Payment schemes

[DviddLeff]

Putting this thread up for us to discuss payment ideas for the game, which is an extremely important aspect as it represents a hurdle that must be jumped before people can become players.

Most MMOs and PS1 included have the subscription option where you pay monthly... generally requiring a credit card to help pay for server upkeep and (hopefully) development of the game and moderators. FPS gamers are not used to this at all, aside from free games FPS's are a one payment deal.

Since PS was released we have seen other options develop; Guild Wars proved that a subscription free MMO could work, although you did pay for expansions as they were released.

We have also seen cash shops develop, and not only in MMOs but also in FPS games such as TF2. These shops have met with huge criticism when they have allowed players to purchase advantages and rightly so.

PS had a free trial program, "Reserves", which allowed people to play for free up to BR6 and another later trial that allowed people to play for 14 days. These initially worked fantastically to increase populations, but the 14 day trial was then abused by hackers forcing it to be shut down. This could have been averted by requiring a credit card for registration, or putting it through Steam for example.

Now for PS2 it is vital that we get as many players in the game as possible, and as such I suggest using a variety of different schemes:

• Free Trial: Maximum BR6*, CR0*, Cannot lead squads
• Box purchased only: Maximum BR10*, CR3*
• Subscription: Maximum BR 20*, CR5*.
• Once a player has been subscribed for three years, they get to carry on without paying further subscriptions.
• Alternatively players could spend the equivalent of a years subscription to become a lifetime member, with the same opportunities of a subscribed player, but no recurring cost.

*BR/CR Values equivalent to PS1 ranks.

This scheme allows players to try the game, buy it like a standard FPS or MMO and get various (versatility) advantages by paying more, while still retaining the even playing field that the game needs.

Thoughts?

[Bruttal]

what happens when i cancel my subscription but already over BR10 CR3 just couldn't pay it this month or whatever

[bjorntju1]

I am not really a fan of a free 2 play model. What i personaly want is that you just buy the game in a store, and you can play as much as you want until a certain BR/CR and skill limit. You can still play if you reached the limit, but you cant gain a higher BR/CR. (ala Reserves) And if you buy an subscription you can get to the highest BR/CR possible and no skill limit. And since you are a subscriber you also get some more extra's. Such as some exclusive customization things only for subscribers. And they said there will be a cashshop. I assume it will use Station Cash then, and every month you will get some ''free'' station cash to buy ingame stuff with. And maybe some other features they didn't talk about yet.

So even though the Free 2 play model will bring much more players in, you also get much more assholes ruining it for the rest. Sure, you can ban them. But they will just make a new account since it is free. I think it is an better idea to just make it buy 2 play with an optional subscription, and if the player level comes to a critical level, they could always make the game free 2 play later such as TF2 did. And players who brought the game will get some extra's for buying the game before it was free to play.

The idea of a one time purchase for a lifetime subscription sounds good too. So i agree on most of your points. Apart for the free 2 play model with i am not that fan of. But maybe that is because almost every free to play game i played is shit. (TF2 doesn't count since you needed to buy that before the game became free)

Originally Posted by Bruttal

what happens when i cancel my subscription but already over BR10 CR3 just couldn't pay it this month or whatever

Lets say you are BF 11 and CR4. You will keep that rank, you only can't progress further. But you will still keep the rank and the benefits that go with that rank.

[Redshift]

I'd like to see a gametime/subscription model

so people who play often can pay a flat rate per month, and casual players can pay on a per hour basis, as in buy 10 hours of game time for a few quid type thing

That way it's always cheaper to subscribe if you play lots, or if you only play for an hour a night you can pay as you go

[kaffis]

A subscription will kill this game. Unless it's preposterously cheap, at which point, you're better off just doing a cash shop of some sort.

If there's a perception that "playing PS2 is cool, but I can't afford a subscription and game X is good enough and doesn't have a bill attached," PS2 loses population the same way PS1 did.

[Brusi]

Originally Posted by Bruttal

what happens when i cancel my subscription but already over BR10 CR3 just couldn't pay it this month or whatever

Good point, i spose your cert training advancement could be halted until you start paying again if you were already over the BR10 equiv.

I like the big, one-off and the minimum time subbed methods to allow life-long membership ideas, as this is one of the main reasons i stopped playing years ago.

who can afford to pay $15 a month for a game you maybe get to play once a month.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by bjorntju1

The idea of a one time purchase for a lifetime subscription sounds good too.

That doesn't work btw, either the game folds before you recoup your money or the game carries on for longer and the company ends up loosing money from a lack of subs.
If you see a subs model like that it's most likely the game developer doesn't have high hopes for their product

[bjorntju1]

Originally Posted by Redshift

That doesn't work btw, either the game folds before you recoup your money or the game carries on for longer and the company ends up loosing money from a lack of subs.
If you see a subs model like that it's most likely the game developer doesn't have high hopes for their product

Maybe, but it is also a good way to bring money in fast when the game is released. They could do it as a special action where you could get a life time subscription in the first week/month the game is released. and after that you can't buy it anymore. If something like that would come i would probably buy it depending on the price. It it is something like 200 i wouldn't do it. But if it is around 100 i probably will. They also already have a 3 year plan for the game so i don't suppose they will kill of the game after a year.

[Bags]

Originally Posted by kaffis

A subscription will kill this game. Unless it's preposterously cheap, at which point, you're better off just doing a cash shop of some sort.

If there's a perception that "playing PS2 is cool, but I can't afford a subscription and game X is good enough and doesn't have a bill attached," PS2 loses population the same way PS1 did.

Proof? PS1 didn't die because it had subs.
____________________
Wow Leff, I never thought I'd agree with you on anything. That's pretty much exactly what I came up with when I thought about it.

[Logit]

Originally Posted by kaffis

A subscription will kill this game. Unless it's preposterously cheap, at which point, you're better off just doing a cash shop of some sort.

If there's a perception that "playing PS2 is cool, but I can't afford a subscription and game X is good enough and doesn't have a bill attached," PS2 loses population the same way PS1 did.

Doubtful.

There is a long list of reasons why PS1 didn't succeed, but I think it's pretty safe to say that the subscriptions were a very small part of that.

Now that subscriptions are fairly common place I don't see it being much of an issue at all. But to say it was the reason the game failed, or the next one will is a tad ridiculous.

[Sirisian]

One of my friends on IRC wouldn't play PS1 because of the subscription. There are a small set of people that don't see the reason for having a subscription for a game and prefer expansion packs a la guild wars.

Personally I'd prefer a 50 USD release with 1 month free then a 10 USD a month subscription. Also a 15 day credit card unlocked trial. That's it.

[Crator]

If SOE has a good anti-cheat program, which they said they did get one for PS2, we don't have to worry about free trials and hackers anymore. So I say go for the free trials (reserves) path. Limit the BR and training points. I also like the idea posed above about being able to buy play time by the hour. Also, if an offer from SOE came that gave sub for life for $200 in the first few weeks, month of the game, I would defiantly buy it. They probably wouldn't offer something like that for a very long time because they got to make money.

[NlightN]

OPer, plz see this recent thread about the ideal payment plan.


.....in which the consensus basicly ended up as PS2 should have a F2P model with the option for a premium sub, with premium benefits. Though whether there should be a boxed copy or not is still debatable.

[SavageB]

Originally Posted by kaffis

A subscription will kill this game. Unless it's preposterously cheap, at which point, you're better off just doing a cash shop of some sort.

If there's a perception that "playing PS2 is cool, but I can't afford a subscription and game X is good enough and doesn't have a bill attached," PS2 loses population the same way PS1 did.

Cant say I agree with you at all on the sub part. PS1 had subs and did fine in its prime, people didint mind paying the 15/month for hours and hours of entertainment.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by bjorntju1

Maybe, but it is also a good way to bring money in fast when the game is released. They could do it as a special action where you could get a life time subscription in the first week/month the game is released. and after that you can't buy it anymore. If something like that would come i would probably buy it depending on the price. It it is something like 200 i wouldn't do it. But if it is around 100 i probably will. They also already have a 3 year plan for the game so i don't suppose they will kill of the game after a year.

Thats precisly the point, if you assume they want to run the game for exactly 3 years then your £100 lifetime membership covers about a years worth of normal membership, i.e each liftime membership looses them 2/3rds of their revenue, and it only gets worse the longer the game lasts for.
Lifetime memberships are offered by companies who expect the game to fail since thats the only situation it is advantageous to the company