How much would you pay for a game you could get for one cent?
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 03:26PM
Last week, indie developer 2D Boy announced that to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their award-winning game, World of Goo, they would let customers set their own price for the downloadable version on Windows, Mac and Linux, usually valued at $20.
Cynics predicted that most people would pay the minimum PayPal allowed, one cent -- but it turns out many people were willing to pay more even when they didn't have to (and even when the game was readily available on torrent sites). Survey data they collected indicated that most people paid what they were able to afford, not necessarily what they perceived the value of the game to be.
What could this mean for free-to-play or microtransaction-based models of gaming? Does it speak to customers' support of indie developers in particular? What are people willing to pay (monetary or otherwise) for a good gaming experience? How important is quality (art and aesthetics) versus length?
We have a similar game to World of Goo on our site -- BridgeCraft -- but of course, instead of paying to play the game, advertisers pay for real estate in and around the game (although we suppose you 'pay' by allowing advertisers to inundate your mind with subliminal messaging...).
This brings up the question of whether BridgeCraft would work as a downloadable title. What if you were allowed to choose your own price to play the game instead of watching advertisements? How much would the game be worth? Are you willing to pay more than you technically have to?
As online gaming grows both on casual gaming portals such as Candystand and on networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo (all of which support popular social games) -- types of games that people have not traditionally paid out-of-pocket for, what types of content will they be willing to pay for?
Reader Comments (2)
What are people willing to pay (monetary or otherwise) for a good gaming experience? How important is quality... versus length?
Otherwise?
You perverts! ;-)
But on the serious side... When can we expect to find games like Electric Box available for local play? I know you want everyone to play it on the site because of advertising, but think "8 year old..." Then think "what ad are we playing in front of everything right now?"
No way in hell I'd let one of my kids come to your site, as it is right now, because 1) No control of what ads you wish to put before their eyes, and 2) no control of what OTHER games they can wander into.
Put it this way... we cancelled satallite TV five years ago because of annoying, shocking, stupid advertising. I'm in no rush to get back into it again. And that ad you are running right now qualifies in at least two of the categories I just mentioned.
Games like Electric Box are fantastic thinking games for children. But ads like the one playing now are a deal-breaker, I'm afraid.
Can you create a sub-site for children, where parents can log in and make a list of your games that are available for their child to play, and which they cannot stray outside of? And inside of which you will not show shocking, or idiotic ads?
I'd pay for a service like that.
Hey Kirby - thanks for commenting :)
By 'otherwise' we meant paying by sitting and watching ads (paying with time versus actual money), fyi ;)
Do you remember what specific ads were displayed? We don't try to run 'offensive' ads, and it'd help to know which ones you were viewing. Our site is actually very family-friendly, considering we don't usually have violent games (most of our popular games are puzzles, cards or sports-related).
No current plans/resources to launch a separate site for kids, unfortunately. For Electric Box in particular, there's an iPhone/iPod Touch version available that is self-contained -- something you may want to check out!
Thanks for playing, and we hope you'll come back soon!