I like blogging on a Friday, not sure why, anyway one for the road here which isn?t really Second Life related but more online gaming related. However, having said at that, one area where Second Life has been ahead of the bell curve is in offering a free to play option, I don?t want to get into an ?It?s not a game? argument here, the free to play option has been available in Second Life for a number of years now.
During this time I?ve watch Lord Of The Rings Online go free to play, Champions Online go free to play, Star Trek Online is rumoured to be heading free to play. The Daddy of them all, World of Warcraft, isn?t going free to play anytime soon, nor should it. However, if I could pay a reasonable amount a month to play Lord Of The Rings Online, Champions Online and Star Trek Online, I would do so, give me a channel I can subscribe to and a choice of games and I?ll pay.
Television has heeded this lesson, my cable packages give me a choice of how many channels I want to watch, even the cheapest has too many options, but the most expensive has options coming out of its ears, catch up Tv, whole series of shows, umpteen channels that I can?t possibly watch.
So why isn?t the gaming industry looking at a similar model? World Of Warcraft was in the right place at the right time, I don?t think anyone will ever pull that off again. Ok so we have different studios with different games but online gaming with a monthly subscription is more akin to a television package rather than standalone games, standalone games are more akin to buying a film or series DVD.
The games may need someone else to bring it together, like Virgin Media, SKY, Netflix or someone like that and of course there will be games in your subscription package you?ll never play due to lack of time, but this is surely the way forward for online gaming and will give studios a money stream as well as the providers of the channel. The days of being able to standalone with your twelve quid a month game are drawing to an end, a subscription channel however makes sense, or a choice of subscription channels anyway.
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