grandude63
01.06.2012, 22:37
Let me start off by saying that I really do love this game. It takes me back to simpler days; when Advertisement was the best thing going, and so addictive that you would often forget to eat. Back then I would have spent the rent buying upgrades and sundries, without a second thought. However 4 kids, several new jobs, and a host of other “life gets in your way” iterations later, I find that my priorities have been restructured somewhat. Of course 5 years of being a hard core Advertisement guild master, where I dragged 150+ members through the end game grind, up to and including taking out the Liche King on 2 separate occasions, had something to do with what I deem an appropriate amount of play time per day.
That being said, let me also state that I really don’t have a problem with what I consider contributing monetarily to the development costs of a game I truly enjoy, to a degree. I understand the need for higher prices when a beta goes public initially. Its simple economics, less membership means the development costs have to be shared by fewer people. However, over time word gets out and membership increases, generating a higher revenue, which should eventually facilitate the opportunity to either lower prices or make available alternatives on some items that could be considered sundries.
What you folks have here is an opportunity to rival even Advertisement in its peak, provided attrition loss through dissatisfied membership doesn’t deal the killing blow to what is an otherwise fantastic game. I’m not going to pretend that I have anything that resembles hard figures, and I admit that what I am about to say is merely a guess. Although coming from someone who has been an active online gamer since the olden days of text based adventure games, I’d say it’s a well educated guess. A game of this caliber can’t help but experience a steady increase in new membership. Word of mouth alone could send membership skyrocketing. Enough so that it makes loss through attrition all but insignificant. But, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that with the current state of the in game economy, specifically the Andermant cost, if it hasn’t already, will eventually drive the loss rate right up to and possibly higher than the new membership rate. And that is when the money for new development begins to dry up. I may have over simplified how it all works a bit. I know investors pay the initial Dev costs and the monies charged for Andermant is there to, in more simplified terms, profit the investors so they keep investing.
Here is the catch. The vast majority of revenue by the sale of Andermant is generated by people like me who don’t have 5 to 7 hours a day to spend farming for enough resources to keep us playable at the most an hour and a half. To those of you who claim they play just fine without spending a dime? I say good for you. But when it comes right down to it, this subject doesn’t actually pertain to you. Because if what you say is true, the bottom line is that you contribute nothing to the further development of this game. Other than in some cases vague and ineffective rebuttals to people who in good faith made the higher investment in hopes of a reprieve, if even a minor one. So please save your angry posts about how fast you manage to farm. I have tried at every 5 levels starting at 10 and the result is always the same.
To the good folks developing this game I have a few suggestions, and an apology for the long road it took to get here. Please keep in mind that I fully agree with the prices of gear, we should have to work hard and put the time in the game to earn it, otherwise you have servers full of twinks all in the same top tear gear, and that wouldn’t be any fun. My suggestions pertain to items I consider sundry, or vital for affective and entertaining game play. More specifically Essences and Health Elixirs.
The re-spawn rates are right up where they should be, huge! This of course may lead to a sudden ultra high mob count, and the inevitable hopeless mugging that results, especially in times of lower player populations. An in game job hazard to be sure, and one for which I would never want modified. However myself and others have observed that the ratio of healing orbs drops nearly 50% in mob situations. And the only way to either escape, or, good luck chuck, stand and fight them all off is to use Health Elixirs. And at nearly the cost of the back to the entrance Rez. It feels a lot like tossing money at the screen in a panic trying to escape the bad guys. From what I have read in the forums and learned by talking to others, this is one of, if not the largest factor that contributes to players deciding that it is too much and they leave.
Might I suggest pricing the Elixirs on a sliding scale based on a player level? For example, once a player reaches a certain level, say 25, the cost of simple Health Elixirs begins to drop and eventually becomes purchasable through gold or silver. And perhaps the same with Small Elixirs as well, only at a slightly higher price? And as for Essences, could we maybe be able to purchase them in smaller batches, say 300 to 500? These are just basic concepts that would go miles in showing the loyal amongst us that our commitment is worth something.
My degree is in Graphic Arts and Animation, so I honestly don’t know what it would take to code such changes, and I hope they aren’t insurmountable.
Please forgive my long winded approach, but there were some issues on this subject that I felt needed to be said.
P.S I posted a letter/resume in regards to the opening for forum/chat moderators and from what I can tell it has disappeared. Although new to these forums, I am quite qualified. Plus I’ll work for in game compensation. If there are still openings please let me know and I will reapply
Thank you all for your time.
Grandude
That being said, let me also state that I really don’t have a problem with what I consider contributing monetarily to the development costs of a game I truly enjoy, to a degree. I understand the need for higher prices when a beta goes public initially. Its simple economics, less membership means the development costs have to be shared by fewer people. However, over time word gets out and membership increases, generating a higher revenue, which should eventually facilitate the opportunity to either lower prices or make available alternatives on some items that could be considered sundries.
What you folks have here is an opportunity to rival even Advertisement in its peak, provided attrition loss through dissatisfied membership doesn’t deal the killing blow to what is an otherwise fantastic game. I’m not going to pretend that I have anything that resembles hard figures, and I admit that what I am about to say is merely a guess. Although coming from someone who has been an active online gamer since the olden days of text based adventure games, I’d say it’s a well educated guess. A game of this caliber can’t help but experience a steady increase in new membership. Word of mouth alone could send membership skyrocketing. Enough so that it makes loss through attrition all but insignificant. But, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that with the current state of the in game economy, specifically the Andermant cost, if it hasn’t already, will eventually drive the loss rate right up to and possibly higher than the new membership rate. And that is when the money for new development begins to dry up. I may have over simplified how it all works a bit. I know investors pay the initial Dev costs and the monies charged for Andermant is there to, in more simplified terms, profit the investors so they keep investing.
Here is the catch. The vast majority of revenue by the sale of Andermant is generated by people like me who don’t have 5 to 7 hours a day to spend farming for enough resources to keep us playable at the most an hour and a half. To those of you who claim they play just fine without spending a dime? I say good for you. But when it comes right down to it, this subject doesn’t actually pertain to you. Because if what you say is true, the bottom line is that you contribute nothing to the further development of this game. Other than in some cases vague and ineffective rebuttals to people who in good faith made the higher investment in hopes of a reprieve, if even a minor one. So please save your angry posts about how fast you manage to farm. I have tried at every 5 levels starting at 10 and the result is always the same.
To the good folks developing this game I have a few suggestions, and an apology for the long road it took to get here. Please keep in mind that I fully agree with the prices of gear, we should have to work hard and put the time in the game to earn it, otherwise you have servers full of twinks all in the same top tear gear, and that wouldn’t be any fun. My suggestions pertain to items I consider sundry, or vital for affective and entertaining game play. More specifically Essences and Health Elixirs.
The re-spawn rates are right up where they should be, huge! This of course may lead to a sudden ultra high mob count, and the inevitable hopeless mugging that results, especially in times of lower player populations. An in game job hazard to be sure, and one for which I would never want modified. However myself and others have observed that the ratio of healing orbs drops nearly 50% in mob situations. And the only way to either escape, or, good luck chuck, stand and fight them all off is to use Health Elixirs. And at nearly the cost of the back to the entrance Rez. It feels a lot like tossing money at the screen in a panic trying to escape the bad guys. From what I have read in the forums and learned by talking to others, this is one of, if not the largest factor that contributes to players deciding that it is too much and they leave.
Might I suggest pricing the Elixirs on a sliding scale based on a player level? For example, once a player reaches a certain level, say 25, the cost of simple Health Elixirs begins to drop and eventually becomes purchasable through gold or silver. And perhaps the same with Small Elixirs as well, only at a slightly higher price? And as for Essences, could we maybe be able to purchase them in smaller batches, say 300 to 500? These are just basic concepts that would go miles in showing the loyal amongst us that our commitment is worth something.
My degree is in Graphic Arts and Animation, so I honestly don’t know what it would take to code such changes, and I hope they aren’t insurmountable.
Please forgive my long winded approach, but there were some issues on this subject that I felt needed to be said.
P.S I posted a letter/resume in regards to the opening for forum/chat moderators and from what I can tell it has disappeared. Although new to these forums, I am quite qualified. Plus I’ll work for in game compensation. If there are still openings please let me know and I will reapply
Thank you all for your time.
Grandude