TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

By Cody “Micajah” Bye

Gamers love options. We love those opportunities that present themselves where we can make that critical decision, one that might change the outcome or the raid, storyline, or encounter to what we want to play out. Controlling our own destiny to certain degrees is why we play games; we either fail or succeed depending upon our own skill and intelligence.

Giving gamers options is the key many developers use to unlock our love for their particular product. Take Dungeons and Dragons for example. Before you even start the game, you’re given a host of options to choose from. Your race, your class, even whether you’re going to be good or evil is often determined before your avatar even enters the game. Peter Molyneaux’s Fable took this a step further and gave you options throughout the course of the entire game; do you want to be good or evil? Fat or skinny? It was completely up to you.

Our need for options extends far beyond the games we play as well. We want options for our computer software (Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Netscape), hardware (Dell, Falcon, or build your own), and how we buy or games (retail or direct download).

Yet when it comes to business models for MMOGs, the publishers of these titles seem to be stuck in a rut. While there’s a plethora of different styles of games to choose from and plans to subscribe to, most games force gamers into one particular plan and stick with it. There are no “maybes” when it comes to paying your subscription fee to World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online. Even if you did want to subscribe to a game like Guild Wars (provided they offer you some incentives to subscribe) they haven’t done so.

Micro-transaction models are similarly stifling, because many gamers are naturally competitive and find that they’re “impaired” by the number of people with access to a particular item. They want the best items, the highest levels, and they want to look the prettiest. In games where micro-transactions are feasible, gamers can often buy exactly what they want, when they want it. While the “option” to buy goods may seem like a choice to some people, others simply see it as the necessary means to get what they need to be the best.

Even Dungeon Runners, a game that requires no subscription fee and has an “optional” membership cost ($5/month), still limits players to a degree. By locking out the biggest and best items that are available in the game, players are persuaded to sign up for that $5 fee in order to keep up with their friends and neighbors who might be paying said fee. It’s a rough decision for many of us; even five dollars adds up quickly.

The conversation regarding business models comes up with frightening frequency in the MMOG industry. Every individual has an idea and every idea has a counter-point. People are constantly professing one idea over the other, trying to explain that this is the best model for X reason while their friend argues the Y point of view. Don’t believe me, just check out the sort of response you get from doing a simple “MMOG Business Model” search on Google. Even Jeff “Ethec” Woleslagle made the list with his editorial, “Paying for Friends?”. (Go Jeff!)

So where are the options? What choice do I have, as a gamer, when I sit down in front of my computer to play a certain game? Do I even have one? Am I stuck paying $15 (or more) a month just to get my kicks? And if I want to get more from the game, why isn’t there a membership I can join?

Thankfully, I’ve just seen the light at the end of the tunnel. Recently, the developers behind the upcoming MMOTPS, Fury, released their business model to the scrutinizing eye of the public. The developers seemed to have taken ideas from both Guilds Wars and Runescape in their plans, but the end result may work out splendidly. Let me lay out basics for you.

Like Guild Wars, Fury gamers are going to need to buy a retail version of the game in order to play. As a “premium” MMOG, it’s almost a necessity for the developers of Fury to release the game in a boxed format; they spent the money to make it and now they need to earn it back. However, that’s where the necessary money (aside from expansions) stops. You’ll never be forced to pay a subscription fee to play Fury, and you can get all of the necessary loot and/or levels that you’d ever need.

However, in a move similar to what Runescape employs, Fury will have an optional subscription fee that provides a variety of benefits, ranging from priority queuing to elite access to the test server. Unlike other games with a subscription model, the fee in Fury merely gives players “extras” that are by no means necessary when you’re actually playing the game. Even the integrated VOIP isn’t necessary to a standard player of the game, who can still listen to the VOIP going on around him.

Despite my excitement over Fury’s “optional” fee, very few games can achieve what Fury has accomplished. Fury is a special instance in the MMOG world, as the game is not structured like your standard MMOG. Other gamers rarely have to worry about queued lines going into any sort of instance or dungeon, and VOIP isn’t integrated into many games, let alone is it always useful. Guild Wars (or the upcoming Guild Wars 2) could be one of the few games that could actually implement a system like this, with its low CSR need and other options that were built for the “subscription-free” model.

In actuality, there has been one other game that has tried to provide “incentives” to the players with a tiered subscription fee program, and that was the original Everquest. While the basic subscription was $10/month, the EQ Legends account was $35.99 and included incentives like the “Marauder’s Mire” (essentially a loot farm) and greater customer service. So, aside from the extra loot, was there anything that constituted the $25 raise from the original subscription? Absolutely not, and I didn’t know anyone that plunked down the money for that service.

Yet Fury is a perfect match for the business model they’ve constructed. Players who will only play one or two matches a day could play without purchasing a membership, and those who devote hundreds of hours to the game would be generously rewarded for their monetary support.

Fury and Auran have given me options, and the incentives behind the fee are not a necessity. Why can’t the rest of the MMOG market discover other ways to provide “more” for the players without causing them any sort of grief in the process?

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