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Etherdrifter

Free Players in Wurm

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"If you're not willing to buy/earn premium/silver you are not contributing to the game" is a common attitude to encounter among the wurm community.  I hope to change that opinion slightly.

 

Free players are:

 

  • Your community.  A world populated with free players is a world populated with a much more diverse mindset than one populated mostly by paying players, it also has a much larger population.  (http://massivelyop.com/2016/07/11/evolve-player-population-explodes-following-free-to-play-transition/)
  • Your content creators.  IFree players often impact the world more than paying players, they are the makers of small camps and little cottages.  They help bring the world to life and give you places to explore.
  • Your ego boost.  They're another person to come and tell you how amazing your place looked and, lets be honest, thats why most folks play wurm.  They validate all those long hours you spent into grinding masonary/carpentry/gardening etc up.
  • Your future.  As older players leave new players are needed to replace them or you end up with a ghost-town mmorpg.

 

I hope that little list has given you at least one new insight into the value of free players and that the next time you see a suggestion aimed at making their life easier you'll consider giving it a +1 rather than saying "non-paying players have no value".  More importantly, I hope some of you are now having those little wheels turning in your mind saying "changing premium to a convenience mechanic rather than a content wall might be the best path for wurm to take since then we'd have more free players".

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The game is basicly free to play, unless you want to skill up beyond the  20 skill cap, you want more, want to create even fancier  deeds?  pay and support the game, as it can use al lthe money it gets from the current players.

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36 minutes ago, Elwood2 said:

The game is basicly free to play, unless you want to skill up beyond the  20 skill cap, you want more, want to create even fancier  deeds?  pay and support the game, as it can use al lthe money it gets from the current players.

He is talking about some part of the community attitudes not againts support the game...

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If you don't want to pay, you can do whatever you want with your 20 level skills.    If you want to go further, start paying.    Bloody kids these days always want stuff for free.....

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Free players are indeed vital to Wurm. I would imagine that most brand new players- myself included- started with a free account and then because they could see the almost limitless possibilities of Wurm decided to take a chance and become premium.

 

Not everybody decides to take that plunge but I still like to see new players in local as it allows me to act as a lower-level CA and show off a little of my knowledge in the hope that I have made the game a little more enjoyable for them. 

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1 hour ago, Greyfox said:

If you don't want to pay, you can do whatever you want with your 20 level skills.    If you want to go further, start paying.    Bloody kids these days always want stuff for free.....

 

2 hours ago, Elwood2 said:

The game is basicly free to play, unless you want to skill up beyond the  20 skill cap, you want more, want to create even fancier  deeds?  pay and support the game, as it can use al lthe money it gets from the current players.

 

I think these comments roughly sum up my point nicely.  CNR on both counts.

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Convince the server hosting company in germany  first please

 

i am sure free data will do wonders for their business model.

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, elroth said:

Convince the server hosting company in germany  first please

 

i am sure free data will do wonders for their business model.

 

 

Considering wurm's population was once double what it is now I am certain the hosting companies would be overjoyed?

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33 minutes ago, Etherdrifter said:

 

Considering wurm's population was once double what it is now I am certain the hosting companies would be overjoyed?


You have no idea how hosting companies make their money do you?

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Player count is very tangential to the costs of running the servers, as wurm doesn't generate that much traffic and most CPU time and RAM is spend simulating the map and creatures, not players.

 

Also WTF any of that has to do with what the OP posted?

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Very shortsighted to consider only those, who pay, as contributing to the game.

As mentioned in OP, free players contribute to the world, making people more willing to spend their money. And most important thing is, they are playing Wurm, IF they get money and are willing to spend it on online entertainment, it is very likely, that it will be spent on Wurm.

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16 hours ago, Greyfox said:


You have no idea how hosting companies make their money do you?

 

Generally by designing packages with various limitations on them so folks will spend more money.  More bandwidth usage => higher cost for the user.

 

Its been a while since I've gone through the joy of obtaining a dedicated server but I doubt things have changed much in 3 years.

Edited by Etherdrifter

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On ‎18‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 2:59 PM, elroth said:

Convince the server hosting company in germany  first please

 

i am sure free data will do wonders for their business model.

 

 

 

 

On ‎18‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 5:14 PM, Etherdrifter said:

 

Considering wurm's population was once double what it is now I am certain the hosting companies would be overjoyed?

 

 

7 hours ago, Etherdrifter said:

 

Generally by designing packages with various limitations on them so folks will spend more money.  More bandwidth usage => higher cost for the user.

 

Its been a while since I've gone through the joy of obtaining a dedicated server but I doubt things have changed much in 3 years.


Explain then how free data would be good for their business?

End of the day, stuff costs money to produce.   You want it, you pay for it.
Free without restrictions just translates into "Gold farmers"  in every game that has unrestricted free play.   Also, people who can't be bothered to pay for Wurm will likely not add anything to the ingame economy because, well, they are simply to cheap to pay for stuff and demand that everything be handed to them for free.

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7 hours ago, Greyfox said:

Explain then how free data would be good for their business?

End of the day, stuff costs money to produce.   You want it, you pay for it.
Free without restrictions just translates into "Gold farmers"  in every game that has unrestricted free play.   Also, people who can't be bothered to pay for Wurm will likely not add anything to the ingame economy because, well, they are simply to cheap to pay for stuff and demand that everything be handed to them for free.

it looks like somehow you missed the point that wurm its not a hosting company.

 

lets talk about one of those disgusting "gold farmers" im now retired but i played wurm on and off for about 5 years, in all that time i only payed with for premium with real money 2 or 3 months and i made like 900 euros out of wurm (most of it when i left and sold everything)

 

i also managed alliances that helped keep lots of people playing for years that would have left if those didnt exist,i helped tons of new players by anwering questions,giving away decent weapons,armors and tools,i was a CA/CM/FM for like 2 years made and mantained the comunity maps for 3 or 4 servers for years,participated in comunity events as much as i could,even helped organize some of them, gave a place to start the game to many new players that later went on to play on their own, i sold tons of things,making others spend their money to buy them.i made many suggestions that were implemented like reinforcements for mine floors or changing the name of the help forums to be more welcoming to all players.

 

so, sure keep believing that the average "paying players" contributes more than i did and all i did was worthless.

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And um, last I checked over 40k people owned a copy of WU.

These people spend loads of cash on other things ig than on prem.

It is not like there are no other ways to gain cash for Codeclub than via the prem.

 

Make deeds more expencive and prem free, more people will play the game.

40k who owns WU, the reasons are not only mods and own servers.

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1 hour ago, Cecci said:

And um, last I checked over 40k people owned a copy of WU.

These people spend loads of cash on other things ig than on prem.

It is not like there are no other ways to gain cash for Codeclub than via the prem.

 

Make deeds more expencive and prem free, more people will play the game.

40k who owns WU, the reasons are not only mods and own servers.

That'll go down like a lead balloon.

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Nah that won't work because you can make money through hunting and foraging and if a solid enough group worked at it for days you could pay for large deeds virtually without needing to pay for the game at all. Unfortunately for now premium time needs to remain a cost. But I'd like to see if lowering it would have an effect on people coming back or not.

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Free players are a resource, they keep the world lively.  That square dude whos forum name I forgot, saying that free players are a drain of... something, something, has no clue how online games work.  Red hat dude, you are clueless.

 

And its so simple, it works in so many games, you join the game, you see a bunch of people hanging out, you stick around.  Most of those hanging out are free players.  If you join a game and its deserted, except for a COUPLE of people on a global chat, ignoring any name they dont recognice from 3 years ago, the new player leaves, never to return.

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I spend way more money on deeds than I do on prem,

and I am more likely to give up preming a toon than I am likely to disband one of my deeds.

Specially now that they can still sail/drive what they could as premed.

They are merely deed holders anyway.

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Yes free players contribute in various ways to the attraction of the game. The thing is that they don't pay the bills. With reduced income the game will eventually not survive. Wurm has survived because of those who pay for their Premium, Deeds and Deed Upkeep through the Wurm Shop. There is no other source of game income than this.

 

Now to somehow suggest that since free players contribute in various ways to the attraction of the game, that the game should then be turned more into a free to play structure will only reduce the game's income source further. So called "free to play" games always have limitations imposed that encourage players to pay for these "options" which are actually parts of the game players are excluded from if they don't pay extra for them.

 

Wurm is just more honest and forthright about what is excluded from the free to play option. Even then, if you don't want to put out any RL currency to pay for Premium, Deeds and Deed Upkeep the game has options for you to avoid doing so by making silver in various ways within the game structure. Not the brightest idea though for the game since then with these options they reduce their own game income. Still, this is not enough for some people and they want further "free to play" options available.

 

Sure, there are some valid suggestions made from time to time to make free players life easier but if they provide them options formerly reserved for Premium players then they undermine the value of Premium and should be rejected. If you mean that free players should be treated with consideration and respect with a realization that they also are valuable to have within the game population, on that much I can agree.

 

=Ayes=

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Join the in game economy. There is your free premium. I've not paid anything out of pocket for years now. So for many the game is free to play and many sell coins to make money from playing. While it helps to be highly skilled, even new players can easily make enough silver from bricks, dirt, ect to pay premium at token per month. Making the 10 silver is very easy. Making gold coins to pay rent though....... don't expect it, but if skilled enough you can possibly pull it off. Start small and build your reputation. There are too many other things wrong with Wurm to keep people from joining in mass or stay than the premium costs.

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Premium is a low cost to someone with a basic job who doesn't live in a vyn-awful place with horrible cost of living.

That said, it isn't impossible to imagine a higher skill cap for free players, and/or alternate compensation for premium.

Most games compensate with teleportals, experience boosts etc. Those would be bad for Wurm.

Other options may actually work out.

This idea isn't without merit, and I miss the horde.

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What I am saying is that I buy way more Gold than I buy prem.

AND: when I pay a year prem I get that cheaper, specially when I pay with my bank instead of paypal.

I will just grind all my deed holding toons to be able to drive carts and sail knarrs and then skip preming them again after that.

Now tell me how Code Club will benefit from those unpremed toons.

Then do that for every other player and do the math again.

 

Meanwhile private server owners in WU make cash on stuff people pay for there, where they don't need to pay prem.

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Dunno whats this thread is about but someone once entertained a thought of raising the Freemium skill caps to 50. (I use this as an example, because my generalizations are rarely understood.)

 

Its sort of amusing.

 

Apart from positive implications for free players, it would also create whole new market for paying players who could tap into newly created market of veterans manufacturing 50-skilled toons; Start off as a 50 skilled weaponsmith, how awesome is that? Or 50 skilled mason, no grind to make stone houses. Etc... in any possible combination, even with tailored skill set purchases.

Then new players would find making a silver trough bulk material creation even harder, having veterans utilize armies of dozen or two 50-skilled stonecutting alts turning more shards to bricks in a day than Scar can provide a year (holycr..p!) Applicable to all bulk creations. Only mass-barrier is whether or not the tiny queue sizes or high failure ratio or crappy output quality is an issue.

 

Then again, so what? Things would change, issue amount would remain relatively same. All these half-assembled ideas just go as far, whereas Wurm has people who for years been trough considerations of all kinds. Surely they have crossed paths with silly ideas and it does not hurt to read about silly ideas, no matter how much repetition... but our expectations should remain at zero level no matter how many "Wurm-saving" thoughts we spit out per second. Who knows, sometimes they choose to try out something which has been suggested.

 

Turning premium mechanics in Wurm to purely convenience mechanic is actually the same pattern of thinking behind WU which was demanded by so many, feared by so many. (Just the same same with changing premium mechanics.) The things Devs decide to change, they have to listen to wesserbissers saying how all of "these issues" are because of "that thing you did" without evidence of their actual, practical, real relation. Wurm team was bold enough to create WU and I still applaud them for that. Alot of players cant be happier. Then we have bunch of people drawing hip-shot assumptions that the causalities behind player counts are pivotally revolving around WU. *shrugs* And to "cure" that, they want more of what WU did? *SHRUGS!*

 

But then again, I really do not know what this thread is about, so my thoughts could be just baseless ramblings. ;)

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Non prem skill cap should be raised to 40. Stats cap should remain bare minimum to be able to command at least a sail boat and ride a horse. Strength cap can remain the 30 the devs decided on. 

 

Add some extra fluff items from traders and they will spend money. This would most definitely add something new to the economy. Lots more people would come back and play. 

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