Mattstone said:Logged in and out all in 10mins, From my perspective. rubbish.
Will not be supporting this venture anymore.
10 minutes huh? Wow. Way to really give it a shot. Clearly this type of game is not for you and , to be honest, not sure how you did not know that going in with the overwhelming amount of video available to view the game. Perhaps you just wanted to troll the game because you are afraid folks are going to get into this and steal the thunder from whatever MMO you do actually play. Not sure and it doesn't matter. I love it and am quite thrilled with where it is at and the plan they have going forward. It is exactly what I had hoped it would be. I am tempted to upgrade my pledge status to move up into the next tier so I can play more in fact. To each his own.
I think it's enjoyable but I'm Alha A Everquest guy who's completely out of touch with modern MMOs aside from Path of Exile (if you consider it to be part MMO which I do).
I'd rather have a small group of friends taking on group content, or a friend doing duo content, in a world that's crafted by hand from a small team and caters specifically to me and that audience, so it kinda fits the bill there.
I will say that the art style transition is a bit rough since I really, really enjoyed EQ / EQ2 / Vanguard.
I would say that the ethos here feels like taking the spirit of those games and layering on an "attractive to modern audience" art style for an audience that appreciates survival crafting games with Fortnite graphics - not necessarily fans of aforementioned old-school MMOs, and so therefore is a kind of disconnect in my PFCortex and amygdala around playing long-term.
I will keep supporting since you guys are building what i want even if it's a Porsche engine in a Tesla body.
Here's some of my feedback.
I can help design an MTX store if you guys need it, my degree is business and MBA in tech mgmt, my work is pay-go pricing and modeling at Microsoft. I've spent $4,000 on Path of Exile over past six years and have studied their price modeling closely as I really think it's industry best-in-class. I think this is a big part of building MRR/ARR for your team if done correctly. It must be extremely difficult doing headcount planning on current model imo. Example is instead of monthly membership fee (outdated) for $15/mo, releasing a small update with new mechanics, a dungeon, etc. every 4 months and offering tiered pricing for support packs which increase in perceived value incrementally. E.g:
Scratchpad:
Assumption 1 = 1000 committed users
Assumption 2 = 100 super users
Assumption 3 = 1000 tier 1 packs purchased every 4 months at $90/u
Assumption 4 = 100 tier 2 mtx packs purchased every 4 months $300/u
Current model: Monthly Recurring + No MTX
$15/month * 1000 = $15000/month
Total monthly in = $15000/month
No option to allow for super user category of inbound
Alternate model: No Monthly Recurring + Non-PTW MTX
$0/month * 1000 = $0/month
$90/4month * 1000 = $90000/4month = $22500/month
$300/4month * 100 = $30000/4month = $7500/month
Total monthly in = $30000/month
The sooner you start planning these two straightforward packs and their distinct personas the better as you can start to build content and marketing copy to support and target those users. I would move away from the massive one-time pledge model immediately as planning finance around it is hard.
Anectdotally, I am in the super user category and have no problem spending $100/month to support a game I play. How does a monthly fee account for that?
In todays market there is pushback against having a monthly fee while also charging for content or MTX. I would scrap the former and pursue the latter full-on. Unless you are Blizzard and have an install base from the 2000's who's used to that model I don't believe it works as well now.
Anyways my 2cp as I believe the sooner you guys have a slick MTX interface and seasonal options for users who want to give more to look better in game is probably the fastest way to a stable run rate.
How would this work in an MMO where we all share the same world? If I get invited into a part of the world that I didn't buy what happens?
I'm assuming this has happened in other MMO's when expansions come out, but I don't recall it actually ever being an issue, I just don't remember haha.
Also, are you suggesting rather than me paying $15 a month, I pay $90 every 4 months? Or even 300 every 4 months? I'd personally prefer to pay $15 a month, or $20 a month than have to choose to pay $90 every time a new dungeon comes out.
Ranarius said:How would this work in an MMO where we all share the same world? If I get invited into a part of the world that I didn't buy what happens?
I'm assuming this has happened in other MMO's when expansions come out, but I don't recall it actually ever being an issue, I just don't remember haha.
Also, are you suggesting rather than me paying $15 a month, I pay $90 every 4 months? Or even 300 every 4 months? I'd personally prefer to pay $15 a month, or $20 a month than have to choose to pay $90 every time a new dungeon comes out.
I can't really explain it in short hand if you haven't experienced it first hand, it would take too long to wrap your head around it.
Imagine not paying for content like dungeons. Imagine you get to play for free, but you have the *option* of supporting the devs buy purchasing a seasonal pack every 3 or 4 months. $20/$50/$90 price tiers mapped out similar to this:
New season drops with a completely new area to explore for free. In addition you have the option to purchase:
$20 tier
- Weapon Skin (themed off of new season)
- Pet
$50 tier
- $20 tier rewards
- Mount (themed off of new season)
$90 tier
- $50 and $20 tier rewards
- Housing (themed off of new season)
- Character Nameplate (themed off of new season and visible in grouping)
So you get the idea. For me to go into the behavioral science of why things like this are more exciting and move people to purchase instead of a flat monthly fee would take quite a few pages. If the team kept to it consistently and made the seasonal packs interesting, and the price tiers distinct from one another, I think it would be mutually beneficial -> you get free content and the team gets to keep building it, and you have the option to buy packs to support them - or not.
Consider that you might choose not to, and that's fine. All they need is a thousand who are willing to support with a reasonable pricing structure to keep the team going.
I think monthly fees are a thing of the past unless you have absolutely massive value, e.g. Playstation Premium or Xbox Game Pass, where you then have access to huge amounts of titles. Plus it eliminates the ability for fans of the project who might have deep wallets and want to support it more from routinely activating.
No I don't think the pledge option is a good model now. One-time disbursements to a project are extremely difficult for finance to plan around. Imagine getting $2M upfront and then trying to build an ambitious MMO off of it. Technologies change and so do team dynamics so having a static upfront budget must be driving them up the wall. So, having multiple touchpoints a year where users can drop $90 - or $hundreds - on non-PTW microtransactions for things like armor, mounts, housing, is a much more financially sound model.
I also don't think monthly payments work like they used to as people have options now. Back when sub models worked, there were only a handful of titles. Now there are thousands - a lot of them free.
Digging into the psychology of this for a second, consider the barrier that $15/month presents now. Which new user personas are you bringing into the project with this upfront payment plan?
It's a huge turnoff to an evolved gaming culture now used to freemium or MTX based purchasing for non-"AAA" titles which aren't charging $70 flat. And even now as we speak, sentiment is turning against AAA studios churning out lackluster content while indies or smaller studios are turning out Helldivers 2 or Palworld or Lies of P or Path of Exile. All of these games are either free to play or < $40. Compare that to the ruinous sales of the disastrous Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The market is changing.
Having an upfront monthly payment to access an online world is not just a blocker for new players who may stumble into the title from marketing or word-of-mouth, but also lacks imagination around making more money by being more creative in pricing and things like seasonal packs which hardcore fans can use to support development beyond the monthly payment.
@superchang,
This is an interesting topic for people to discuss. It is not, however, the subject that the OP raised when starting this thread. We try not to derail threads onto different topics on these forums.
If you wish to discuss it further, please start your own thread and leave this one to discussion of how people are enjoying their time ingame.
Thank you. See ya on Terminus.
superchang said:I think it's enjoyable but I'm Alha A Everquest guy who's completely out of touch with modern MMOs aside from Path of Exile (if you consider it to be part MMO which I do).
I'd rather have a small group of friends taking on group content, or a friend doing duo content, in a world that's crafted by hand from a small team and caters specifically to me and that audience, so it kinda fits the bill there.
I will say that the art style transition is a bit rough since I really, really enjoyed EQ / EQ2 / Vanguard.
I would say that the ethos here feels like taking the spirit of those games and layering on an "attractive to modern audience" art style for an audience that appreciates survival crafting games with Fortnite graphics - not necessarily fans of aforementioned old-school MMOs, and so therefore is a kind of disconnect in my PFCortex and amygdala around playing long-term.
I will keep supporting since you guys are building what i want even if it's a Porsche engine in a Tesla body.
I like Monsters & Memories better than Pantheon as well. ;)
Jothany said:@superchang,
This is an interesting topic for people to discuss. It is not, however, the subject that the OP raised when starting this thread. We try not to derail threads onto different topics on these forums.
If you wish to discuss it further, please start your own thread and leave this one to discussion of how people are enjoying their time ingame.
Thank you. See ya on Terminus.
Noted! Please do pass along to the team if you would that I'm open to help. Semi-retired and have some time to give to cool projects I enjoy. :)
One thing I'm really enjoying during tests is darkness. It brings a horror element to the game which I really enjoy. I get it's probably a turn off for a lot of players used to having total visibility, but it's super cool to me from an immersion standpoint to wander through the woods without being able to see beyond my hip lantern radius. I'd even build on it more by giving certain lanterns their own radius attribute and throttling the ability to max gamma to see as though it was light out, in the dark.
superchang said:Please do pass along to the team if you would that I'm open to help. Semi-retired and have some time to give to cool projects I enjoy. :)
Thank you. Given the focus of your comments above, I'd suggest going to this page and sending them an email regarding your ideas. More than one person working with VR currently started out as a community member and most of their staff are part time.
https://visionaryrealms.com/company/career/