SponsorPay and similar advertisement services

[Knightslayer]

Many browser games and a few MMO's (PerfectWorld's MMO's are a strong example of this) use services like SponsorPay.
The idea behind it is very simple, and can easily be applied to CoX since Freedom introduced the Paragon Points system.
Basically you can log into your account on the game's site and choose to fill out surveys or accept special offers, in return SponsorPay will pay the game owners (PerfectWorld for example) a certain amount each time you complete one of those actions (whether it's completing a survey or buying a Dell computer through the links provided), in return the game owners pay you an appropriate amount of in game currency (Zen in PerfectWorld's case - Paragon Points in ours).
This is a great system to make money from free players/premiums while at the same time giving them the chance to enjoy more game content they wouldn't have access to otherwise (and get them used to working with Paragon Points, tempting them to do it again in the future =P).

http://www.sponsorpay.com/publishers/overview/

[DrakeGrimm]

Many browser games and a few MMO's (PerfectWorld's MMO's are a strong example of this) use services like SponsorPay.
The idea behind it is very simple, and can easily be applied to CoX since Freedom introduced the Paragon Points system.
Basically you can log into your account on the game's site and choose to fill out surveys or accept special offers, in return SponsorPay will pay the game owners (PerfectWorld for example) a certain amount each time you complete one of those actions (whether it's completing a survey or buying a Dell computer through the links provided), in return the game owners pay you an appropriate amount of in game currency (Zen in PerfectWorld's case - Paragon Points in ours).
This is a great system to make money from free players/premiums while at the same time giving them the chance to enjoy more game content they wouldn't have access to otherwise (and get them used to working with Paragon Points, tempting them to do it again in the future =P).

http://www.sponsorpay.com/publishers/overview/

An interesting idea to make note of for future reference.

[QuantumHero]

Adding this to my list of potential sustainable revenue streams regardless of which version of saving our community emerges...thank you for a new idea.

[Moonfyire101]

Aeria games have been doing this for years. They are FTP with a store and those surveys. It seems to be working for them but developement costs are pretty low for their games so i'm not sure how much it would help us. It's worth a shot though becuase every penny counts.

[Knightslayer]

Aeria games have been doing this for years. They are FTP with a store and those surveys. It seems to be working for them but developement costs are pretty low for their games so i'm not sure how much it would help us. It's worth a shot though becuase every penny counts.

It seems to work for quite a few games, yeah, even CO since they are part of PerfectWorld.
And yep, every little bit helps - though I suspect it'll be quite a pretty penny considering most people are much more willing/able to take a minute to fill out a survey/enter a contest than they are to spend money :p (I've done it frequently myself).

[ukaserex]

Uh, sorry, but ugh! A sub based system is a much preferable option. Pay it once a year, get it over and done with.
You never want to make payment an option. CoH is a product people have been willing to pay for, for about 8 years. I see no reason to change that if the game gets picked up by someone else.

By all means, have extra stuff available, but you want to cover your expenses with subs. Any extras from the shop are extra.

But that's just me, I'm quite sure I'm in the minority. I can say, if whomever picked up CoH used ads in that manner, I'd skip it.

[DrakeGrimm]

Uh, sorry, but ugh! A sub based system is a much preferable option. Pay it once a year, get it over and done with.
You never want to make payment an option. CoH is a product people have been willing to pay for, for about 8 years. I see no reason to change that if the game gets picked up by someone else.

By all means, have extra stuff available, but you want to cover your expenses with subs. Any extras from the shop are extra.

But that's just me, I'm quite sure I'm in the minority. I can say, if whomever picked up CoH used ads in that manner, I'd skip it.

I believe the idea here is that we still offer VIP subs, but use things like SponsorPay and what-not as options for the Paragon Market. It might generate revenue we wouldn't otherwise have, as F2P players who can't/won't buy points or sub-up might be willing to do a couple surveys to get that new shiny thing in the market.

[Knightslayer]

I believe the idea here is that we still offer VIP subs, but use things like SponsorPay and what-not as options for the Paragon Market. It might generate revenue we wouldn't otherwise have, as F2P players who can't/won't buy points or sub-up might be willing to do a couple surveys to get that new shiny thing in the market.

Yep, you'd never even have to look at it - even as a free player.
In all the other games it's not intrusive at all, you can only find it when you log into the site and look for it under your payment options.