1 MMO, 2 Moons, No Fees

Vaterex

This is a Interview with David Perry from GameSpy. Just thought yall would be interested in reading it. It does have some stuff in it that they didnt cover in the PodCast and announcement. Enjoy.
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David Perry wants you to play his new online game for free.
By Li C. Kuo | Aug. 15, 2006

Last week Acclaim announced 2Moons, a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game that is geared specifically towards adult gamers. Heading up this project is David Perry, the founder of Shiny Entertainment. 2Moons will be playable without a subscription fee. This isn't anything new to gaming; titles like Guild Wars are already playable without a monthly subscription fee, so what's different about Acclaim's approach with 2Moons? We asked David Perry for some answers.

David Perry on 2Moons

GameSpy: Is it true that gamers can turn off the in-game ads in 2Moons? If so, will advertisers still be interested in advertising on 2Moons even though their ads may go unseen?

Perry: The advertisers don't control the flow, we do. If the flow is closed to that gamer, they never need to worry, as the flow will be open to another user. I'm sure advertisers would like to know if they were about to serve an advert to someone that frankly hates adverts. (We save them that wasted money and negative brand impact.)

GameSpy: Some MMOs that are free to play will charge players real-world money to purchase in-game items. Will anything like this take place in 2Moons?

Perry: Yes, we let you pay if you want to, however we first look through our system to see if an advertiser is willing to pick up the cost of an item for you. It sounds kind of crazy, but it makes complete sense. I've applied for the design patent to control how this data is handled, so when that's published, the detail will be there for other companies to see how it's done. It's a great way to keep the gamer from paying wherever possible.

GameSpy: Some gamers have a bad reaction to seeing ads in-game. Why do you think this is the case? Do you see anything happening to change this way of thinking?

Perry: Excessive advertising bugs me, for example the way it is on TV and 'in-my-face' on websites. (Especially the giant ads that cover the entire section I'm trying to read on a website.) That's just abusive, and in the long-term it's exploiting the viewer. Meaning if people could think of ways to make more money and screw the consumer even more, they will in a heartbeat. So we are swimming 100% against that stream. We will be the best friend the in-game advertisers will have, and we will be protecting the consumer at every turn. It's radically different from how TV, radio and the more abusive websites work today.

Why did Google work? I think it had a lot to do with simplicity, being fast and available without choking on adverts. They could turn to the dark side and fill their homepage with adverts; you can bet it's been pitched to them a million times... I think they could still expand their model, meaning if you turn on an advert on the Google homepage, then you get an immediate benefit, like access to a massive music library or complete movie library for free. That's where I'm coming from. A real reward makes it all much more acceptable.

GameSpy: Do you believe this free-to-play model is the future of MMOs? Or will there always be subscription-based MMOs?

Perry: EA has announced they're going to stick with subscriptions. That makes me happy for us. I hope they raise their rates! I hope they also ram adverts into everything they do and give zero benefit to the consumer. That will be the long-term downfall of EA if they do this. I'm saying there's lots of new business models out there, and we're proving that by the approach we're taking. They need to innovate too.

GameSpy: What kind of sponsors do you think will be interested in advertising in a game like 2Moons?

Perry: Our industry has a stigma now about violent games. I personally enjoy them, so unlike Take 2 (when challenged), we are being clear up front. "It's a violent game." My next game is the exact opposite, so you will see two completely different streams of adverts coming to the games. We control that too as we choose what's appropriate and what's not. That said, you could even have fun with it... A Band-Aid advert right after ripping a monster's head off. (Just kidding.)

It sounds like Perry's got some unique ideas on how to approach the touchy subject of advertising in games, but will this be enough to make an MMO profitable? And even with the no-fee angle, there's still the giant that is World of Warcraft. A game will have to be more than just free to play if it hopes to make a place for itself in the same space that Blizzard's seemingly unbeatable blockbuster currently occupies. We'll know soon enough if 2Moons is a contender when it's released.
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Extatasoma

Thanks for the post, will be interesting to see how the advertising looks.

Played a couple of other games with similar idea and it actually adds a lot of flavour to the game, rather than taking away - here's hoping they are subtle without falling into the realms of the subliminal.

I do like the idea of someone else paying for my gaming pleasure. 

Vaterex

I too am looking foward to see how the in game adds are going to look like, but as far as size goes Perry already told us the estimates UI advertisment size, and it isnt that big. I am right along with you on the part of someone else paying for my gaming pleasure.