From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-04-01 11:33:52
What I understand about persistent online game business costs is as follows:
Development
Marketing
Hardware
Bandwidth
Customer Support
By relying on volunteer work, we can exclude following costs:
Development
Marketing
Customer Support
What is left to cover is:
Hardware
Bandwidth
Now, one could try to run the whole thing on one dedicated server, purchased by enthusiastic game supporter. Bandwidth is more problematic, with such a game as this, the needed data transfer is just huge. Who is going to pay for that? Please, don't mention donations. MUDs attract gamers with different mentality to those who play 3d graphical games. Also possibly thousands players all around the world, would make any donations difficult to process.
So my actual question is - could someone give us a complete cost/cost covering analysis?
From: Zaxim
Date: 2002-04-02 10:32:33
In-Reply-To: 1411
We could have banner ads that run at the top of the scren when playing majik, like Runscape. Or if anyone ever used to play 2am games they had an intresting way of generating revenue. You had a timer bar at the top of your screen. When your timer bar begins to get low you click on a link that takes you to a page of advertising links, for everyone you click you get 20 minutes, and the maximum you could get was two hours.
That would be a hassle for us. But what about everytime you log into majik you have to click an advertisment?
From: origon
Date: 2002-04-02 21:38:59
In-Reply-To: 1416
Having in-game ads would mess up the fantasy feeling quite badly. And i do not think clicking adverts is would be good either, personally i really dislike games that open up webpages when i press 'help' in the game. This would fall under the same category.
I do not know how much loading screens there will be, but probably at least one, maybe ads could be shown while it is loading? (This is if we need money badly :) People would then also have no other option than to look at the advertisement (this companies like).
From: Zaxim
Date: 2002-04-02 21:59:05
In-Reply-To: 1417
I hate banner ads period. Except maybe when I'm getting a cut of the profits. :}
*places a banner ad after every period on his website.*
From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-04-03 08:45:13
In-Reply-To: 1417
In my post, where I commented Edward Castronova's research, I put forth some alternative methods of covering the costs. Some of them are not "free" in their nature, but definately won't fall to the field of business.
From: Nahl_Shadore
Date: 2002-04-03 05:20:56
In-Reply-To: 1418
If we had placement for Taika and Hybrid, we could probably get some sponsorship
heh, product placement.......when your avatar's tired, sit down for a PEPSI!! but seriously, Taika and other companies would probably love load-screen placement
we could also put logos on, say, the options/menu screen, or other sceeens looked at while OOC, not ingame, though
From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-04-03 08:42:42
In-Reply-To: 1419
I doubt the target audience in the game, would fit into Taika's or Hybrid's market segment. Better base the funding of the game to other instances.
Load screen placement could work.
Better not stuff the game too full.
What about doing research with some companies. In a product placement sort of way? Load screen asks which ad we like to watch, Coce or Pepsi? Ad companies could test their success... or campaign leaders could see, if the latest tv campaing has had any changes in choosing ads.
Difficult. Internet history has already proved that ad based business model does not work.
