Paying for MMORPG games

I have just cancelled my account with the game [A Tale in the Desert]. I really liked the game- it had a fresh interesting approach, a Linux client, a non-linear style of game play, and was just fun to play. The graphics were pretty good, the sheer amount of stuff to see and do was impressive, and the online community was extremely helpful and friendly.

The one and only problem was that I didn’t play often enough to justify paying $13.95 each and every month. Cancelling my account was refreshingly simple and to the point. Along with a brief note leaving an email address and a phone number, I particularly liked the one line exit poll, which asked me the #1 reason why I left. There were checkbox options for things like “Ran out of things to do”, “Too hard”, etc. No checkbox for “I don’t play enough to pay a monthly fee”, but there was a fill-in-your-own-answer box.

So, in addition to my one line answer, I sent an email explaining why I didn’t want to play anymore. The whole event got me thinking. There are, as far as I know, only two, or maybe more accurately, two and a half, models of pay-to-play game economics. The first is no cost. There are an almost surprising number of [free games] out there. Some are pretty polished, [America’s Army] comes to mind, some are more or less always in development like [Planeshift], and quite a few are free because the players make handy testers. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

The half portion of the 2.5 model covers those games with a free trial or where one can pay to gain special advantages in an otherwise free game. Free trials are no brainers to me. If that model makes sense for everybody from cable companies (“3 months of 16 HBO channels free!”) to drug dealers (“Try this- first one’s free…”), it should make sense for games. I am a little ambivalent about the pay to upgrade one’s ability within a game- [somewhere deep down I don’t like it], but logic says if one doesn’t like it, don’t play.

The last model is the pay to play, generally after the free trial. My complaint here is that all the games I am aware of locks one into a monthly fee setup. Where is the metered pay model for the casual gamer? If a certain game has a monthly fee of $15, and the average player plays 40 hours a month, a metered model might offer 40 metered hours for $25. Hours could be set to expire after a set time, say 4-6 months. I would sign up for that in a heartbeat. Some months I might pay more than a monthly subscriber, some months less. This is a win/win situation. I can have more fun playing my character at my own pace without feeling I need to play more often to justify the montly cost. The game gets money that it would not get otherwise. If I end up playing often, maybe I end up as a monthly subscriber.

The downside I can see for game makers is the overhead of running two billing models, extra work in tracking hours spent, etc. What are the other downsides? Is the potential market for this type of billing not worth the effort?

If you, gentle reader, know of a metered model game, please post the details!