I’m probably going to buy a couple new characters, and if the price was around $5-10 I’d probably pay for Episode 2 too.

Re: Ads

First off, I should point out that encouraging people to click on ads goes against the terms of services. The idea is, advertisers buy the ads from google under the impression that people who click on them are interested in what the ad is offering.

Also, Google has extremely advanced software for tracking who is clicking on ads. It might not seem like a fraudulent click to you, but if you clicked on one ad every day, google would eventually figure out you’re not clicking out of interest, you’re clicking for another reason, and I wouldn’t get paid for your clicks in the first place. So you haven’t really helped us by doing that.

Having said all that, ads work best when you see something you’d be interested in and follow through. We’ve tried to make sure Google shows ads for things you guys might like (like other web games), so that you can click on them if you’re curious.

tl;dr version: Click on ads if you are interested in the thing presented, because google won’t count it if you click hundreds of times anyway.

Mewmew Posted:

I’ve bought brownie points a few different times, and yet I still wouldn’t agree to pay to play. I love this game, a lot, but I’d rather you thought up more ways and reasons to make people want to get brownie points than to turn it pay to play.

There has to be many more things you could do with brownie points in order to get more people to buy them.

We already have a long list of Brownie Ideas, but we’d love to hear more from you guys. More things to buy will definitely be coming!

maddsurgeon Posted:

The Onion has an ad that you see every time you go to the site, while you’re being redirected to the main page. They’ve been running free for years, and have recently added streaming videos. Of course, they’re strictly a humor site and not a game, but the point is that you should be able to charge more for ads that are more prominently displayed.

I’m not a marketing person or anything, so I could be way off. But I still think more ads are a good way to make revenue. People who play browser games generally log on at least once a day. That’s a lot of traffic.

It’s hard to compare one site to another, especially a very dynamic game like ours to a largely static site like the onion. Man I wished all I had to do was show static articles, it would be so easy to serve that up Log in to see images! (although I do remember a time when every Wednesday the Onion would go slow as hell after their updates).

I think it’s possible we could make more money off our existing ads if we tuned them a bit, and we will probably look into that in the future.

I’d probably pay but of course it would dpend on the price. I would like other methods of payments as well. I have a card, but I rarely like to use it.

Of course, having this game for free would be like having the power of Greyskull… in your pants.

ROFL @ the last slide

Evil Trout Posted:

You probably are overestimating the income ads bring in. It’s a violation of my terms of services to discuss it in detail, but try to guess how much we get per click on an ad, and how many times you’d have to click to make that $5.

Average of $0.08 per click making it 62 and a half clicks to make it $5. I’d say on a good day AdSense makes you about $175, but realistically it’s even less because AdSense appeals to users of the internet whom aren’t that savvy. Your dealing with a demographic that has ads blocked and even if they don’t have grown accustomed to ignoring them.

Anyhow though most people on the internet look at Google AdSense as the epitome of ways to make money on the internet it can be a cruel mistress. One month she pays for every bottle of Jager you drink the next you’re searching for a generic alternative. If anything I’d suggest maybe trying new means of advertisement. YPN used to pay out nicely but now they’re pretty much on the same levels as Google. Maybe look into TLA, Federated Media and finally The DECK though it’s virtually impossible to get into.

And to finally answer the question this thread asks; I’m on the fence of whether I’d pay or not I’d have to see the price and the terms of that price.

CreepPipe Posted:

And to finally answer the question this thread asks; I’m on the fence of whether I’d pay or not I’d have to see the price and the terms of that price.

New question: bumuming that the quantity and quality of the content of episode 2 were the same as ep1, HOW MUCH would you pay? I feel like many of the people who say they won’t pay to play are only saying so because they expect the game to be quite expensive.

Shii Posted:

I’d pay a one time fee…maybe…if it was 10 bucks or under.

And again, that’s a big maybe. And only if the second episode is as lengthy as the first.

The 4 visits per day help a lot to make it a more fun experience, last longer, etc.

I kind of agree. I think it’s hard for Crotch Zombie to look at Forumwarz as having a business model right now since I have, from my experience, and idea where they stand are in all likelihood investing more per month than profiting. However excluding people who refuse/can’t afford to pay is a bad technique. Which is likely to result in a loss in unique visitors and page impressions.

I think creating a set of core features available to everyone and offering features to others who are willing to pay is a better idea. A good example is John Gruber at daringfireball whom is blog is accessible to anyone but if they want RSS feeds he requires a subscription/donation.

Maybe make a longer/more in-depth episode for those willing to pay. And still give out E-Peen awards to those who beat the episode but an additional to those who completed the “full version” of the episode.

But then again this is all one crazy drunks logic.

If I could I would pay… but that would require a visa giftcard, and those are a pain in the bum to find.

CptJackbum Posted:

If I could I would pay… but that would require a visa giftcard, and those are a pain in the bum to find.

Just about any drug store CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens…or if you have a Giant Eagle around you buy it and also have it count towards your Fuel Perks.

Paying isn’t so bad. Really 10 bucks… which I’m thinking is a reasonable number. That’s only becasue I was thinking of worst case scenario (aside from not having it all): a subscription fee. That would certainly boost the revenue but alienate a HUGE amount of fans. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

I made ten dollars sitting at my computer answering surveys. So really, it’s no too big a deal.