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AragornII

A suggestion to balance the game between free players and paying players

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7 minutes ago, Lovelie said:

Wurm Online is advertised as a free-to-play game.

Poor people deserve to play games.

I'm not well versed on how wurm is advertised, but it should be advertised as "free to try up to xyz". If it's not, that's certainly deceptive.

I've been poor, I didn't expect people to provide me with fun and games for free. If you're poor, fun and games shouldn't really be the focus.  But that's a very different debate, and we shouldn't derail the thread with that.

Edited by MordosKull
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So, I have a challenge for everyone saying "-1" here.

 

Create a new character, go to a server you don't play on (or a different part of Xanadu).  You are now a free player - keep playing as your free player ONLY for 1 month.

 

It is unwise to talk about experiences you have long forgotten.

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1 hour ago, Etherdrifter said:

So, I have a challenge for everyone saying "-1" here.

 

Create a new character, go to a server you don't play on (or a different part of Xanadu).  You are now a free player - keep playing as your free player ONLY for 1 month.

 

It is unwise to talk about experiences you have long forgotten.

go to the store, see if you can get a bread w/o money.. it's subscription based game.

As f2p you get what you pay for, you can easily run 20 alts and make 10k planks in few hours and move on with your life with free prem, enjoy.

Oh, "you" don't have the time for that.. or like that playstyle, etc... well, it is what it is.. either pay the bill in $/euro/etc.. or pay the silver, there's freedom, it's just not free.

 

The game is free to play, literally anybody is able to join and play indefinitely unless violating tos or never prems, takes a break and rips all progression.

But by all means the game is subscription based, it is not tailored for free to play experience.

 

If we have to poke into player experience, premiums gets a lot of inconveniences, you'd have to boost prem perks, nerf f2p perks and lose a few limitations but generally keep f2p really unpleasant deep hole to keep you not just liking but wanting and needing the premium status.

While subscription is the main breadwinner model that's the only way to do this. Alternative is aggressive microtransation model constantly tickling you with some new sparkles and shinies you just must have to be cool or keep a perk over other.(it's how other games use it)

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Always remember:

 

Deed upkeep and creation isn't free.

You need to pay silver for rare items because they're impossible to get otherwise.

You need to have more than one sub to unlock *everything*.

 

Sorry but the game already has enough micropays to fund itself!

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19 minutes ago, Etherdrifter said:

Always remember:

 

Deed upkeep and creation isn't free.

You need to pay silver for rare items because they're impossible to get otherwise.

You need to have more than one sub to unlock *everything*.

 

Sorry but the game already has enough micropays to fund itself!

like prem you can get upkeep - either way/generating or buying silver directly with $

* you do not need to live ondeed

lol, you have identical rare-creation chance like premiums, identical

 

sub-count and abilities is a way bigger issue than you can handle.. and far from what this thread is about, you're overthrowing now

 

no

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38 minutes ago, Etherdrifter said:

Always remember:

 

Deed upkeep and creation isn't free.

You need to pay silver for rare items because they're impossible to get otherwise.

You need to have more than one sub to unlock *everything*.

 

Sorry but the game already has enough micropays to fund itself!

 

Deed upkeep goes back into the game. It's what funds the silver you get from butchering and burying, and from botanizing and foraging.

 

Rare items are not at all impossible to get, but even if they were, you buy them from other players. That does not fund the game.

 

The game is funded by subscriptions, either paid directly or by silver ingame (which in turn is bought with real life money and may change a few hands before it's used for a subscription).

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I think it is ok the way it is now, most games have a skill cap around level 20. This give you a taste of what the game is about before you pay money for any premium.

 

I played the first month without premium and enjoyed it so jumped in and bought premium. The premium is not a lot per month, it is the deed upkeep that gets you, you have to buy silver on top of premium unless you buy the bundle for more money.

You should really ask yourself before making a deed though, can you really afford it? Because it can be a lot of money to some people if you expand and realise you have little money. Sure you can sell things in game but not all the time people buy them right away, it is hit and miss.

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1 minute ago, DannyUK said:

The premium is not a lot per month, it is the deed upkeep that gets you, you have to buy silver on top of premium unless you buy the bundle for more money.

 

You get one sleep powder per month of premium, which you can sell for a silver. A deed costs a minimum of one silver per month. Since a deeded tile costs 20 iron per month in upkeep, you can get 500 tiles for that silver, so you can have for example a 20 by 25 tile deed at no additional real life cost beyond the extra silver you need to found it.

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There are plenty of ways to make silver in game.

 

F2P should be advertised as it is: free to play until a certain level.

 

Otherwise, a subscription fee is perfectly reasonable.

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It isn’t about being poor as much as it’s about demographic.  The price is in euros and this game attracts people from all over the world and the conversions can be priced high

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2 hours ago, sweatygopher said:

The price is in euros and this game attracts people from all over the world and the conversions can be priced high

But, whatever the game is priced in there will be conversion issues, whether it's priced in Yuan, Dollars (US, AUS, CAN, or whatever), Euros, GBP or in Golden Doubloons. The conversion factor can't be an argument either for or against this.

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On 6/23/2022 at 7:02 PM, Skatyna said:

Basically "give me free premium, thanks" suggestion. 

No. It’s a ‘make the game more balanced’ suggestion. The game is advertised as being free. Either have me pay upfront or make the game as advertised. I don’t want free premium, I am not even suggesting to get rid of premium or to give me or anyone else free premium, I am suggesting to make hard work and dedication matter as much as money. Which, if you’d bothered to actually read my suggestion, still gives premium players a big advantage over f2p and in the way I suggested actually highly encourages buying premium without forcing it.

Quote

McDonalds meal costs 8 quid. A month long premium costs the same. It already costs peanuts if you ask me

This would be more relevant if McDonald’s forced me to buy their meals in or lose out on something necessary for survival. Wurm Online forces the player not just to spend 8 quid, but to spend that every month. 12 times 8 is 96 a year. You pretty much have to do that, because otherwise you lose your hard earned skill points on premium (see my post for a simple suggestion to improve that). Not everyone has that amount of money every year. I’d be alright with a demo and then a option to buy the full game as a one-time purchase, because then it wouldn’t pretend to be free while I’d still be supporting the wonderful people making it. 

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On 6/23/2022 at 8:27 PM, Lisimba said:

If you  have lots of time and no money, get good at foraging and botanizing. You can pay for a subscription that way.

Thanks for the advice!

 

On 6/23/2022 at 8:27 PM, Lisimba said:

You don't lose your skills when non-premium, they are just capped. Once you buy premium again (which can be much later) you get all of it back right away.

No, the skills decay back to 20, so you’d have to grind all over again if you wait a couple of months.

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On 6/24/2022 at 7:05 AM, Cista said:

No, it's balanced now.

 

You know, in all my years of following Wurm, I have never seen one of these threads suggest making the game better for the prems, and harder for the freeloaders.

Just an observation.

 

And is there a point to your observation? Just a question.

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On 6/24/2022 at 7:07 AM, Cecci said:

You also keep your chars skills up to 30 even when you go unpremed. That way you can still drive your cart, ride or sail.

AFAIK this has been proven incorrect, unfortunately. Would’ve been tempting if this was the case

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On 6/24/2022 at 4:02 PM, Timoca said:

They should stop advertising the game as free to play and just call it a free trial.  And I wouldn't mind the skill limit of the free trial to be 30 for all skills, just so they can try out more things before they start to pay the subscription. To lure them in a little more.

Agreed

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On 6/24/2022 at 10:43 PM, sweatygopher said:

I think what's limiting them from making the FTP more rewarding is the pvp side of things.  It's really easy to grief with FTP accounts.

If that’s the case, why not make it so that FTP is only more rewarding when PVE, and completely removed from PVP? Would solve the FTP griefing and balance the game 

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On 6/25/2022 at 2:54 AM, MordosKull said:

You either like the game enough to pay the entirely reasonable monthly prem or you don't. Free accounts don't need any help beyond how things are now.

Not true unless by like you mean ‘should be willing to lose your RL house to play Wurm Online’ which is a tad extreme IMHO. I think you should only demand that if you’ve actually done it, in which case I commend your loyalty to the game but would also recommend getting some help. 

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On 6/25/2022 at 4:45 AM, Finnn said:

go to the store, see if you can get a bread w/o money.. it's subscription based game.

Exactly Finn.   How is $8.83 per month a debate here for unlimited/uncapped play? That's practically nothing. It can be free too if you just produce enough in game to come up with 10 silvers. AND you get a sleep powder each month.

 

4 minutes ago, AragornII said:

No, the skills decay back to 20, so you’d have to grind all over again if you wait a couple of months.

Like Lisimba said, your skills go right back to what they were once you prem up. You do not need to grind them back. Just come up with silvers in game or $8.83 irl. 

 

Also, you can live on others' deeds too without need to pay your own deed upkeep, for those mentioning this.

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On 6/25/2022 at 2:54 AM, MordosKull said:

If you can't cover 7.99 euros or $8.80 for a whole month of play, either you're in too poor of a financial situation to be playing games anyway, or you just don't like Wurm enough with the time you've tried it thus far. 

So poor people shouldn’t be allowed to play games? Sorry, but that’s ridiculous. Poor people have as much right to play games as anyone else, particularly if those games explicitly claim to be free to play.

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1 minute ago, AragornII said:

Not true unless by like you mean ‘should be willing to lose your RL house to play Wurm Online’ which is a tad extreme IMHO.

I agree - that's an extreme situation if you're going to potentially lose your real life home over a game or $8.83...

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2 minutes ago, AragornII said:

So poor people shouldn’t be allowed to play games?

Come on...   seriously?   There are loads of free games out there. But someone had to work to make them and make them available. Should those people just work for free?

Edited by MordosKull

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On 6/25/2022 at 3:35 AM, MordosKull said:

I've been poor, I didn't expect people to provide me with fun and games for free. If you're poor, fun and games shouldn't really be the focus.  

I don’t expect anyone to provide me with fun and games for free. But this is ignoring the tiny little inconvenient fact that Wurm Online says it’s free to play. And I think that games shouldn’t be the focus, but we aren’t talking about some lowlife who refuses to do anything but game, but simply people who don’t have 96 euros a year (let alone what that is in their local currency, which can be very expensive) laying around to spend on a game. 

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