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Wurm Online Cost, Reducing Cost, and Microtransactions

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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.
 

Edited by Postes
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Excellent thread, couldn't agree more. This game cost to much per month and it lacks a cosmetic cash shop, which ultimately would make more money if done right. No pay to win obviously. I think they're afraid to try it for some strange reason.

 

Wurm's competitor haven & hearth even has one, selling hats no less. We want hats Rolf. :(

Edited by Niki

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Well... They did announce some kind of cash shop a while back, but I can't remember seeing any news on it lately. I agree that the monthly premium could be alot cheaper especially since we are limited to 1 character per premium subscription. Other games I have up to 10 characters and only need to pay for 1 subscription.

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While I don't disagree that Wurm's price point might be high for a dated game, I don't think the price is a big factor in what is keeping the pvp or pve population low.

 

You mention games like Wow, LoL, those games you can pretty much jump in and play, you don't have skills that require a long length of time to build up, i will agree that Wurm like those games does require teamwork.

 

Cash shops don't bother me as I have enough self control to decide whether or not I'd use one or not, I am not one to try and " Monday morning quarterback " Wurm's bottom line so I'm hoping that the people doing that work on CC's end are smart enough to explore options that will increase their playerbase and bottom line, and if not find someone who can if it matters to them.

 

Wurm seems to draw players on average with smaller pocketbooks and larger amounts of free time ( not myself ), while the games you mention tend to be the opposite and make things faster paced to accommodate, I get there are plenty of exceptions, but from a quick glance it's how it seems to me.

 

Wurm runs like a game from an older era, of my friends that game and my kids that play online games quite often, there is very little Wurm could offer to draw them, I see advertisement talked about time and time again, most the people I know that don't or do not play Wurm are aware of it's existence, while the game does improve, given it's age people that have decided long ago this game is not for them, have decided long ago and I am doubtful anything will change.

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I would go so far as to suggest, a wider array of ways to charge for things to allow more flexibility.  In no particular order.

 

  • A way to purchase tiles individually on a map, so that a player can start to accumulate lands without moving a whole border with an exponential cost factor.  in short; you could buy perimeter tiles at a individual cost, so long as they are connected to the existing deed in some way. (this price would be higher than the bulk cost of perimeter expansion)
  • Allowing the purchase of perimeter tiles would allow people to create seamless cities where people are true neighbors and each controls a specific district within a "city".
  • Allow the rental of simple AI peasants, who would travel around the deed and perform set actions with a skill level based on either time advancing that peasant, or cost of rental.  (repairmen,  farmers, milkmaids, and so on...)  I would even love it more if these peasants required food and housing to live on deed so that it's a logistic challenge and not just a money win.
  • The ability to register a deed crest, flag or banner.  This should be able to be attached ship sails, crates, tab-bards, shields and signs, maybe even as a Mayoral seal?
  • Different style guard towers?
  • Special eye candy barding, saddles and bridles?
  • capes and cloaks
  • Mayor's Signet ring.
  • Being able to pay for deed decay protection separately?

This was all I could think of off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are many other possibilities.

 

Edited by Tallios

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the 1 month 1 silver option is also the most expensive, 2 months for 16 euro works out to 19 USD, meaning it's 9.5 USD compared to WoW's 15 USD

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17 minutes ago, Retrograde said:

the 1 month 1 silver option is also the most expensive, 2 months for 16 euro works out to 19 USD, meaning it's 9.5 USD compared to WoW's 15 USD

Shhh, comparing the value of a sub for a game with a very large budget and content ( not debating who likes what type of game ) and letting us know Wurm is a deal in comparison, I won't beat you up but try that angle for your next ad promotion and let me know how that works out.

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+1 for more options for looking different or unique! I'd love to be able to pay to submit art for my own tabard and flags without having to go through creating a kingdom on Chaos. The same for colossi and animals. Players could submit designs for new animals'/animal conditions or colossi and buy an unfinished colossus of the new design or a once-off spawn of an animal/condition that can be bred but possibly not used in pvp. Even different animal colours could be cool if adding animals would be too difficult, and if players submitted the designs, it would involve minimal work for the devs implementing them. A similar thing could be done with clothes and tapestries. The options are virtually endless. I'd certainly be spending a lot more money in the Wurm shop if some of these options were available.

I'd also love for my deed upkeep to cost less, if we're looking at reducing costs. Because of the animal ratio, my deed has to be huge. Perhaps there could be a discount in upkeep for deeds over 5k tiles? That may encourage old players with large deeds to stay rather than disappear, as so many do.

Edited by Attenia

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I won't comment on the cost or price point because yea.  Most know that won't change.

 

But I will say that I am one of those that would buy something from a cash shop to make my char/deed/dog look different.  Or perhaps to have a pet to run around my house/deed that isn't something you would find in the normal world.  I do not think any of that makes it a pay to win.

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Don't most new players not even make it threw the tutorial.  I just don't see lowering the price as a means of suddenly drawing in new players.

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10 hours ago, Retrograde said:

the 1 month 1 silver option is also the most expensive, 2 months for 16 euro works out to 19 USD, meaning it's 9.5 USD compared to WoW's 15 USD

 

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. 

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I agree with OP, its not the first time that a cosmethic cash shop has been asked for, and I really think it would benefit both the devs pockets and the players gameplay.  If that leads to a lower subscription fee, all the better, but I sincerly dont belive that will happen.  At the most there will be some other form of reward, more silver with subscription or something like that.

 

SLIGHT OFF TOPIC AHEAD!

 

OP mentions and tries to adress the decline in PvP population, and how important a population is for PvP to exist.

The nature of Wurm PvP is considerably harsher than most games.

Making competitive gear, starting from zero is a lot of work, much more work than any other game that has ever had the "full loot" feature, wich has been a deterrent for me to go try the PvP side for years.  And I think that if that aspect of the game was revised, it would lead to more people venturing into PvP.

Other games have solved this issue with "blessed" items that stay with you even after death, and by offering insurance for items, where the money is transfered to the person that killed you, instead of the item, and you get to respawn with your item in your inv.

Im sure none of those two things would be welcome by the PvP crowd, but Im sure that some form of compromise could be met, to ease the burden of getting killed in PvP, and without robbing the victors of spoils.

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Like I always say....I'll skip going to the movies for couple hours and it pays for a month of Wurm Online.  So you get more value out of $10/month than you do with anything else you do in your free time.

 

Eating lunch twice probably cost more than a month of paying for this game.

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I will touch on something raised, and I think postes was not around for the announcement, but a cash shop system is something we're moving towards. 

 

Nothing is concrete for being included, beyond the golden mirror allowing gender changes, but we're more than happy for people to suggest what they'd like to see, and if it's something we could see working, we'd be happy to look at including it 

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1 hour ago, Retrograde said:

I will touch on something raised, and I think postes was not around for the announcement, but a cash shop system is something we're moving towards. 

 

Nothing is concrete for being included, beyond the golden mirror allowing gender changes, but we're more than happy for people to suggest what they'd like to see, and if it's something we could see working, we'd be happy to look at including it 

 

The goal must be to completly step away from premium. Every player should be able to achieve everything in the game without needing to pay for it. Money should be collected via selling silver coins, pets and other mostly decorative items. Premium status required to play a game seriously is something which has been disappearing from the game industry in the last 10 years.

Edited by Sklo:D
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On 20-9-2017 at 4:50 PM, Retrograde said:

I will touch on something raised, and I think postes was not around for the announcement, but a cash shop system is something we're moving towards. 

 

Nothing is concrete for being included, beyond the golden mirror allowing gender changes, but we're more than happy for people to suggest what they'd like to see, and if it's something we could see working, we'd be happy to look at including it 

 

- Some item to use on a different type of head piece to make it look like a Summer Hat. Shouldn't matter much for PvP because theres not many summer hats around that would make it gamebreaking. 

- Currently there are only Red and Green gnomes in-game. Make other color hat gnomes available people can use for decoration.

- Hota statues? (Discussable, as its currently a PVP reward). But basically freedom people want it for decoration

- Gender Change

- Silver mirrors for facial change? Cheaper than Gold mirror

- Different clothes for account, black clothes, red cloths etc etc. Instead of the default green

- Small pets that do nothing to follow you? (Like miniature Dragons, Drakes, Troll Kings, but also Bears, Spiders etc) They should auto-lead once in your inventory capped by 1 maximum at the same time. They should not count towards the 4 lead limit. Purely cosmetic. - Not dropped on dead

- Name change contract. Yes, highly discussable.

- Various longsword designs you can use on your longsword? (And other weapons and shields). As long as it is still easily visible what type of weapon it is.

- Sunglasses?

- Consumables, (Fireworks, Sound horns, drums, guiter, flutes etc)

- Different visuals for fishing pole (should not be lost when line breaks)

- Special "Noble" Furniture - Chairs/Table/Carpet/Bookshelfs in a very luxery style for example

- Fancy trashheaps, BSBs, Racks

- Full costumes that can be equipped instead of armour

- Decorated tiles (like flower tiles, or with heart shape on them)

- Special housewall decoration

- Sleep Powders

Edited by whykillme
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17 hours ago, Retrograde said:

the 1 month 1 silver option is also the most expensive, 2 months for 16 euro works out to 19 USD, meaning it's 9.5 USD compared to WoW's 15 USD

 

Also less than the older but comparable A Tale in the Desert, which is $11.95 a month plus a cash shop for novelty pets and decor. Plenty of games still have subscriptions, and not everyone wants to see Wurm go to being a free game. 

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I have said many times before; the true reason wurm has not flourished in this modern age is because it demands a subscription and microtransactions both.  You pay your subscription (usually more than one if you want to play *all* the game) and you pay for your deed upkeep (and the initial outset too).  That adds up to a fair bit of cash.

 

Reducing subscription costs and moving more towards the microtransactions is likely to help things, but will it resolve them?  Difficult to say.

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I can't believe the word trader isn't in this thread.  We already have traders with cool things to buy.  It certainly makes sense to have more really cool nifty flashy meaningless stuff on traders.  I'm 100% behind that.  But why do we need to invent some other new "microtransaction" store or system?

 

Premium time really isn't that much and is inline with nearly all other MMO subscriptions.  It generally only becomes an issue with regards to alts which we already have more than enough of thanks.  Comparing to WoW makes no sense to those of us with no desire to play WoW.  Obviously something was done right or we wouldn't be here.  In fact if you're down to one account and want to pay less than you are, you can always go non-premium every other month.  Compared to ISP and cable TV, Wurm premium time is a huge bargain. 

 

Lack of players is a huge problem.  However, I don't think money is what's chasing new people off.  I've met some people who only want to earn money by playing Wurm.  You can do pretty well non-premium in Wurm.  The devs even made one-time premium a bargain with the new 30 attribute cap. 

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10 hours ago, Sklo:D said:

 

The goal must be to completly step away from premium. Every player should be able to achieve everything in the game without needing to pay for it. Money should be collected via selling silver coins, pets and other mostly decorative items. Premium status required to play a game seriously is something which has been disappearing from the game industry in the last 10 years.

You're forgetting that silver is both ingame AND premium currency, many games seperate them and disallow sales of premium currency (and ingame currency) as well as disallowing sales of accounts

 

since wurm has all of these, requiring to cover server costs and employement via sales of silver and other items would mean disallowing player sales, and forcing even more things needing silver to be spent on.

 

Many games do offer a premium system though

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Customizable jewellery e.g. necklaces with slots for troll teeth, gems.  Hair pieces with ribbons and flowers for all horses, unicorns and characters.  Include hair pieces with bones and twigs for the more rustic inclined people.  Hats, cloaks, dresses, shoes.  A rainbow Jetstream for carts.  Wagons with white bodies you can dye.  Furniture with white cloth covering we can dye.  Designs you can stamp on said wagons, furniture and banners...more skins for dogs so they look like other types of dogs.

Bottles with "seeds" for water plants: Floating lilies/flowers, coral, other water plants, pearl, mosaic type carpets for channel floors which look like river stones, colours pebbles, moss etc.  Fish tanks and bird cages with exotic birds or tiny dragons.  Pajamas for my favourite horse and unicorn.  Christmas outfits. WOAD POTS TO PLANT THESE IN.

 

c-1-620x413.jpg 

Edited by Fairyshine

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15 hours ago, Rathgar said:

to ease the burden of getting killed in PvP, and without robbing the victors of spoils.

 

I get the feeling this was all part of PvP back in the day on Epic etc.  I have a friend who likes to tell me about what a big deal it was to loot someone's plate or have your own plate looted. 

 

But fast-forward to today and everyone is rolling around in full scale or glimmer armor.  I'm happy to risk a couple days or even a week of smithing work, but risking years of effort and/or hundreds of dollars on one encounter, not so much. 

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On 20-9-2017 at 2:00 AM, Tallios said:
  • A way to purchase tiles individually on a map, so that a player can start to accumulate lands without moving a whole border with an exponential cost factor.  in short; you could buy perimeter tiles at a individual cost, so long as they are connected to the existing deed in some way. (this price would be higher than the bulk cost of perimeter expansion)
  • Allowing the purchase of perimeter tiles would allow people to create seamless cities where people are true neighbors and each controls a specific district within a "city".

 

While i like the idea this leaves so many options for griefing.Can't do.

 

Perhaps have the option to turn perimeter tiles to deed tiles so that you can "connect" both deeds. 

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58 minutes ago, whykillme said:

 

While i like the idea this leaves so many options for griefing.Can't do.

 

Perhaps have the option to turn perimeter tiles to deed tiles so that you can "connect" both deeds. 

 

Well I had thought that the conditions of purchasing individual tiles is:

  1. More expensive per tile
  2. Must be in perimeter
  3. must be connected to existing deed

Would reasonably make it difficult for griefers

Edited by Tallios

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On 20.9.2017. at 2:44 AM, Retrograde said:

the 1 month 1 silver option is also the most expensive, 2 months for 16 euro works out to 19 USD, meaning it's 9.5 USD compared to WoW's 15 USD

For me personaly the problem is that i pay 2 month pack for my main regulary and that's ok, i considered paying for larger pack like 6 months or a year but amount of money i could save that way is simply not worth it. I would love to see that huge packages much cheaper and would like to buy it. The second problem is that from time to time i want to prem my priest alt just to do some enchanting but 2 month is too long for me for him to be prem and even 1 month is too long and expensive, maybe some package like a week prem for loyal players that already regulary pay premium for their mains...Would also like to see cash shop that is not pat to win and would like to see it increase revenue for the company...

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