Monetizing Lantern
As I work on the gameplay and story for Lantern with my friend Lucas (who still doesn't have any form of site), he mentioned an idea that I going to attempt to avoid for a little bit but now that it's in my head I want to get my thoughts out about it.
As I've stated in the past, I refuse to allow players to buy themselves a better player, or give them an edge over others. This makes it very difficult to come up with ideas on how to get players to pay me other than out of the goodness of their hearts. Not that my goal is to make money, but it would sure be nice not to have to worry about server fee's.
So here's a quick break down of lantern in case you haven't read other posts related to it: It's a pbbg rpg with party based combat/quests in a living universe with a hex map for movement.
Commonly, or at least by what I have seen on these types of games, monetization has meant selling action points, in game items to make you more powerful, faster regen, more xp gains etc etc. But since I refuse to do that, I need to look at other features players may be willing to pay/donate/give me beer/vodka/rum/whiskey for. The first thing that pops into my mind is a friends list, but at the same time that to me seems to be a pretty basic feature. The thought of allowing the player to seem more of the hex map is still hanging in there for me though. While this may give players a slight edge I don't think it's an unbalancing one which is my problem with with buying bonuses. Another thought is to provide donators/buyers more data that is available to all players but on the map page where almost all game play will occur. For instance show them all their stats, the current quest and an overview of their party members. Another popular one is to remove ads if the a player dishes out a few bucks. This is another one I am strongly considering.
I think features that enhance the the game, but not having them doesn't leave you crippled, is the way I'm going to go. This way the players don't get a in-game bonus for spending their money and still feel like they are being rewarded for donating/subscribing. Of course, it would be great to be able to make these features available to all and just survive of the donations, but we'll see what comes of it all. How do you make money with your game? Do you offer in game bonuses? How do they effect play? I would love to hear from some people that offer xp/money/items and how they feel it effects their game.
Related posts:
April 14th, 2010 - 06:39
Several ways combined to help monetize the game.
- Have a donation system put in place. Put in place a star system. People who donated have a star written next to their name.
- Have an active base of players, at least 2000.
- Projectwonderful. Althought I do not like them much (a bit too arrogant to my taste), there are a good pay per click/display advertiser. Combined with google add, you should get a regualr flows of $$$
- Paying Players can select a starting location or own a castle. (still possible when not paying, but takes 5 times more effort to get it)
- Have the paying players more options. Can display banners, a bigger profile page with more personalization possible, can advertise better to enrol in their clan.
- Create regular events in the game. Make the players stay in your game.
Things not to do:
A monthly subscribtion.
Micro payment system that upset too much the balance of power between the paying and non paying players.
Tweet stuffs about your game but don’t beg to attract new players. it puts people off.
Hope it helps.
May 6th, 2010 - 09:40
I agree that allowing players to buy in game advantages can seriously disrupt game play by distorting it towards those with the most money. However, many of the other solutions listed here are basically charging for basic features and calling it a bonus.
I think players should be able to buy in game stuff, but under very strict circumstances, that items either are purely cosmetic (fancy clothes), are scarce (there is only one sword of death), or the bought item can be easily had with an hour or two of game play. This is a bit tricky for keeping things balanced.
Another suggestion, which is not fully thought through, is to encourage real money trading. In other words allow players to engage in buying and selling items for dollars outside of the game, so you can take a cut. One way of doing this is running an exchange like ebay, where players can buy and sell legitimately and you take a percentage of every transaction. This still leaves players the opportunity to work outside the system though, and it will be rampant even if you ban everyone you catch doing it.
Perhaps more effective is an in game ‘tax’. This means that every transaction between players in game is taxed according to the selling price of the goods (and some way if it’s purely barter) in your fictional currency. This tax is then kept in a pool. Players may buy this currency with dollars from the game, or cash in their currency for dollars, which is the only real world transaction you allow. It’s simple when only one item needs to be tracked. This means that even if players do not use your exchange they will still get taxed for transferring goods in game (as well as banned if caught), and since currency is actual money, they are losing dollars. Also, this pool of currency is not infinite, as it is dependent on in game activity, so players cannot buy as much currency as they like, allowing you to control inflation in the game economy, as well as limit the game benefits that can be bought.