Reactions to store reactions

[jimrod]

loftar, 10$ a bit too much for most of RU players, 5$ will be ok.

Kick out your corrupt assed, Ex-KGB leader and maybe your economy will join the rest of the world one day.

even though hes corrupt hes brought russia back

[Nizuto]

getting all these reactions came a bit out of the blue for me.

I'm not sure what book you read about marketing and management, but keeping the paying system undisclosed to the public until server launch was a bad move. Unless you guys have some marketing schemes I'm not aware of.
Let me remind you guys that you delayed the original planned release date by 1 year and then the launch date by 1 week. I personally didn't get bothered by this knowing that you guys had the image of devs who create games as a hobby where money comes 2nd in place as priority...until yesterday.

Potential response: "But we need money to sustain the game and ourselves"
Then find ways for players to generate you money such as Ads or Surveys or anything like that. Then reward the players with Game Time.

Another potential response: "but then there will be bots"
And you will have money.
Also you can still make botting for free. Just do "n" number of accounts (30, 60, 90, depending on how many bots you use in parallel), use 1 character from each account to its maximum free time available, then each month keep switching them over and over until you get to that number "n" where you don't have to create new accounts and just re-use the old ones. It may be a slow process that could take months for those botting characters to have the skills necessary for efficient botting, but still it's possible.

I too have bills to pay, after all, and Haven development does require too much effort and attention to be able to do "on the side" of another job. It kinda is what it is.

That's not too convincing to say for a Pre-Alpha game. Just admit that you guys wanted a money making tool where you can make ~1k $ a month from subscribers. Maybe a bit more in the first few months.

In hindsight, I can of course see that it seems like a big deal, but I would've at least expected it to go relatively silent for 48 hours.

Perhaps we should have posted about it earlier, but then again, the vitriol that is consistently unleashed on the forums at every slightly controversial statement we make has taught us to shut up until we have something firm. Also, I think that 48 hours of free play time is a generously advance statement already.

You're not playing your own game so yea, you wouldn't know/understand how little that free game time is.
You guys aren't the ones who made the game War Z, right?

Our horizon of planning has never been on the immediate next hour or day anyway. We'll see how it unfolds in the coming months and take it from there.

If your plan fails in less than a year, please read 1 or 2 more books about marketing then relaunch the game.

If you guys really think your work has the value of 10$/month and that you guys are willing to stick on developing the game more and more in the future, you could have started like Notch and make the game a 1-time payment, a cheap one when the playerbase is very low, and depending how much it grows, make the price higher and higher for newcomers. It would make old/veteran players feel more "rewarded" for sticking with a game too. Ofc this requires long term planning, and some investments.

I hope I'm wrong with the "you guys just want to create a cow that milks money and nothing else" and that you applied the best solution possible. But if I'm right, then you guys are worse than a romanian cocalar.

EDIT: Don't forget that the game has an unique feature: the bigger the playerbase, the better the game becomes quality wise. Politics, deals, betrays, friendships, are all key components of your game. If there's no drama, the game will become farmvile.

[Uppa]

Is getting a chip and pin type of payment method avaliable ? So We can buy X amount of gameplay hours because I know few of my friends have no problem with paying for the game but they don't like the idea of renting it for $10 a month to be able to play it essentially compared to other MMO's.

[deputi]

A wise chinaman once said, "Mo money, mo problems."

[Brickington]

The Store and payments in general wasn't really that big a deal for me, so getting all these reactions came a bit out of the blue for me. The game itself overshadowed it largely in my mind. In hindsight, I can of course see that it seems like a big deal, but I would've at least expected it to go relatively silent for 48 hours.

It was to be expected, of course, that many would be alienated from our starting to require payment for something that has previously been free. While that saddens me a bit, and while it was fun to be able to provide Haven for free, I'm sure it goes without saying that that's not really an alternative. I too have bills to pay, after all, and Haven development does require too much effort and attention to be able to do "on the side" of another job. It kinda is what it is.

That being said, of course, does not mean that there cannot be reasonable objections stated to the specific model of payment we have instituted. There may be a case to be made that prices are too high, that free time is too sparse or anything else, but if that is so, it is (despite the self-righteous assertions to the contrary that some make) not a priori obvious, and it is too early for me to tell yet.

Perhaps we should have posted about it earlier, but then again, the vitriol that is consistently unleashed on the forums at every slightly controversial statement we make has taught us to shut up until we have something firm. Also, I think that 48 hours of free play time is a generously advance statement already.

Our horizon of planning has never been on the immediate next hour or day anyway. We'll see how it unfolds in the coming months and take it from there.

Alright, I'll be civil here.

Jorb seemed to say "oh well, I didn't value the community much" when told that this move would greatly harm the playerbase. Hafen needs players. It's dwelling on the past to ask why you folks didn't tell us beforehand about the payment model.

What I want to know is why you insist on a subscription basis, instead of B2P + Patreon, or some other solution? You guys seem to be very, very insistent on your subscription based model.

[dank_memes]

It would seem to me like a pretty bad move to claim (and act like) you didn't care about the community yet expect them to pay to fund your game's development.

[spawningmink]

id pay for a world 8.......id buy that please consider that for the love of god

[painhertz]

loftar, 10$ a bit too much for most of RU players, 5$ will be ok.

Kick out your corrupt assed, Ex-KGB leader and maybe your economy will join the rest of the world one day.

even though hes corrupt hes brought russia back

Back what? To ruin? lol

[Nictos]

I have a question - I plan on paying for the game but I don't understand what a month of game time means. Does that mean 720 hours that I can redeem at any time? Or does that mean 30 days then it's over? Also... some months are 31 days..

[johnnyutah]

Is "buy to play" out of the question? im sure some people would pay for permanent access. i know i would.

bump