Pay to play? Not even planets...

[serujio]

Want to give a example of how players have some problem to spend money on videogames.

I have one of the most populated Zotac Cup training server. Many players go there, spend hours almost everyday playing on the server, but they just can´t donate planets to it. I had even erased the message asking for donations for some time, because it was useless. Now I put it back again in some useless hope.

Only some brazilian friends donated.

So I was wondering, if players don´t like to spend even their virtual money, imagine the real money, how difficult must it be for players to decide to really pay for a game?

Did you see the League of Legends craziness? People are waiting more than 1 hour to be able to login because of the amount of players. And they wait. They like the game, ok, but to me it shows the power of the free game.

It seems to be like TMN, I don´t know this game much, barely played it, but it seems that if it was paid, the history could had been other, with much less players. Maybe.

But my point is, how crazy is it that players can´t spend even their virtual money?

[adder]

you should give them a good reason to donate.
If you walk on the street and see a sign "donate 6 euro's"
Would you do it? I doubt

[oiram456]

I think everyone is unsure atm what happens to planets next years, because the coming titles will be payed with planets if im right (not the full game titles, i mean the custom titles like platform mode). so nobody like to spend them now and later they need them again but they dont have cus they spent them^^

(sorry for bad english, hope u understand me)

[Omnixor]

the coming titles will be payed with planets if im right (not the full game titles, i mean the custom titles like platform mode)

you're right.

[serujio]

you should give them a good reason to donate.
If you walk on the street and see a sign "donate 6 euro's"
Would you do it? I doubt

You are assuming that I have not spend money to run a server, so people can use it for free, like a walk on the street. That´s already a good reason to donate, having a free server setup with the only 3 maps you need to train for Zotac Cup, but they can´t donate even the minimum of 10 planets.

I´m not saying that they have to donate, my point is to show Nadeo how difficult is to players to even pay planets, virtual money, on the game, so imagine real money to buy a game

Seems that free to play game is the way to go. But Nadeo must have tried to find a way to make TM2 free and didn´t find.

I think everyone is unsure atm what happens to planets next years, because the coming titles will be payed with planets if im right (not the full game titles, i mean the custom titles like platform mode). so nobody like to spend them now and later they need them again but they dont have cus they spent them^^

See, this is what I´m talking about. The player is worried of what is going to happen so long in the future with his money(virtual), and he is so afraid of wasting it that he prefer to leave it in the bank, not touching or wasting it, not supporting servers or map/skin builders he likes, just because he can´t, for some reason, spend his money.

[Omnixor]

the difference is, you don't get anything for donating. unlike buying something - you get that "something". you can't generalize donating and paying with one word, "spending".

[serujio]

since the server has a message asking you to donate planets to support the server you like to play everyday, I don´t see much difference.

[tcq]

I would think the players would be tempted to give you their planets if they are sure to know how they will be invested or improve their gaming experience.
E.g. if you have a jukebox that requires a small amount of planets to get a map played or a small amount of planets to get a replay of a map. But if you would implement a system to where the players would have to pay, e.g. 100 planets to play for a month on your train server, they would gladly do it because they know the effort you put into it.

Usually people dislike to give stuff without getting something back. In your case, the people are already playing for free on the server and don't see a reason to donate for something that is free. It's like this with the whole game. If you already play TM2, then you have paid for it and expect that all the servers ingame are also free.
But this are just my own two cents.

[Omnixor]

since the server has a message asking you to donate planets to support the server you like to play everyday, I don´t see much difference.

you don't see it, but people see (: like tcq said, people don't bother to give money/planets/coppers/etc for something they already have, in your case - ability to play on your server. "selling" some functions will work better.

[Alter-Fox]

Well... I guess I have a different way of seeing the world.
I have way too many planets -- and coppers in TMU -- and they're virtual money, it's not like I need to save them. Usually in TMUF I try to be generous with them especially when a server I like is asking for donations -- and if other people are donating I make it a competition because I inevitably have way too many. It's not like I spend them much otherwise.

If I knew your server's actual title... I'd prove it . I will be generous for nothing in return and you will like it and everything will be great and we pretended we were going to murder you.

And why is everything I read today, like, explained totally by the personality psych class I took last term? If you want the whole theory... it is a bit lengthy but I could post it here if you want.