How much subscription are you willing to pay? - Page 5

brinkdadrink · 2011-03-02, 04:59 PM

With a monthly subscription atleast the Devs will focus on more things to add to the game to effectively change it up a little over time to keep people interested and possibly new gamer subs.

If MT are in place most of thier time will be focused on adding stuff to make money like a santa hat to buy or what not and hopefully that doesnt lead to adding things to effect the game. You already mentioned buying XP boosters which does effect the game upfront atleast.

I dont mind paying a monthly fee of hopefully 10 but probably be 15 and allow people to play up to BR5 or 6 and CR1 for free continuously. If their hooked eventually they will pay subs and if there not they wont pay if you make them anyway. More pop and people can at least get their friends to play who might sub up later.

brinkdadrink · 2011-03-02, 05:13 PM

Eve has a way to play for free using in-game cash which most people that i know do and hold 3-4 accounts for free. All games especially FPS games should have a way to play for free either later on or early on but restricted enough that if you dont pay something you will not be up to par.

Wrath · 2011-03-02, 05:46 PM

yeah eve does have a way to play for free I ran 3 accounts for nearly 2 years off plex's but it means having to spend nearly a billion isk a month on keeping your accounts going which is a lot of wasted profit.

issue is blink is that having a free to play version and a paided for is not really different from having a MT system where you can buy better armour and weapons .

also the other issue is having free 2 play alongside a sub game also makes it easier for hackers to create accounts and spoil the game.

Timantium · 2011-03-03, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by Wrath

Timantium if you dont think people can be talked into paying a little extra for somethinf unquie you've missed the lesson of eve, granted they have a massve about of multi accounters but they have one of the most expensive subs out there and have still managed to grow the game mostly on word of mouth and good press coverage.

simply selling the game on its unique nature and its sandbox type game play something PS can do also

I guess I did miss the lesson of eve, since I've never bothered to pay to play it. Which is exactly my point. Many FPS players will do exactly what I chose to do - play the game that is most easily accessible to them and enjoy it.

It's not like the console FPS games are struggling to make money. Planetside has struggled to maintain playerbase for years. Selling the game is going to take a lot more incentive than simply telling people it has "unique nature" through word of mouth and press coverage.

If SOE's plan is to rely on word of mouth and good press coverage (which is never a guarantee), then they are planning to fail. I hope they are thinking about this game seriously enough to make it a LONG TERM investment instead of a smash-and-grab one.

Simply releasing a game (a sequel to a totally underpopulated MMO no less) with a standard monthly sub attached to it is simply not enough to entice new players to try it out.

Yes, all of us will play it, and we will love it. We will tell our friends to try it, about half of them will, and about half of those might play for a year. After that, there will be nothing UNLESS they start thinking differently and plan ahead by coming up with many more smaller ways to make money on the game instead of one tired way to make money.

**EDIT**
And for the record, I do support a monthly sub, just not a standard $14.99 sub. I want a sub that is more reflective of the FPS market (X-Box Live = competition, Sony should know all about this). I want this to go with a cosmetic MT market where people can use station cash to buy the "I'm special" stuff that MMO players freak out about. The sales from the MT store should be enough to replace, and hopefully for SOE, exceed the lost income from a lower sub.

And, I'll ask again since nobody ever answers, who is being hurt (what is the drawback) by SOE offering a lower monthly sub with a cosmetic MT store?

CGar · 2011-03-03, 04:04 PM

If the game is done very well, I'd be willing to pay $15, but I honestly think that is too steep for such a relatively small audience. If Planetside wants to get big, they need to make the entrance barriers as low as possible, while ensuring it is still profitable.

Traak · 2011-03-03, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by CGar

If the game is done very well, I'd be willing to pay $15, but I honestly think that is too steep for such a relatively small audience. If Planetside wants to get big, they need to make the entrance barriers as low as possible, while ensuring it is still profitable.

I dunno. I don't know if MMOFPS players are really so price-fixated as quality-fixated. If we wanted low prices, we would be console gamers, strictly, not PC gamers, where just getting in the game costs about double a console. Having an awesomely effective rig starts at about four times the console price. I think we are more enjoyable-experience-focused than minimum-price-enticed.

Tikuto · 2011-03-04, 04:04 AM

In my future I may not be able to get a subscription. I'll be praying it's a free-to-play...

Bags · 2011-03-04, 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by CGar

If the game is done very well, I'd be willing to pay $15, but I honestly think that is too steep for such a relatively small audience. If Planetside wants to get big, they need to make the entrance barriers as low as possible, while ensuring it is still profitable.

If $15 is a big entrance barrier for players I suggest they look elsewhere for entertainment. Video games aren't the cheapest. Renting books from the library is free, however.

Wrath · 2011-03-04, 12:47 PM

Timantium xbox live is not competion for PS:N in any way shape of form and console FPS games arent making any money from x box live subs they are making a shed load of money from the MT the £9 for 3 new maps then £7 for a couple of new weapons. stuff we are PC gamers get for free because they dont have to support that games with servers.

and seriously man stop being so blind to how strong press and word of mouth is in the PC market. like i said look at games like eve. you want FPS explains look at battlefield the closest thing PS has to direction competion BF:1942 was a good game but wasnt a massive sucess it wasnt till a modding crew brought desert combat and press and word of mouth got around and people went back and bought the game.

the PC market is built around community strong communitys breed strong games and sony will create a strong communty like TF2 has like WOW has buy supporting there game fully with 1-2 monthly content patches and seasonal events keep throwing the gamers something new.

i'm not saying I dont like the idea of lower subs ofcourse I do but what i'm saying is if sony fully support the game like I said above. that i'd be willing to pay the higher then average fee for that support. ofcourse i'd like to pay as little as possable i'm just saying from my point of view its the support that the game gets that is key for me not some much the sub fee.

Traak · 2011-03-04, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by Bags

If $15 is a big entrance barrier for players I suggest they look elsewhere for entertainment. Video games aren't the cheapest. Renting books from the library is free, however.

Yes, I suggest a player's guide for Planetside, something I should have read a long time ago, but was too busy annoying people in global to bother with.

Timantium · 2011-03-04, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by Bags

If $15 is a big entrance barrier for players I suggest they look elsewhere for entertainment. Video games aren't the cheapest. Renting books from the library is free, however.

Yes, $15 sounds cheaper than a console game that costs $60 ($120 with a year of X-Box Live). But PS:N wants a persistent subscriber base to go with the persistent world.

$15 x 8 (months) = $120

So at $15 per month it takes 8 months before the console games are actually less of a barrier than a subscriber MMO. Plus, people have forgotten how much they paid for the console games two weeks after they buy them. So, after 2 weeks the console game feels free to play while the subscriber only game still costs $15 a month.

P.S. I love the library, I stopped buying books two years ago.

I shortened most of this down because parts didn't make sense or address anything that I was talking about.

Originally Posted by Wrath

the PC market is built around community strong communitys breed strong games and sony will create a strong communty like TF2 has like WOW has buy supporting there game fully with 1-2 monthly content patches and seasonal events keep throwing the gamers something new.

i'm not saying I dont like the idea of lower subs ofcourse I do but what i'm saying is if sony fully support the game like I said above. that i'd be willing to pay the higher then average fee for that support. ofcourse i'd like to pay as little as possable i'm just saying from my point of view its the support that the game gets that is key for me not some much the sub fee.

I understand the advantage of a subscriber driven game. Once again, I am not suggesting that there should not be a subscription for this game (sorry for the double negative, but not really - crap, now it's a triple negative).

And yes, if SOE wants to increase their playerbase in PS:N, the console FPS and the fantasy MMO markets are the ones they will need to invade. To do this, they will have to adjust their business model from the tired $14.99/month subscription game.

For the sake of the argument, let's say they were to do what you are asking them to do - charge $14.99/month and justify that price by releasing/supporting 1-2 monthly content patches. What kind of content can they add to a persistent world FPSMMO every 60 days?

We need to stop looking at this like it's a fantasy MMO like WoW, where developers depend on things like story and new PvE content to drive story. This is an entirely player vs. player game world. What could they possibly add that would extend the game without:

throw off the balance of the existing game
alienate new players from veterans
dilute battles by providing too many neutral targets

I understand that your argument and yes, I would like to see continual development and investment in PS:N. We have to realize that this is not the same animal as the vast majority of games who use the $14.99/month subscription fee. It is a unique gaming experience (which I love) and should be aproached from a unique marketing and business strategy.

Wrath · 2011-03-05, 05:06 AM

TF2 manage to do content patches upgrading and changing various classes every 3-4 months and worked very week for them. EVE does 2 free updates a year with content and features. to justify its £15 a month sub.

and for all your trying to distances PS from WOW in saying its not a fantasy game it is a science fiction game and while the history off the game was never really taken advantage off in the orginal game. its something that should be pushed for more in this game.

story events for players to take part in having a general idea of what an expansion or change is going to be before hand and doing events for long times before it happens to built up to it. the sundering is a massive thing that in the build up for it was brillaint more stuff like that for PS:N to keep people interested.

people used to buy FPS games to play the single player you know for the story of that single player. in a game like planetside having a story for the players to fight over adds that bit of depth and again adds something to it that no other game has right now.

Traak · 2011-03-05, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by Wrath

TF2 manage to do content patches upgrading and changing various classes every 3-4 months and worked very week for them. EVE does 2 free updates a year with content and features. to justify its £15 a month sub.

and for all your trying to distances PS from WOW in saying its not a fantasy game it is a science fiction game and while the history off the game was never really taken advantage off in the orginal game. its something that should be pushed for more in this game.

story events for players to take part in having a general idea of what an expansion or change is going to be before hand and doing events for long times before it happens to built up to it. the sundering is a massive thing that in the build up for it was brillaint more stuff like that for PS:N to keep people interested.

people used to buy FPS games to play the single player you know for the story of that single player. in a game like planetside having a story for the players to fight over adds that bit of depth and again adds something to it that no other game has right now.

I wonder what story elements we could have that wouldn't have two empires blubbering and shrieking that they got stiffed.

How about no one even gets weapons other than knives and pistols for the first week. Then as the empires evolve, heavier and heavier weapons come along that intensify the combat over a long period of time. Instead of *boom* noob comes in, spends half an hour in VR, then can cert Vanguard and/or Unimax, how about none of us can get the really juicy stuff right off the bat?

Give us something to look forward to, something to fight for, and something to defend. As it is we have the last two, but the first one?

Further, weapons could rotate in and out, so we could have weeks of no HA, no AA, no CE, no MA, no SA, no MAXes, so people would have to actually THINK and plan ahead.

These are just brainstorming ideas. People might find after being deprived of their favorite drug for a week that AA or CE wasn't really that much fun to do ANYWAY, and they might drop it for something that is more interesting to them that they wouldn't have tried much before, if at all.

A week of:
no vehicles at all except Sunderer variants
no planes but Galaxies
no weapons but HA
no armor but RExo

Or, a week of
towers that randomly flip every five minutes, or at random intervals
bases that have five minute hack timers for LLU runs
bases that have invincible turrets
bases that have all doors jammed open, all terms indestructible, and all empire items available

A week of
everyone is a cloaker, and no radar operates for anyone
whole continents of interlink, where no one can hide from radar from anyone
deployable towers
deployable wall turrets
destructible bases
invincible tanks
unhackable anything
OS's only killing the person who tries to use them, and nobody else. Hey, let's make that a permanent feature!
No global comms
No comms at all
CR5's all being stuck at CR0, BR1.
CR5's all being stuck with one ability only: driving AMSes. No shooting, no globals, no CE, no hacking, no doing anything at all except AMSes and that is IT.

Days of
Night. Pitch black dark, not something anyone can use gamma to correct, because everything will be precisely the same shade: black. Except the sky, which can be deep purple. Only light will be via vehicle headlights and weapons flashes, jet exhausts, dropper trails, max jumpjets, etc.

Storms. Storms that kill radar, blow comms in anything but local, and disable looking at map. Visibility will be reduced to 100 feet, and sounds will be muffled beyond fifty. This needs to be something some creeps can't just flick a switch and eliminate. Placing code that allows devs to quickly see who is scoring sniper kills at 500m will show up the cheaters quickly.

Freezing weather: ice forms on all bodies of water, and everyone can just skate across. However, traction will be limited, so accelerations for vehicles will be reduced, but sliding will be possible. And, mines, boomers, AV, heavy weapons can blow holes in the ice, creating zones where vehicles can fall in. However, the holes quickly re-freeze.

Uber-max, where maxes are unkillable. Of course, no one in a max could hack anything, but they would be safe in their suit.

Max-only, but maxes can use any weapon, use REK, etc. Still slow and clumsy, but more varied in their available activities.

Run and gun: maxes can shoot anytime, running, walking, whatever.

Generator madness: Generators running around everywhere, bleating like sheep. The Vanu would win the kills for this one.

Infinite ammo: no one ever has to reload. Just drop a brick on the trigger button and go, go, go.

Vehicles have two states: full speed and stopped.

LLU guy can be carried in any vehicle, plane, whatever, go through WG's, Routers, puberty, whatever.

There are so many things, most of which wouldn't require any great coding genius to execute.

Get some variety. And give us something to look forward to, and something entertaining to laugh at. We could find out new fun things in the game, and have a ball if the only way we could win, literally, was by out-kamikazeing galaxies into enemies, or some other crazy modification.