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Mods: I figured the Newcomers board would be an ok place for this. Smack me around if this isn't ok.

ALL:
Everyone wants to make an MMORPG, including me. The project is well on it's way and should be ready for beta testers in about a month.

My question to you is,

I'm an indie developer doing this on my own with limited resources. So the graphics aren't great, but they aren't to bad. I'm focusing on the storyline and the content of the game. I figure the gameplay is more important then having the stellar graphics that require a $4,000 computer to run them.

Would you be willing to pay a small monthly fee ($4.95 U.S.) for access to an MMORPG written in DarkBASIC Pro?

Ehhh... Depends on the game really, and how it plays.

Few MMO games live on monthly fees these days. Ad supported play or micro payments are things to consider instead or maybe even a flat one time fee.

But then again. If it's a great game there shouln't be a problem

As others have already said, that depends on the game. If it's a good game, then yes. 5$ is a nice fee/month for a game.

what you should do is post a demo of the game on the web to give people a test of what it is like and if they think it is good then they can pay the monthly fee to play the whole game.

Hope i helped

It's the same basic marketing model that Disney has adopted for Pirates of the Caribbean Online, and their graphics aren't all that great. Then again, some would say that WoW's graphics stink, but given the vast amount of content they had to create I'm not going to throw stones at that one. PiratesOnline basically came up with some "good" graphics and focused on content. So there's a fixed storyline, and you have to do the quests in order. SciFi is doing a lot with games these days. Their upcoming Stargate Worlds game will probably be pay.

I agree there are many free ones, just like there are many pay ones. The prices and quality vary. I'm not worried about the "liability" of having to keep the servers running. That's what I've done as a career most of my adult life, so having standby servers, backup power, data backup, and other such redundancy is not a big deal for me. Then there is the stipulation in the "agreement" that states that we cannot be held liable for outages that are beyond our control. (i.e. a backhoe cuts through the fiber cable, or Mount St. Helens blows..)

I wont name names, but I've seen some MMOs that are pay that really have a weak set of game rules, and yet they have hundreds of players. Over time what they have done though is ended up with a large number of high level players that slug it out amongst each other once in a while for fun, and if a new player joins that they don't really care for they just pound on him until he leaves. He or she has no chance of gaining any level. (this happens even if they are supposed to be on the same side in the game) I certainly don't want this for my game.

The draw that I hope to create for this game is that it is being designed from the gound up to be endlessly expandable. The fact that the game involves space travel opens it up to literally billions of possibilities. The AI is being developed to help protect lower level players from being bullied by much higher level players, while still providing challenges to the high level players.

It's ambitious I know, but it's in the works. Will the beta kind of suck. Probably. It takes time to add all that content and dream up those quests, but at this point I'm committed to making it happen and looking forward to it becoming my job for the next 10-20 years.

@Must Program:
That's the plan. Much like PiratesOnline.com I'll be releasing the software for free that will allow access to a limited portion of the online world. Then those that pay the monthly fee can access the rest of the content. Discounts for pre-paying 6 month or 1 year blocks will also provide nice incentives, although that may not happen right away. It depends on the number of players I get initially.

I would pay depending on the fee-to-fun factor ratio.

Whats wrong if its written in DarkBASIC.Is it slower than C++??!!If no,than it doesnt matter.I wouldnt pay for an mmo,cause i hate them all.
But if you can make an mmo ALL BY YOUR OWN,than im your fan.

I'm almost positive that DarkBASIC Pro is slower than C++. However, if you hate MMOs anyway, then like you said it doesn't really matter.

Making the MMO on my own isn't really a problem. It's currently my full time job, and I'm spending about 14 hours a day on it. If I were a newbie, then it would be a problem.

KISTech,

Disregard my first post. I would definately support a MMORPG made single-handedly by a independent developer using DBP. Guarantee me a MMORPG and I guarantee you a customer.

Fair enough.

i think you should go for ads or like sell some gear in the game that doesnt boost you too much but make you look cool for money!

Basically all MMORPGs have it in their terms that they are not liable for server downtime. As odd as that sounds, it's true. That's how MMO companies get away with launching a commercial product before it is stable, and there have been some launches even in recent history that were not really even playable when all of the launch player's free month was up. You will lose a lot of them, but you are not looking at a class-action lawsuit.

As far as the question raised, I am going with blomster: Have an item shop. This is becoming the massive norm for smaller MMOs on the internet. Why? Because it allows players to get sucked into your game first, before you put your hand out to collect anything. Yes, you will have players that never buy anything, but a lot of them won't stick around. Good sellers seem to be temporary (usually between 1 hour - 2 days) boosted XP gain for a pretty hefty price. Also, gear and weapons usually sell well. Just try to keep the advantage reasonable, or the other players will complain and outcast those who buy the weapons (this is a VERY bad thing to happen in your game community, as your financial supports will feel bad for keep the game alive). Even if there is a pretty big advantage to buying items, some games have survived.

Achaea (a MUD) has been running for over 10 years, and the real-money items you can purchase are insane and with no free equal. The way they pulled it off is that a player can buy credits with in-game money, but it takes a very long time, and a lot of gold. The credits are put on a "Credit Market" by a player who has credits and wants gold, and bought by a player who has gold and wants credits. This is probably one of the better systems I have seen, because the players who do not buy credits have very little room to complain. If they work hard, they can have credits too without spending a cent. Some of the items in that game cost over $300 a piece, and people buy them

As for the low monthly fee, I would probably not pay it to play a small-ish indie game. I would, however, try one that is free with an item shop (and do on a regular basis).