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PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Online Games - Get Hooked For Free 34

Posted by simoniker from the and-unhooked-at-great-expense dept.
Thanks to Wired News for their story discussing online games trying alternatives to subscription fees, including extended free trials, in order to ensnare gamers. The article points out: "Online games are adding millions of new players each year, but business models haven't adapted to accommodate the new playing population... casual gamers wary of shelling out monthly subscription fees are the driving force behind this growth." Nexon's Shattered Galaxy is the featured example, with Paul Philleo from the company also mentioning another development in online titles, that of (alleged) specialization: "We're not trying to operate like Asheron's Call or Ultima Online. We're going for a new, niche audience."
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Online Games - Get Hooked For Free More

Online Games - Get Hooked For Free

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  • Great (Score:2)

    by tsa ( 15680 )
    That's very interesting. Now I can finally find out if I suck just as much in succeeding in a virtual world as in the real one.

  • Once they start paying me... (Score:3)

    by quinkin ( 601839 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @08:46AM (#6659209)
    Once they start paying me I'll be interested.

    Q.

    • If you want to make money playing online games, check out what Julian Dibbel's been up to (the guy who wrote the article "A Rape In Cyberspace about a billion yeas ago) here. [juliandibbell.com]

      There's also a couple of sites where you can play games like Beyond Castle Wolfenstein against other players for cash. And Worldwinner.com and some rivals let you play things like Tetris, Minesweeper, Solitaire, etc. for cash. Woo.

      Me, I'd rather keep *making* the games for money. And our game has been free since 1996, this is old

  • MMORPG Games are already carefully designed to hook you with cigarette-like addiction properties.

    It's immoral, really.

    • Re:This is no surprise (Score:3, Interesting)

      by KDan ( 90353 )
      You're joking, but I think we'll see this become a real societal problem in the near future. Better-Than-Life was a visionary idea in Red Dwarf - it's going to happen for real. If you already consider the sorry state some people get into after basically investing their entire lives into things like EverCrack, if that starts happening to a significant percentage of the population we will see it put at the same rank as hard drug usage.

      Daniel
      • I mean no disrespect but I am not joking. I read a paper somewhere on the net where they pointed out how to design a game specifically to hook people by giving them proper amounts of gratification at proper times. They get an endomorphin blast at this time, like a gambler who hits the jackpot. And then, and this is critical, they crave more.

        I was so appalled by this I stopped reading the paper, and can't find it again (not that I really tried hard)

        But let me tell you, I regard this behavior as genuinely e
        • Hell, well then it's even worse than I thought. My dad had been hammering on a long time ago when I was still a kid, saying that computer game makers should be held accountable for the time they waste in people's lives, by hooking them on stupid games, and for all that time I didn't take him seriously. I still don't for those single-player games, which are not all that addictive when you consider the newer multiplayer stuff. But then I got addicted to MUDs for a while and I understood what he meant more ful
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
            • Don't be so literal. That's only a thumbrule, hence my mention of possible weekly/monthly limits. For instance, it might be that the system requires you to follow an average of 7 hours a day, allowing a 10% overrun per week (ie a max of 7x7 = 49 + 4.9 = 54.9 hours a week) and then enforce the total for the month (ie no more than 7x31 hours a month no matter what). There's plenty of possible variations, which will still allow you to spend a weekend of continuous playing but which would prevent you from spend
          • I'm not sure it would ever be possible to put an artificial limit on something like this for people over 18, and I wouldn't expect companies would have the slightest bit of interest in enforcing it or implementing it. Besides, if you don't have a concept of moderation by the time you're 25, you've probably got other problems too. :) I understand the sentiment, but I'm still going to have to go with the tried and true "it's the parent's responsibility to monitor their own children" comeback.

            Just to add
            • Companies would have no incentive to do this. But if it becomes enough of a societal problem, people will request that the government enforce some restrictions and force companies to abide by those restrictions (enter a whole new world of underground unrestricted gaming, but anyway...). But true to form, the moronic people who so often get elected in a representative system like the US so-called-democracy will most certainly go for the most stupid solutions such as banning or taxing things, like they do for
        • Something you seem to be missing with your example of "giving them the proper amounts of gratification at proper times" is that if you don't do it this way, the game just isn't fun. The game is supposed to be a challenge without being frustrating. If you let the user win all the time, then there is no challenge, and the game is no fun. If you make it too difficult, then the user never wins, and there is no challenge. So the challenge is to make a game that is just easy enough that you can beat whatever
          • Well, no. MMORPGs usually have monthly subscription charges - so the longer (in months rather than more as in hours) you continue to play the more money is made. 200,000 players at 15/month (a la EQ and SWG) makes for an additional incentive to provide 'addictive' qualities in-game. There's a brief description of the 'Skinner' characteristics of EQ here [nickyee.com].

            You are correct that the actual game programmer might not be directly advantaged (except by continued employment and company stability) but the suit wh

  • Bleh... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by flonker ( 526111 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @08:51AM (#6659230)
    The Wired story is just about free trials for online games.
    Nexon's Shattered Galaxy ... is now available as a free download from the company's website, and for the first three months, players won't be required to pay ... nonpaying players won't have access to certain features, ...
    <plug>If you want a real free online game, try Crossfire [real-time.com]</plug>

    • Re:Bleh... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Yokaze ( 70883 )

      > Click link
      You enter the Web-site. You are seeing various links.
      > Read description
      You gain 1 experience about RPGs. Your motivation rises.
      > Click Screen Shots
      You are seeing several links for different clients for different platforms.
      You gain 1 experience in linux gaming. Your motivation rises.
      > Click GTK Client
      You are hit by 16 colours and several pixels. You are dead.

      Another suggestion [planeshift.it]
      I haven't played it, but I like their client features:

      Support for nearly all platform: Windows (XP, 2000,

      • Personally, I like the way Crossfire looks.

        There is a derivative project, Daimonin [sourceforge.net], which is "prettier", but it's still in beta. Real beta, as in actually working, not sourceforge beta ("w3 wr0t3 s0m3 c0d3z, f1n15h 17 4 u5.")
  • The first hit's free, kid.
  • I just recently started playing EverWars [everwars.com]... it's a free web based game... basically a monthly stat run but it keeps me mildly occupied at wotk...

  • Hattrick (Score:3, Informative)

    by Scarblac ( 122480 ) <slashdot@gerlich.nl> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @10:34AM (#6659607) Homepage

    My favorite game is a online soccer management game, Hattrick [hattrick.org].

    They have the right model: playing it is absolutely free and will remain free. Besides that, you can become "supporter", for about 20 Euro per year. Supporter gives you some extras - a guestbook and logo at your team's page, very handy bookmarks, lots of statistics - but nothing that will help you with the game. Supporter is fun, but doesn't give an advantage inside the game.

    Hattrick has about 150,000 players and is expanding rapidly. Around 10%, perhaps a bit more, are supporter. This is enough for them to make a small profit.

  • I'm glad Shattered Galaxy is free (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @11:39AM (#6659901) Homepage
    ...because it isn't finished.

    Seriously, it is a game with 5 resource types, only one of which is available in-game. You can purchase units, except that they don't cost anything. Units have available slots for special attacks, except that they don't have any special attacks. You can upgrade units, if you can get the severely bent interface to work.

    Really, It's painfully obvious that this game isn't finished, yet they were (are) trying to sell it to the hungry masses. I wonder why they are doing so badly? Top that off with horrible graphics and controls, randomly generated level designs ripped straight out of Starcraft's playbook, Action-oriented gameplay that pauses for several seconds every time someone enters an area, and a design that shouts "Diablo in space, with 6 characters!", And it is no wonder they need to give it away. Honestly, at this stage in their development I'd be ashamed to charge anyone for it.

    While the concept of a MMPORTS is appealing, this version falls far short of the mark. And sadly, it isn't the only MMP game that does. Second Life? Sims Online? If you want to know why so many are doing so badly, first look to how badly so many are made.

  • Our dirty secrets (Score:5, Informative)

    by Teppy ( 105859 ) * on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:17PM (#6660337) Homepage
    Here's a method that has worked well for us, and that a lot of people seem to appreciate:

    1. We don't ask for a credit card upfront. We don't require a real name, or an email address, or anything else - just download the client and play.
    2. Limit of 24 hours of game time, but it can be spread over as many sessions as desired. After that, it prompts for a credit card to continue.
    3. Certain content (about 15 items) required a paid account. Not enough to be bothersome, but enough so that most people run into a couple things they wish they could do during their free trial.
    4. Billing is done in-game - not on a website - so when someone does run into restricted content, they can unlock it instantly by entering a credit card.
    5. We pay the credit card company extra (about 1%) to not require all the name/address/blood type bullshit. Again, to make it very quick & easy to pay when the unavailable content comes up.

    So, how has this worked? We've had 27.5k people log in to the game. Of those, around 17% have paid for at least one month. Most shareware (which is the closest analogy to how we do things) averages 1%.

    Only 3.5% of those who try the game exhaust their 24 hours and then leave. A much smaller number than that (anecdotal - I don't track this directly) pay, but only after exhausting their 24 hours. Perhaps 1%. These last two are what I find so interesting - it says that an MMORPG can *almost* behave like a shareware game. Play for free as along as you'd like, but you get some bonuses for paying.
  • I played shattered galaxy beta for almost 2 years, and in the last year I played it it hardly changed at all, except for minor balancing issues. Then Tactical Commanders was released, which was practically just Shattered Galaxy with different unit names. Than Tactical Commanders is released again by another company. I just can't help but feel they are struggling to make money. The game was a lot of fun to play, but I doubt I'd pay for it. I had the same experience playing Endless Ages. It was just far
  • I've heard good things about this game and would like to try it out, but with it costing $50 for the box on top of the monthly fees (although I think the first month is free) has prevented me from buying it. Why charge full price for a game that you still have to pay monthly fees for?
  • Free, open-source MMORPGs [dikumud.com] had already been around for a decade when commercial interests first took interest in the market. The only thing Ultima Online & Co. really added is the graphical interface.
  • There are quite a number of persistent NWN servers that are quite fullfeatured and professionally maintained, with a lot of interesting poeple to play with.
    Considering the fact that any DnD nerd worth his salt already bought the game and played the original campaign, it's a great way to avoid pay-per-play while having a great online experience.

    You might have to switch a few servers before you find one that suits your style though.

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