Free Weekends

[Etherdrifter 2,517]

Every second weekend of the month, wurm becomes free to play for that weekend.  Existing premium players get an experience boost (1.5x or 2x?), and non-premium players get to experience the premium version of the game.

 

Such a scheme accomplishes 4 things:

 

1.  Acts as a way to draw back older players (no need to worry about being a vulnerable de-premed character when you come back, you can come back on a free weekend and get to safety before you decide to repreme or not!).

2.  Acts as a genuin "free trial" of the game, rather than the joke currently in place.

3.  Provides a good metric on the impact of wurm dropping the subscription model, or expanding the free game in general.

4.  Provides a genuine "freemium" path for those who are from countries where the euro dwarfs the local currancy.

[sarahbee 66]

the problem with this is that it'll become the "casting weekend" and LOTS of people will never pay for their priests again 

[Etherdrifter 2,517]

24 minutes ago, sarahbee said:

the problem with this is that it'll become the "casting weekend" and LOTS of people will never pay for their priests again 

Sounds to me like a good reason to overhaul priests.

[kochinac 1,395]

Unfortunatly wurm is in that weird state where yeah priest restrictions are dumb, but still priest alts make significant income due to low player base... I do like idea, but it might wurm in financial way, or atleast i suspect it will, i might be wrong.

I would honestly pay a little more on sub just not to have to play alt to be priest also, but with 3 different type of priests system even that isn't posible(My dream is about spell system where you grind for every spell or type of spells that interests you so the only restriction is time you're willing to grind in true wurm style but thats not gonna happen). Maybe allow it to be free for just non priests, it will hurt guys who honestly play priests as main, but they are minority nevertheless...

[Etherdrifter 2,517]

1 hour ago, kochinac said:

it will hurt guys who honestly play priests as main, but they are minority nevertheless...

 

Honestly?  I'd be happy to make that sacrifice.

 

Though, to be honest, I'd be much happier to see priests firmly removed from the world of alts because the current alt system hurts us BADLY.

[Tor 523]

Good idea but i doubt it would attract new or a player to return, in this current state of game, it will most likely used for sermons for the current player base only. Change stuff then do this free weekends

[elentari 2,660]

6 hours ago, Tor said:

Good idea but i doubt it would attract new or a player to return, in this current state of game, it will most likely used for sermons for the current player base only. Change stuff then do this free weekends

 

This merely reinforces all those threads about how bad the current alt/sermon/priest system is. 

 

basically we can't have something that draws in new players, gives exposure to the game and increases quality of life just to satisfy some whales that prem up 20 alts ? 

 

I'm not a business major but that sounds like poor planning for the future of Wurm, fiscally and game design wise. 

 

If the current game design of the game does NOT allow for improvements to the quality of life of the game and draws in new players (customers) then the suggestions aren't bad...they are impossible if the design isn't changed.

 

I'll say it again and 1000x more if need be, but the current monetization model of Wurm is not sustainable. It's not sustainable to give people less leg room to play than on a cheap airline flight (f2p locks a lot of game options) and then wonder why many of those folks don't ever subscribe to the game. It's not sustainable to dismiss a potential demography of players in the thousands of f2p accounts that could add content and quality to the game (also recommendations to their friends to prem up) simply because : We HaVe To ReSpeCT MuH ALtS! My MoNEH kEEpS Da GaMe AlIve! 

 

Everyone sees how a "free weekend" might be used to abuse alts to sermons? Good. Then change the bloody sermon system so no abuse can take place so we can actually have ya know.....windows to recruit new people into wurm.

 

I feel like grandp[a Simpson at this point. 

Edited May 1, 2021 by elentari

[Ekcin 2,406]

The complaints about the sermon system and "some whales that prem up 20 alts" are inconsistent. "Whales" don't profit from free weekends. And it would not be hard to exclude free weekend participants from sermons, e.g. by not counting users who did not pay for premium, as valid sermon participants. Would  be easy to implement. That would not prevent the "whales" from preming alts. Btw. I am not a "whale", haven't a lot of money to spend, but my priest alts participated in very friendly and helpful sermon cycles, and the participants were hardly "whales". Maybe you should stop envying.

[Tor 523]

Then,  considering the targeted audience this game is doing pretty well, no need for free weekends.

 

[bobhope 61]

I Like the idea of the free weekend and how you said existing prem players could come back with prem privilege's and those players trying the games could experience skill past 20 and current prem players

would receive a 1.5 or 2 times experience increase that would drive skill gain and the economy for wurm   

[kochinac 1,395]

Heck, I don't even see anything bad in using it for sermons, it still has drawbacks that would force you to prem up if you wanna solo sermon your priest but gives nice free alternative that you can use only every week. From my point of view would be qol change for priesting ( don't give me that crap but sermoning allow us to be social, if you wanna be social just go be social don't force it on others via game mechanics...)

[bobhope 61]

Free weekends isnt going to change how I play the game im still going to pay for my 2 preists but would be a good time to grind channeling if preexisting premium player got an exp boost on skills

 

[Grumpled 138]

I don't think people are saying it's not the best idea purely because of sermon alt issue, and more because you have to be realistic about these things. It's unlikely that the amount of f2p players swayed into continuing to pay for premium will in any way outnumber the amount of alts everyone else will no longer bother paying to prem up.

I can say here and now that in the proposed system, I will never again pay for premium for my various alts if I can just run them for free on the occasional weekend.

Yes it would be great to get new players to stick with wurm, and start paying premium, but can we figure out a way that doesn't involve current alts slipping the net?

[Deltora 29]

Maybe it should only involve accounts younger than 1 month. (As example) The rest of the accounts get the experience boost of 1.5x Seems like an easy fix to the current issue people are pointing out now.

[Stinboi 363]

why not just make a free period for new players instead?

Lets say all new player get 1 month free premium but they need to be locked so they cant be use for sermon etc.

[Etherdrifter 2,517]

17 hours ago, Grumpled said:

I don't think people are saying it's not the best idea purely because of sermon alt issue, and more because you have to be realistic about these things. It's unlikely that the amount of f2p players swayed into continuing to pay for premium will in any way outnumber the amount of alts everyone else will no longer bother paying to prem up.

I can say here and now that in the proposed system, I will never again pay for premium for my various alts if I can just run them for free on the occasional weekend.

Yes it would be great to get new players to stick with wurm, and start paying premium, but can we figure out a way that doesn't involve current alts slipping the net?

 

I'd say not, since by their very nature both matters are opposed.

 

Any benefit for free players is going to reduce the number of alts, and the only way to keep them high is to never noticeably advance the free game (which is the path things have been going for the past X years, which is what has put wurm in such a hole).

 

However, alts are only a necessity because of how low the population is, and they're only viable because of how broken being a priest is ("hug altar to win").  Is that really a healthy mechanic to preserve?

[Ecrir 887]

I think the overal idea is a good one, but I think every second weekend is far too frequent, it would probably lose most of it's effect due to that. I'd imagine that it would be more effective if you reserve it for special occasions, like certain holidays, like the period around christmas, the events with easter, Wurms anniversary, etc.

 

So somewhat like the experience boost events from 2020, but then in a more concistent/logical manner (like, why was there one for easter but not for christmas?).

 

Another option is to combine them with large patches of new content, after all what better way to get people to try new content then to combine it with such an event. It makes a lot of sense from a marketing point of view.