by Vexus » Mon Aug 31, 2015 1:45 pm
Page 84 has a lot of good ideas.
The current token system for game time is really good, but alienating free players for long still is not a good way to go. Path of Exile was mentioned, and I played that game quite a lot with my friends. I even spent $20 for a bag expansion, but mainly to support the devs. Of course, we all stopped playing immediately after. But it was a free game I spent more money on than most free games. I also bought ArmA3 for $45, and played over 1300 hours so far, with huge value and even more to come with all the mods (did not buy a single DLC!).
jorb, you miss out on whales, and you miss out on the free to play players who give the whales the content they demand in order to sink cash in a game. Keep mixing it up and add in 'more'. Add in a community based goal - $10,000 for a new creature/item/something cool. Anything interesting that you know people can go for and that they will support. There are other creative ways to make free to play work.
With that said, the correct price of any product is the price people will pay for it. There is no satisfying one end or the other. Just give people many ways to pay for your product and see how it goes. Adjust the price based on fact.
I think you guys put a lot of time thinking about all this, and the token system can work here. Everyone complaining probably underestimates the time you all thought this over. I think you covered all the bases except telling people with a big announcement sooner. Maybe that doesn't even matter. I feel you have around 100 people raging and 1900 people playing the game with no cares. So for now everything looks good. $10 is at a good point where you are making a profit, and it should stay there.
Again, don't dismiss the whales, and don't dismiss the power of free players to drive the bottom end of the economy. You have free time for new accounts, but soon that runs out, and again, whales have no real option. Anyway, done in this thread, good luck!
