You cant seriously expect anyone spending the beer money on anything else.
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You cant seriously expect anyone spending the beer money on anything else.
Well, it isn't REALLY beer money until it is spent on beer. They use up their money earmarked for beer on mochi coins, and then when they realize they have no beer money they transfer money from less important things like food, clothing, rent, children's allowance...
All money is beer money, it's just that life gets in the way.
Squize.
I think you're wrong about that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alluvian
I mean sure, if you're talking about 6 year olds they don't have much cash. But I'm thinking more about 12 to 16 year olds. They actually have a lot of disposable income, but don't usually have the means (credit cards, etc) to spend it online. Sure adults make more money, but we have many more things to spend it on (like delicious frothy beverages).
Quote:
Originally Posted by cadin
Anyone who's played Maple Story will tell you it's quite easy for US citizens to go to any Target, 7-11, CVS, Rite-Aid, couple of book stores, etc, and buy a prepaid "NX" cash card for purchasing gear in-game, so I don't think it would be that much of an issue.Quote:
Originally Posted by cadin
Source: Nexon Game Card Locations
I agree with cadin. From what I know (I'm no where near being an adult), adults will tend to spend some money on MMORPG's, let's say like World of Warcraft, but for Flash games online?
This is another assumption I'm making, but from what I generally see at school, is those groups of kids that stay their lunches inside playing video games on laptops...It's the teen stage where they get money from their jobs, but don't have the financial responsibilities to spend money on serious stuff. So their stuff goes to gaming stuff, and if a fraction of them are into online Flash games, especially one that catches their attention, they're the perfect demographic.
Let me tell you, the 500 or so USD I've made through Flash freelance looks like a tiny amount when staring at the number 500 sitting in my PayPal. I assume that a kid that likes to waste money on computer gaming would see the same with the money they made, and might spend up to 100 bucks on gaming...As was mentioned before, actually looking at the dollor bills your giving away is way different then seeing some 3 digit numbers moving around the screen.
These are my guesses, and what I've been able to see in my own school...though I'd really like to see what adults think?
I realize you can't label all adults to think the same way, but as mentioned, from what I know, spending a few dollars on an official RPG is the farthest I've heard people go, save for the 1 in a million nutcases who buy those funny little orc costumes...
P.
EDIT:
@ImprisonedPride:
Awesome! Even better...Except I don't think we can cash in on Nexon cards in our games (if we can?)?
Prepaid cards are the way to go. Over here in Japan you can go down to your local store and use the automated online machines they have to order anything but the kitchen sink. When you get your receipt you take it to the cashier and pay then and there. I always have trouble with my credit card here so I do all my PS3 account funding that way.
Don't know if they have anything like that in the States or the UK now but it's a terrific convenience- if MochiCoins starts taking off the staff there should look into getting a similar retail purchase system up and going.
p.s. i agree with the fact that member charging to continue a game is not such a great idea after all- buying extras is better- BUT what I had in mind was that they basically have an entire game first, and the money is a few extra levels or secrets and the like, aimed at the hardcore players who should be cashing you up a little if they play your game so much anyway.
I could see myself reaching into my pockets to continue some great adventure game if the following conditions were met;
a) the money results in instantaneous access. The second I pay I want the e-mail with the keycode or whatever, no hanging about for 2 days while they 'confirm' my funds or some bs.
b) it has a set-in-stone, well-known security system for the payment, like PayPal.
c) I get some good value for the money. Tons of goodies. I know it's only a dollar or whatever but if it's only a single level I'm getting then I will be rather peeved unless I'm a big fan of the author's other games or something.
Pazil, that wasn't what I was implying. I was simply saying that it's not so rare in the states for the young to make online payments with the help of prepaid cards.
Implying what?...I didn't say that you were implying anything at all!
In fact, I saw your post only after I posted mine already, since it took me a while to write it while doing other things.
I was just saying what I saw at school etc. etc., just to gather my own thoughts and tell you guys what I think...?
I can see a bright future for flash game developers if mochicoins can manage to become big and a kind of Flash app store. As it has been said before, the key is to store credit card info in database. When you use an iPhone for the first time, it's really impressive how easy it is to buy something...
I was under the impression you were asking how we could implement Nexon cards themselves and I just meant that anyone could distribute cards.
Oh, I meant us using the Nexon cash system (Nexon points compatible with our games), but I checked it out, and it seems only the really big games use it...so unless you make a massive RPG, you're out.
Then again, that's why we have MochiCoins. I was just interested about Nexon, as it's already established, and probably already has huge amounts of customers.
Interesting link loosely connected to this:
http://www.raphkoster.com/2009/03/16/arpu-vs-arppu/
Squize.
Thanks, thats a good one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Squize
Great link, Raphe has a great head on his shoulders, and is a brilliant wordsmith for communicating those ideas. I hold him responsible for almost all the good things in UO and SWG, although he was not able (or not interested) in holding off the huge changes that critically wounded both of those games (splitting shards in UO, and the NGE class revamp in SWG). Although the NGE change was in response to a combat mechanic that was broken to start with (3 health bars was a BAD idea).
I think Raphe tends to get overly absorbed in the aspects of the game that excite him (the virtual societies and how we interact in them) and he tends to ignore the game itself. I am both confused and curious about Metaplace. I have to admit I have not followed it very closely.
Our worlds are about to change drastically...
I hope nobody thinks this will be easy money though. You don't just slap in buyable items into any old game and expect people to pay. This will work best for probably 1% cream of the crop games with lots of depth and replay value. The success of all the asian MMOs, and even the massively influential H a b b 0Hotel, is providing free access, free enjoyment, and then selling "extra perks". The key is not making regular "free" players feel too excluded, and then converting them into paying players. (ie: In H a b b 0 you can chat all you want and stare at your empty room, but pretty soon you can get jealous of other people's "cool stuff" and that's when you reach for your wallet).
In Maple Story you can play quite a bit of the game for free (all of it?) but you're stuck with your boring white shirt and limited weaponry.
The idea to get a player up to a certain point and then throwing up "pay XXX to keep playing" likely won't work all that well. It's a barrier. The player has to feel invested in the game first and just cutting them right off makes it really easy to say "F it" and move on to the next game, if they aren't heavily "invested" in the game already.
I think it is a fascinating subject. It brings up some possibilities for some pretty clever marketing schemes.
I do think you need to create a need. Honestly who needs a virtual weapon or a cool chair for a webgame? A drive could be competition or conformation (but you'd need to get the ball going in that case). I have to dig up my books on strategic communication on this one.
I do think you need to keep the balance between free and paid like others noted. A good example is the Wizards of the Coast (Magic the Gathering) PR blurb that players that don't buy a lot of cards have a chance of winning, as there's skill involved. Everybody knows however, that you would have a bigger chance of winning with a better deck of cards. So you put skill versus money. This actually allows identification with the skilled group if you're not really into spending a lot of money and bieng able to mock the spending group for using a form of cheating. I think this is the best way to handle this: you could get it by making money/achieving goals ingame, but it would take a lot more time and effort to get it then spending money on it.
(I loved the concepts in that first reply on ARPU vs ARPPU, spending money to make virtual money and using rivalry between groups of players)