Indie-Resource.com

So what is the in thing for making games for revenue? Item shops? Ads? selling to game hosts for ads?

What is trending now? What is a good way to make some cash from web based games?

Just thought it would be some good convo.

I downloaded some form of new Need for Speed game yesterday, it's an MMO racing game where you drive around and smash into each other and lag half way across a "race track"(city). I found it was overdone with the trend nowadays of making games free to play, until you want to get any good, where you need to buy in game items.

Games addiction seems to also be gaining a trend in Europe. This is good news for an entrepreneur. People tend to pay out a lot more money than they realize, simply because they will be better faster.

I remain a strong supporter of the idea of free to play, if a person chooses to buy things in a game they can. I however disagree with EA's strategy, they have made it too difficult to get into the game, you nearly have to pay straight away to be any good.

Get people addicted first, cash simply doesn't matter after that to them.

agreed, i love the cash shop and pay for some extras method but free to pay and a free to pay character can be as good as a pay character just takes longer.

In my game, I will have quite a few ways to try and generate income.

The first being upgrading your character to Gold or Platinum, which allows you to keep your character on reset (Gold will be set to free, Platinum will always remain platinum) and allows you to fight in the arenas. (Which partially gives P2P Characters an advantage, nothing that can't be overcome through strategy though).

You will also have the option to pay for VIP which gives you extra features to simplify the game, and give you small advantages over non-VIPers. Nothing that would make your character better than another, which makes it a pretty good option to keep things fair, but also try and stabilize some income.

The third..Well I'll tell you more soon, but I expect this to be the main source of income from my game .

My goal is to keep things cheap, and not a NEED TO HAVE to be able to play the game. This is what I think will generate income more than a true P2P only game.

IGG bases out of Hong Kong makes games like Galaxy Online 2, they have "mall points" which you buy mostly (can get some from doing surveys/offers). Game items like "commander cards" and other "cards" items used in the game cost MP (some players sell them for gold if they need gold more than MP they spent getting the items).

Its a "free" game, but really the only people who dominate the server are mall point players/money players. The game is flash, and integrated with Facebook, has like 20 servers. Anyways, they also do all kinds of "Events' that lure you into buying mall points to spend on the events (like a chance to win a high level commander card which normally would take many thousands of MP to make yourself as you have to combine cards to make next level and there is nine levels, each one making your CC more powerful, more money! ha).

Ive seen guys on there spend $1000-$3000.00 in a week on the game. Its a free game, but I bet it makes more than a lot of the pay/subscription MMO's. It's really the Asian style of MMO, where its free to play, but all the best stuff costs real money and the game is full of ways to squeeze more money out of you.

I have a like/loath relationship with this game

I think the base line is that you need a bunch of players, probably playing it purely for play to win reasons.

Then you get the people who want to use that as their stage. Ie, they will pay money for their fifteen minutes (and more) of fame in front of those other players.

I'm pretty sure that's the demographic where the money comes from.

You do need players who wont spend, simply to be the audience.