Pay-what-you-want Games

[kaeruranawa]

I had some questions about pay-what-you-want games:

For players:

• Do you feel there's a "minimum quality" a game has to have for it to be worthy as a 'pay what you want' game?

• If a game is pay-what-you-want, is that a turn off for you?

For those who've used it:

• Have you gotten anything from it? (Is it worth it?)

• Is it difficult to set up?

Any other commentary is welcome. Thank you!

[SundownKid]

I had some questions about pay-what-you-want games:

For players:

• Do you feel there's a "minimum quality" a game has to have for it to be worthy as a 'pay what you want' game?

• If a game is pay-what-you-want, is that a turn off for you?

Personally the "minimum quality" is the same for me whether it's PWYW or free. I wouldn't say it would make a difference, the real decision would come from the game's idea, art and story.

I don't think, however, that PWYW would be worth it. I feel that if a game isn't good enough that people would be willing to pay for it, you probably won't make that much from donations anyway. By using PWYW, you are sort of undervaluing your game, unless it's an early alpha or beta version.

I believe itch.io lets you put a PWYW widget on your website.

[Googaboga]

Do you feel there's a "minimum quality" a game has to have for it to be worthy as a 'pay what you want' game?

If paying nothing is an option my answer is basically no. If it is possible to play the game for free it shouldn't matter what the quality is. However if the game doesn't have a certain level of quality you probably won't make very much money. So you'd be better off if the quality was generally higher than a lot of free games.

If a game is pay-what-you-want, is that a turn off for you?

Yes. Even if you can get it for free I feel obligated to pay at least something. Because I'm going to be spending money on it I'm a little more cautious about playing a 'pay what you want' game. Especially if there is no suggested price or anything like that. It is difficult for me to decide how much to pay and I'd rather just be told an appropriate price. So overall I prefer to play free games and commercial games with set prices ^^;.

[Reikun]

Yes. Even if you can get it for free I feel obligated to pay at least something. Because I'm going to be spending money on it I'm a little more cautious about playing a 'pay what you want' game. Especially if there is no suggested price or anything like that. It is difficult for me to decide how much to pay and I'd rather just be told an appropriate price. So overall I prefer to play free games and commercial games with set prices ^^;.

This is an interesting view (and one I can sort of relate to). Would you feel the same way if a suggested price was given? What about PWYW games that have a minimum price (ex. pay $3 or more)?

To answer the OP:
- As a player: no minimum quality if the PWYW is $0+. I'll expect at least some level of quality if it has a minimum price of $5 or more. As a dev: minimum quality for PWYW is the "Would I drop money on this?" test. If even I wouldn't pay for my own game I would never expect anyone else to.
- PWYW is sort of a turn off because I feel guilty if I don't/can't pay. It depends on how the devs advertise it too (ex. my game is free but you can donate [feel less guilty] vs. my game is for sale at whatever price you want [feel more guilty])

I'm sure you can google around for people's results using PWYW for their games. I've read a few blog posts on it but I can't find them right now (I'll update this post if I find them again).

[Asceai]

My personal view is that anything under $10 is too cheap. That doesn't mean anything about the exact value of $10 and this might be a different value for different people, but below $10 (as a first-on-the-market-at-this-price point) makes me feel like it might be edging under the worth-spending-the-time-to-play threshold. It's entirely perception, but this matters.
PWYW would count as under $10 with this classification. I think it's a good alternative to a play-for-free-and-then-donate-if-you-want-to model, because unlike with that model, people actually pay money* with PWYW. Even though it's basically the same.

So I'd say it's a perfectly reasonable (in fact, better) alternative to donationware but if it's worth selling for $10 or more don't use PWYW. Or, if your game has been out for a few months and you've hit the long tail, do PWYW to drive up interest.

EDIT: I'd also concur with other people who have expressed similar sentiments in this thread that the barrier is higher than with a free game I can just download by clicking a link right there. Of course, you won't make any money that way. You can throw a donation button on the same page and even link to it at the end of your game, but nobody* will click on it.

*hyperbole. Some people do click donate buttons. I've never met any of them.

[chocojax]

Do you feel there's a "minimum quality" a game has to have for it to be worthy as a 'pay what you want' game?

Not really. There's no limit setting them back from using a pay-what-you-want system.

If a game is pay-what-you-want, is that a turn off for you?

Yes. Because when I'm sent to a site asking for payment info (even if the creators say you can just get it for free), I get really nervous and immediately leave. (It's probably out of guilt, hah.)

[Googaboga]

Yes. Even if you can get it for free I feel obligated to pay at least something. Because I'm going to be spending money on it I'm a little more cautious about playing a 'pay what you want' game. Especially if there is no suggested price or anything like that. It is difficult for me to decide how much to pay and I'd rather just be told an appropriate price. So overall I prefer to play free games and commercial games with set prices ^^;.

This is an interesting view (and one I can sort of relate to). Would you feel the same way if a suggested price was given? What about PWYW games that have a minimum price (ex. pay $3 or more)?

Having a suggested price would definitely make it easier :>. I'd probably play the game free first and then afterwards go back and pay the suggested price or higher depending on how the game turned out. If there was a minimum I'd probably consider the minimum to be like a suggested price and I'd pay the minimum or more depending on the circumstances.

[kaleidofish]

For players:

• Do you feel there's a "minimum quality" a game has to have for it to be worthy as a 'pay what you want' game?

• If a game is pay-what-you-want, is that a turn off for you?

1. Nope! Like others have said, as long as free is an option the quality can be anything. If there was a minimum price offered, I'd probably pay the minimum that's given.

2. It's not a turn off for me. I don't feel any sense of guilt about not paying for the game (unlike many people who have posted here, whoops). In my mind, it's like...if I like it enough, I'll come back and pay for it later. I'm not obligated to pay anything up front when they're offering it for $0+. It's pay-what-you-want after all. That being said, though, I can't think of anything that was offered as PWYW that I went back and paid more than the offered minimum for...