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[enigma27]

It seems that many tactics used monetize games compromise the game.

World of Warcraft is now selling ridable mounts; a thing that used to show some sort of in game achievement.
Mobile apps hit you with an ad every time you lose a life.
Lots of games sell cosmetics. But that, in my opinion, conflicts with rpg immersion.
Some games let you fast-path your way to some goal for cash, but often these games will design in a grind to incentive you towards pay-to-skip.

I've been trying to come up with some new way to monetize that doesn't really compromise the core game.
It seems like a huge hurdle to even get people to play your indie game now days, let alone buy it.
Free to play removes some barriers, but then how does a business survive without some sort of microtransactions?
I've been thinking of an RPG where gear progression and cosmetics are deeply rooted in the gameplay. (eg diablo2/morrowwind)
Selling cosmetics does not really fit into this style of game.

So I've been trying to think up some novel way of monetizing.

One idea I had was monetizing subgames.
The Witcher3 has the gwent card game.
Perhaps something like that could exist in some RPG, but it was fully monetized in place of the actual game.
Sure, there's lots of problems with that idea.
For one, players might not be interested in some subcard game.
But maybe that, combined with other similar small monetization ideas, could constitute enough income.

Another idea was essentially making the base game free, and selling expansion packs.
But I worry that may feel like it is just gating parts of the game behind a paywall.

I'm curious if anyone else has had any ideas? thoughts?

[Thaumaturge]

I'm still in favour of the "free demo and single-purchase full-version" model, myself.

Having a demo allows people to try out the game without paying for it first, and a single-purchase model for the full game allows it to provide some income without the means of that income affecting the game itself significantly.

[enigma27]

Yeah I also like that model. I loved back when gaming magazines had a CD of demos to try. I think having a free demo will be my first approach. Godot and Unity have the ability to compile WebGL. I've been thinking hosting a demo on a browser page might make for a really low barrier to entry. But it seems WebGL1 is relatively limited in terms of advanced rendering features. So not that might not be viable for all projects. I guess for more graphics intensive projects could still have a downloadable demo.

I guess I didn't really clarify in my original post. I have been thinking about live service-ish multiplayer rpgs and monetizing them.

It really is starting to seem that designing for fun gameplay and designing for profitability just inherently clash with each other.

It is almost as if, whatever you monetize, you have to give up building gameplay around. I guess it works out for shooters selling skins. Changing the way you look really has little affect on the moment to moment gameplay.

Still trying to think of some novel monetization ideas, that don't feel sleezy to the player.

Anyone got an ideas? I don't mind silly ideas They might give rise to something new.

[Thaumaturge]

But it seems WebGL1 is relatively limited in terms of advanced rendering features. So not that might not be viable for all projects. I guess for more graphics intensive projects could still have a downloadable demo.

Indeed--for most (standalone!) games, a downloadable demo seems very viable to me.

I guess I didn't really clarify in my original post. I have been thinking about live service-ish multiplayer rpgs and monetizing them.

Aah! That does change matters somewhat.

Still, I feel that a free demo period, as some streaming services use, and which provides restricted access to content, might work. Perhaps such an account might allow the player to reach the first several zones, or those marked as "demo-enabled", for example.