What does your site charge for an 'Upgraded' account?

[Zorte]

I'm trying to see where the market is. Charging people for "Upgraded" accounts is a great way to make revenue, but it can also hurt you if you over price your services. Even more harrowing is the economy: who has money to frivolously spend on an online game?

Most Virtual Pet sites I've seen are in the $15-$20 PER YEAR range, but I'm not just looking for sites that fit into that category.

What do most people charge for an Upgraded account and do you charge yearly or monthly? Also, how do you keep the upgrades incoming (i.e. sales, promotions, "freebies")?

Do you think people would be more apt to do a monthly upgrade (pay $5/month) or pay bulk ($60)?

[Dyl]

$15-20 is way too expensive. I've never seen that. $15 is for WoW for one month.. so worth it since it's more interative than a browser-based VPS.
I would say around $5-7 for a VPS.

[Zorte]

**EDIT** I meant $20/YEAR, so yes... $20/month is high.


Ah - I'd seen $20 for a Pet site called "Mutt-z" that is now (to my knowledge) inactive and closed.

What about sites that provide more features than the typical "adopt, breed, take care" sites? Furcadia - for Avatars - can be from $50 - $100 USD.

What would be -WORTH- getting an upgraded account? In my opinion it would be more than just the usual perks of "more in game currency".

The only upgraded account I've ever gotten was not to make my game play better, but was to support the site.

[Alkali Regnant]

On Ekos it's $15 for 3 months, $25 for 6 months, and $70 for forever (though that'll be available at limited times only)

[indysolo621]

Most sites charge $5 a month.

[Zorte]

The $5 a month makes sense.

Another question (And I'll add it to my first post):

Do you think people would be more apt to do a monthly upgrade (pay $5/month) or pay bulk ($60)?

In my mind, the bulk would be a scary number if you didn't break it down for people (i.e. $60/year, that's only $5 per month!)

[cpvr]

@Zorte

Ah - I'd seen $20 for a Pet site called "Mutt-z" that is now (to my knowledge) inactive and closed.

What about sites that provide more features than the typical "adopt, breed, take care" sites? Furcadia - for Avatars - can be from $50 - $100 USD.

For avatars? Thart's quite expensive. I think $15 bucks would be good for a customized avatar. If you wanted a customized human avatar, $25 seems reasonable.

Mutt-z is inactive more than likely because it proabably has made a lot of money through their "prices" for account upgrades, thus, the owner probably became active, went on vacation, and decided to stop updating the site, it happens more often than not. Could you share their other prices?

You also ave to figure out the best options for your users, for a gold account, $5 a month seems like the best options, but if you allow users to get their own customized items, then it should be between $10 - $20, you could also sell items in your cash shop for various prices - and if your users love your site, they'll pay the price to help support the game.


Advertisements are also an option if you can't monetize correctly with the cash shop or it doesn't generate enough revenue for you.

The best thing to do is, start off with low prices, and has the game grows, you start implementing higher-priced items, which will help you support your game in terms of server upgrades, advertising, and things like that.

[Zorte]

That makes a lot of sense. As for more of Mutt-z prices, I knew of the $20/ year because I donated that back when they were live and under old administration. They were sold, and I am no longer sure of the site's status.

It is interesting to see where the market is on all the virtual sites and what people are willing to pay. Of course, loyalty is needed before a game can raise their prices.. This was very interesting and informative! Thanks for the input, guys!

[Gabby]

@Zorte Mutt-z is open and running again. I highly recommend revisiting and see how you like it now. Naomi is the an original creator and/or owner, so the administration change wasn't too vigorous. $20 is still the upgrade price, but a single donation credit is expensive. It costs $1 for every donation credit which is called Diamonds.

[Zorte]

@Gabby Thanks!! I'll have to check it out and see if my old login works :]