[Peroni]

...and hoped that we could design a monetization system that didn’t exploit our players.

...we haven’t yet reached a level of revenue to even sustain operating expenses for the game

This all suggests you're generating some revenue but you don't mention how. Advertising? I'm genuinely curious.

I'm in a relatively similar predicament albeit an entirely different product. I run http://hackerjobs.co.uk with a good friend and it's been free to post for almost two years now. The site is generating more users & advertisers every week through word of mouth alone and at some point, if the site is to grow appropriately, we'll have no choice but to monetise it and I'm dreading it to be honest.

[davidroetzel]

> This all suggests you're generating some revenue but you don't mention how.

AB is a card/board game hybrid. You can collect cards and experiment with different decks. You get additional cards for regular logins and of course for playing.

AB offers both a subscription and the possibility to buy different amounts of gems. Subscribers get additional cards for every login, win or loss. Gems can be used to buy additional cards.

[kenpratt]

As David said, there are things you can pay for in the game. But anything can be unlocked by playing for free, so you aren't forced to pay for anything, and we don't grind you to frustrate you into paying. We're probably erring on the side of being too generous with our F2P model. Many players tell us they already earn too many cards to handle for free ;)