How to make money with your games.

[Callan S.]

As for the idea of Action Points a game i've played called Pardus uses them, and it becomes a chore to calculate how to spend your APs wisely.

This kind of sounds like saying it's a bit of a chore putting the ball through the hoop in basketball? I mean, doing so wisely would be the point or part of the main point of play? Anyway, I was just saying having a wrap up screen each day with ads on it means player itching for more and ads sitting there, most likely showing games or such.

[Zyviel]

it sounds like people would leave and quit if you did this and they wouldn't come back thinking that the server is just full again

You could combine the server limit with a free trial period so that a new account would get unlimited play for a couple of weeks so that they can then decide if they like the game enough to pay the fee for unlimited play.

Any free to play game that has a pay option is going to have a limitation on the free players or an advantage given to the paying customer. There has to be a reason to pay or everyone will play for free.

[Jackolantern]

I personally like the idea of giving players a set amount of time to play for free per day is better than closing servers to free players when they get too full. It would have the same effect--limiting resources used by free players--while still allowing free players to become more engrossed and invested in the game. Also, once a free player gets on in he server cap model, they can stay on indefinitely. The player base may create simple bots to keep them logged in (very easy to make) so that they can eat without logging out, or even go to work. I know people did that in R.O.S.E.

[Age of Fable]

Has anyone tried the option of having ads, but allowing users to pay to view the game without ads?

[Baseball435]

Has anyone tried the option of having ads, but allowing users to pay to view the game without ads?

Ooo yeah that's a good idea. I see web hosting sites with that all the time. That wouldn't be a bad idea, then you wouldn't have to worry about updating anything

[Jackolantern]

I think the vast majority of users ignore the pay option to remove ads. It is just not much of a value, and I think most who do pay to remove the ads are just doing it to support the site, not to actually remove the ads.

[Baseball435]

Well yeah but say you have a ad pop up in a new window every let's say 2-5 minutes. It would get annoying I think

[Jackolantern]

Well yeah but say you have a ad pop up in a new window every let's say 2-5 minutes. It would get annoying I think

Your users would likely just go somewhere else in that case. Don't assume you can use as many ads as you want and that will make your users pay to remove them. Most sites who do make offers to remove ads give some kind of service as well. Zam.com gives you access to special game item databases, special titles on their forum, and other things. Gamespot gives paying users streaming HD videos, video downloads, special discounts to buy games, among others. Removing the ads is just a bonus, not what the user is actually paying for. Having it be the sole thing players pay for doesn't sit very well with them, and most users will either accept the ads or go somewhere else if there are so many it disturbs their viewing of the site.

[Baseball435]

Well yeah but say you have a ad pop up in a new window every let's say 2-5 minutes. It would get annoying I think

Your users would likely just go somewhere else in that case. Don't assume you can use as many ads as you want and that will make your users pay to remove them. Most sites who do make offers to remove ads give some kind of service as well. Zam.com gives you access to special game item databases, special titles on their forum, and other things. Gamespot gives paying users streaming HD videos, video downloads, special discounts to buy games, among others. Removing the ads is just a bonus, not what the user is actually paying for. Having it be the sole thing players pay for doesn't sit very well with them, and most users will either accept the ads or go somewhere else if there are so many it disturbs their viewing of the site.

Yeah I thought about that while I wwas wwriting that

[Callan S.]

You can do stuff like convenience - like a free player might have to click alot to make all his arrows, while a paying player has them generated automatically. This technically doesn't give the paying player an advantage - the free player can have the exact same arrows. But it's not as convenient.