Game Development: A Sound Badgering

[MagicManICT]

Korean monetization models have sold a flat X hours for Y currency. I'm not sure if this ever caught on in Japan or other Asian markets. I certainly haven't seen it used in the West or Europe for major productions (I have seen it in certain formats, but not for anything resembling MMOs.)

[jorb]

Korean monetization models have sold a flat X hours for Y currency.

I would not mind this model as an alternative to a subscription, even though I am a little weary of cluttering up the store too much.

[Felkin]

Korean monetization models have sold a flat X hours for Y currency.

I would not mind this model as an alternative to a subscription, even though I am a little weary of cluttering up the store too much.

Disclaimer : 95%+ of all MMOs I've ever played have been korean. I follow their market, culture and trends for many years now.

Short answer : Don't even think about it. Their model only works there.

Long answer :

1) Koreans have two forms of limitations put on em when it comes to playing games online.

1. The anti-gaming addiction law prevents anyone above 18 years old to play video games from the hours of midnight to 8am.
2. Most of the gaming culture in Korea happens in PC bangs. They're as popular as regular cafes here in the western world.

These 2 points lead to a single outcome : time matters.

Korean games have to be very mindfull of how they spend their hours gaming. PC bangs cost em $/h and they can't play past midnight. So they need to be as efficient as possible. Korean gaming companies understand this perfectly. They understand that the gamers are really heavily restricted and can't play games for more than a few hours a day.

So they put a pay/hour model to make it easier to pay.
However, that is just the tip of the iceberg.

In reality, the 2nd reason this model was pushed was goverment pressure. Korea has huge gaming addiction problems in NEETs. The korean government combated this with that midnight-8am no play law, but it's not enough so they're pushing gaming companies to employ stuff like hourly reminders to take a rest and, of course, to push pay / hour models to gamers spend less time gaming.

This also goes in tune with the whole "daily quests, 24h cd instances" crap. It's not only cattering to the casuals, but just making it possible for people to progress without paying for a lot of gameplay hours.


TL;DR - It ONLY works in Korea, because of their culture and is mostly a CAUSE of problems, not a cool-ass payment model to try in the west.

Don't even think about it.

[donatas]

Of topic or whatever, but how long does it take for my claim lp points to decline. Like 1 out of 750 every hour while I am online or offline? Like how does it work?

[Sevenless]

Of topic or whatever, but how long does it take for my claim lp points to decline. Like 1 out of 750 every hour while I am online or offline? Like how does it work?

Roughly. If you study a dandelion a day your claim will be maintained. Only really applies for people who've quit the game.

[donatas]

Of topic or whatever, but how long does it take for my claim lp points to decline. Like 1 out of 750 every hour while I am online or offline? Like how does it work?

Roughly. If you study a dandelion a day your claim will be maintained. Only really applies for people who've quit the game.

So how long does it take for it to go down, lets say by 1-10 every hour in real time?

[Sevenless]

Of topic or whatever, but how long does it take for my claim lp points to decline. Like 1 out of 750 every hour while I am online or offline? Like how does it work?

Roughly. If you study a dandelion a day your claim will be maintained. Only really applies for people who've quit the game.

So how long does it take for it to go down, lets say by 1-10 every hour in real time?

A dandelion gives 50LP, that means it can't decrease more than 2LP per hour with 24 hours in a day. C'mon man you can do basic math when I give you the tools

[MagicManICT]

stuff

Well written, and I agree.

However, I'm a poor broke chump and don't play a ton right now.* 7 hrs a week isn't enough, though, don't have the $10 regularly for a sub, and $15 for the upgrade isn't worth it to me (14 hrs in a week isn't anywhere near enough when I'm focusing on haven). However, I could probably drop a $1 or 2 here or there for an extra 10 hours of game time when i feel like it every few weeks (or some such... values would have to be worked out.)

funny thing, though... some of those Korean MMOs I have played are some of the biggest gridfests I've ever touched... no wonder they get a "gaming addiction" problem.

*I'd probably be in game 4+ hrs a day if I did have the $10 a month, and just can't feel up to committing the time to really build up on an hour a day average.

[Robben_DuMarsch]

They aren't suggesting it as the sole subscription model. Simply an alternative, so there's little point discussing the failures of pay per hour as a general sub model.

In theory, I imagine if it could be used to supplement verified accounts playtime. Potentially too effectively, heh...

I like the idea of a subscription model. I don't think 10 dollars a month is a big ask - The 2 hours per day with a verified account is generous.

If cost per hour is too cheap, it might undermine subscriptions. If it's reasonably priced, it would probably run into conflict with subs and be rendered irrelevant for most players.

[donatas]

A dandelion gives 50LP, that means it can't decrease more than 2LP per hour with 24 hours in a day. C'mon man you can do basic math when I give you the tools [/quote]

so let's say I don't have any curios before I go to work and when I come back 12 hours later. then only 24lp out of total would have decreased, from that red bar where it has option refill.