Game Development: Salem & Haven

[evilrich]

it is not about economy, it is about cash shop, where any rich boy can
buy an "inaccessible resources", clay q120 for example.[/quote]

it also says that anyone who doesnt spend money on it can still access there items.. we'll just have to grind for them.. not exactly something new to haven players, now is it..

[Wolfang]

I was hoping all irl money items would be of esthetic value only

[MagicManICT]

I don't think there is anything wrong with discussing it here since it has been officially announced as a feature of the game.

Well, there is already a huge thread with Jorb's thoughts on the economy and some pretty good discussion over it. I don't have the time to find it at the moment, but I'll dig it up later today if someone else doesn't do so first.

it is not about economy, it is about cash shop....

Is there a difference between the two? Or rather, can you separate discussing one from the other when a project needs to be able to turn a profit without a subscription?

[Onionfighter]

I am a little worried about the sale of inaccessible items. If the only things that could be bought were supplied by players, the economy should be fairly stable, and people wouldn't really be able to get ahead of the most developed players by money alone. But if there are items that give an advantage and can only be bought, this (especially in early world) could really tip the scales.

[cloakblade]

Can anyone confirm if there is a quality system similar to Haven? If there is the cash shop could break the game if, like tempwad said, you can just buy q120 clay, water, soil and fuel day one. This causes the early game to almost dissappear. They could put a cap on it, like 50q, but that means that after the average material is above that the cash shop's profits will drop and this will require a scaling cash shop or constant world resets. The latter option sounds interesting but would basically mean that a village would have to pay probably close to 100 bucks every world wipe which basically becomes a subscription though it can be divided between a village. Plus if you can buy q1 bricks imagine how broken building infinite brickwalls will be. Though I'm still for the cash shop as an ascetic shop.

[simimi]

Salem will have a very deap background and will be a very social game.
Its realy the kind of game fit to role playing, and were you want to make a name, not be the best fighter.
A cash shop with cosmetic figures like custom village tabar, specials cloths to show what is your profession, pets, custums hair style, all this things that can help to play a unique character, and can be a support for the background of your character.
Just make the game were new account get all the same face, and you can bye scares, big noses, long hairs, and all this is become genetical: your son/reincarnation get it to, your brothers (alts from a same account) to.

[saltmummy626]

aside from the cash shop stuff, which I did not read, im sure im not the only one who noticed the dick shaped critter in the trailer. will Salem have the same dick fixation seen in H&H?

[leif]

In my opinion I don't think cash shop would be sustainable. For example the only way to gain revenue after core players have everything is to get new players to join. Granted the world is vast but eventually there will be a point where the shop would become stale, and on a side note others in the game would profit real currency by hording a node and selling the resource from it to other players for cheaper than the shop, although that would probably happen regardless of a cash shop.

[fluza1]

I think you should look at Uncharted Waters (I apologize, I just wanna give a few ideas, I'm not promoting the game or anything). It has a complex economic system but it's not directly affected by the item shop. At the item shop you don't buy resources or cosmethic items, you can get exp buffs and things like that. But resource gathering, crafting and selling-buying them it's up to you. The item shop allow you to "level up" faster and some other things, this fits players that don't have much time to play. But with this they can't 'skip' the regular rules of the game. This is pretty much cuz of the economic system that is driven by players, prices regulate by the offer-demand dynamics. So if u don't ever pay you won't be in such disadvantage. I think Salem somehow will turn out like this. It won't be 'pay to win', even if u can buy resources from the item shop, their value could be regulated ingame somehow. For example, if you can get only raw materials from the item shop you'll still need the necesary skills and atributes to use them. Maybe there won't be a 'quality system' for items. That would make things more fair, the 'social aspects' of the game would be encouraged then. The player who pays would still interact with other players in terms of equalty (more or less)

[Tonkyhonk]

The idea is mine and was in the original pitch I made for the game. The game has been designed from the beginning with this premise very much in mind. Gordon is awesome. Clever in many ways, but mostly just awesome.

Money can obviously be used to get you ahead in any mmo. If I, for example, really wanted to buy a Haven character I could probably find a seller. That being said I can certainly understand if not all people like the concept for aesthetic reasons, but hey, Salem is free to play -- you don't have to put money down -- and Haven will never have a cash shop, so it's not like you're out of options.

I consider it an interesting experiment, quite simply.

to you, yes, probably just an interesting experiment, while most of us have experienced games with cash shops
i will have to see how it goes, but the fact is that this news actually took away a big portion of my enthusiasm to Salem.
many games out there are leaning forward to money hungry business and i do understand game companies need to earn.
Haven has been my last straw, and people already started obvious RMTing, which is almost the same as having a cash shop, just its not official, you know? besides you guys are leaving unfixed bugs as they are and chasing away decent players for not dealing with them. we try to understand the situation of you being busy, but i hope you understand our frustrations too.

lots of people call this game "hard core" for its pvp and perma-death aspect, but i called this "hard core" for the game policy and it is now sorta collapsing in my eyes.