4 ms·

I was surprised to hear that most of the 40,000 users are happy to pay £3/month to the creator in exchange for small bonuses in what seems to be a very niche (a

by Torn 17y ago

I was surprised to hear that most of the 40,000 users are happy to pay £3/month to the creator in exchange for small bonuses in what seems to be a very niche (and I say niche because it's text-only, online) game. I wonder what the retention rate for new users is, and whether the experience will deteriorate as more people sign up to try it out and it moves from a friendly 'niche' community towards something more reflective of the wider internet (youtube comments anyone?)... or whether the fact that it is a text-only roleplaying game will pose a sufficient barrier to entry to those that wouldn't hesitate to act like trolls, and they'll rapidly lose interest, thereby preserving the atmosphere?

allenp 17y ago
Isn't that sort of the premise of this site as well - there is sort of a filter/mechanic that preserves the site's culture/intent by dissuading trolls. I think you're hitting on something pretty profound though - so much of what is out there says that casual/web games need to be inclusive to the point of genericism. This instead is pretty exclusive by today's standards in that you need to interact with the computer in a non-graphic interface. So maybe this shows that one can be successful even without catering to everyone (in online games).
EvilTrout 17y ago
It's especially interesting to me, because my online game is far less successful financially. (I make a living at it, but it's not a glamorous one.) To be honest, my gut reaction was initially "there's no way this game has 40k active users", but then I clicked the online tab and sure enough there were that many people listed in the last 24 hours. Colour me impressed.
- joeyo 17y ago
  Just to give you one datapoint: I played forumwarz episodes 1 and 2 pretty much like an addicted fiend when they initially came out. But I am not sure if I have been to the site in between and since (if you made an episode 3 in the interim, I don't know about it). If your TOS allows it, perhaps you could notify your users when new episodes come out? I'd personally enjoy episodes with a much longer story arc--I think that would keep your users more active and for longer--but I realize that is easier said than done. Finally, I just want to let you know that I have always been pretty impressed by the online chat functionality that you implemented for the INICIT game.
heyitsnick 17y ago
If the numbers are right in the article, 40% of his "active monthly users" are making the micro-payment. That's an unbelievable conversion rate.

by Torn 17y ago

allenp 17y ago

Isn't that sort of the premise of this site as well - there is sort of a filter/mechanic that preserves the site's culture/intent by dissuading trolls. I think you're hitting on something pretty profound though - so much of what is out there says that casual/web games need to be inclusive to the point of genericism. This instead is pretty exclusive by today's standards in that you need to interact with the computer in a non-graphic interface. So maybe this shows that one can be successful even without catering to everyone (in online games).

EvilTrout 17y ago

It's especially interesting to me, because my online game is far less successful financially. (I make a living at it, but it's not a glamorous one.) To be honest, my gut reaction was initially "there's no way this game has 40k active users", but then I clicked the online tab and sure enough there were that many people listed in the last 24 hours. Colour me impressed.

joeyo 17y ago
Just to give you one datapoint: I played forumwarz episodes 1 and 2 pretty much like an addicted fiend when they initially came out. But I am not sure if I have been to the site in between and since (if you made an episode 3 in the interim, I don't know about it). If your TOS allows it, perhaps you could notify your users when new episodes come out? I'd personally enjoy episodes with a much longer story arc--I think that would keep your users more active and for longer--but I realize that is easier said than done. Finally, I just want to let you know that I have always been pretty impressed by the online chat functionality that you implemented for the INICIT game.

heyitsnick 17y ago

If the numbers are right in the article, 40% of his "active monthly users" are making the micro-payment. That's an unbelievable conversion rate.