First, you will always be able to play for free. Always. Deluxe accounts will get extra features that (I hope) will enhance play, make the game more varied, and encourage donations, but people with those accounts will still be playing the same game. There will be no wall, no segregation of the masses from the elite. Right now, there's a temporary hack to improve performance that invisibly divides the game into "arenas". This will go away, for everyone.
Second, I want everyone to have a chance to experience Deluxe features. But I also want to encourage and reward supporters. These goals conflict. Free Deluxe accounts stand at one extreme, with sky-high fees for short account terms at the other. Balance is tricky. The easy part is lifetime accounts for certain extraordinary generous supporters I've mentioned in prior posts.
Now for the options. These aren't alternatives to each other, there more a sort of mix-and-match grab bag of idea. Please give feedback! All dollar amounts have been pulled out of thin air to provoke discussion - I'm not committed to any of them.
(edited to reflect feedback:)
- Lifetime accounts for $100
- Yearly accounts for $24 (working out to $2/month)
- "Calling plan" accounts for $5, giving 30 hours of Deluxe play. Only game time spent playing with Deluxe features turned on would consume the account's hours. Designed for infrequent and cash-strapped players.
- Deluxe days: free Deluxe features for all players, for a day, at either random or announced intervals.
- Hardship accounts: tell me that you love the game but plead extenuating circumstances (unemployed, law student, held prisoner in a fortune cookie factory, etc). But this has the potential to both eat into what little precious time I can devote to the game and force people to grovel. How can I avoid those drawbacks? Allow non-monetary donations of some sort, such as mailing me a nice bit of original art or a nice letter about how the game changed your life, or writing me in as a presidential candidate in 2008 (just kidding)?
- Free trial: Two hours of Deluxe play just for registering an account, then pay-only.
16 comments:
I play when I have a few minutes, which is probably about an hour or maybe two a week. I would love the addition of the deluxe features, but I can tell you I would not pay $60/year. The deluxe features are worth $30 a year at most to me. I think I paid $50 for Civ IV, and that game is in a whole different class.
If there were deluxe features that some people had at a price I didn't want to pay, I think it would take some of the fun away and I would find a different game to play.
I agree with the above comment. I would pay $25 a year MAX for WEBoggle. Pogo is about $35/year but with more graphics, games and fun things to do. (also a chat option)
WEBoggle is a wonderful diversion, but let's keep it real. I think you should keep the deluxe screens seperate from the "masses" so that everyone playing is in the same arena. (Everyone playing Game 1 is a Deluxe Member, everyone playing Game 2 is a free player).
Also, I would like to see an attached message board to discuss the game.
Would it be too awkward to set it up so that anyone could play Deluxe free for, say, two hours? Give them a chance to see what they'd be getting for their money? Thereafter, they'd have to pay or return to free play.
No comment on the fee structure: Boggle is the only online game I ever play!
Anonymouses: thanks for the feedback!
irreverentmama: that's a fine suggestion - I'll add it to the list.
Evan,
This is boggaboggabogga again. As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I'm on a budget and will likely not be willing to pay. (Given so people know my bias.)
Anyway. How many people are we talking about? One summer I worked at a newsletter place that used mass-mailings to solicit $29.99 subscriptions. They used 2% as an excellent response rate to a mailing. 1.5% was "good". (On a mailing of 2000) What sort of response rate can you expect? Do professional Internet organizations have the kind of data that would help?
Finally, I'm not sure why July 1 Anonymous wants to keep the masses separate from the Deluxers. I'm assuming he's assuming that the masses would be getting the "same screen". Are his assumptions correct?
I really don't need the Deluxe features you described in the Blog. I just want to make sure I still get to play against the other top players (I'm assuming many top players, my favored competitors, will migrate to Deluxe). That's one reason why I'm against segregating.
I'd be happy to pay $100 for lifetime membership. The only reason I didn't donate before this month was that I didn't know HOW to - in fact, I sent you an e-mail about a year ago suggesting that you charge for the privilege of playing. Go for it!
It bothers me when people feel entitled to use other people's work for free. This game has provided hours and hours of fun for your brain. What he is asking for the deluxe version costs no more than one cup per month of Starbucks coffee. Besides, everyone can continue to play for free. How generous is that?
The rates seem entirely within reason, and I certainly plan to get the lifetime membership.
It bothers me when people feel entitled to use other people's work for free. This game has provided hours and hours of fun for your brain. What he is asking for the deluxe version costs no more than one cup per month of Starbucks coffee. Besides, everyone can continue to play for free. How generous is that?
The rates seem entirely within reason, and I certainly plan to get the lifetime membership.
Hi!
I play Weboggle all the time, even though I'm not very good. Thanks so much, Evan, for making that fun game available. I want to donate. Is Pay Pal the only option for doing so? My sister wants to chip in, too.
I'd pay $25/year to be able to play boggle, deluxe or otherwise. It's only fair. Would I pay more for Deluxe? Not likely. I can't imagine any added benefits that would entice me to shell out more. I'd like to be able to send a message to other people playing Weboggle. But that's the only thing extra I'd like.
Thanks! Now I'm off to play Weboggle!
The suggested rates seem fair to me. I'd surely upgrade to a Deluxe account for $24/year. If the new rollout isn't too far along in development already, I'd also second the idea about being able to send messages to other players (between rounds, perhaps) or even structuring things in a small, low-functionality chat window for quick discussions between multiple people. With that, it'd be nice to be able to configure the "chat" feature on or off. Sometimes I feel like I'd be interested in seeing comments, and sometimes I just want to focus on playing and not being distracted (a big draw of this site over places like Yahoo Word Racer or Tangleword).
gremlinn
I love WEBoggle, and, in principle, support the idea of paying for a deluxe version. — Lifetime membership would seem the simplest to administer. However, I have two personal reservations, namely I’m long term sick and might not think it wise to pay up (!) and, if I did subscribe to deluxe WEBoggle, I might find myself playing only against the brainy players! (The oposite concern to Kristen!) The latter consideration is reasonably serious, as I get a boost from seeing my score elevated a little from the bottom of the list — at times! My addiction might fizzle out if I was always worst player!
The feature I’d most like to see in a deluxe version -- maybe in the free version too -- is the inclusion of British words, and common British dialect words. I seem to lose quite a few points because a good chunk of my vocabulary isn’t in the (apparently) American dictionary used for the game, and I don’t think this is all down to spelling mistakes. American and British English are substantially different — a fact which also reduces my score on another and totally different Internet word game! A level playing field for Brits would be sweet indeed.
Thanks for all your good work, Evan, and for introducing yourself to us. I missed the pledge drive: sorry.
I think the prices you provided are pretty fair ($24/year sounds decent to me). If I were you, I wouldn't offer hardship deluxe accounts. I wouldn't want to be the arbiter of who gets them and who doesn't. Plus, there will always be the wonderful free version that we all love so much now.
Hi, I have just paid $20, I live in the UK but love this game and have played it for months and months. For hours and hours, before my children get up and well after they have gone to bed. Really enjoyable. Does this mean that I have paid enough to become a "POSH" member? Whatever, I still enjoy it, Thank you very much. TEAM JULIEXX
Hello again, I am now a blogger, apparantly, not sure what that means. We need more people to put their hands in their pockets and help this guy out here, I like the fact that we can play in silence, no annoying noises, music etc. This is one FANTASTIC sight which my son introduced me to, which is why I am a TEAM. Though he doesn't play much any more, other people do join me from time to time. Pay now as much or as little as you can, it all helps
While I love the game I would not pay to play. There are too many free entertainment and information alternatives on the Web to justify paying a game that while a diversion, I could live without. Assuming I represent a significant chunk of your user base, by all means offer Deluxe accounts for those who want features like statistics - but if the quality of the game is adversely affected for nonpaying players, you'll probably lose a number of them.
As for the poster who is bothered when people "feel entitled to use other people's work for free" I do not get the point. Evan is entitled to our gratitude for offering Weboggle free, and if he wants to recoup his costs or make a profit, that is his privlege. And, if he doesn't want to offer it for free anymore, that is his right, just as it's your's to donate if you wish.
However, I would disagree with the notion that we should have to pay for some moral reason. One could argue that for moral reasons you should pay Taxes, send money to Charitable Institutions, and fund your family's food and shelter, but certainly not for a word puzzle that is offered for free!
Just wondering or maybe suggesting - if a user pays $24 per year for, say, five years - thus paying $120 over 5 yrs - would that then entitle them to lifetime membership from that point on? They would have paid more than the up-front hundred bucks.
This may be a more effective way of allowing those with financial hardships to access the game continuously, while those who can afford the lot now end up with what is essentially a discount of $20 for paying in advance. This is based on the figures you provided, obviously.
I can spend hours at a time on weboggle, and I LOVE that it is ad-free. I would pay a little bit to keep it that way.
thanks, neens
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