How much does it really cost to “run” this game? What manual steps are required? Do all order files have to be loaded by hand? Do the results have to be emailed by hand?
My concern is the game appears to be stuck between a rock and a hard place - the overall feeling is that the game is in decline. If the price is lowered will the “quality” of the game go down as people care less fot their games? WILL new players join? Will existing players play more?
Personally, it’s purely economic for me, but I’m an idiot addict - if the cost went down, I’d fit in more games. Pure and simple. I would spend just as much and the company would earn just as much from me. Win for me, loss for MEGames as they’d have (whatever amount of…) more work to do to run my added turns.
My impression is that econmics is the primary reason many players don’t play more.
Granted, this is coming from someone who only plays solo grudge games now (which is almost impossible to find an opponent for) but I would bet that many players would play solo or as duos if the price was reasonable. Who wouldn’t? The opportunity to completely control the free people or DS…without the tiresome negotiations with neutrals, the inevitable drop of allies, etc.
Simply put, I think what ME would lose in revenue per game would be more than made up by the volume of new games. Of course, this is quite self-interested of me: I really need a fix for my ME craving.
I am just surprised it is still moderated by humans. If it was computer moderated they could charge a monthly subscription and we’d have thousands playing instead of hundreds. We’d have games with 1 hour turn due cycles and games with two-week cycles and anything in between. I can’t imagine it is too complex to be an App.
Here Here… One of the “projects” they were working on was to convert the program from it’s 1920’s technology to a modern system. That was put on hold when the programmer got caught by immigration authorities, or something…years ago. Nothing since…down down down…
I’d say there would definitely be a business case here. There would be cost of staff, equipment and residence. Dropping the cost is no guarantee of a commensurate rise in profit. For one the increase in gamestarts might not offset the loss in revenue, secondly an increase in games might lead to a poor return for additional cost eg if the price drop resulted in the same income, but twice the input costs, then you are going backwards.
If the game is indeed dying, then attacking profitability is in no one’s interests… or… I could be wrong again
I would be able to play more if the expense was lower. Might even be able to challenge Will one on one and give him that beating he richly deserves But I do see the risk to the business if they drop income at a vulnerable moment.
I wonder if there really are hundreds of players. I’d rather think its “dozens”.
Everything in this game is out of date, the format, the stile, the technology and the players
I have accepted this years ago and honestly I expect the day to come when Clint & co. have to say: OK that’s it, we can’t do this any more.
I guess it never has been much more than a badly paid “I made my hobby my job” - thing to them.
Everything new, especially transferring this whole thing to a new technical platform, recquires much more funds than ME games has and/or is willing to spend, looking at an uncertain customer base in the future.
Possible solution: look at the kickstarter thread I started
