Pyde said: VOID WHERE PROHIBITED, TAXED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW.I bolded and underlined the most important part.
I realize that others are doing such programs and I am ok with them in the act of receiving in-game items. But increasing a persons pledge tier is a whole other deal. I am no attorney but I do manage a business and these kind of programs we have to be very careful with so we don't over step and break the law. The FTC governs the law on all this stuff here in America. And certain states have much harsher rules than the FTC.
Edit. Used correct posts
You are certainly correct. However, this is a standard for everything. Certain states charge sales taxes on all online orders where others do not. Certain areas prohibit the use of various internet related tools. I could go on and on listing things that are prohibited in different parts of the country/world. The people that live in those areas know what they can and can't do.
That shouldn't stop VR from using every means nessecary to promote and fund the game. If a persons area does not allow them to participate, then that is their burden to bear. There is nothing that any of us can do to change that fact. It's something they face not just here.
Where I live you have to be 21 to legally buy alcohol. But when I was visiting my grandparents their law was 18. Should I have protested their alcohol sales to those under 21 because it was the law of my home town? Hell no, I was too busy getting drunk at 19.
I also want to mention that VR already has a marketing person (Dev)..Ben D. If you have ideas then perhaps run them by him. VR would have the ultimate say whether they think they would implement something like this.
Pyde said:I couldn't support a program like this at all and would hope that VR wouldn't take this route. Just my $0.02
yeah, now it seems that your taking money spent on development and your placing it in your coffer for self ... not that you really would, but its how i am reading this suggestion as well
True story, was logged into EverQuest Live a few weeks ago, and telling a few friends about Pantheon on Teamspeak. One was very interested and tasked out, watched some of the live stream of Pantheon with the new Shaman, and then looked at the possible pledge offerings. Like several others I've told to about Pantheon, they were intially VERY interested, but became put off by the pledge tiers, finding them confusing and expensive, and were unable to discern the real value all of the add ons per tier, etc ...and decided to shelf the idea of Pantheon for now, and went back to playing game X. This has happened more than a few times for me.
What would humbly suggest is a pledge teir called "Fellowship". It's a $50 dollar tier with one copy of the game. After all backers that are garunteed access to the Beta are in it, Fellowship recuirts would be next in line if space permits, before random joins. This would both build community by making a freinds/family community, and add value to the Fellowship tier. Taking a page for World Of Warcraft, members of your Fellowship could have a very long cool down, or limted charge summon item where they can summon each other. Takign a page from EverQuest Live, for exampl, you caould hafve it where if 4 peopel of a Fellowship are present, they can create a campfire and summon the rest of the group to that location. It's just one idea, where it's harder to exploit, require community, and trhe point of it is to get people together and playing. Making so characters of a Fellowship get a flashy hat, or sheild emblem, or banner, showing they are the same family/Fellowship, would also be something that could be added that wouldn't break the game but add incetive and encourage people to get involved earlier.
We actually already have a "Refer a Friend" thread which can be found on the link below. This is something that I have already discussed with the team and it is not something we are ready to speak about yet, we will do so when and if we feel the time is right or that it would suit our game based on our industry experience and advice from peers.
Typing "Refer" into the search function and changing the search option to cover "All", this was the top result:
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/5106/invite-a-friend-program/view/post_id/87031 - Invite a Friend Program
Please use the search function prior to creating a new thread as more often than not you will find that your topic has already been discussed over the last few years of development.