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Lesson learned: Even a seemingly dead genre such as the MUD can be a money-maker if imbued with enough quality. | |
People will buy anything it seems. They know we have real games right? | |
That kind of comment makes me guess that you have never played a well made mud. | |
Wow, didn't realise the market for text based games was so great | |
To answer your question: no I haven't. But you can make this kind of thing for free in the RP section correct? I'm sure there are other sites that have RP sections where you can make text based games for free. | |
...This sounds suspiciously like real life. | |
Last game I played like this was bootleggers I was hooked on that. These games can be really fun depending on the type of community using it. | |
The American Dream made manifest via the wonders of the internet. | |
This is the new market. I just met some guys that work 16 hours everyday just making virtual items to sell to people who play those free to play games. Honestly if you can get the website enough viral marketing and prove that the game is worth playing then you have access to a goldmine. Remember that everyone is a gamer now. So now we have a lot more adults and children who aren't smart consumers when playing video games, they have no problem spending five dollars for an item or an effect that will make them more efficient at playing. So in short, take advantage of the plebs and make a good game and just charge money for items that would give the player a small advantage. Might take some time to make the game but once the game is popular enough the money will make itself. | |
Text based online games? I miss Magewar. | |
But will they be of the same quality? Everything is worth what the purchaser will pay (old quote, wish I had made it up), which means that the services here (considering they were actually paid for) were of a value greater than free. | |
Holy Crap. All this out of a text based game??? | |
Good on him, I think I'll give this a play. Text based games can be just as ingaging as "real" games, by the way, people. | |
That's pretty awesome, I bet he's pleased. Probably suprised too. That reminds me, I need to see if I could play through that one text based game, Planetside, I think. That was pretty cool. | |
its not quite a MUD, its more like an interactive website where other users can attack you while your logged off. Torn City is old, I remember playing that back during my sophomore year, every day me and my friends would skip lunch to log in and attack other players that would be at school [and didnt have our proxy], its funny to go to school with people pissed at you while others dont know why they are pissed. also, game started to get boring after getting a p90, some katana swords, and the bodyguard, you could just about one hit anyone between 20 and 60. | |
Text based games. How. Bloody. Boring. And to discover that people actually pay money for this!? I just can't understand the appeal. Its absolutely beyond me. | |
I figured the mud games would be dead and buried, but if they can make a comeback I'd be all over them...until then, there's still D&D. | |
This type of game is still around? Sound awesome, I wanna play. | |
Smoke cannabis... in a text based game? 'You are now smoking weed... it's pretty cool?' I don't know i guess it would probably affect your stats or something.. but still. | |
some people have more suspension of disbelief then others it would seem. text based never my thing (with the rare exception of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy game.) but i am sure it would appeal to others. | |
And yet Nexus War is dead. How's Urban Dead going? Anyone play that? I'll have to give this a shot. Who else is playing this? | |
Most of the appeal must come from no resets- I hate those in crime based city games. Like Era from Graal Online. BRB- going to become a Rock n' Roll clown that does alot of Cocaine in TORN. | |
This is still going? Grief, there's hundreds of these around based on the same browser engine. | |
Have you tried it? I used to be confused by text based games as well. I started playing this and it really is pretty good fun. Stop judging if you've never tried it. | |
They're not quite MUDs as they are browser games. I still play my fair share of them when I don't feel like playing other games. | |
Hell this is great, he's obviously got a genuine love for the genre and has created something something special, and got lucky enough to be noticed by enough people for word of mouth to spread. Again, people showing they'll pay when something is worth it, I imagine a lot of pirates sent in their five bucks too. (not to derail the thread) As for why anyone could buy it when anyone could make a text adventure, I could make Half Life 3. It would have no sound, stick figures and be buggy as hell and last about 2 rooms, but I could do it, I'd prefer to pay someone else like Valve to do it well tho :D I just hope the guy's been sensible with his profits, either investing some in a new game, or saving a fair bit. Maybe he should put together a retail edition and slap it on Steam, for like $5.99. I was recently reading about Garry's Mod, and he said when they had it on a half price weekend, he sold over 10% of his lifetime sales, I think his sales went up like about 700% on the last day of the sale. (Yes I bought it) | |
Jeez, I haven't played Urban Dead for ages; is that still going? I used to play that on the computers at school with my friends. It became boring fairly quickly though; this looks a lot better, considering all the options. Problem is, most people will just decide to become criminals and shoot everyone else. Can a player join the policeforce, or is the policeforce made up of NPC's? Or is there actually none at all? | |
Urban Dead had a special "one off" event in a city with no NecroTech buildings and no Revivification Syringes. The mass zombie outbreak revitalized the game for a bit, but it's all died down again apart from the "die-hard" players (if you'll excuse the pun) It seems everyone starts as a criminal in Torn. After buying a crowbar, I'm trying to get the cash together to get an education and a job. I cannot believe how closely this is mirroring my life :P | |
I CALLED IT. No, seriously, I made a thread not a month ago asking people if they thought that they would pay for new text-based/point-and-click games. | |
sounds really...dull | |
From reading the responses...I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the new generation of gamers have become complacent and spoiled. I can already imagine the responses I am going to get from this... | |
You are at home. > Go to the gym. You have been pwned by a grue. Sigh, I'm quoting internet memes I don't fully understand again. | |
This man's autobiography reads. "I dug a hole and found gold." Seriously, he is set for life. He reached the finish line he did. | |
I want to be like him,some day,some day. | |
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Name Game
Text-Based Online Game Earns 21-Year Old $1,000,000
Step 1: Create a free-to-play online text-based game. Step 2: Allow people to pay for extras. Step 3: Become a millionaire at 21.
Sometime certain online games will strike the right chord with gamers and gain a significant following. One such game is Torn, a text-based (though with some graphical elements) online game that has earned its 21-year old English creator, Joe Chedburn, 1 million dollars. Actually, it's earned him a 1 million pounds according to the Telegraph, which is really 1 million-and-a-half dollars by current exchange rates. This guy's doing all right, he is.
The game's intro video gives you a basic idea of what it is like. I decided to give it a try, and was pretty impressed. You can do a lot: buy weapons and armor, commit crimes, get a job, get an education, train at the gym, read the newspaper (where it looks like real players can even advertise), go to the casino, and more. There are a lot of interesting ideas in Torn; it appeals to the the part of me that used to play MUDs for hours a day. There is even a radio station (with DJs) called Torn Radio that plays anything from Twista to David Cook.
Torn's gameplay partially revolves around statistic bars that are used to complete actions. For example, to complete a crime you have to have a certain amount of Nerve, while to go to the gym you need Energy. Once you are out, you cannot complete certain actions until these stats regenerate.
Torn is free-to-play, but players can drop $5 a month for a bunch of extras including faster Energy regeneration, a bigger Energy bar, and, of course, a cosmetic enhancement of a star next to your name. Enough people have chosen to pay this fee to earn Chedburn a cool million. If you'd like to add some more money to his overflowing coffers, or just want to check out this creative game, play it at http://www.torncity.com.
(Via: Bitmob)
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