Paid Role-Playing
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I think the more freeform story-driven RP experience is too subjective to work well as a paid endeavor. I shudder to imagine “pay to win” applied to storytelling.
That said, I’m pretty sure there were some monetized games in the early 90s that were more RP-oriented. Maybe they were closer to RPIs. I think Otherspace had some things you could pay for? Or maybe it was just a patreon style tip jar? It’s been forever, and I was only there briefly, so apologies if I’m misremembering.
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I joined Otherspace long after everyone else did and I recall vaguely some attempt to monetize it in some way. The director was compiling everyone’s scenes into a book and selling it… I THINK?
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@Yam There was definitely monetization via the book sales, but I thought there was also some kind of more direct payment too. Some kind of character perks you could buy? I might be mixing up games, but I know it was a thing somebody tried once.
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@Faraday said in Paid Role-Playing:
I shudder to imagine “pay to win” applied to storytelling.
That’s just James Patterson’s later career, isn’t it?
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@Yam Honestly, I wouldn’t for a stranger/unknown person. But if I knew it wouldn’t be more of a burden to the gamerunner/staff than a benefit, I would totally be willing to chip in monthly or whatever for a game.
I think though that it would be a burden to most folks who aren’t used to it. And I totally understand why some people wouldn’t. I love it when I get the opportunity to chip in for things though. And while I think (?) most people who know me would be willing to believe I did not expect special treatment or pressure them at all, I think that would be hard for many people to accept from strangers, and I wouldn’t want to cause someone more stress or see them have to deal with people who might say no pressure but would very much have expectations.
It’s hard for people even to maintain garden variety staffing boundaries/expectations, I think that only increase exponentially when money is involved.
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I would not play nor get paid to be on the game. As a person who has done a lot of retail and dealt with enough people and opinions around money - it’s a hard no.
I’m not going to yuck another’s yum, but my RL money for bills has enough people trying the, “I pay your salary, you will do what I say” mentality. I don’t want it in my hobby free time.
Just my two cents.
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I certainly wouldn’t pay for the privilege of playing. I would, however, not object to making a regular donation to support the game’s financial running costs. If I liked the game enough to care whether it stays up or not.
But most game runners I know are wary of accepting such kindness as it can often come with the perceived problems, as regaled above, about pay to win or other kinds of bias.
ETA: Which is, I think, basically exactly the same as what mietze said above.
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@Pavel said in Paid Role-Playing:
I certainly wouldn’t pay for the privilege of playing. I would, however, not object to making a regular donation to support the game’s financial running costs. If I liked the game enough to care whether it stays up or not.
But most game runners I know are wary of accepting such kindness as it can often come with the perceived problems, as regaled above, about pay to win or other kinds of bias.
ETA: Which is, I think, basically exactly the same as what mietze said above.
For awhile, a WOD game I was on had a tip jar that actually worked, but it was because the cost of running the game was relatively high, while the ask and the reward were clear and specific.
Kick in… I think it was $2? towards server costs a month and you got a very tantalizing XP. One whole XP! As a thank you. Anything above and beyond the cost of the server was explicitly stated to be beer money for the game admin and coder. Bear in mind, though, that this was a game that also involved having a fairly expensive DigiChat license. The cost of that license was a big part of why that type of game was rare and, even with the tip jar, they didn’t break even on the costs for most months of the year. From my understanding, people were (perhaps surprisingly) actually not dicks as a result, especially because the game owner was fairly explicit about what was coming in and what was going out.
With the cost of an Ares server being $12 a month, though? I honestly forget I have one open half the time.
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I eventually caved to pressure and opened a Patreon for Silent Heaven. The support currently pays for about 80% of the monthly server costs. Supporting confers no in-game bonuses, and is only done out of the goodness of one’s heart and budget.
If there’s ever an overage, I’ve promised to use the excess money for nice things for the game, such as art commissions.
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I’m probably unusual in that, in theory, I would be happy to pay for playing in a MU* on some sort of subscription model. I’ve kicked in for tabletop games before, so contributing to someone taking the time and energy to make entertainment for me isn’t a hard ask!
In practice, though, it would raise my standards for what I expected in return to the point where I’d want a professional product, as opposed to the hobbyist arrangements we have now. And I doubt that’s sustainable with a persistent online world on a price point where I’d feel comfortable signing up. (It works fine in tabletop, because you schedule your time, you outline what the parameters are going to be, etc. But with a persistent setting, you need to guarantee, for example, that a player in the UK or China is going to get the same quality of experience as one on the East Coast of the US, which means GMs guaranteed to run relevant plots at those times, etc. And MUDs probably have an advantage because many/most systems are automated.)
But…I dunno. I think it would depend a lot on the experience and value that was offered, how trustworthy I considered the person offering it, and what the cost was.
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@Pyrephox said in Paid Role-Playing:
In practice, though, it would raise my standards for what I expected in return to the point where I’d want a professional product, as opposed to the hobbyist arrangements we have now.
This is exactly why I would be uncomfortable making any kind of “pay to play” mechanism. It’s one thing to ask people to chip in for the collective costs of something they’re using. In RL, a club that needs to rent a venue might ask members to chip in to cover those costs. Likewise, I see nothing wrong with a MU having a tip jar or something for folks to help defray the server costs. But as soon as you start charging more than the costs, you’ve turned it from a community club into a profit-making venture, and that just feels different.
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I pay for D&D a couple of times a week. My brother is a professional DM and I am a sucker & I both want to support him and genuinely enjoy his GMing, so.
I agree with Pyre tho. I’m not generally averse to paying for products I enjoy but if the MU I am playing on is a product it’s going to change my expectations. Then again I’ve probably spent more money for less satisfaction by buying stupid shit on phone games over the years, so… who knows.
