Ok, so I'm trying to get it clear in my head how I expect to make some money of my game.

Its a fairly hardcore space dogfighting game, in 3d, with all the usual bells and whistles.

Now I'm happy to do a singleplayer and multiplayer version, but my main focus is always going to be on multiplayer, because thats what interests me the most.

But Ive a feeling that trying to make a commercial success out of online games is very hard.

Are there any models people can suggest that would help people pay for the game?

I'm currently thinking along the lines of a subscription type deal, where a single payment allows the player to use a central server and forum system and play the game for X amount of time.

Ok, so there are a few questions that go along with that:

1) How do you attract a big enough base of players that it becomes viable to run the game

2) How do you pay for bandwidth costs while getting to the break even point of playerbase etc?

3) Assuming you get enough players, is a subscription service even the best method of payment?

Ive been thinking that having a "freeplay" account, where the user is idenfified as a "freeplay" player, cant customize ships, cant mod the game, and can only play for 10 minutes a day would perhaps be the best "demo" for the game. Any thoughts?

.Z.

There are a certain number of players that are needed to get things going I'd say 50-100 would be just fine around release. You can get these by building momentum for your game by having a site with a newsletter signup and posting some info about the games development.

In fact I’m sure you'll get enough players from over at GG to cover your initial "Critical Mass". I'm not sure if your game is a session based game or a persistent world. The critical points for a session based game that I observe are.

1. The ability to find other players who are wanting to play, not just what games are currently running. (battle.net lobby.)

2. The ability to join games in session.

3. Good community forums and support.

For a persistent world, I think the only problem you need to solve is the "emptiness" feeling of an under populated world. You could easily "Lock" many of the areas in the universe by one mechanism or another and allow players to unlock them as the population grows.

I'm kind of going for both really. Initially i want to ship a single server based game (i.e. a single session based game server, but one you know will be there), as the player base grows, I want to be able to extend that.

I'm just kind of wondering about how to form the community in such a manner that people are available to play with fairly consistantly.

Maybe I should just continue to add features and other more persistant stuff and let people use it for free during a "beta" phase. That would guarantee at least a minimal player base for later moving into a pay-for-support basis.

Its just trying to strike a bargain between trying to get the thing to pay for itself and trying to support and enhance it.

I think the mere fact that it WILL be enhanced in line with players recommendations is the main innovation here. But how do you express that in terms of monetary value to players?

Perhaps making things more persistant will make it easier (think like ATITD).

Ah well, its a ways off, but its food for thought.

Phil.

I posted a little questionary with topic: "What do you expect from ONLINE game?"

Thread can be found at:
http://www.blitzcoder.com/cgi-bin/ubb-cgi/postdisplay.cgi?forum=Forum1&topic=002773

Briefly put, people wanted the following attributes:
-updating game frequently (keeping game new+inventive)
-online communication
-human opponents (challenge, intelligency, unexpected playing)
-clans
-game balance
-no cheating
-no hacking
-lag friendly (you will love our game - it's lag free. no jerking players! )
-content (story, role, events etc.)
-customizable character (different races, choosing your colors, character weight & length...)
-Reliable server
-Free server (No monthly expenses)
-Something to do (playing must not be boring)
-Chat (
-mini games
-meaningful player roles
-team playing
-original content