Xyson business model [Archive]

wazcool

06-19-2013, 06:54 PM

So how exactly to you propose they make money? Cash shops don't work in these kind of games for a start! I have played many indie sandbox MMO's, all of which ask for a sub or have freemium options where all your skills are capped so you pay a sub anyway. There is a niche market of people who enjoy sandbox games and are willing to pay money to play them. The sub price was recently reduced and for the amount of time most of us sink into the game it seems good value. For the price of a large pizza and a beer you get access to a game for a month... seems fine to me. I do think they should drop the box price though or at least reduce it as this seems to be a barrier for entry for many players i have seen. What does everyone else think?

darkskil

06-19-2013, 08:53 PM

I do think the box price should be drop as well for entry players the subing part does drive away some players it has driven off many I know. I would like to see a cash shop for stat respects since I messed up mine when I just started and didn't know anything now I'm pretty much screwed for the rest of the game and maybe some name changes as well but I would hate to see the cash shop allow players to just buy everything to be the best. That's just me though

Willowhawk

06-19-2013, 09:31 PM

Xyson game developers, your business model is disgusting.Subscription?That's funny.I only know of one game that successfully pulled that off, WoW.All the rest fail.A one-time fee with no limitations is the ideal business model WE, as gamers, love.Please take this into account, as your business model now is making you lose players.Only a handful will actually pay a subscription.

Pay to play games; LOTR, Vanguard, DAOC, Final Fantasy, Warhammer, Ultima Online, EverQuest, Anarchy Online, DC Universe, WOW, Asheron's Call, PlanetSide, Wurm all $11.95 to $14.95

Xsyon = $9.95

I sense a young person with an entitlement syndrome. NOTHING is free EVER. Why would any business invest years of time and tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to give away their service for free? Item malls aren't Free! In the long run you pay more for games with item malls than with subscription based games or you are limited to the "Free" Version of the game (no shiny stuff). People are easily duped into believing they are getting a better deal, but to get everything out of the game that you would get with a subscription you end up paying twice as much or more. I don't play games with item malls and never will.

Bottom line is if you like the game don't you think it's fair you should pay for services rendered?

MrDDT

06-19-2013, 10:11 PM

Xyson game developers, your business model is disgusting.Subscription?That's funny.I only know of one game that successfully pulled that off, WoW.All the rest fail.A one-time fee with no limitations is the ideal business model WE, as gamers, love.Please take this into account, as your business model now is making you lose players.Only a handful will actually pay a subscription.

I would say that the current payment system is very normal. Free to play with limits, pay to play for the goodies.
One game that comes to mind is Star Wars TOR. Has the same system. As Willowhawk said there are many games out there doing this.

I do think the box price should be drop as well for entry players the subing part does drive away some players it has driven off many I know. I would like to see a cash shop for stat respects since I messed up mine when I just started and didn't know anything now I'm pretty much screwed for the rest of the game and maybe some name changes as well but I would hate to see the cash shop allow players to just buy everything to be the best. That's just me though

You get 4 stat resets, if you already used them, you can manually change any stats you want over time. I think a cash shop thing would do almost nothing for this game and its not really meant for that type of stuff. A cash shop would take longer to code than it would give in $ back. I would rather have them coding real features like ranged combat, contested hotzones, cooking, taming etc. Than working on a cash shop coding. Those things I listed would keep and bring way more people than a cash shop option.

Azzym

06-20-2013, 08:42 PM

Xyson game developers, your business model is disgusting.Subscription?That's funny.I only know of one game that successfully pulled that off, WoW.All the rest fail.A one-time fee with no limitations is the ideal business model WE, as gamers, love.Please take this into account, as your business model now is making you lose players.Only a handful will actually pay a subscription.

To claim the model itself is disgusting is to take it a bit far. It is true that most games released today sooner, rather than later, changes model from a subscription based model to a free to play model. That doesnt make the model itself disgusting.

Many games offer free to play options, like Vanguard, Everquest2, Lotr and so on. But once you start playing them you soon upgrade your F2P account into a premium/gold/silver/whatever because thats where the perks are for the game.

There is one model I would call disgusting which is used by Atlantica Online (Nexon). Totally free game with an Item Shop. Contrary to many other games this shop sell items that really affect your progress/experience/stats. Not by selling the item straight off to you, oh no, they sell you a chance to acquire the item. I got friends who spend 100-300 dollars on this game - every month. That is pretty disgusting if you ask me.

MrDDT

06-20-2013, 10:01 PM

There is one model I would call disgusting which is used by Atlantica Online (Nexon). Totally free game with an Item Shop. Contrary to many other games this shop sell items that really affect your progress/experience/stats. Not by selling the item straight off to you, oh no, they sell you a chance to acquire the item. I got friends who spend 100-300 dollars on this game - every month. That is pretty disgusting if you ask me.

I do have to say thats the worst.

My son plays Combat Arms from Nexon. Its horrid. The best items (items you can not buy in game in any way without paying $) which make you much more powerful are though a random rare chance at opening boxes. This is by far the worst way to do it in my opinion. I dont mind it taking a long time for me to get these items IN GAME, but making it so these can only be got with some random unknown amount of money. You could spend 1000$ and still not get the items you want/need.

I would rather have a subscriber option where I can work to get them and I know I will get them in a set amount of time / effort.

Plus because the game is 100% free its is chalk full of hackers. People that do not care whatsoever if they get banned.

J3lackPhoenix

06-22-2013, 05:26 PM

Hay guys,
im new to this game because i like this kind of survival and sandbox
i started wandering around to find a good place where i can create my tribe and unfold my creativity.
but then i got this message "you must be premium"
it felt like a punch.
i searched around on this fourm and found the free player restrictions.
i can join a tribe but cant create one... hmm that sounds logical because its stupid when a new player claims land and after 2 days he stops playin.
but there are many players who want to create a tribe because they want to have their own rules, ideas and dont want to be restricted by rules and orders from another tribe.
it took me 1 hour to wander around and trying to join a tribe but no one wants a free player because i dont increase the size of the territory and im not reliable they said.
so i decided to buy a premium account.
its okay to pay 40$ but then i must pay 10$ every month? 150$ in the first year?
thats way to expensive in my eyes...
to pay 40$ or even 60$ for a game is no problem but a sub-system...
that distracts many players.
a free to play model in a sandbox game shouldnt restrict the freedom and independence of a player in such a great amount..
there are so many other ways.
- a free player can create a tribe but:
*his claimed land is smaller
*only a certain amount of players can join him
* after 1 or 2 weeks of inactivity, his claimed land disappear

i want to play this game but without paying every month or being restricted by the game AND other player/tribes too
even buy2play would be okay for me... 40-60€ which are ~52,50-78,80$.
so i hope there would be a way to create a tribe without premium in near future.
a change of the free player restrictions or a buy2play system without sub (maybe when xsyon is released on steam)

unclean666

06-22-2013, 07:25 PM

If you paid the 40$ then you get the first month free with no restrictions and you do not have to to have a sub to have or keep your totem.I have never heard of any tribe turn anyone away because they are free account ( not saying it dont happen ) but its allways been a non-factor in every case ive seen and not even asked if they was until after they joined.

I see nothing wrong with how Xsyon does things its pretty normal to me.But im a little older gamer and im used to paying for something I get or want.

J3lackPhoenix

06-23-2013, 05:58 AM

so its enough to pay once for the game and after 1 month prem i must never pay again?
because i thought you must pay every month to play.

MrDDT

06-23-2013, 06:31 AM

For a totem, and making your own tribe? No.

For removing the skill cap (you are limited to 30 skills, max is 100 in each skill) you would need to have an active sub.

safgril

06-27-2013, 02:45 PM

Pay to play games; LOTR, Vanguard, DAOC, Final Fantasy, Warhammer, Ultima Online, EverQuest, Anarchy Online, DC Universe, WOW, Asheron's Call, PlanetSide, Wurm all $11.95 to $14.95

Xsyon = $9.95

I sense a young person with an entitlement syndrome. NOTHING is free EVER. Why would any business invest years of time and tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to give away their service for free? Item malls aren't Free! In the long run you pay more for games with item malls than with subscription based games or you are limited to the "Free" Version of the game (no shiny stuff). People are easily duped into believing they are getting a better deal, but to get everything out of the game that you would get with a subscription you end up paying twice as much or more. I don't play games with item malls and never will.

Bottom line is if you like the game don't you think it's fair you should pay for services rendered?

LOTRO (free to play), Vanguard ( free to play), DAOC (one server game now), Final Fantasy 14 (going free to play soon), Warhammer (down to 2 servers, also tier 1 free to play), Ultima Online (free to play now), Everquest (free to play), Anarchy online (free to play), DC universe (free to play), WOW ( free to play 1-20), Asherons call (is down to a select few servers but this game is an exception of one of the first few MMOs ever), Planetside 2 (free to play), Wurm ONLINe (free to play).

bottom line. if they made the purchase of the game like $10 and made the monthly at $5 I know i would consider playing this unfinished game. I know a lot of poeple who would of done it. But $10 a month on an unfinished game isnt worht it on it a dead world. I mean its dead. really dead. combat is not really good.. the building will be fun for awhile but then what? the game isnt finished. And if they want to make money its better to make $5 then 0.

Willowhawk

06-27-2013, 05:18 PM

MrDDT

06-27-2013, 10:52 PM

LOTRO (free to play), Vanguard ( free to play), DAOC (one server game now), Final Fantasy 14 (going free to play soon), Warhammer (down to 2 servers, also tier 1 free to play), Ultima Online (free to play now), Everquest (free to play), Anarchy online (free to play), DC universe (free to play), WOW ( free to play 1-20), Asherons call (is down to a select few servers but this game is an exception of one of the first few MMOs ever), Planetside 2 (free to play), Wurm ONLINe (free to play).

bottom line. if they made the purchase of the game like $10 and made the monthly at $5 I know i would consider playing this unfinished game. I know a lot of poeple who would of done it. But $10 a month on an unfinished game isnt worht it on it a dead world. I mean its dead. really dead. combat is not really good.. the building will be fun for awhile but then what? the game isnt finished. And if they want to make money its better to make $5 then 0.

Bottom line, Better to make 10$ than 5$ or 0$.

You just listed all those "Free to Play" that have the same restrictions as Xsyon. Wurm Online = Free to play with capped stats/skills at 20, Max is 100. Xsyon, Free to play with capped skills at 30, max is 100.
This is very very clearly the same model. Not sure what you are talking about. I can break down the others but pretty much the same deal for all of them. As others and Willowhawk just said. ALL those games that are "Free to play" have restrictions that is the same or much like Xsyon's.

People keep talking about the price, when it has little to nothing to do with it. Its about retention. The % of people that buy and play Xsyon then quit is extremely high, they are quitting for a reason or for many reasons.

tomduril

07-01-2013, 07:48 AM

First of all I find nothing wrong with the pricing strategy of Xsyon. Its good value for a good price (IHMO). Some believe that a T-Shirt should sell at 5$ (or 2$ - there are shops out there where you can get a deal like that) - at the same time there are shops that sell T-Shirts at 35$, 60$ or even more. Still its all about T-Shirts, you can compare them - anyhow it is your choice as a customer if you want it or not.

The start box price should be adapted to include more months - IMHO.
I guess: either you get hooked by the game (then you will play it atleast for 6 months - develop your char and tribe) or you do not like it after a very short period. You can try Xsyon before hand anyway - so if you like it the package should include more than 1 month to be competitive and reduce the initial hurdle to buy - (all IMHO).

trenixdecease

07-01-2013, 09:08 AM

This model will fail, because nothing that you own in a Sandbox Crafting MMORPG is certain. Therefore if you stop playing for a few years and return, most likely everything you worked for is now gone. So what's the point of ever coming back when you spent all that money on monthly fees and it couldn't even save your progress. Take for example an regular MMORPG, the only thing that matters is your character and your items. Both your character and your items are stored and you'll get it back whenever you return to the game. However in Xsyon, there is much more to this game than characters and items. Before you know it, your whole city can be gone. It's fun gameplay, but horrible for a monthly subscription. Find a way to make money off of cosmetics, it's the only free to play model that works. Restrictions just make people angry, so it's best to not have it at all.

GuideHael

07-01-2013, 11:51 AM

MrDDT

07-01-2013, 03:45 PM

Its not even once a month, its once every 2 months. If all you care about is your totem its once every 3 months.

Also in Xsyon you can log off with 1090 stacks of items. 90 slots for your pouches and bin on your back + 20 (20x50 = 1000) slot cart = 1090
Which will allow you to keep ALL your stats, and 1090 STACKS of items unlimited amount of time. Not counting you could make a free account give them a cart and load them up and log off also so you can store unlimited items, unlimited amount of time.

How many games does this for you? I'm sorry to say but Xsyon does a great job at protecting people and their tribes. If you are in a large tribe and you quit the game for 2+ months and your whole tribe quits for 2+ months, I would expect everything to be gone also. I know of no other game that allows you to do that.

Find a way to make money off of cosmetics, it's the only free to play model that works. Restrictions just make people angry, so it's best to not have it at all.

So all those games like WOW and stuff that have a monthly sub, are not "working"? Subscription models work just fine, and I happen to like them better than some free to play game where you have kids running around all day.

Jorias

07-02-2013, 04:29 AM

Only a handful will actually pay a subscription.

I actually hope this is the case...weeds out the d-bagging griefers....

trenixdecease

07-02-2013, 02:04 PM

If you let your sub slip you go down to 30 in skills but if you login regularly you can keep your tribe from going down. So basically you can keep all your gear, skills, and items by simply logging in once a month "without a sub". What games allow you to do that?

I don’t see how this little trick is a good thing. If anything, as a subscriber I would be a little annoyed that because someone paid for one month, he is capable of keeping his tribe. This is exactly why these kinds of things just don’t work. Besides, MANY people have other things to do. Like for example, I’m moving and who knows how long it’ll take me to settle down and play some Xsyon. It just doesn’t work well with this type of game.

Compare Wurm Online to Minecraft and notice which model was successful.

Its not even once a month, its once every 2 months. If all you care about is your totem its once every 3 months.

Also in Xsyon you can log off with 1090 stacks of items. 90 slots for your pouches and bin on your back + 20 (20x50 = 1000) slot cart = 1090
Which will allow you to keep ALL your stats, and 1090 STACKS of items unlimited amount of time. Not counting you could make a free account give them a cart and load them up and log off also so you can store unlimited items, unlimited amount of time.

How many games does this for you? I'm sorry to say but Xsyon does a great job at protecting people and their tribes. If you are in a large tribe and you quit the game for 2+ months and your whole tribe quits for 2+ months, I would expect everything to be gone also. I know of no other game that allows you to do that.

So all those games like WOW and stuff that have a monthly sub, are not "working"? Subscription models work just fine, and I happen to like them better than some free to play game where you have kids running around all day.

Very few MMORPGs survived with the buy to play then pay to play model. This is why most became free to play or close down their servers. Besides, while this game may be considered an MMORPG, but’s also a Crafting MMO where all your progress could disappear very easily. It’s hard enough to get people to play a game with this model, because I seriously couldn’t convince any of my friends to do it. Now if I told them they could lose their progress overtime if they don’t play, they’d laugh at me.

Jorias

07-02-2013, 04:21 PM

hmm interesting, I didn't think about people that quit with over 30 points in their skills, I agree that this needs to be looked at for people that want to take some sort of extended break from the game. As I do the same thing, I take breaks from games to work on something else in my life or whatnot. Being punished for taking a break seems, well heartless....this should change I think, maybe do something in the effect of being able to lock your account into "vacation" mode, which allows you to freeze all of your skills, but you are unable to access your account and play it for a month.

As far as items are concerned, I agree with the 1090 slot thingy, I mean honestly; you're not going to know what you want to do when you come back from the game 2 years from now, hence you're not going to know what items you're going to need.

GuideHael

07-02-2013, 10:23 PM

When you run out of premium play time, your skills go down to 30 if they were above. When you add premium play time to the account they go back to their original state.

Jorias

07-03-2013, 05:21 AM

When you run out of premium play time, your skills go down to 30 if they were above. When you add premium play time to the account they go back to their original state.

well then....no complaints from me then...good to know...thanks for the info Guidehael

GuideHael

07-03-2013, 09:18 AM

Anytime, :)

~Guidehael

patipibo

07-04-2013, 04:20 AM

I like the game and not realy expansiv in my opinion.
What i miss are alternativ Pay options like direct Debit
cause i forgot wich mail and passwort i used some years ago and cant use paypal >.<

(im not sure if the information would help but this is the service that Dragons Prophet use to loot my money :D
billingpartner.com/
i already spend 35$ for a few dragon slots and realy feeld pillaged.)

ehmmmm, that all should just say xsyon is the money worth :D

WarLord2424

07-16-2013, 02:28 AM

I think I figured out the perfect business model:

Most people aren't willing to subscribe to a game unless they're confident that they're going to like it. But with few videos on the game, it's hard to tell how much flexibility you get with creating your villages and such. People would want to try it first hand then considering it says play free. But, free accounts aren't allowed to do that. Since they're not sure how that element of gameplay is, they don't feel too confident in subscribing to play this game, and may end up become uninterested entirely.

So, what if you got a free few days of premium (3-7) from when you first activate your account? Then people would get to experience how the game truly is when you subscribe. But when that trial period is up, they'll feel that they didn't get to play enough, and they loved what they played. Now they're confident that what they just played is a great game, and will most likely subscribe.

But even if they are confident, $30 is a little high. In that case, I'd say just drop it down to $20. I know that's a lot to ask, but if you think about it, it would only be temporary. This game doesn't have a very large player-base yet. With a lower price however, more people would be tempted to put down the money for this game. Therefore, you guys would gain more players more rapidly. If I recall, you guys said that there will be different phases of this game. So, you guys could just drop the price to $20 for the 1st phase. Then, by the 2nd phase, you guys will have a more solid player-base. More players = more YouTubers. More YouTubers = More videos. More videos = More people who heard about the game. Basically by the 2nd phase, people would have already heard about the game. Since there would be a lot of videos about the game, people would be more confident of what they're getting into. Anyway, that would mean by the 2nd phase you would be able to raise up the price again. If you don't know what I mean, then let me try to make myself more clear. When people have no idea what this game is, they won't be too sure about it. But when the game is more established, they'll be more confident in it.

SHORT VERSION:
-Add a trial for premium
-Drop price of game long enough to gain a solid player-base

PS: Thank you so much for making this game! I've been looking for a game like this forever!

PSS: Not really a business model, but suggestions to make this one work :D

Willowhawk

07-16-2013, 07:01 AM

The reason trail accounts are not allowed to drop totems and build is because everything you do in Xsyon is permanent. Therefore what you would end up with is destroyed land as far as the eye can see because every free player would take a shovel to the land but not stay long enough to create anything but a giant dirt holes and strip the land of it's resources like scraps which are finite. Trial players can join a tribe and if the tribe allows they can build and do everything premium players can do :)

GuideHael

07-16-2013, 01:04 PM

I*snip

SHORT VERSION:
-Add a trial for premium
-Drop price of game long enough to gain a solid player-base

PS: Thank you so much for making this game! I've been looking for a game like this forever!

PSS: Not really a business model, but suggestions to make this one work :D

The game price was reduced only a few months ago, totem placement by free players is something I believe will be looked at once terrain reversion is done and on main. That alone will solve the permanent mess someone could potentially leave if they just drop totem, play around, and then leave as some people are worried might happen. I know that a shorter time frame would be needed to remove abandoned totems by f2p, two weeks should be plenty of time for a free player to keep a tribe active and possibly a reduced size than 25m? This can all be looked at and decided upon once Xsyon has terrain reversion and determines this is a priority over what he has planned for the coming months.

WarLord2424

07-17-2013, 05:29 AM

Realized that, so that pretty much rendered my mini-speech pointless, lol

EDIT: I just realized I met you in-game! I spawned in your tribe I think. Remember IvanT or scottyg1234?

WarLord2424

07-17-2013, 05:48 AM

Sorry, I realized I kind of sounded like a **** when I typed that up. But thanks for reading my ideas!

Btw, I had a question: Would anything happen if someone was premium and they were inactive for a long time?

Willowhawk

07-17-2013, 11:34 AM

Realized that, so that pretty much rendered my mini-speech pointless, lol

EDIT: I just realized I met you in-game! I spawned in your tribe I think. Remember IvanT or scottyg1234?

Hi IvanT, yes I remember you both talking in local. Welcome to Xsyon. I was going to invite you to tribe but you had already agreed to meet with another tribe leader and I didn't want to Ninja recruit :p

Sorry, I realized I kind of sounded like a **** when I typed that up. But thanks for reading my ideas!

Btw, I had a question: Would anything happen if someone was premium and they were inactive for a long time?

Yes, if you discontinue paying for your subscription your tribe totem will go into a decay phase. It takes about 3 months for total decay I believe. After a time Revenants will spawn. containers will become accessible and eventually the totem will disapear and the buildings will become accessible to anyone. However.... as long as someone in tribe has an active account this won't happen. Or if you come back after a month and re-sub it will reset your tribe back to normal. :cool:

Cromagnon

07-26-2013, 07:55 AM

MrDDT

07-27-2013, 02:11 AM

Crom what are you talking about?

Currencies in game have nothing to do with crafting, in fact they are not needed whatsoever.

GuideHael

07-27-2013, 07:44 AM

The payment model is not disgusting at all. Whats disgusting is a game that says it's free to play, but when you get in game you find there are 30 currencies, and you need special items to craft that can only be bought with 1 or more of 30 different currencies. I have noticed this trend in FTP games, it disgusts me. They try to make everything as confusing as possible so if you want to spend money; you often buy the wrong item because of 1,000,000,000 different forms of in game payment (diamonds,rubies,gold,etc......). A straight 9.99$ payment is much more open and honest than a game that hires psychologists to figure out how to trick people into spending as much money as possible. Don't be a sucker :), Put the kool-aid down, don't drink it.

Currency is whatever someone uses for a trade, someone may want nails and another may want bolts as a form of payment. The players set what is valuable to them, somethings are commonly used by the players more so than others but that usually comes from what is harder to acquire through scavenging.

Special items to craft? There are no special items that may only be bought with currency, anyone that is working their toolcraft up can and will eventually make just about every tool anyone would need for a craft. If you are not doing toolcrafting then yes, you will need to perform trades with other players or get them from members of your tribe.

Xsyon does not have a set currency for trade between players, that is ran by them. As a player I like that system because it allows me to use any form of item for trades and so, not one single item is king and the market is not cornered by a person or group of individuals.

Willowhawk

07-27-2013, 05:25 PM

I believe Cromagnon was complimenting Xsyons business model and criticizing the other FTP type games as he mentioned "They try to make everything as confusing as possible, and "diamonds,rubies,gold,etc" and saying the $9.95 a month (That Xsyon charges) is much more open and honest. :)

GuideHael

07-28-2013, 07:19 AM

;) I think you may be right. I can see it now after reading it again, hard to follow.

Azzym

07-28-2013, 11:24 PM

MrDDT

07-29-2013, 02:43 AM

Indeed he was. The example is from Runes of Magic, which uses a very confusing model.

Sorry Chrom for the missunderstanding I had reading your post.

I do however, disagree that a straight X$ monthly payment is best. I think some games that works very well with, I look at many games where paying a monthly fee to play and have all the perks is not really good. However, in Xsyon because of how the game works and changing of the world/land and open PVP. I believe the straight X$ a month works well, with free to play being a limited form of play that if you keep playing over time you would want to upgrade.

Cromagnon

07-30-2013, 11:32 AM

Crom what are you talking about?

Currencies in game have nothing to do with crafting, in fact they are not needed whatsoever.

I'm talking about some (not all) FTP models. Not Xsyon. Point was; for 9.99$ I get the game. Not a chance for a special item, or a diamond or ruby supply, or turbine points. I just get full access to the game. Easy, straightforward, no BS.

Gorukha

08-10-2013, 11:14 PM

The only problem I have is how limited the f2p option is. It's very restrictive and I agree with some people here that it is a bit unethical to advertise as f2p while offering a never ending free-trial model. I disagree with many who believe you can't do a f2p model without making it pay to win. There is plenty of non invasive ways of making money while keeping the game generally fair.
True f2p is about being able to achieve the same thing as other people to a point but the difference will usually be in the time you can achieve it. So a person who pays a sub skills up faster, it will take you twice as long as a free player. Many cosmetic options. Cooler looking armour textures, goofy clothes. Whatever. Plenty of other ways without making the game rediculous while turning a profit. Problem with most niche sandbox games isn't the business model, it's because they are crap :P(salem)

MrDDT

08-11-2013, 02:51 AM

I don't think there is anyone saying that this a game where you do not get better gameplay and things if you pay/subscribe. I'm not seeing that and I don't believe Xsyon is trying to make it seem like that. It's clearly outlined what you get and can't get as a free member.

The way I look at it is, the free to play is more of a chance to try the game and see if its even in the realm of something you like. It also allows you to get started on building a toon, then later once you find out you do like the game you can use what you did as a free to play and its not lost, allowing you to advance further into the game and do more and larger things.

This game could do the cosmetic options like other F2P games, but I doubt it would work well. Mostly those other games have massive amounts of people playing them, which means people want to A) Show themselves off more, and B) They don't need a large % of the population to buy the items to turn a profit. This is a niche game as you said. You wont have 100's of 1000s of people playing it. Another issue with your "cosmetic" option is that you much have artists and coders on hand to keep updating the game with new options. This is something this game is already lacking, and valued resources (money and time) are already over stretched doing bug fixing and content updates. Adding a cool looking items and other things like that would remove these artists and coders from doing major feature improvements/updates and bug fixes.

There is nothing wrong with a subscriber based payment model with a free/trial option. It works in many games and it's suited for this game due to how the game works with changing the world, limited resources, and open FFA full loot PVP.

Anyone that can't pay the 10$ a month for this game after trial is likely the wrong type of players anyways and likely fly by night. This game is a LONG slow paced game. Projects take months (and sometimes even over a year) to complete. I've never ever ever heard of a free to play player playing ANY game over 6 months.

So I would just assume that the "free to play" in Xsyon is more of a "Free to learn/try". Because really that's what its mostly for. Once you start playing for 1 or 2 months, you will want to either quit, or upgrade.

tomduril

08-12-2013, 04:20 AM

Agreed - it should be spelled "Free to try" - instead of "Free to play" - because it is a trail account.

However as someone raised yesterday - the limitations are not well enough explained.

Highlights of the "free to try" are:
*) unlimited trail period
*) full interaction with all players
*) experience nearly all parts of the sandbox game
*) can upgrade to full membership
*) if membership is paused, progress will not be removed (though you can not progress during a pause)

I think that the last point (that you can actually pause your membership) is something noteworthy as you can still access your char and interact with the other players. And you will be able to go on from the point where you have paused your membership that will lower the barrier to become a full member.
But that could also only be my humble opinion.

Eyesgood

08-28-2013, 05:56 PM

Not to derail the thread, but I would like to add that some of the game mechanics are actually more of a deterrent than the business model. For example, I came back to the game a couple of months ago to find my totem and small homestead gone. However, my cart was still there and I was able to get much of my items back. However, dragging my cart from Rainy River over to MrDDT's village took me almost half an hour and I am talking about a distance of maybe a few hundred yards. Carts are great and all, but when you crawl from place to place dragging everything you own, you can't go anywhere. I wanted to go off and find a new place and maybe start over, but because my cart slowed me to a crawl, I had to ask to join another deed. I ended up just planting a place nearby because MrDDT was busy doing something elsewhere and didn't have a chance to get me settled into his place. No worries, but that whole cart dragging is a real pain and bane to progress I think.

One more thing. New players cant even catch a rat, much less kill one. The creatures are ridiculously too overpowered, too fast, and too hard to kill. And the Revs.... oh my goodness... Forget killing the one that killed you to get your gear back...

So in essence, I am one of those players that would absolutely, positively STILL be subbed on this game if travel was not so ridiculously slow, if the creatures were more accurately powered, and if the Revs were less powerful.

Update: I logged in, 3 Revs immediately attacked and killed me. Now, I am stuck at the beginner island because my totem decayed. My cart is all the way down at MrDDT area and I have nothing. Am I going all the way back down there? Why? they will just kill me again. Besides, even if I retrieved my cart, it would take a month of walking to drag that cart down to the starter area and relocate. Its a shame...

MrDDT

08-29-2013, 03:40 AM

Those were good points Eyesgood, however, there have been changes since this.

One change is the fact in this last patch many items were cut way down in weight.
Another major change is animals have been made much slower and weaker. Small animals more so than others. You can now easy run away from most aggressive animals quite easy.

A few things to note about your issues.
If you replace a totem on that Rev factory you have, they will no longer spawn there once you kill them off. Many players in game also can be paid, or just asked to kill them off for you.
Another thing is that likely many of the items you are "hauling" is next to worthless, and just leave it on the ground in a basket and come back for it later, or craft/use it at that spot. You shouldn't need to move much heavy stuff in this game from camp to camp mostly even if you have not played much also.

I think personally the biggest issue isn't the problems you are listing. (Granted they are but not that bad many games have those) The biggest issue is simply there is no instruction on how the game works, hovering over items, or crafting, no tutorial, nothing that explains what does, rules or anything. They drop you into a world and you must sink or swim as they say. Xsyon has a huge learning curve, the wiki is next to worthless because few if anyone is updating it.

In my humble opinion a tutorial with rewards (minor rewards like a tool or a weapon) would do this game wonders. Even joining a tribe cant do as much as a tutorial can do for many.

Brochim

09-02-2013, 03:16 AM

I'm surprised to see nobodie has mentioned that there are no F2P restrictions on the trial server.

So I know the test server is reset weekly, So anythingthey do thre will dissapear. But if were talking about people wanting to try features of the game they would have to subscribe for. The short, Unrestricted acess of the trial server should be more then enough for them to try out thouse features and then decide weather they want to proceedto buy the game. One thing i would say there is that the devs could update accounts more often. I had been playing for nearly 2 weeks and was already prem befor i could get on the test server

And as with many others here. I've spent more on F2P games then i ever have on subs. I know what I'm spending and what I'm getting.

And though i admit the game isnt finished yet, thats a none issue to me anyway. The dev team are very active are very active releaseing regular updates to the game. Not only do i get to see the game grow around me, But since the devs take community feedback into account on all there decisions I'm getting more of the game I want to play.

I'm not dogging on F2P games there are some really good F2P games out there. But none of them are as free as they claim, They just use different methods to make a proffit.