Game Development: A Far Green Country

[Oddity]

working at McMasonAnimalMassMurderForcer to be able to play a game ?!? --- nah you don't have to tell me where you live i've read it from your post ...

Did you guess "'MERICA HOME OF THE FREEDOMBS #1"?

[dank_memes]

I feel like most of the people here who argue that everybody should be able to afford paying $72/year for this game are themselves underage and have no idea how budgeting works as their parents buy them games or they get allowance. I'm not saying this to be offensive, but I've never seen an adult not understand what a monthly subscription meant.

For a lot of people (myself included), we can only buy a few games a year, when games end up costing $70-$80 after taxes. If you're gonna assume underaged players won't be able to afford a subscription (I actually think they might make up most subscribers), then you're left with a crowd of 20-something young adults and a few older people, though I'd be surprised if you told me H&H particularly pandered to the middle-aged.

A lot of these young adults have to manage a very tight budget, with those having gone to college (at least in the US) also having to worry about paying back tuition. Some people are fortunate enough to find high-paying jobs, but I highly doubt that's a majority. For the rest of us, we're left with a precious few dollars for actual "entertainment". It doesn't mean we can buy anything, but it means that we have to be smart with what we buy, because we can't buy a lot of it.

I like H&H (from what I've seen of it so far), but the fact is, for me it is not worth the price of a full-priced videogame (that I'd have to buy again every year, but let's not worry about what happens next year). Part of the appeal for me is that it's a quick and relatively mindless distraction - I can log on and idle for a few hours every day while I do other work, tending to crops and going exploring from time to time, and - if I'm lucky - socialize with a few other players. But if I wanted to subscribe to a MMO, I'd probably spend my money towards something that offers me more full-on entertainment - a game like Guild Wars or Eve Online, where I'll constantly have something to do and the game will have a much higher level of polish. (And I'm not saying that Haven & Hearth is bad, only that these other games tend to be more fun - and as subjective as that opinion is please do consider whether many others feel this way.)

Would verifying my account and playing H&H for 48 minutes a day be enough to satisfy me? I don't know. Maybe, probably even (though I don't like the idea of limiting my play on certain days just so save up and budget play time). But the problem is that that $15 fee won't put money on the devs' tables, and that's really the issue they're trying to tackle right now.

I do believe all videogame devs should be paid for their work, but the amount people will be willing to pay them depends on the actual quality of that work.

[chocolaterain]

I feel like most of the people here who argue that everybody should be able to afford paying $72/year for this game are themselves underage and have no idea how budgeting works as their parents buy them games or they get allowance. I'm not saying this to be offensive, but I've never seen an adult not understand what a monthly subscription meant.

OR we (thank god) have a proper job that gives us more than enough money in an hour to pay for a month of hafen.

You don't have to throw 72 bucks at once.

[trickdaemon]

I feel like most of the people here who argue that everybody should be able to afford paying $72/year for this game are themselves underage and have no idea how budgeting works as their parents buy them games or they get allowance. I'm not saying this to be offensive, but I've never seen an adult not understand what a monthly subscription meant.

For a lot of people (myself included), we can only buy a few games a year, when games end up costing $70-$80 after taxes. If you're gonna assume underaged players won't be able to afford a subscription (I actually think they might make up most subscribers), then you're left with a crowd of 20-something young adults and a few older people, though I'd be surprised if you told me H&H particularly pandered to the middle-aged.

A lot of these young adults have to manage a very tight budget, with those having gone to college (at least in the US) also having to worry about paying back tuition. Some people are fortunate enough to find high-paying jobs, but I highly doubt that's a majority. For the rest of us, we're left with a precious few dollars for actual "entertainment". It doesn't mean we can buy anything, but it means that we have to be smart with what we buy, because we can't buy a lot of it.

I like H&H (from what I've seen of it so far), but the fact is, for me it is not worth the price of a full-priced videogame (that I'd have to buy again every year, but let's not worry about what happens next year). Part of the appeal for me is that it's a quick and relatively mindless distraction - I can log on and idle for a few hours every day while I do other work, tending to crops and going exploring from time to time, and - if I'm lucky - socialize with a few other players. But if I wanted to subscribe to a MMO, I'd probably spend my money towards something that offers me more full-on entertainment - a game like Guild Wars or Eve Online, where I'll constantly have something to do and the game will have a much higher level of polish. (And I'm not saying that Haven & Hearth is bad, only that these other games tend to be more fun - and as subjective as that opinion is please do consider whether many others feel this way.)

Would verifying my account and playing H&H for 48 minutes a day be enough to satisfy me? I don't know. Maybe, probably even (though I don't like the idea of limiting my play on certain days just so save up and budget play time). But the problem is that that $15 fee won't put money on the devs' tables, and that's really the issue they're trying to tackle right now.

I do believe all videogame devs should be paid for their work, but the amount people will be willing to pay them depends on the actual quality of that work.

I concur with you wholeheartedly, I feel if they were humble with their pricing model they wouldn't have eschewed the majority of their cult following.


Path of Exile is 100% free with cosmetic and storage microtransactions, and they are absolutely thriving. We can only hope in a few months they'll reneg on their social experiment on greed.

[Oddity]

I feel like most of the people here who argue that everybody should be able to afford paying $72/year for this game are themselves underage and have no idea how budgeting works as their parents buy them games or they get allowance. I'm not saying this to be offensive, but I've never seen an adult not understand what a monthly subscription meant.

For a lot of people (myself included), we can only buy a few games a year, when games end up costing $70-$80 after taxes. If you're gonna assume underaged players won't be able to afford a subscription (I actually think they might make up most subscribers), then you're left with a crowd of 20-something young adults and a few older people, though I'd be surprised if you told me H&H particularly pandered to the middle-aged.

A lot of these young adults have to manage a very tight budget, with those having gone to college (at least in the US) also having to worry about paying back tuition. Some people are fortunate enough to find high-paying jobs, but I highly doubt that's a majority. For the rest of us, we're left with a precious few dollars for actual "entertainment". It doesn't mean we can buy anything, but it means that we have to be smart with what we buy, because we can't buy a lot of it.

You don't understand how deeply the notion that "POOR = YOU ARE A BROKEN LAZY SHIT AND IT IS YOUR FAULT FOR NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH" is ingrained in the American culture.

It's fun watching people from reasonable cultures (eg. those who have Democratic Socialism, such as many European countries) collide with spoiled Americans, though... trying to make sense of all that insanity.

[dank_memes]

OR we (thank god) have a proper job that gives us more than enough money in an hour to pay for a month of hafen.

You don't have to throw 72 bucks at once.

For most of us mere mortals, most of that money first has to go towards paying rent, food, utilities, clothes, internet, debt, savings, and only then can we consider spending some for fun. A lot of people are already buying a few games a year or spending money on a subscription (xbox live comes to mind) and can't afford another. I'm not saying I can't afford any games, but for me Haven's appeal was that it was decent yet free - if I were to spend money there's other games I'd be much more interested in.

Don't act like people who work simply make a certain amount of money every hour they can spend on whatever they please.

[davidson506]

i would pay to play and everything but al i get is a black screen every time i log in

[Danno]

Lsn ppl, this game gives you rarely chance that can''t give none other mmo projects, fucking endless exploration and discovering new features, and just only for this reason, i don't care 15$ or 10$ i must pay....

So, low then you die in the game, you not only lose countless hours of work, you also lose real money! God bless the grinding-permadeath combo.

except that isn't the case, you can always make a new character while retaining the sub. you pay for the gameplay, not to get your main character to a certain level.

That's a laugh. What gameplay are we talking about? Wandering around a field looking for dandelions and ladybugs? Or how about the part where you sit around talking to your friends? Oh, or maybe you mean the part where you set your character to a task and watch an hourglass for 3 minutes.

When you lose your character, you lose work. It takes work to harvest your 10x10 field and raise your stats. It takes work to waste all your stamina manually plowing a tile so you can drink a flask of water, making your character hungry so you can eat more. This isn't gameplay, it's just tedious grinding.

The game is more fun in moderation, but you can't take your time anymore, plus you'll be severely disadvantage compared to other players if you aren't grinding in the most efficient way possible. When you die, you don't think to yourself "Oh well, that was fun. I think I'll play another round lol". It's not an arcade game. It's a game full of paranoid players who alt vault and manage keyless triple brickwall villages because they're afraid of losing one thing - the immense amount of WORK they put into the game.

[burgingham]

I feel like most of the people here who argue that everybody should be able to afford paying $72/year for this game are themselves underage and have no idea how budgeting works as their parents buy them games or they get allowance. I'm not saying this to be offensive, but I've never seen an adult not understand what a monthly subscription meant.

I can ssure you that not all of us are underage. Most people who have no issues with this seem to actually have a stable job, at least from what I have gathered so far.

If the 10$ are an issue still then I can totally understand that, but then I do not understand why one rages on the forums about it. You cannot afford to play a game? Then you cannot afford to play a game. End of discussion. What does HnH or the devs have to do with that?

[elithe4th]

I see two paths for this game, either we all wander until we quit, or they add a way to meet up.