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Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

taxi-mogul.com

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Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#31

Post by villiros »

dominik wrote: post #27
pclark wrote: post #2

looks cool, super slow though? How are you gonna make money?

I'd be curious to learn more about how you plan to make money as well... The home page reminds the visitor no less than four times that the site is "free" -- that's setting up a pretty big mental adjustment for if and when parts of the site turn out not to be free... Curious how you guys plan to handle that. Review-wise: It's not immediately evident -- from just reading the front page -- what the gameplay consists of…

Our business plan is fairly typical of these sorta games. It is free to play, however players can pay to get extra abilities and items. Usually, a game develops a core group of people who do enjoy it, and they're willing to pay a few quid a month (or more, on occasion). Since our cost per player is pretty miniscule, that works out pretty well. Of course, we also do advertisment (which only shows up after a few days, to avoid scaring new users away), but that tends to do terribly in such games.

Btw, this has been incredibly useful, and we're busy reworking issues pointed out here (new users' experience, for example.)

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#32

Post by paul7986 »

My constructive feedback...

This is game, when page loads let me start playing the game right away. Not read about the game. I read a little but ultimately left cause there was too much text and no interaction.

You use a lot of buzzwords free and stuff like that, but that just adds to why I left. Too much text ...I just want to load page and play a game and interact right away! Id like to learn the rules by interacting with the game along with some text and a link to help page if need be.

hth

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#33

Post by bemmu »

Registered for account, was happy there was no confirmation email. Wanted to get quickly to core game, so dismissed tutorials. I tend to believe that games should be self-explanatory, going over tuts isn't much fun. Got a taxi and was very confused trying to double click around the map. I got near what I believe may have been the passenger I was supposed to get, but didn't know how to pick them up. Tried clicking all over the place, gave up and closed tab.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#34

Post by ii »

It would be great if you put a big shiny button on your website: "Play now" or "Test drive" and let people try it without registration.

Also, I think if you start charging money for premium services and make some features paid-only you will immediately look more serious and increase satisfaction from game for those who pay, it's human nature.

Just my 2 cents.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#35

Post by bemmu »

teej wrote: post #19

Here are a few critiques solely from the game & Facebook perspective: - You've got an iframe app and you have both horizontal and vertical scrollbars (on mac FF at least). Get rid of them, they drive people insane. - First time experience is pretty horrid. The "tutorial" is 20 click beast that goes through every aspect of the game at once. Make the game learning process a little more progressive. Don't let me do all…

Agreed on the virtual goods part. By letting people complete offers to get points, I've been getting over $5 CPM.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#38

Post by thasmin »

annoyed wrote: post #12

i placed the waypoints but wasn't shown the resulting route...the routing needs to be explained more clearly

I agree. I really enjoyed optimizing my route, but it was somewhat frustrating when my route turned out to go down the Belt Parkway then make a u-turn because I placed the waypoint on the wrong side of the road, then make another u-turn to get to the next waypoint.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#39

Post by dominik »

teej wrote: post #19

Here are a few critiques solely from the game & Facebook perspective: - You've got an iframe app and you have both horizontal and vertical scrollbars (on mac FF at least). Get rid of them, they drive people insane. - First time experience is pretty horrid. The "tutorial" is 20 click beast that goes through every aspect of the game at once. Make the game learning process a little more progressive. Don't let me do all…

What sort of virtual goods could they sell in their game?

And how do they prevent people buying virtual goods from feeling as if they're "cheating"? Perhaps it's an old-style complaint, but virtual goods feel against the "purity of the game" -- imagine playing chess online and being able to drop $5 to get an extra move -- sure that "speeds up" time, but it also (to me at least) breaks the game... I'm not sure yet how to design compelling virtual goods that don't kill gameplay but yet remain compelling.

Fortunately, social status remains a powerful motivator, but it seems that for social status to work players have to feel invested in the community, else they won't care what the community thinks (and thus won't buy anything to increase social status).

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#40

Post by dominik »

bemmu wrote: post #35
teej wrote: post #19

Here are a few critiques solely from the game & Facebook perspective: - You've got an iframe app and you have both horizontal and vertical scrollbars (on mac FF at least). Get rid of them, they drive people insane. - First time experience is pretty horrid. The "tutorial" is 20 click beast that goes through every aspect of the game at once. Make the game learning process a little more progressive. Don't let me do all…

Agreed on the virtual goods part. By letting people complete offers to get points, I've been getting over $5 CPM.

Sounds interesting. Can you elaborate and provide context?
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