Lise
2003-08-27, 02:51 AM
Bah, the end of the title should say "or lack thereof." Ah well. :p
Anyway, while thinking about the whole WoW situation and how a lot of people think it'll be free (and how that is a common complaint MMOGs get), I realized something about The Matrix Online game that is currently under development. It is in the unique position to NOT offer a monthly fee via one thing: advertising.
There has been some gouging in recent years of monthly fee prices in the MMOG market. Hell, look at SWG, for crying out loud. Even so, however, they are necessary; despite what the kiddies might think, the costs of maintaining servers of that size and providing them with sufficient bandwidth (especially today) are astronomical. Thus, we must pay to play.
Many people have suggested advertising as a possible alternative for revenue. The traditional and quite valid counter-argument (up until now) was that there was no way to make it really mesh well with any existing MMOG. For instance, how real would it seem if the dragon you're fighting suddenly started mouthing off about the latest car models? Or what about the Quest for the Holy Oral-B Cross Action toothbrush? Or god forfend that you simply put popups in the game - the loss of subscribers from something like that would make the income from the ad deal pointless.
The Matrix Online, however, has one very, very interesting facet to it: it takes place in (at least a virtual) modern city. Advertising wouldn't look out of place AT ALL in such an environment. In fact, brand-name advertising would add to the realistic atmosphere. Add to the fact that putting the Matrix label on it will ensure it sells like mad (even though it blew chunks the recent Enter the Matrix game did gangbusters) and a good deal with a single large company (Coca-Cola for instance) would pay for the server costs for a year. Get enough corporate sponsors who get ad space and you could dispense with the monthly fee altogether.
Just food for thought...
Anyway, while thinking about the whole WoW situation and how a lot of people think it'll be free (and how that is a common complaint MMOGs get), I realized something about The Matrix Online game that is currently under development. It is in the unique position to NOT offer a monthly fee via one thing: advertising.
There has been some gouging in recent years of monthly fee prices in the MMOG market. Hell, look at SWG, for crying out loud. Even so, however, they are necessary; despite what the kiddies might think, the costs of maintaining servers of that size and providing them with sufficient bandwidth (especially today) are astronomical. Thus, we must pay to play.
Many people have suggested advertising as a possible alternative for revenue. The traditional and quite valid counter-argument (up until now) was that there was no way to make it really mesh well with any existing MMOG. For instance, how real would it seem if the dragon you're fighting suddenly started mouthing off about the latest car models? Or what about the Quest for the Holy Oral-B Cross Action toothbrush? Or god forfend that you simply put popups in the game - the loss of subscribers from something like that would make the income from the ad deal pointless.
The Matrix Online, however, has one very, very interesting facet to it: it takes place in (at least a virtual) modern city. Advertising wouldn't look out of place AT ALL in such an environment. In fact, brand-name advertising would add to the realistic atmosphere. Add to the fact that putting the Matrix label on it will ensure it sells like mad (even though it blew chunks the recent Enter the Matrix game did gangbusters) and a good deal with a single large company (Coca-Cola for instance) would pay for the server costs for a year. Get enough corporate sponsors who get ad space and you could dispense with the monthly fee altogether.
Just food for thought...