Not SO modest a proposal.

[Azhul_NS]

Here's what I want as a short term fix to the issues:

1 - edit the features list so it matches what is currently in-game and working.

2 - no sub fees until most (80%) of the features promised for release are in-game and working.

[Dade512]

Don't they need the sub fees to help support what they're doing, so they can move forward and get those features in the game over the period of Prelude?
For me, I don't mind the monthly fee for a while. I knew when I joined that not all features were in and would be coming over the course of Prelude. More animals in game is something I'd like to see, and it sounds like that's going to be coming very soon. =)

[fatboy21007]

i agree on no sub fees yet. least give everyone 1 more month free game time. That way u can prepare more for ingame and make it worth every1's while to keep their sub.

[mmogaddict]

I'm going to include part of my PM that I just sent to one of the devs who had PMed me in regards to another thread.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for my personal feedback on what NG should do my STRONG suggestion is to stop trying to, as we say, "have a bet each way".

You can't claim for patience and understanding due to the fact that you are a small team of independant developers WHILE at the same time asking $15/month for a game which IS SERIOUS lacking many features.

On the same hand however I also understand that you need income otherwise you will never get anything done.

My suggestion is, that for the period of PRELUDE ONLY have a reduced fee of something in the order of $5~$8 / month.

This would help offset some of the complaints (not all, afterall this is the internet) while still maintaining some income. Also it would help with player retention.

MMORPG's live and die on the basis of 'critical mass' AND word of mouth. NG DESPERATELY needs to maintain as many players as it can while also trying to turn around the word of mouth.

A reduce fee should result in a similar or increased income as you will have more players than if you stuck at the $15 price.

[xyberviri]

The problem with a lower monthly fee is then you end up not being able to raise it back up to what you originally wanted. you can do a promotional campaign how ever when that expires you only end up with more people complaining about the price going back up.

[Dade512]

Seriously, 15$/mo is not that big of a deal. Yes, you'd be paying for a game that's not got all the features yet. But we all KNEW (or should have) that all the features weren't in yet. And on top of that, how many people blow 15$ on drinks, food, a cd you listen to once, a book or whatever in one night, or even in 1hr?
If 15$ is a deal breaker for you, or even 7-8$ if it were reduced, perhaps you have other monetary priorities that need to be coming first?
I can only imagine that shit storm that would come when they tried to raise the sub back to 15$, if they were to reduce it. I think that would be a terrible idea in the long term.

[mrcalhou]

If they have a monthly fee than I will just unsub until the features are in and working. As it is I haven't bothered to log in in almost a month.

[mmogaddict]

I don't think people would mind as much if the price goes up later as long as :

a) the game has the content and systems in place to justify a higher fee (I.E. once it's out of prelude)

b) it is made clear that it is only for the duration of prelude

The problem with charging a full rate now is little if anyone is going to bite. We pretty much all know that this game isn't going to have everything it needs to justify a full price within the next month so you need to head off that exodus.

Alot of people doubt that NG and the game can survive (some dodgy numbers however works out at a guess they made enough from initial sales to keep the lights on for 6~12months) but despite that people are going to feel (or already do) that this game is doomed financially, hence you aren't going to get alot of subs anyway, and the subs you do get are going to be month by month. I doubt anyone is signing up for any 6 or great month lengths.

And again the other thing it should do is short circuit some of the bad feelings around. 100 hates, 1000 mollified fence sitters and 100 fanbois is better than 400 haters, 400 expired accounts that will likely never bother to check out the game again, 300 disgruntled but patient players and 100 fanbois.

You know the word is already out on all the news sites about the state of the game, by reducing the fee there will be less bad mouthing and alot of posts saying 'Yeah it's still a way off but it's only $5 / month'.

Finally in todays mmorpg market more and more players are paying and playing more than 1 game at once, a lower fee helps to keep players and also helps to attract these players, it's why F2P and MT games are becoming more popular (low entry/ongoing costs to players).

Added after 26 minutes:


Seriously, 15$/mo is not that big of a deal. Yes, you'd be paying for a game that's not got all the features yet. But we all KNEW (or should have) that all the features weren't in yet. And on top of that, how many people blow 15$ on drinks, food, a cd you listen to once, a book or whatever in one night, or even in 1hr?
If 15$ is a deal breaker for you, or even 7-8$ if it were reduced, perhaps you have other monetary priorities that need to be coming first?


Ok here is my CURRENT ACTIVE mmorpg bill (over the years I've paid and brought alot others).

EvE $10.95/month ($131.40 / year)
WoW $13.99/month ($41.97 / 3 months)
EQ2X $18.60/month ($224 / year)
Perpetuum $5.99 / month ($71.95 / year)
Age of Conan $8.25 / month ($98.93 / year)
LOTRO $? / month ($199 Lifetime)
DCUO $? / month ($214 Lifetime)
D&D Online $? / month (have brought most of the adventure packs and options - Unknown spent, maybe $200?)
Pirates of the Burning Sea (Recently switched back to F2P but did have a monthly account up till Xsyon came out)
World of Tanks $0

Now granted I'm PROBABLY an extreame player comparred to some, but I'll bet I'm not the only one that plays serveral games these days. And comparred to some other games on that list Xsyon has alot less content and features. (P.S. I probably should cancel that EQ2X account, SOE are such greedy bastards.)

[xyberviri]

-Addiction-

Jeezus man, thats a whole lot of addiction there, if i spent that much on drugs i would get put into rehab fast. not saying its bad just pretty impressive that you have time to play all of that.

[halldorr]

Damn and I thought I was bad for breaking from subscribing to one game for a while (WoW) to adding Rift, CoH again, and Xsyon (and since cancelling Rift). Now I don't feel so bad about maintaining two or three ;)

[Koll]

Here's what I want as a short term fix to the issues:

1 - edit the features list so it matches what is currently in-game and working.

2 - no sub fees until most (80%) of the features promised for release are in-game and working.

I want them to buy me a beer and I still play da game.

[JCatano]

But we all KNEW (or should have) that all the features weren't in yet.

Over a year ago, it was said by Jordi that everything on the feature list was finished or at least 80% complete. He also stated (along with Virtus - yes, I know... not a dev) that every feature on that list would be implemented and ready to go at launch.

That isn't the case, so my $15 bucks a month isn't going to them. Charity is great, unless it's for a computer game.

[Dade512]

EvE $10.95/month ($131.40 / year)
WoW $13.99/month ($41.97 / 3 months)
EQ2X $18.60/month ($224 / year)
Perpetuum $5.99 / month ($71.95 / year)
Age of Conan $8.25 / month ($98.93 / year)
LOTRO $? / month ($199 Lifetime)
DCUO $? / month ($214 Lifetime)
D&D Online $? / month (have brought most of the adventure packs and options - Unknown spent, maybe $200?)
Pirates of the Burning Sea (Recently switched back to F2P but did have a monthly account up till Xsyon came out)
World of Tanks $0

Now granted I'm PROBABLY an extreame player comparred to some, but I'll bet I'm not the only one that plays serveral games these days. And comparred to some other games on that list Xsyon has alot less content and features. (P.S. I probably should cancel that EQ2X account, SOE are such greedy bastards.)

Jesus man, I don't think there's any "probably" or "Compared to some" about it. I think you're a very extreme player compared to many. Now I don't feel near as bad for all the time I spend in front of my comp. I mean, do you EVER leave your computer? Have your friends and family tried to stage an intervention yet? If you ever feel like giving those games up but still want to spend the 550+ per year feel free to pay two months of my car payment, that'd be awesome.

And seriously, don't support ddo. =( I love turbine for AC1 but ddo is about as non-D&D as you could possible get.

[shava]

Over a year ago, it was said by Jordi that everything on the feature list was finished or at least 80% complete. He also stated (along with Virtus - yes, I know... not a dev) that every feature on that list would be implemented and ready to go at launch.

There were a number of features deployed in beta, now yanked. At launch, there was unbearable lag, and there are still frequent server crashes. Most anyone with a thimble of systems programming XP reads this as code that doesn't scale to massive numbers, and likely memory leaks or memory panics only revealed under load. If Jordi said they were 80% done, I'd have to respond that the last 5% takes 95% of the work.

When I was a young engineer 30 years ago, systems programmers were the hotshots of the industry. Now, game engine programmers hold that place. Right out of school, a promising game engine CS grad with a portfolio and a solid internship/co-op can call a six-figure salary to start, and even in this economy there aren't enough for demand.

So it doesn't surprise me that it happened, just maybe it shouldn't have surprised Jordi and them, either? Assuming this is the issue, since we have little technical info.

Shava/Ani

[MrDDT]

There were a number of features deployed in beta, now yanked. At launch, there was unbearable lag, and there are still frequent server crashes. Most anyone with a thimble of systems programming XP reads this as code that doesn't scale to massive numbers, and likely memory leaks or memory panics only revealed under load. If Jordi said they were 80% done, I'd have to respond that the last 5% takes 95% of the work.

When I was a young engineer 30 years ago, systems programmers were the hotshots of the industry. Now, game engine programmers hold that place. Right out of school, a promising game engine CS grad with a portfolio and a solid internship/co-op can call a six-figure salary to start, and even in this economy there aren't enough for demand.

So it doesn't surprise me that it happened, just maybe it shouldn't have surprised Jordi and them, either? Assuming this is the issue, since we have little technical info.

Shava/Ani


I have no idea wtf you are talking about.

Key points.
Features were promised, yet not in the game.
Features were said to be in game or 80% done, still not in game.

No idea what you are talking about, no one cares about your resume.

[Dubanka]

Ok here is my CURRENT ACTIVE mmorpg bill (over the years I've paid and brought alot others).

EvE $10.95/month ($131.40 / year)
WoW $13.99/month ($41.97 / 3 months)
EQ2X $18.60/month ($224 / year)
Perpetuum $5.99 / month ($71.95 / year)
Age of Conan $8.25 / month ($98.93 / year)
LOTRO $? / month ($199 Lifetime)
DCUO $? / month ($214 Lifetime)
D&D Online $? / month (have brought most of the adventure packs and options - Unknown spent, maybe $200?)
Pirates of the Burning Sea (Recently switched back to F2P but did have a monthly account up till Xsyon came out)
World of Tanks $0


THanks.

I'm going to show that to my wife, so she understand that i really don't have a problem ;)

[JCatano]

There were a number of features deployed in beta, now yanked. At launch, there was unbearable lag, and there are still frequent server crashes. Most anyone with a thimble of systems programming XP reads this as code that doesn't scale to massive numbers, and likely memory leaks or memory panics only revealed under load. If Jordi said they were 80% done, I'd have to respond that the last 5% takes 95% of the work.

When I was a young engineer 30 years ago, systems programmers were the hotshots of the industry. Now, game engine programmers hold that place. Right out of school, a promising game engine CS grad with a portfolio and a solid internship/co-op can call a six-figure salary to start, and even in this economy there aren't enough for demand.

So it doesn't surprise me that it happened, just maybe it shouldn't have surprised Jordi and them, either? Assuming this is the issue, since we have little technical info.

Shava/Ani

Nothing was yanked. Barely anything was in to begin with.

<----- Been ingame since the beginning. If you haven't, this game has "launched" 3 (?) times.

[mmogaddict]

BTW did I point out I have 2 Xsyon accounts. They aren't on the list though since I haven't set either of them to renew. Now given the somebody like me isn't renewing who clearly probably spends just a little too much time in these types of games, what are the chances that more normal players aren't going to renew.


And seriously, don't support ddo. =( I love turbine for AC1 but ddo is about as non-D&D as you could possible get.

I actually find it a pretty fun game and I'm an ex-PnP player, yes it's not strickly D&D and Eberron is a crap setting (would have preferred Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance, hell even Dark Sun would have been better)

Used to love Asherons Call, was on Thistledown most of the time with a little bit of Darkside. AC2 however was really dissapointing.