P2P plan

[ShadowGamer225]

lol, jorb is now ignoring.

[TeckXKnight]

lol, jorb is now ignoring.

More likely asleep. No one's on 24/7 yo, a good nights rest does everyone good.

[alioli]

I'm not necessarily angry, mostly disappointed. And I don't hope the devs anything bad, but I do genuinly hope they come around and realize the problems with the model and figure another solution out :/

[Vexus]

Someone posted the following and it wasn't responded to but really isolates the main problem:

"1.people who cant pay for the game play until they realize they cant compete against paying players(which makes the question why put free option anyway?),and in turn give up and move on to to doing something else"

This is called a 'permanent trial'. The game, which I completely loved, called Mortal Online, did the same thing. They made it so you could play for free but only get to 60 points (out of 100) in any skill. So you were permanently gimped. You were never competitive as a free player.

Interestingly enough, it is a game run by folks in that same part of the world as JLo, and they both come to the same 'fair' conclusion on how to charge people.

The game cannot exist as "You are not competitive unless you pay". LoL and DOTA2 prove that free to play works. You could have spent your time putting in PURELY cosmetic items in the game and people would buy those.

When Salem began their first Expedition, guess what - I only bought $5 worth of store items. I thought that was fair, and I am cheap. But I also organized a group, and they all bought $20 store packs - multiples even. Everyone in the group would not be playing on that server if we didn't have a group. So the organization of the group meant money towards the game. I would estimate that the group has spent - so far - upwards of $400. So my 'free to play' mentality has somehow influenced $400 worth of income towards the game.

That is the problem here: without even having a chance at being competitive without paying, you won't see people even try to play and then bring in their friends.

That is what I don't get most of all. In games people love, people support the game when they can. Some people may not be able to afford $5 every month, but they will definitely buy a $5 item once in a while. You completely alienate those folks, who may one day have enough money to buy even more, by denying them to ability to be competitive in the meantime. You could easily hire an artist to create skins/cosmetic items and give them a portion of the sales. Anything creative, at all.

Again, I don't play here. I am posting because I am a gamer and I hate seeing regression when it comes to gaming. I want success for all good games, and I believe this is a good game. It has always been on my radar as a fallback should Salem do something shitty like this. Now it is off the radar, and so it has affected me in some way.

Please rethink your options for making money. People pour millions into free to play games, because they love the game, and want to support the developers, not because they are forced to in order to 'unlock' the ability to become competitive.

[SynthAura]

I know I've posted this in other threads but I really just want Jorb and Loftar to see and consider this. I think you guys need to listen to people with reasonable ideas for alternatives to your current payment system instead of the people asking you to make it free to play again. In my opinion, you two are completely in the right for making it pay to play, and your systems are decent but could be better, but my main concern is that the prices are way over what they should be, and this is what's preventing me from subscribing without feeling I've been thoroughly cheated. The content of the game is good, and all veterans are here for the good concept of the game which is retained in this update, but it is blatantly obvious that it isn't worth 10$ a month, and the 15$ verification plan is even worse considering the heavy limitations on time given. I want to play the game, I don't mind paying, but it's currently overpriced and it makes me have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about paying 10$ a month for a admittedly buggy and crashing alpha. Sure I get past those things because I love the game, but god damned if I'm gonna pay 10$ a month to play. 5$ a month would be perfectly fine with me, I'd jump at the chance to support you guys at that fair price, and you'd make more money in the long run that way anyway if I had to guess considering 5$ month memberships will attract a lot more subscribers. Of course crediting previous subscribers would be a breeze as well, just give them more time based on your new prices. Anyway I hope I can get a response from you guys, whether you're going to adjust the prices or not, I just want to hear from you about it.

[Ponciliano]

Lol I'm going back to Dwarf Fortress then. A much better game that gets constantly updated for FREE. They are good enough to live with a very good wage (around 3000-6000$ /mo, something H&H will never reach with this shitty system) without ruining their players' experience by turning an eternal alpha game, which is a reference between the f2p games (or better, between all games, because even people who can afford the most expensive of the games play H&H and/or DF), into a p2p one. And guess what, they're only 2 developers too! You should be ashamed of yourselves, Jorb and Loftar. Having made the game by yourselves don't mean you can do everything you want with the playerbase. You also owe us because we were the ones whom appreciated and showed your game to other people, making it something you could be proud of having made. Think about it before making decisions without caring about what your fans would think about it. We deserve respect too. I will never pay this game if I'm being forced to do it in order to just play the game, something I could have done for years. That's just not reasonable in any way and anyone with a minimum of intelligence can see that. Take this all into consideration before making your next step, Jorb and Loftar, because it's clear around 90% of the playerbase thinks the same I do, and this game, your masterwork game, will be nothing without us. If you have any care about art, and aren't simple mercenaries that only want money, I'm sure you'll be very sad when you see your game becoming very impopular because of just one wrong decision you've made. That's all I ask for.

[elpred0]

https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/6 ... 5045606400

[rezal]

You know that jorb won't respond to 90% of the posts that raise good points and just go for the low hanging fruit and say 'if you don't like it don't play it lmao'.

[Ants]

I'll miss this game. If they don't remove the subbing sysem. I'm sure you (jorb, loftar) will right? Don't want your 8-year old game to die like Salem? Because from the path it's going, the game's dead on the next weak, if everyone uses 1-2 hours of game.

It really is.

From the front page:

There are 702 hearthlings playing.
Among these, there are 229 from Russian Federation, 125 from Poland, 57 from Ukraine, 54 from United States of America, and 34 from United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Russians, who currently make up the majority of players, will have trouble paying the price Jorbtar asks. Ukraine isn't particularly wealthy, either.

[rezal]

Neither is Poland.