I agree with your comments about the costs of playing at endgame in most F2P MMORPGs - but that's if your MMO has an endgame. An example would be the MUD 'Achaea'. Players can transform into dragons at level 99, they can become ranked 1 in PvP, they can hold ...
Good post. Encouraging new players to stick around can be a challenge. One way to ensure new players feel welcomed is to have players fill guide roles, answering newbie questions for some sort of hourly wage in game-currency.
What's interesting is that a used game is just a concept in your head. The idea that the game is of lesser value because it's been previously opened. You can't go on Steam and sell your used cd-keys.
You're equating a large audience with a large income, when really you just need a small audience making large purchases. Iron Realms games are free to play, yet they offer an elite membership to players that grant exclusive perks. The cost of being an elite member is 25 a month, ...
Were any of the winners MUDs It would be very easy to create a text game that uses sounds and reads itself aloud to the player. Many visually impaired gamers play text games like Achaea because they can set their screen readers to filter out chat spam and focus on ...
I manage a team of writers for an MMORPG-themed blog, and balancing responsibility with accountability can be difficult. For example, it's my responsibility to ensure fresh content goes on the website. But sometimes I get some pretty bad submissions, which leads to accountability - I need to hold the author ...
Companies that rely on 60 titles every couple years are selling themselves short in the long run. Companies that use a free-to-play, pay-for-perks model are flourishing in today's piracy market. Take Iron Realms for example, they could bring in 6 digits annually with a player base of less than 1,000 ...
