The struggles of a new casual player (possible explanations for Wurm's low retention)

[Bloodreina 301]

53 minutes ago, Ekcin said:

 

I agree. I want, though, stress the difference to subscription  models like WoW. If subbed once, even the 2 months for 8€, you retain significant privileges, such as being undeletable, retaining characteristics up to 30, and so on. Also you may resub/extend with ingame currency, I am not aware of any other game offering that (maybe I am wrong). 

 

But nevertheless, marketing the game as free to play triggers misunderstanding, frustration, and critique. Wurm does not win anything from. It may be ok to stress that it is not only free to try, but has some free to play options beyond that.

I disagree. The hate reviews from formerly banned ex-Wurmians will not vanish. It is a campaign, they are on a crusade, and they will continue to spout lies and slander, or at best extremely subjective tales from 10 years ago (without mention that they are).

 

It's pretty much the same even with WoW

- you are undeletable (actually you are undeletable even if you never premium)

- you can resub/extend your subscription with ingame currency (via wow tokens)

 

And sure, there's a fair share of people bomb reviewing the game for different reasons (like conflicts, justified or not, with the GM team), but there's also a fair share of people that complain solely about this free to play shenanigan.

 

And here's an example of a game that promotes its F2P with a subscription model very nicely on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286830/STAR_WARS_The_Old_Republic/

 

[Bloodreina 301]

17 minutes ago, Retrograde said:

Unfortunately there's no such thing as unlimited trials, or demo's on steam, it's free to play or a paid game. 

 

Here's an example of a game that promotes its F2P with a subscription model very nicely on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286830/STAR_WARS_The_Old_Republic/

 

[Retrograde 12,013]

We are working on that, but this is a recurring basis subscription rather than the one off purchases we currently do. 

 

It still has free to play in its tags and main section though

[SirMuttley 151]

13 hours ago, elentari said:

Wurm IS NOT free to play. It is PAY to play!

It's free to try. But you cannot achieve anything worthwhile without a sub. That costs money. Silvers = RL $. Even with RMT gone, Silvers = $ and/or real life TIME = which in the end means money made working. 

 

It's not free. Period. 

 

Wurm should never be called free to play. It should be called "free to try, pay to play" . 

 

Simple as that. Up to 20 skills you get your trial run and impressions . Anything past that, from deeding, riding, good combat skills, priesting , building stone houses....aka 99% of the game's content is locked behind a subscription wall.

 

"Free to play" means a person should never have to spend 1 cent on the game. But if a game's 99 % content is locked behind a subscription paywall then IT"S NOT FREE.

 

The concept of free is black and white. 

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong to market Wurm as a subscription based game with a free to try approach.  I cannot stress this idea enough. Remove the free to play tags and no more bad steam reviews on that end. 

 

 

I think the core issue with the "free to play" debate is that there seems to be a percent of players (mostly Steam) that want and expect a totally free game where they can play forever at the same level as those who do pay. Basic entitlement stuff here. Thing is, how does the game pay for servers and staff if there is no income?

Wurm *is* free to play for as long as a players wants it to be, that is an undeniable fact. One can try to split hairs about personal progression, the market, being "valuable", etc but the fact is a player can login and stay logged in for as long as they like without paying a dime. 

[Wildelf 72]

I think the biggest problems that some players have mild bioplars and other issues that cannot stick with long term type of games. Some doesnt like to be around too many players and some do and when there are too many, it will be a mess.

 

The free part of playing WO is fine, give the a taste if they like it or not before they decide to sub or not. Yes some players do come back to see if there any improvements and/or finding the right players to hang out with. But i seen alot of loners, that include myself that perfer doing things on their own. Infact some are creative and some arent. The sad parts is for those who doesnt want to do these things, having others do it for them or simply steal someone else things.

 

Yes it great confusing going on in Wurm, sometime i rather play WU instead to avoid all this. But sadly WU has it limits and if you dont have the skills and experiences, then you have to take the risk joining someone server and there no telling how long it will stick around or how things will be.

 

So its a gamble, just gotta keep trying to find your place and relax.

[Whane 156]

On 12/28/2020 at 4:23 PM, elentari said:

It's not free. Period. 

 

I daresay that most gamers understand the very common monetization aspect of free to play with premium options since freemium has been around for software since the 80's. It's literally free... if the player decides so. 

 

John: "Are you hungry?"

Mary: "Yes but I don't have money."

John: "Here, have a cooked fish, it's free."

Mary: "But you're eating more fish and with a side of greens! Therefore my cooked fish isn't free."

 

🧐

 

 

[Zahnweh 51]

It's moments like these where I love the idea of a "free-to-start" tag.

[Taranis 39]

It's free to play period.
I did pay for subscription, I do pay for silver..
But I also do see a way that would be possible in never spending a dime on this game. And still have fun ofcourse, but that would be the tricky part for most.
Even with limited game time! It all just depends on your expectations ofcourse.