Charging Model

[dbest]

Now that my game has gone live and I have integrated paypal with it, I would like to find out from you guys what the best charging model would be.

I have a limited slot of 96 users for this season (which will last till end of Dec.). Next season, I will have around 192 slots available. What that means is that, there can be a max of 192 users in the game at one point in time in season 2.

The game is free to play but membership can purchased at a cost for some additional cosmetic benefits. Membership does not provide any in-game advantage (my user base expects that), but just a few features like uploading club photos, additional stats...etc.

What would the best option to charge be? I had planned a 3 month membership for $10. But am rethinking of a new model as below:
$2 - 1 month
$5 - 3 months
$15 - 12 months

[Chris]

192 slots?! Per whole round?! You have a serious problem here, you realy should not go lower than 10,000 slots per round even if the game is new and stuff.
One dedicated multiaccounter can deplete half of your slots...

I would try $3-4 per month. Anyway, no ingame benefits model is almost worthless.

[dbest]

Woah... if I have those many slots, most of my users will be playing against bots rather than other active managers.. which is what they want.

As mentioned, the user base accepts the fact that there is no in-game benefits and still pay... Maybe significantly lesser than those with in-game benefits.

[saljutin]

there SHOULD be some in-game advantage ... this is browser based game and NOT some fancy 3D game where you can buy yourself a hat and look cool...

BUT dont get me wrong - DONT create system which uses pay 1€ get 10.000 ingame coins. So players own tennis club and they can buy players on market...maybe make that non-supporting users cannot sort players (stats) and/or use advance search, maybe make that paying users can arrange 1 more friendly match between 2 players (BUT no exp,money gain - just to check tactics and all), etc.

remember paypal charges 2,9% + 0,30$ per transaction
your system is now:
price - months => costs for user/month ===> your profit per month for this package
$2 - 1 => 2,00$/mth ===> 1,64$/mth
$5 - 3 => 1,66$/mth ===> 1,51$/mth
$15 - 12 => 1,25$/mth ===> 1,19$/mth

so maybe you should say something like that...I want to have at LEAST 1,30$ pure profit/mth -> 1,30*12 = 15,6$ - 12mth package price without paypal loss
price: 15,6+0,3 = 15,9 then you need that 2,9% -> 15,9*100/(100-2,9) = 16,38$ ...
but problem is how to set this price (and WHAT you get for this) so people will actually buy it
lots of people first buy to support such manager but then refuse to extend supporter package because they don't find it useful
------------
also why only 96 slots and then extend to 192? why is that? it is not 2^x system so I really dont get it

[Marek]

Giving in-game benefits for money is a whole other can of worms.

Many people ARE willing to pay for this kind of so-called "useless" membership. It's not about what they're buying, it's about how it makes them feel! Some peopel are glad to pay just to have, say, a tiny star next to their name. It's about showing off.

I think the prices sounds reasonable.

[CygnusX]

My plan is to offer in-game badges.  Bronze, Silver and Gold based on level of support.  Also, I plan to reward with a very minor in-game items or abilities.  If you normally deal 100 damage, and you give an item that does +1 Damage, it lets the player feel like they have a slight edge, yet makes the non-contributor think they can overcome the advantage gap. 

[dbest]

@saljutin - I think I should correct myself, there are no direct in-game benefits but they will have extra benefits such as organizing friendly comps, renaming their players, extra league stats... The user base I am targetting do not like members do get an advantage, so these benefits just help the members..
I like the way you proposed the payment structure, I shall come up with an ideal combination and get back.

@nano - I think we both have an understanding of a similar user-base.

@CygnusX - badges are good. But I know for sure that the guys who play my game would frown on even the slightest direct advantage.


IF I make another game, it would be a payment focussed game ...

[saljutin]

@CygnusX - I just hope you dont start with +1 dmg and later (because of paying members pushing you) change that to 1%

[CygnusX]

I plan to design the advantage to be more psychological than it is mathematically advantageous.  Such as, if a player has 300 health, and I give an bonus +1 to health (and a badge) for contributing a minumum $5, what good does that really do anybody?

[dbest]

How about the following

$30 - 12 months
$10 - 3 months
$3 - 1 month

I think this sounds decent...

[saljutin]

noone will buy 3 months

[dbest]

Oops..
$3 - 1 Month
$8 - 3 Months
$25 - 12 Months

[133794m3r]

Personally, what i'm doing is i'm making the minimum amount of 'credit' that someone can buy at one time is 10USD since that way teh overall loss due to the 0.30USD+ 0.029*amount is lesser when compared to the overall value. Also, i've set it up so that the person who buys in bulk will get more overall 'bonus' credit. For example right now if someone buys 25USD worth of credit they get an extra 2USD of credit 'free' as a 'bonus'. Then these types of vanity items that are included within the 'cash shop' for htem to buy. Also by doing it as a minimum of 10USD you're only losing 5.9% of the money that you 'could' be making form the sale. Whereas with the 3USD purchase you're losing 12.9% of the overall potential transaction. The reason for giving bonus for those who do bulk as you've sorta done htere is of course to increase it marginally so that the overall 'gain' that they get is still less than what you are getting compared to the lower levels. As in you never give them more 'bonus' credit for purchasing in bulk than you are receiving by them buying in bulk when comparing the relative losses via a 3rd party handling the money. Right now i'm thinking about doing ~20-30% of the difference to the person buying in bulk as a 'bonus' to them. Once i have a formula wrote up, i'll edit this post with it until then just the idea of it will have to suffice.