Green Monster Games - Curt Schilling
- Thread starter Lord Thanos_foh
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This articleseemed somewhat poignant. I"ve mentioned it before, but I think the only way to really "beat WoW" or be ultra successful is to have a free-to-play model available.
I know you can"t say anything about pricing models (if there"s anything to say at all at this point) Curt, but do you have a personal opinion one way or the other? Do you believe that a tiered or exclusively free pricing model is beneficial? Or do you think that the tried and true subscription method is the best way to go these days?
I personally think that any game that is free to play with microtransactions is a fake game. It"d feel like you"re either making yourself a second class citizen by not poneying up money for in game stuff, or I"d feel like a complete asshole for buying in game perks/loot/etc. It"d feel very cheap. At the same time, the whole "zomg i raid because i liek to raid let"s raid it"s fun to spend 40 hours a week with 40 people raiding" crowd is something you grow out of as a well adjusted adult.
People who don"t want to pay a subscription are just cheap, or are unfamiliar enough with the genre to not understand.
People who don"t want to pay a subscription are just cheap, or are unfamiliar enough with the genre to not understand.
What MMORPG related "hypes" has he delivered on?Cadrid said:
Curt has been exceedingly good about not really promising any specifics or going into details.
That pricing study sounds goofy to me. Of course people are going to say they want to get things for free, hell, thats a standard answer for everything. It essentially just sounds like the non-MMO players were unaware of what an MMO actually was more than anything else. If you explained it, most people would be fine with a small fee (such as $15 a month) to be able to do as they wish 24/7.
Free and pay to "enhance" the games are the debil. They still have to make money to operate and they will get it somewhere. They have to limit the free portion or the tiers so that people have a reason to purchase the next step up.
I prefer to have a nice open, flat rate, exchange of money so both the company and the customer know where they stand and what to expect.
Free and pay to "enhance" the games are the debil. They still have to make money to operate and they will get it somewhere. They have to limit the free portion or the tiers so that people have a reason to purchase the next step up.
I prefer to have a nice open, flat rate, exchange of money so both the company and the customer know where they stand and what to expect.
I realize the article and study highlight microtransaction systems, but those certainly aren"t the only, or even best, way to do things. I"ve always believed an advertising system would be the best way. Have a free model that is advertising supported (on the patcher client/log in screen, not in-game) and also have the standard $15 a month for a normal no ad experience. Of course how many ads and the amount of time spent looking at them would need to be explored and tweaked to make it comparable to a subscription rate, but there are already companies specializing in this field.Gaereth said:
The main idea to take away from that study is that MMO"s with the current pricing model can probably only go so far in terms of sub numbers. WoW may already be at that limit. To avid MMO players, $15 a month seems totally normal and even a bargain, but to non-MMO or even non-video game players (ie, the mainstream audience) a monthly fee is extremely off putting.
I bring all this up because Curt has mentioned several times that they plan on dominating the MMO industry and making the biggest/most popular MMO property ever. It"s already been hinted at that the IP will span across multiple media platforms which means a much wider target audience. I"m a pretty firm believer that the only way to accomplish all this is to do some core things a little differently, and one of the biggest things is the pricing model.
That"s kinda why I had hype in quotations. Every time he"s said something along the lines of "We"ll have a treat for you guys in a few weeks!" or "Keep your eyes open over the next month or two!" there"s been something. It hasn"t been groundbreaking innovations or loads of l33t 4lph4 inf0z, but it"s been some tidbit of interest.Gnome Eater said:
So, as far as playing in the PR minor leagues he"s doing just fine. The only two things I can recall that he didn"t deliver on was releasing some IP information at ComiCon and throwing some of the concept art used at ComiCon on their website. Even so, neither of those things were promised, we were just given an "I"ll see what I can do." reply, so he"s still batting 1.000.
I guess I haven"t ever seen anything that points to any issue with pricing structures. The growth of these games has always been a function of how good the game is rather than what was charged for it.Lonin said:
Would Vanguard have a million reoccurring accounts if it was free with advertising?? Would WOW have 20 million??
I don"t believe so.
Sure, they might have had a lot of free accounts created but how many people actually play?
And frankly, I wouldn"t want to play an MMO that had free accounts. It was bad enough when they had all those damn trial accounts out there that allowed people to do whatever they wanted. Would you want to live next door to a house that allowed anyone and everyone to live there for free?
Monthly charges tend to give a sense of ownership. How many free things have you signed up for that you can"t even remember?? But how many things do you get charged for monthly that you don"t recognize?
Would you be ok with a new car that you got for free but had to stop every 2 miles and park for 2 minutes so people could read all the ads on the car??
Or how about a new car that could only drive 10 miles a day unless you purchase additional miles??
I want to step up, drop my money, and use the product. How much I use of said product is up to me and my wants at that time rather than a function of a unique pricing structure.
If I am a casual player and my buddy in the uber guild invites me to run the top end raid zone for fun (they just want to laugh at my idiocy) do I hop right in or try to explain that I only purchased Tier 1 rather than Tier 5??
-shrug- I just don"t see how pricing plans effect subs. If its a great game you get the people playing it...and paying for it.
A lot of loud outs in that BA!
I"ll call myself out on this one too, the CC thing I mean. A few pages back I know I posted a "stay tuned for exciting blah blah" from CC. Well what I was talking about won"t happen. It was not going to happen in the best manner for the product involved, our company or anyone else involved for that matter so we canned it. I wanted to pursue and push and make it happen but the smarter people here made me realize what a mistake for all involved that would be.
It will still happen and likely within the next month or two tops, but not at CC like I said.
To all those that have stopped by I hope you gained a little insight, at least a little more, into the IP than what is currently out there.
I"ll call myself out on this one too, the CC thing I mean. A few pages back I know I posted a "stay tuned for exciting blah blah" from CC. Well what I was talking about won"t happen. It was not going to happen in the best manner for the product involved, our company or anyone else involved for that matter so we canned it. I wanted to pursue and push and make it happen but the smarter people here made me realize what a mistake for all involved that would be.
It will still happen and likely within the next month or two tops, but not at CC like I said.
To all those that have stopped by I hope you gained a little insight, at least a little more, into the IP than what is currently out there.
GenCon!
*dodge*
Got invited to Mythica F&F at GenCon years ago... then Vanguard omnomnom"d their budget spot.
*dodge*
Got invited to Mythica F&F at GenCon years ago... then Vanguard omnomnom"d their budget spot.
I don"t know much about anything, but here is how I think it can be accomplished. 1) Huge fu**ing budget. 2) Don"t waste huge fu**ing budget.
Otherwise I"m sincerely interested in how it turns out. If the game looks (and sounds) good, I"ll buy it.
Otherwise I"m sincerely interested in how it turns out. If the game looks (and sounds) good, I"ll buy it.
I don"t think poignant is the word you"re looking for. Maybe... educational or enlightening. I basically just posted to say this. Mainly because I use that word differently.Lonin said:
Or he meant poignant, since it has multiple definitions.... one of which is "being to the point."nu_11 said:
Of course words have many definations. You don"t often see people saying gay when they mean merry or queer when meaning worthless or suspicious, if at all. There"s usually an agreed upon basic definition for most words. Usually you don"t use obscure definitions of words when trying to be concise. But hey, welcome to english 101.bonanno said:
They both could have come directly out of a Disney film. But there"s often so little connection between concept art and actual game graphics, it"s impossible to predict what direction they"re taking at this point. We need some real graphics, some screenies of landscapes or characters, hell anything. Just a hint, dammit!Draegan said:
I"d use the "they need to step up to the plate" cliche, but with Ngruk"s BA that"s probably a bad suggestion.