more widespread on the internet in general, and it seems that people are quite willing to subscribe to something intangible, even though they won't pay for it in installments. Could an open-ended game based on a subscription model be successful? It could offset reduced income per player against a potentialy larger player base. Obviously the game would need to be fully automated, or have strictly rationed freeform actions. What do people think? Does anyone know of an existing PBM game that uses this model? Referenced By Up