Postes

PM me. Thanks!!

I just want to note that I'm not saying the direction needs to completely remove the subscription fee. I'm only stating that there's likey a far larger appeal in free to play games with microtransaction shops, and there would likely be far more interest in a cheaper subscription fee. Games that have a monthly fee have a certain demand from players to meet an expectation, falling short loses players dramatically. You have to price the game based on the content. We are tied to a single character in a low populated game, while it is great fun, I think there's more appeal in other games that have a single time payment. I want to see servers populated more, but less and less players are joining currently with the current business platform.

What I meant was to try premium in Wurm the cheapest available option is the 10E upfront. Yes the 16E for two is better deal but it requires more money in the initial payment. Especially just to see if you'd enjoy the full game. What people may not remember is that the cost actually was lower. I'm not saying it's the answer to everything, but I do believe the appeal of Wurm is that it's a bit old, unique, and simple. That's the fun of it, it's a small game but to me the cost never really matched what you receive in return. I think it looks more attractive to try to have sales and discounts to get people in.

I want to first state the most obvious point to this post – Wurm is not much fun alone especially when you are interested in PvP. I love Wurm, but it is a game that demands players and a population. It does not work as well alone. This game has dramatically dipped in players on the PvP side. When you’re looking for a PvP game, you need a game where you’re actually going to find PLAYERS versus other PLAYERS, but when more and more leave the actual opportunity to encounters enemies dramatically declines too. Now you likely could roam for hours and never see a single soul. If I was a new player I personally wouldn’t buy premium if I was very interested in PvP. Freedom has a good of good aspects still, but that has also declined over time. My idea is only to help bring players into the game. I already know by the title many people will immediately jump on the, “No microtransactions! That’s pay to win!” It is really important to note that there are hundreds of games that incorporate microtransaction shops to a game without ruining the actual balance of gameplay. Many of these larger games feature purely aesthetic features that do not impact the game’s core idea, and have no effect at all on the gameplay itself. Developers can implement microtransactions without giving any advantage to players. However, there are of course games that have abused the system, which has given microtransactions a negative connotation. I don’t personally find the idea of microtransactions to harm a game. I think in many ways they add something unique to a game, and that something tends to be something entirely and completely visually aesthetic. To be perfectly forward, my opinion of this game is that it is not worth the monthly cost in its current state. I have stated this before, and it was not the most well received from a developer or two. Regardless, I just want to share my thoughts. If you want to buy premium in Wurm, the cheapest available option is 1 month premium and 1 silver coin for 10E. That’s roughly 12 dollars USD. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft is 15 USD a month. Now I have to ask myself which game really offers more? It is difficult to truly say that comparatively Wurm is only three USD shy of World of Warcraft’s value. I do understand though that to consumers it is a game, and to developers it is a business. A company cannot afford to payout developers, artists, server hosts, and advertising costs (if any). I think the price currently though has new players asking, “Is this ten year old MMORPG worth it?” I do not have statistics, but I’m willing to be in the past year that the number of NEW subscriptions placed has greatly declined. I know it is easy to respond and say, “Of course it declines! The longer a game has been around, the less new players will be introduced.” Agreed, but I think a lot has to do with the price, but I also believe it has to do with a lack of sales. Wurm premium never goes on sale, and we offer no discounts to NEW players trying out the game. I feel it would be far more encouraging to new players if they were discounted 30% off their first premium purchase. New customers then pay a lower cost, and get to experience the game without the feeling that they spent too much. I am always surprised there are very little attempts to really market the game’s premium. We don’t even have a holiday sale. To the main point though my idea is that the price of premium should be lowered by 25%, and to cover the expenses lost we could promote a microtransaction shop. That would mean that 1 month premium cost would be lowered to 7.5E or 8.99USD. The two months premium would be 12E or 14.35USD, which means you would get double the amount of playtime compared to WoW. To a consumer that sounds far more appealing, but that is a fairly obvious statement. Any consumer is going to like reduced pricing. The issue with that is if we lower premium costs by 25%, CodeClub takes an initial 25% hit. If there’s 2000 active players each paying a monthly premium of 10E, that is 20,000E or 24,000USD. There would be a 5,000 of lost revenue. However, that’s not projecting that the decrease in premium costs would not generate any new players or new subscriptions. I believe that ultimately the gross revenue would equal back out. Think about it this way. Would you rather a hundred players $10, or two hundred players paying $5? The outcome is still a thousand, but of course that isn’t factoring in that each payment itself is taxed and feed. The other part to this suggestion/post is that I have always been surprised that the opportunity to make money off microtransactions isn’t addressed. Too many frown at the word ‘microtransaction’, and developers now attempt to avoid it like the plague. Look at popular titles like League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, World of Warcraft, Path of Exile. These titles have aesthetic microtransaction shops that have not ruined the gameplay experience for anyone. They do not promote a pay-to-win model, only a pay-to-look-different model. There are elements to the game that people would greatly pay for, and cater to providing a better experience for players while returning a profit to the company. I cannot think of anyone who states that these titles (CSGO, WOW, POE) are “pay to win” model games. They just have shops with quality aesthetic goods. I feel there’s a lot of content that could be added to the game that would sell because people love things that are unique. Hence why masks, rare items, and different metal types sell so well. It makes someone’s character standout further. We have all these great items in the game, and some really never are seen such as the Challenge rewards. The few helmets and masks that existed there are likely shelved somewhere, and cannot be seen. You know how awesome it would be to have the ability to buy a “Horned Helmet” and it change the appearance of your Great Helm? Imagine just having the ability to change the appearance in something like your sword, maybe the hilt of it or ornate design on the blade. I feel there’s so much opportunity to have more customized pieces of clothing and armor in this game. Those types of shops are what keeps many games alive and pumping. I’m not going to fully flesh out store ideas and items that could sell, but there’s so much opportunity in holiday sales, themes, etc. I feel there is so much opportunity wasted, and to keep everything afloat it means premium costs have to be rather high for the actual return of gameplay. I’m not trying to solve all the game’s problems, but I’m just throwing out the idea that other titles have really brought a unique look to their game, and also make money off it at the same point. I also feel that if that’s an opportunity to increase revenue, and it could possibly lower premium costs I feel you’d have a lot large demographic scope of players interested in the game. At the present time I don’t feel the cost is worth what you get back especially from a PVP server perspective. tl;dr - I feel if there was lower premium costs we'd have more players willing to try, and that microtransactions offer players unique aesthetic goods without appearing as "pay to win" game. Many titles do it, and many of those titles are free to play games that benefit only from these shops such as Path of Exile. There's a lot of opportunity to make money and get players back.

The original spider... I believe you're reading this, because you might know spider. Some of you might have a bad relation to the highly experienced pvp'er, and some doesn't. In fact most people have heard about him, if they have ever set foot on the lands of Chaos. But, when it all comes down, do you really know, the real personality behind the character, spider? Well, if you are curious about, this post, keep reading! He sucks and his English sucks. That's about all there is to him.

Apologies @Retrograde, allow me to expand. The monthly subscription model was considered the "golden noose." It was a way to lock in players for a continual payment that far surpassed the very initial cost or any flat rate. It was actually a great model, but it wasn't a model designed for money believe it or not. At the time those business model games needed funding for servers, staff, but mostly for completely new expansions. Expansions back then were like entire new games. They completely changed the infrastructure of the original game. The problem with these subscriptions systems are that they do cut off a very large demographic of people (ages 12-17), players without a consistent income. Would a kid's mom be willing to pay $20 to get their kid a game? Sure, probably, is there parent wanting to spend a monthly fee each month for them to game? Ehhh, and what about when the kid wants a new game, they going to have to stop paying their monthly fee to afford the other. Besides that, it's proven factually that the subscription based business model has greatly declined in the past ten years, but so have MMORPGs. There are very few though left. I don't think everything has to have a "pay to win" model as an alternative. Sorry, but that's just bad business mindset if you believe those are the only two options, and that if you stop a monthly fee suddenly the only option left is for rich people to prevail. In additional, I am not even saying remove the subscription fee, but there are alternatives and lower costs that seem more reasonable. Honestly, is this game now currently a bit pay to win? You can buy accounts, you can buy huge settlements, you can buy any item you want (nothing account-bound), guard NPCs, etc. I played Wurm a long time, please do not tell me that money has no sway in winning and losing. It may not directly in a fight, but there are elements that can easily be won with money. Frankly and to be perfectly honest with you-- I don't really care. I don't play Wurm anymore, I quit two years ago and haven't stepped back. I've found nothing has changed. Nothing. It's a great game that feels like it's moment to really peak into the mainstream passed a few years ago. It's behind in so many ways compared to competitors. You have to ask yourself, "Is it really worth it?" Is it to me? Nah. To others, well in the past year: In the past year nothing gained, and a little lost. Perhaps to Wurm Unlimited. I don't have an issue paying for World of Warcraft (if I played it) because you know you pay for the service and content. There's 10 expansions, a dedicated professional staff team, instances, dungeons, battlegrounds. You get so much for the cost, but I do not see that here. I don't think the price tag is worth what I feel is a game that really just leaves everything up to the player, and has little support for.

Could you explain then why so many other markets have moved away from using the subscription based model?

$$$. I played Wurm for years, I love Wurm, but it's a horrible game. Bugs, exploits, windows of opportunities, bad features, crashes, lag. It's not at all up to par with a standard MMORPG. Graphically it's not even close either. That's okay though. The game doesn't have to be perfect, just playable. You can manage to do a lot in the game that you can't do in other games, and although it may not look as pretty or run as smoothly players often love the uniqueness of the game. However, the price tag on this game for a monthly subscriptions really isn't worth it. Don't get me wrong, I have a full-time job and benefits, my issue isn't being able to have the funds it's about not feeling that it's worth it, and the paid model excludes a lot of players from joining up. 8E/month? That's about $8.50/mo. World of Warcraft is $14.99/mo. Honestly I can't even think of another game that even uses this old model anymore. The monthly subscription model is honestly dated, even Besetha has moved on: http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/21/7865919/the-elder-scrolls-online-release-date-ps4-xbox-one-subscription-free-tamriel-unlimited Also Wildstar: http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/2015-05-28-wildstar-is-going-free-to-play-heres-all-you-need-to-know/ So many MMORPGs have done away with that model. Really this is an extremely outdated business model that I really can't understand the idea of. Why are we still using this business model? Aside from World of Warcraft I don't think any other games still use this business model except for Wurm Online, and the rest really have moved onto micro transactions and larger initial purchases. I think Rolf is a great visionary person, but I don't understand a lot of the business choices that are ongoing. The great appeal to Wurm back in the day, at least when it first began, was that it was a cheap crappy MMORPG to have fun on. For those that do not know, this was the increase and changed that occured in 2013, "New price for premium will be 8 Euro per month instead of the previous 5 Euro for 5 Silver coins, 16 Euro for 2 months premium or 10 silver coins." In my opinion this game, quality, and staff team is probably a good $5/mo. That's respectable. I think really just the subscription turns people off. The free to play is so limited, and the perks really aren't great.

I'll be blunt, and this will sound a bit mean, but you have to face the facts. This game is not doing that great, and Epic especially is hitting rock bottom fairly quickly and there really seems to be no real plan about it. I think back to when I first started Wurm and I always thought there was three real great selling points for Wurm: - It's cheap. - It's small. - It's unique. Unfortunately awhile ago the developers or Rolf alone changed the price, and I understand this. You have a family, a child, and employees under you. You can't simply not make money, but I also think you hurt yourself a bit with the price tag of the current game compared to Wurm Unlimited. Why would anyone really play WO when you can do a one-time payment for Wurm Unlimited? Plus there's far greater control over the world, the map, rules, and punishing exploiters. People used to have a LOT of alts because the game was so cheap, it was something like $7 USD a month? It was a great deal. It let people try out the game or make an alt freely without worrying about a paycheck. My personal opinion is that the game isn't really providing enough currently (especially on Epic) for the price tag and monthly subscription. There's no one to even PvP against. I think honestly that you have to go back to a model that is welcoming to consumers and markets your game appropriately. Let's call it what it is - this is a 10 year old something Java MMO that has a very small community. Is that really worth the price now? I don't think so. I do think though if the price tag was more appropriate you would maybe see more people trying it out. Anyway, just my thoughts, cheers.

Is Rasu the person?

It stated you never read the conversation, so it couldn't of been opened on the Belfesar account.

You're missing the point..

What he's saying is your PM says you haven't read it yet, but yet you took a screenshot of the PM. Meaning you could only get that box that states you haven't read it on Belfesar if you are the other person sending the PM.

I dunno, I don't really think this is the worst mechanic. In a way it encourages PvP because it lets you know that someone is in your area, and you can go out and find them. On the other side though you could easily lead people into a trap by revealing one person in your territory, and have several back in the wings. I think people really haven't utilized it as a trap, and just want it gone without taking advantage of it, but that's just my opinion. I think really it can be utilized by both sides, defenders and attackers. Overall metagame isn't the best for the game such as using rugs to check who was online (now removed), and fixing the server numbers somewhat, but there's still a few metagaming mechanics in the game. I think perhaps it could be reworked though to something less specific, but still provide an alert that could let others know there is PvP that is able to happen before just removing it all together. I mean honestly towers are pretty useless, guards are rarely an issue for anyone, at least this provides a use to actually build and expand your land.

What you're saying makes little sense. If someone wants to kill a dragon, then it's their raid, their rules, simple as that. It's a sandbox games, player control these aspects, and if you don't like it then kill it yourself, organize it, and do it. The reality is you likely can't do it yourself though, so now you're upset over someone else's rules on a raid or event that you couldn't do by yourself. Saying stuff like they regulate treasure chests? What? Lol, come on. Any MMO I played came with a system based heavily on hierarchy of your status with the guild/group, and the same applies in Wurm.

this makes no sense whatsoever, its like saying you have to include eveyone, and god forbid not everyone be included or not working as a whole kingdom

probably why you shouldnt link kingdom videos, it upsets one side heavily and they get salty

I remember back when there was just Wild and the Jenn Kellon Home server (forgot what it was called, with Newtown and all), Oracle used to talk about thieves in global chat, stat their location, and uproot them and toss them over on Wild as BL. I never really knew Oracle well, I know he played Barakus as BL as the same time as I, I bumped into him maybe a half dozen times hunting, but never really spoke. One time he just our Ventrilo, it was like Eir, Rozare, Ceasar, Chumpeh, and others and Barakus joined, and I never heard the guy before, and was a bit surprised because he was such a high ranking GM. That guy had the best accent and voice of anyone I met in this game. I tried to get him to recite some passages from books, but he wouldn't, he just laughed. Nice guy though, never really got to play with him much outside of those few experiences.

Hope you get better Acerifle!

PvP Wise the game doesn't have objectives, goals, or real any end game, or end game content. This is strictly PvP server wise, however, it may apply to PvE/Freedom also, but really it's not endless as people state, it's continuous without a point or goal. There is no motivating force to push someone out to PvP, you can attend 100 HotAs in a row, or skip 100 HotAs in a row. You can willingly go into a fight or willing flee from a fight. You can grind fighting to 100 or stop at 70. Have the most land? Have the most rank? Have the most karma? Have the most HotA wins? Have the best ruler success rate? Doesn't matter. None of that has any effect. There just is no win or lose like Challenge, it's just endless small skirmishes that stack up, but yet mean nothing at all. Understandably this is a sandbox game, but it's a terrible platform for a PvP environment, and that's why the population stinks. People get bored, it feels redundant, and in the end there's little achieved. I just wish the PvP environment was more motivating to do things, more rewards for going out, exploring, contesting objectives, and such. All it really is now is sit on your deed, and pick what fight you want. It's low risk, and honestly this is probably one the most safest low risk games I've played.

There was a stream I think, but I will likely revamp it a bit more, change some the items, amounts, etc. Maybe this weekend.

these forums are so horrid to read, but i'll be working on stuff, and improving upon the idea to make it faster and more pvp oriented.

LOT OF PVP right nao.

Need more Winterfell Starks!

LAUNCHED. Live. SIEGE - Defend Winterfell.