Happy Birthday World of Goo/Name Your Price

I spent a little bit of time doing some reading today and found a neat promotion going on at the World of Goo website. Apparently, the game has now reached its one year birthday, and to celebrate, its developers at 2D Boy are selling it at...you tell them.

That's right, World of Goo is on sale for the price of whatever the hell you want to pay. Personally, I downloaded it a year ago after playing the demo (which was spectacular) with my brother and didn't regret buying it at that price. Regardless, I heartily recommend that you purchase this game. World of Goo is definitely one of the more "oddball" games that I have played, and there is more than enough content for you to enjoy. World of Goo is compatible with PCs, Macs, as well as Linux, so as long as you aren't stuck on a home-brew OS you should be able to enjoy it.

Oh - you can also gift it to a friend using the above method, as well. Just don't go too crazy.

A quick conversation with one of my friends reminded me that a few musical artists have done this over the years, the names that came to mind being Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead. I've never seen the numbers on a promotion like this but sales quantities and average sale price would be awfully interesting numbers to me.

I wonder how many people are going to fork over more than the MSRP $20?

-Jon

Champions Online Pricing

One of the biggest news items that I've come across over the past few days is Cryptic Studios' announcement of the Champions Online pricing model. Players will be able to subscribe to Champions online for $15/month, or, this month only, may purchase a six-month subscription for $59.99, or a lifetime subscription for $129.99.

The value proposition of MMOs is very different than traditional games. MMOGs tend to deliver vast amounts of content to each player for the cost of a game plus a monthly fee.

Lifetime subscriptions are very interesting to me from a value standpoint-after all, this lifetime subscription pays for itself after about 13 months. If this was World of Warcraft, I would definitely have gotten my money's worth already. At the same time, if you've never played the game, or have limited beta experience, its quite a leap of faith to take.

There are many things that can go wrong in even a well-designed MMORPG. The game could have a tough time attracting players, could release expansions that make the game less fun, or could suffer from a lack of entertaining end-game content, among other things.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Cryptic has sweetened the deal with guaranteed access to the Star Trek MMO, an extra 8 character slots, additional costume sets, and even an action figure.

Personally, I really like the lifetime subscription model, but I'll need to try the game before I buy it. For every MMO that I've really enjoyed and gotten into, I can name three more that I hated or didn't enjoy. Fortunately, Champions Online looks really well designed, so I'm seriously tempted by the offer.

Hopefully I'll get into the beta before the end of September.

-Jon