I didn't want to foul up the Changed Servers thread started by Zup, which is here:
dogfightplay.com/index.php/forum/2-gossi...39-change-on-servers

The following is my perspective, and you might disagree.

Short version:

1. Companies that make money (profit) can stick around to support their customers. Companies that lose money cannot. Therefore it is the goal for a company to make money.
2. It is logistically difficult to charge different customers different prices for the exact same thing, especially in a global internet-enabled economy. However, it is easy to charge people different prices for different products of varying capability and value.

Long version:

Firstly, I am NOT trying to get people to stop posting about what they can and cannot afford. This is all good feedback for Zup to see if he actually has a viable business in running the Dogfight game.

PRICE AND COST: A business CANNOT sustain itself unless it is making money. That includes a decent wage for the owner, and wages for the employees. Sometimes a great idea is still not sustainable, because no one is willing to pay the price for the product that will keep the company profitable. But other times, demand for a product is so high that customers will pay way way above what the product costs the company to make. This is a good situation for the company, as it has a lot of choices in how to price the product (high to make a lot of profit, or lower to attract a huge fan base while still making a reasonable profit).

Such situations do attract competition however, and eventually there is a lot of supply of similar good product, and prices come down to where running the business profitably is challenging (but doable, if you are innovative).

MIXING IT UP: Typical companies don't make just one product. It is a viable strategy to sell one product to customers at a loss (price is less than the cost to develop/produce/support), while supporting overall company profit with other products that have higher margin. Then once the fan base is established, the company starts charging money. With good communication and some diversity in product offerings, the company can transition loyal customers from free or low cost products to the higher cost ones.

ESCALATING COSTS: Sometimes crap happens, and the cost to produce or support a product goes up. Companies that charge a one-time fee will need to raise the cost for new customers. Companies that charge a monthly fee will need to raise prices for all customers, old and new. In both cases, communication is very important to not piss off the fan base.

PRODUCTS ARE NOT FOR EVERYONE: The implication is floating around in some posts that Zup must retain all of the loyal customers. This is bullcrap. Sometimes a price is what someone is willing to pay (deal), and sometimes a price is higher than what someone is willing to pay (no deal). In the latter case, there is no viable deal, and both company and customer walk away with no overlapping solution.

WHY TIERED FEATURES AND PRICING ARE IMPORTANT: In the first economics class that one might take in high school, we learn about supply and demand, and the problem of leaving demand on the table. A single product with single pricing will cause a good deal to be accepted by some customers (worth the price), and a bad deal to be rejected by others (not worth it, not affordable). A lemonade stand will not sell lemonade to every single driver that day. Worth it for some, not worth it for others.
Dogfight started with a broad fan base that included different levels of appreciation and different wallets, because the price was very low (couple of bucks, or free, depending on platform and timing of download). Everyone plays, and no one cares about how affordable the game is for some and how some others might be borderline affording the low initial price. Now that the price needs to come up to keep the business (and servers) alive, affordability suddenly is in the spotlight. One player is dependent on a parent's phone. Another could pay $50 if needed. Both players are part of the community. Why should one have to go away just because of their economic situation?

This is exactly how profit-seeking companies get a bad name, and how community sharing begins to sound so good. Sure, we could start another KickStarter to pool resources, and have the richer among us throw $50 into the pot, while others put in their $5, and still others contribute nothing. In the end, we might subsidize Dogfight's new server costs and keep everyone playing. But such a campaign could also fail to bring in enough funds. Plus, while Kickstarter could be good for a whole new game, it might not be a workable charity mechanism for new costlier servers.

There's a better way, one that companies use all the time. Offer a spectrum of products that can be purchased from low-end prices all the way up to high-end. No, the differences don't have to cause low-end planes to battle against high-end, or at least there doesn't need to be so much difference just because of cost (but beginner planes through expert planes are still a good thing IMO as you gain experience points). The products can be differentiated by non-plane-capability items. I had mentioned t-shirts. Heck, that alone could allow younger folks with small allowances to be offered a $3.00 game (and no t-shirt), while people who are willing to contribute more money to Z's business could pay, say, $40 for the game (with a t-shirt). I've always been an advocate of No-Free-Dogfight, so if Z wants to keep a free version, that could certainly be on slower cheaper servers (although that would cause negative reviews).

So going beyond t-shirts, we can have aircraft paint, choice of missions, secret tunnels. But since developer time seems to be slim, maybe the differentiators need to be around non-game items. T-shirts, MORAF medals (if you make MORAF you can buy a special medal for... $75?), an airplane model (oooo, big bucks for that - some of us wage earners could spring for a nice paperweight for our fat cat office desks). This way, you don't have to shell out $10 to play the game, but with the right pricing scheme and differentiators, Z could AVERAGE $10 per purchase from the players buying the game with merchandise.

Just a brainstorm: Maybe some price differentiation can be based on game capabilities. Certainly World Chat needs to be removed from the Free version. Maybe it should only kick-in at a certain price level.

Bottom line for us:

• Give Zup a break; his costs are rising, and he's been too nice on pricing thus far.
• Think of product differentiators that you'd be willing to shell out money for.

Feedback for Zup:

• You've been too nice on price. But now you've got a valuable fan base for Dogfight, one you could use to your advantage.
• The fan base for Zuperman has diminished due to lack of communication. But IMO you can recover from that. (We are very sorry you've had stuff going on. Hopefully it is getting better?)
• True or not, the perception among forum users is that Free players are causing much of the extra server load. There should not be a free version of the game that stresses bandwidth on games played by paying customers.
• Tiered product offerings, perhaps using merchandise.

That's about all I have to say about that.

Manfred

Nobody knows how much income is generated by in app purchases or how or where the money is spent. Without seeing the books, it's mere speculation!

Good post. I really appreciate the time you spent for writing the whole thing. Good one.

Good point manfred. T shirts would be cool. I would more than likely buy one. The other things you mentioned probably not.

As for the pay to play on better severs I for one would only pay if I see other that have already paid are having less issues. I m deffenently not going to pay right when the update comes out (we have been promised thing before). I'm not sure about how the whole server thing works or cost. I also not sure how many plAy dogfight, but let's say 2,000 people play on a dayly bassis. All of those 2000 pay 5 dollars. I don't see how that's gonna be enough to buy servers. Like I said I have no idea how much one would cost.

Well that's my two cents