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When commercial MMOs first hit computers, the standard was defined by the classic game Ultima Online: a realized online environment that you could only access if you bought the software and then paid your monthly fee to continue to get access to the game. This model has continued as the mainstay in Western games, and Blizzard make an absolute fortune from World of Warcraft this way, but there's a new way to play MMOs coming in from Asia.
Games are now being offered for free download and play and alternate pay to play options have been implemented. Many of these games are supported by one or two models. The first is a Cash Shop where you can buy exclusive and often time-limited items for real money (usually converted into in-game currency). The second is to offer additional benefits at a different paid layer of gameplay, such as Dungeon Runners or Hellgate London.
Although this presents a clever way to open up the game to a larger player base for little cost or loss, it's not without its inherent problems. The major problem with these alternative pay to play options is that it stops everyone from playing on a financially level playing field. If everyone has to pay the same fee to play, then the only thing that differentiates a player's progress is time and effort, something that can be easily applied by most people. When you start being able to better your ability to perform in a game because you have more cash to throw at it, you create an arena which can unbalance gameplay.
In saying that, it offers a great way to sample a game and to get a feel for if you want to upgrade to the next level. You can stay playing at the level you're at, or upgrade and really benefit in the game. I applaud games companies for looking at alternative ways to get people into and to stay with games.
The problem I see with the Hellgate London approach is that they're charging for a retail product right off the bat, and then charging a fee to upgrade to the next level of play. They'vecreatedd a barrier for entry right there on the Windows PCplatformm. If they gave the game away for free or made it much cheaper to buy, they could recoup the costs through a monthly subscription fee; they only keep about 50% of retail income anyway at most. If they upped the monthly membership for to $15 and made it free to download and play the basic level, I think they'd score many more players. Unfortunately, they have to work with a retail distribution system for better or worse.
The irony is that I'm not willing to pay full price for this game at retail and then pay $10 a month for a membership at the moment. If the game is awesome, and it most likely is because these are some of the guys behind Diablo, then I may consider it. What I'd prefer to do is pay $5 for a month for digital download and access to the "lower grade" or free game. This way I give more money to the developer over a longer period of time and they stay in business to continue to create more content.
As more and more games move towards a subscription basis, we'll see more and more attempts to open access to the games and to monetize them. It's going to be interesting to watch, but there are going to be a number of false starts and hiccups along the way.
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Tags: MMO Monday, Opine by Teh Bagder
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