Indie-Resource.com

I see lots of free to play MMORPGs close their doors along with their studios. How expensive is it to run an MMORPG? Is it viable for indies? Or not at all?

Depends what you intend with MMORPG if it's Massive? Then first it's really hard to reach a Massive number of players. Even bigger companies like Bethesda have issues on this level.

For the price, well, it depends how you want to make it and what you want to make it. If you rely heavy on servers, then quite certainly you will fail as the price will be too high to start really. You even need to consider the efforts to build such game, make it interesting, then attract players, and finally keep them on board. For all those reasons, an MMORPG is not the best goal you could have out there.

However note that some small companies do succeed in bringing such kind of experience. Which means it is still possible. But I would not start with the idea => I want to be rich I shall build a MMORPG. That will hardly succeed. Better you create an online casino then, it's easier to make money with such

Actually it's not about the profit that I'm seeking for, honestly I would probably go to a traditional pay to play system if I were to make profits, but man.. it's just so fun to see your little world growing, with thousands of passionate people playing it. Like knowing that they're really into your little world just feels good..

Also, MMORPGs usually tend to last more inside our memories.. Isn't it kewl? Like those times when you go fishing or selling stuff and make friends etc etc you will remember those a lot..

I just need make enough money for me to keep breathing, and pay for the servers..

Is paying for subscription like WoW does a good idea?

Subscriptions are the only real way to pay your servers. I doubt that other ways will actually fully manage it, even if there is again examples which worked out. Remember, people may buy once your game, but as long as the server is running you will have some cost. So it's smarter to make your game only subscription based, as they will pay for the usage directly.

Like alain said, it's tough for an indie.

I can only imagine the efforts you must do, you can see how many players you will have and then you need to know how your server handles them to know how many servers you need. Then there's the retention. I myself can't really get into an MMORPG, i reach maybe lvl 20-30 in most of them and I stop because it's getting too hard to level up at that point and the time-investment is just not good for me. (this is just my personal opinion and others may be different or even the same)

So for an indie it's not recommended to start or even think of MMORPG's. But since you mention, you are not in it for the money, maybe you could start something small first and if it grows maybe you can grow with it. Other than that, you could spend a little more development time by using maybe a p2p kind of game at start.

Whatever you choose, wish you the best of luck

It also depends on what is your definition of an MMORPG. PBBGs could be said to be MMORPGs since some of them do have massive numbers of players and they are online RPGs. Those tend to have much lower costs to operate, typically in the range of a small-to-medium/small website (about $30 - $150 a month or so). Some of them do actually make a fair bit of money, with several in the virtual pet (adoptables) genre making enough to support not only their creator but a full-time team.

There are also MUDs. These are real-time text-based MMORPGs. It may be a bit harder to get players to start playing a MUD today, but it isn't impossible with the right game. These tend to be a bit more expensive to run than a PBBG because the CPU, memory and bandwidth needs of the server are higher. But still nowhere as expensive as a WoW-like MMORPG. But then, WoW-like MMORPGs cost a ton of money to make. There isn't much way around that. That is also why we so rarely see anything like WoW being done by small indie teams.

However, I would say that subscription-based is not a good model for indies. In theory it sounds great: everyone playing is paying. But the reality is that it doesn't work anymore. MMORPGs are almost expected to be free-to-play today and a very large portion of potential players will immediately turn around when they see the game requires a subscription. It also makes starting out very hard. 10 - 15 years ago, subscription-based MMORPGs worked because they built hype through the media, had a major store release and got a rush of players coming in on the start date. Without that (and that is not an option for indie devs) how do you get started? Players join, pay the subscription and then see the world is empty and immediately cancel the subscription and ask for their money back. You need to lower the barrier to entry to get people to hang out in an almost empty world as you try to fill it up with players.

If major AAA companies can't seem to make players pay a subscription fee for an MMORPG these days (think Lord of the Rings Online, D&D Online, EQ2 and others), I would say that is a sign that indie devs should not even consider it. Star Wars Galaxies was one of the most expensive games of all time to create and had the Star Wars license behind it and couldn't survive on subscriptions.

just man look at WoW, one of the oldest mmorpgs out there thats still going pretty strong today.. its like a secondary world there.. I'm also even considering playing it but I usually just always remember that it's not doable considering all my time thats going to be wasted lol..

I don't see any sign of it shutting down, though.. or are they?

not that I have a coming plan on creating MMORPG though, just curious on this

I do not get the draw to WOW. It is not fun, it is sooooo linear, same qwuest over and over and over and over and it is hacked hourly. That is why one can never plan for a successful MMO. No one knows what makes them succeed.

Even though WoW's population has dropped so low from its high in 2008 that they no longer publish their subscriber levels anymore, some supposedly pretty accurate estimates put the subscribers at around 3 million. For most others MMORPGs, that would still be a smash success. I don't know what their lower-end level is where they will shut down the servers, but I don't see that number being anywhere near 3 million. WoW will probably be around for another 10 years.

I shall do a self advert now:
With my own service => 30$ But... remove the first M and just say MORPG => multiplayer online role playing game