I’ve talked before about how I think more commercial muds would benefit the whole of the mudding community and in this article I’m going to look at some of the options mud creators have for commercialising their work.
Subscriptions
In a subscription model all players pay a regular fixed amount to access the game. Players are usually able to play for free for a limited time before deciding whether to subscribe. This model is most popular among the larger graphical MMORPGs although there are some well known muds such as Simutronics, Avalon and Skotos who also use this model.
The advantage of this model for the administrator is that you have a regular monthly income stream with which to budget for expenditure such as advertising and hosting. The disadvantage however is that it can be hard to persuade players to commit to regular payments.
It’s also possible to operate subscriptions alongside a free to play model. In this way players are able to play for free for an unlimited time but their character progression may be limited in some way if they don’t subscribe. For example, non subscribed characters may be unable to advance past a particular level or to visit certain areas of the game world.
Microtransactions
In this model players are able to play for free but can choose to purchase additional services as and when they wish. This model is popular among commercial muds, most notably the Iron Realms Entertainment muds which all use a well developed microtransactions system. This is also sometimes referred to as “pay for perks”.
The advantage with this model is that it allows players to make payments as and when they choose and in whatever amount they choose, while still allowing for players who may not wish to pay anything at all. However, non paying players may feel that they are second class citizens or that much of the game content is restricted from them.
When implementing a microtransactions system you need to consider what kinds of services you plan to offer paying players. Broadly you can divide these services into those which directly affect competitive gameplay and those which do not. Examples of the the former would be a more powerful weapon or extra skills, whereas the latter includes things such as housing, pets and cosmetic item customisation.
This distinction is important because non paying players can react much more negatively to games where paying players are able to gain a competitive advantage over them.
If you plan to sell services which can impact competitive gameplay then one way you can mitigate feelings of inequality among your playerbase is to provide an alternative for non paying players to get the same benefits. One way to do this is to periodically give out paid services for free, perhaps as competition prizes. Another way is to allow paying players to transfer their paid benefits to other players within the game. This allows for a commodity system to emerge where paying players can barter the things they have paid for to non paying players in return for in game services or currency. The general principle is that non paying players are able to access the same services as paying players, but they may have to spend much more time performing specific game tasks in order to do so.
It’s a difficult system to balance, but generally you want your paid services hard enough to obtain for free that most players will choose to pay for them, but not so hard that non paying players feel they can never get them without paying. Of course people have differing opinions on where to balance this and that is why microtransactions that affect competitive gameplay can be so controversial.
Non game services
Many popular codebases have commercial restrictions on their use which make charging a subscription for access or using microtransactions for in game services impossible. In this case you may be able to commercialise your game by offering services that do not directly use the codebase. For example you could sell a range of game themed merchandise, or offer @yourmud.com email addresses or web hosting. There is also the option of selling advertising on your game website or forum, or even in game advertising (though these could still be prohibited by some codebase licenses) or you can simply ask your players for donations without offering anything in return.
Conclusions
The charging model you choose depends to a large extent on what degree of commercialisation you want to have. If you just want to cover your hosting costs and pay for some additional advertising then a microtransaction system dealing exclusively with services which don’t affect competitive gameplay is probably the best way to go. This model is likely to be tolerated well by the majority of existing players and allows those who wish to support the mud to get some fun extras for their characters. If however you wish to generate a larger income then either a subscription or well developed microtransaction system will be necessary.
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