Benefits of a Free Online Application for a Commercial Offline Game??

[3XXXDDD]

I wish to eventually turn System into a commercial game in reality. However that is a far away dream, so I was also thinking about releasing an Application for it to play people on line at first and keep it as a free game, even after System turns into a physical reality. It would promote the game as a means of advertising.

It's likely that if System does become big that someone out there would create an application for it anyway and despite the numerous amounts of Cease & Desists I could send to them, it is likely to have no effect (example such as Dueling Network who were sent with a C&D twice yet still managed to work around it and keep that site active). At least in this manner, The System CCG Team themselves could control how it's run.

It also opens other possibilities such as giving the Development Team a place to beta test cards that have yet to be released. Players could test and review the contents of a new set and if a problem appears the team could modify the card in question to solve it. This would avoid creating unnecessary entities like Forbidden & Restricted lists, which are remnants of broken design. It would let us release the card into the physical game without disturbing the balance.

As another possibility, before the physical game comes into being, we could hold tournaments with prizes and the entry fee could be used as fund-raising for the physical game.

In short,
- Advertising
- Fund-Raising potential
- Beta Testing potential
- Players opinions are valued and taken into consideration

It would likely be an IP to IP connection program using Hamachi or similar due to the costs of hosting a Server.

Any other pro's or cons that you could think of? or other general thoughts about this idea?

[yudencow]

do it on the browser

[3XXXDDD]

The cost (and strength) of servers suggest that is a bad idea.

[yudencow]

well look at tyrent on kongregate for example. simple game in flash, every day i check in for rewards. if they told me i had to download a local server, i would have never played it.

[3XXXDDD]

I will.

Regardless, however the question I'm asking is not how I should go about doing this but should I do this in the first place? Will it help the physical game in the long run? will players appreciate having an area to test before you buy? etc;

[yudencow]

yes, it would.

[Trevor]

People playing online for free costs the game developer nothing assuming that people who play online don't do so instead of playing in real life, which I think is generally not the case. The largest hurdle for a nascent CCG is getting publicity and traction, and being able to play online is ideal for that. The fact is nothing done with a computer will ever replace playing in real life. A free online version can only increase physical sales.

[Cyrus]

The fact is nothing done with a computer will ever replace playing in real life. A free online version can only increase physical sales.

Totally 100% true. I wish bigger game companies would embrace this as well.