[gameprogrammer] Re: Indy MMOG - How much to charge?

I don't have any experience at all with regard to pricing professionally, so here's my opinion as a starving college student/ gamer.
I would say that it really depends on the game. And mostly the gamePLAY. If it's fun to play, people will pay 10 or 15 a month, no questions. Generally I wouldn't want to pay 15 for an MMO without an interesting crafting system, or rare loot, etc... If it's mostly just gameplay, and the gameplay is really fun, I'd probably feel fine paying around 12 a month for it. I can find persistent characters and rankings all over anymore, so as a gamer that's not terribly impressive to me (though as a developer it's VERY impressive! ^_^). Like I said, the item collection and character advancement/tweaking I think is what puts a game in the 15 dollar range.
If your game is smaller and doesn't have much leveling or rare item finding, or special medals acquired by killing 'X' boss, then perhaps a more modest number like 7 a month would be reasonable. Certainly, I would say do NOT take it below 7, as that puts it into the realm of "that's just a cheap-o game", and people will immediately discount it as serious. You might acquire an audience of several 12-year-olds, but 12-year-olds bore quickly and don't develop communities which keep the game running so much longer.
As for 15 a month, I kind of feel like I should be getting a lot of out-game service from that, too. Like WoW, they have pretty hefty dev-feedback in the forums, they're ALWAYS making new website updates to improve the in-game experience when you're not even playing, that sort of thing. It's a rock-solid game, and the 15 a month is totally worth it. EQ2, which I played for a while, had an overly complex game UI system that bothered me (and wasn't ever clean), the animations felt stiff, and the controls were a little twitchy, and I felt 15 was overpriced, though perhaps 12 would've have been more reasonable.
I would think something like 9.95 for an indie game with features like you've described to be about right for me. Sorry it took me so long to get there! But maybe what I've said has had something useful in it for you. ^_^ 

Good luck, and I'm VERY impressed to hear of an indie MMO!  Grats!

-- Scott

On Apr 28, 2007, at 2:04 PM, Kevin Jenkins wrote:
With my Indy MMOG coming near it's time to decide how much to charge. I'd like to ask the list advice on what is good price from both the perspective of the developer and as the owner.
For background, my MMOG is a action-based space shooter. It's based on short-play sessions that are fun, and your interactions with other people in a competitive context. While there are levels and items, they are a minor side part of the game. It is not like a traditional MMOG where the point it is explore a huge world and collect stuff. It's closer to Planetside in that regard, though on a much smaller scale.
The MMOG value in the game comes from that the server zones can have up to 500 players - not something you will see on a standard match of Battlefield 2142. Also, there are persistent rankings, characters, and zone events. The kind of stuff you get from hosted games. 

So I'm faced with the question of how much to charge.
One argument is that I should charge something near what other online games charge. This argument goes that people value their time more than the usual rate $15 a month - the market is quality sensitive over time sensitive. Charging $5 instead of $15 only loses $10.
The other argument is that I should charge much less. The argument goes that since my game is simpler and cost less to make, it should according cost less. People who are price sensitive will play and having more people play is better than less since community also in itself draws players. 

A few differences:
I'm not charging for the game itself. Other MMOGs charge $50 for the first month and $15 for every month thereafter. I am simply charging $X per month.
Credit card transaction fees for me are very high. If I were to charge $5 a month, the transaction fees are about 5% of my total revenue.
I need to scale slowly because I don't have the capacity to support more than 10,000 players at launch. 

Right now I'm considering the following
$15 a month - I want to start high to grow slowly, and I'm still cheaper as other games are $50 for the first month.
$7 a month - I should charge proportional to the development costs. This will help me compete in a crowded market.
$20 for 3 months only - This minimizes credit card fees, and is still affordable to the average person.
$8 for one month, $20 for 3 months, $35 for 6 months - Minimizes credit card fees, allows players to pick what they can afford.
So as gamers on this list as well as developer, what do you think I should start out charging? 

Thanks.

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