Raise or Lift the Skill Cap?

[EliasTheCrimson 348]

As I expected, total resistance to the idea by those of you who are more fortunate. You'd think premium players would want their f2p workers to be able to produce higher ql items for them. I'm tired of feeling useless to my premium friend because of this skill cap. I could dig 6k dirt every month, but that would really mess up the terrain, and would detract a lot from the fun of playing this game.. Maybe another game like this will emerge in the future with a better business model. I can't justify in my mind having to not only earn skills in a game but keep paying for them monthly. Hate me if you want, I don't care. Not everyone has a perfect balance of time and money. And it's not something I can really help outside switching occupations.

 

Also, I have payed for premium and currency in the past. I'm currently wearing 70+ QL armor and wielding a 75 QL Huge Axe I bought. So those of you saying I've never paid can put that in your pipe and smoke it.

The current payment model is something the game has been built up on and continues to rely on. The skill cap is the main perk of being premium, and because of the way everything relies on skills non-paid characters serve as a trial version of Wurm. Your view on how things work currently are a little weird, and it seems to me they are incompatible with the subscription model overall. Rolf isn't charging monthly because he wants to specifically punish you for not being able to sustain a subscription. F2P characters are not inherently "workers" for paid players (unless they choose to).

A switch-over to a cash shop would be problematic because Rolf would need to find a way to make the same amount of money off the same player base somehow. That includes you. Deeds might have to be made more expensive, equipment may have to be nerfed to force players to purchase upgrades, gaining skills may have to include mandatory skill token purchases, and failing that Rolf may have to resort to in-game advertising. I don't believe the F2P micro-transaction model is the less frustrating alternative for most people.

[Jeixi 146]

san_tropez, on 20 Feb 2014 - 07:30 AM, said:

The skillcap is fine for a f2p, because if it was raised so you could actually supply your very own village easily, then what incentive would there be left to prem up?

 

If anything, make Wurm more affordable

 

Well buying currency and paying for deeds/upkeep should be able to make some money, and if people aren't having to pay premium anymore they'll probably be more likely to purchase a deed or currency with that money. As for making Wurm more affordable, I don't know. It's already pretty cheap in my opinion. Even though I'm kind of poor I could scrape up $30 a month to get premium and some silver if I tried. I had trouble with the last payment method I tried though when I attempted to purchase premium last month, and I'm hesitant to put a bunch of money on another card that might not even work. I ended up canceling that card, and getting a refund. But still, it was a big inconvenience to have that forty bucks held up in the mail for a month.

[FreeTineen 430]

I have a seasonal job myself and thus my income varies from the summer to the winter quite exceptionally so I understand your grievances. However, I'm against the rise for free to play skill caps. The reason being as that ftp characters can actually do quite a good bot of the game as it is. I have several ftp villagers whom have no difficulties with spiders, bears etc. as they work as a team to bring down mobs. Self reliance in my opinion is one of the aims in a survival game and whilst it may take them a longer to do things, they get things done.

 

So just wait it out, you'll have the money to get back into the swing of things and why not utilize this opportunity to explore, meet friends do things that the distraction of skill gain would normally prevent you from doing. Wurm has a great social aspect to it, and its always free

[Gorwst 129]

You'd think premium players would want their f2p workers to be able to produce higher ql items for them.

What's more important to me is that the game keeps generating a profit and therefore keeps on being open for me to play. The QL of the bricks I buy is far less important than having a game around to use those bricks in.

I understand that from the perspective of someone who doesn't have the money to pay for premium, the skill cap can see harsh. However, the problem is the base perspective that Wurm is a F2P game. It is not. Not any more than World of Warcraft is for letting you level characters to 20 before paying. Wurm is a subscription based game with an unlimited free trial. Unlike other games like WoW, you can even keep logging in on characters if you drop premium so you can keep an eye on your deed or talk to your friends; you just get capped with the unlimited free trial skill limits.

I personally find the unlimited free trial nature of Wurm to be very generous. Sometimes I wonder if it's too generous for Code Club's own good.

[Buttercups 197]

If you can't afford 16e every 2 months then you should really not be wasting your time playing video games anyway

[Ruxin 32]

Not to sound harsh, but if you are working and saving 8 euro's a month for a video game is too much, you probably shouldn't be using your free time to be playing video games.

 

Wurm is an extremely cheap (monetary, not time) hobby. It costs 96 euros for a full year of premium (assuming you buy premium 2 months at a time), which wouldn't even cover the cost of 2 standard B2P games, which definitely wouldn't provide the same amount of entertainment.

 

There is an unlimited free trial, which is an extremely good offer. You can try out all the basic aspects of the game before you wish to upgrade. Yet the trial is limiting enough, that long term players can't abuse it too much. (Sure you could run 5 accounts with 20 digging to dig dirt, but a single highly skilled digger would probably be faster than at least 5 trial characters. (Not to mention, much easier to control 1 than 5)

[EliasTheCrimson 348]

So just wait it out, you'll have the money to get back into the swing of things and why not utilize this opportunity to explore, meet friends do things that the distraction of skill gain would normally prevent you from doing. Wurm has a great social aspect to it, and its always free

Can't emphasize this enough. Wurm is challenging to play solo even for a premium player. Banding together with friends or even just finding a village that you can spawn at and lure away spiders to while doing your own thing a hundred tiles away will elevate your capacity as a player incredibly and allow you to take long time-outs without worries.

Edited February 20, 2014 by EliasTheCrimson

[Stonesolid 159]

-1. Not that we need a bunch of free players dropping low upkeep deeds everywhere but if you can't even afford premium how are you going to pay for all these horses and deeds and stuff? Seriously, if you don't even have a bank account (I assume since you say you're using some sort of prepaid credit card to pay) maybe you should work on that before trying to get premium or a deed in Wurm.

[whykillme 1,621]

-1, shouldn't be raised even 1 bit. There are reasons it is there

[Aeris 3,759]

No.

The free version of the game is a trial, an infinite one at that. You have access to so many aspects of the game without ever having to pay a penny, which I am sure you are aware of.

The game is not a charity and it can afford to cater to players that cannot afford to pay for it no more than those players can afford to pay for it. The skillcap is there to ensure that there are incentives for going premium and removing them or heightening them would either a.) Remove large part of the incentive by granting access to most parts of the current premium-only skills/privileges to free-to-play players or b.) Mean that the caps for riding horses, commanding carts and boats etc would have to be heightened. Both a and b are unattractive alternatives on the whole. Alternative b would only serve as a punishment for those interested in paying for premium since it would mean a bigger grind for them to achieve horse riding etc, and alternative a would mean that we would have a Golden Valley situation all over again.

I am not sure of whether or not you're familiar with Golden Valley, but this is basically what went down:

Golden Valley had no premium players and a skillcap of 20. They couldn't ride horses or make high-QL tools, but noone on the server could so there was no incentive for doing so either. When you hit 20 in a skill on GV you basically maxed out and there was no reason whatsoever for going further than that. This basically lead to a very low number of people going from the tutorial server to the premium servers (at the time the regular servers were premium only). It also lead to a lot of confusion since many players refused to accept the fact that GV was only intended as a tutorial server - Just like it would cause confusion that free-to-play is a trial if suddenly access to all premium incentives were to be granted.

While the free-to-play players on the regular servers now would have access to higher QL items and such they'd still for the larger part have access to pretty much everything they'd ever want out of a premium experience. Most of the important skill caps and such occur in between 20 and 30 skill, which is not at all a coincidence.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Aeris

[Object 281]

Idk if anyone else has noticed, but this is an obvious troll thread.  He clearly stated that he can afford the money while he's working, except he doesn't save any at all for when he's not working.  So either he can't actually afford Wurm at all and is just complaining about his work situation, or he's trolling all of you.

 

I'd just quit while your all ahead.

[Martynas5 435]

-1. 

Raising cap will bury dead horse aka market.

[Jeixi 146]

Object, on 20 Feb 2014 - 08:15 AM, said:

Idk if anyone else has noticed, but this is an obvious troll thread.  He clearly stated that he can afford the money while he's working, except he doesn't save any at all for when he's not working.  So either he can't actually afford Wurm at all and is just complaining about his work situation, or he's trolling all of you.

 

I'd just quit while your all ahead.

 

Not trolling, it's a serious suggestion. It's my opinion that skills should really be earned, not bought, or rented out. In fact, the whole premium thing has discouraged me from spending more on the game than it has encouraged me. I'd be much more willing to spend money on a deed or currency than I am willing to spend just to raise my skills.

[froggy25 81]

surely u can tho those 8E each month?

[Becket 843]

I would comment but my anxiety level is pretty high..I would get a forum ban..then what would I do no Wurm no forum oh my god all I have meetings today those poor souls.

[Nekoras 86]

If you don't pay for the service a company provides, then you're the manufactured product.

 

A company is no government, it's not intended to give stuff away for free. It's called trial for a reason.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Nekoras

[Jeixi 146]

Nekoras, on 20 Feb 2014 - 08:32 AM, said:

If you don't pay for the service a company provides, then you're the manufactured product.

 

Could you please elaborate? I fail to see how not paying means I'm a manufactured product. What do you even mean by manufactured product? What if someone was premium at one time, and decided it wasn't worth it, or could not longer afford it? Are they the manufactured product too?

[Old_Lando 178]

Not trolling, it's a serious suggestion. It's my opinion that skills should really be earned, not bought, or rented out. In fact, the whole premium thing has discouraged me from spending more on the game than it has encouraged me. I'd be much more willing to spend money on a deed or currency than I am willing to spend just to raise my skills.

 

Deeds and purchasing money are used to generate money within the game.  It's the premium subscriptions that actually pay to keep the game running.   True a small amount of the deed money and purchased items is siphoned out of the system every month, but it's not enough to support the game.   Most of that money is fed back into the system to encourage players to hire others to do stuff, part of that is what allows f2p players to gain enough coin in game to actually go premium.    If you cut premium payments then you will significantly reduce the silver that is available in the game since more will have to be taken out in order to force players to purchase more silver.   I don't think that's a workable solution.    As was just posted, if you don't pay to support the game, you are a part of the product the game delivers.

 

Having f2p characters in the game helps with socializing and for some that pay premium by working for others gives the premium folks value by doing time sink operations like digging, making bricks etc easier.

[Ruxin 32]

Could you please elaborate? I fail to see how not paying means I'm a manufactured product. What do you even mean by manufactured product? What if someone was premium at one time, and decided it wasn't worth it, or could not longer afford it? Are they the manufactured product too?

 

It's like Facebook. Facebook isn't the product...you are. The advertising companies are buying YOU from Facebook, not the other way around. The reason it's "free" is because you're trading your information and spending habits for it, same as Google.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Ruxin

[Nekoras 86]

There is no absolutely free service. You use the trial to try it. It's the time when you consider to pay for it or not.

You make a decision and become a customer by paying for the product or stay as advertisement through social media, friends etc. The only way to avoid beeing a product is to stop the interaction with the company. If you continue to interact with a company you're a +1 an a scale for stuff like "With 400k active accounts!". The only difference there is if you are the customer who pays for the service or the f2p "customer" recognized as number and advertisment.

 

There are countless articles about this topic. Google for it if you wan't to know more about it. My english isn't fluent enough to make it more clear.

 

It also feels kind of ungrateful to talk about Rolf and the whole staff as a company since it's a small business with dedicated people.

[Greyfox 427]

I take it you work seasonal. So do I. Save money when your working so when your not working you have money. Pay your bills in advance, so when your not working you don't have to worry about paying them. 
Then you can afford to pay premium when you have time to play.  Simple really.

[Atndy 385]

Could you please elaborate? I fail to see how not paying means I'm a manufactured product. What do you even mean by manufactured product? What if someone was premium at one time, and decided it wasn't worth it, or could not longer afford it? Are they the manufactured product too?

What is being said is you are paying other players for items instead of paying rolf for the game he made. If you can only play a few days a week and can't keep up with the grind I suggest 1 of 2 things or perhaps both. Play on epic, the higher curve makes it easier to get those goodies you want. The other idea would be to get a sponser (Though you need to be active for that) or give up on running your own deed and join one. On freedom you don't really need the deed. Build a fence, make sure a 1x1 shack can be seen.

[Jeixi 146]

Greyfox, on 20 Feb 2014 - 09:11 AM, said:

I take it you work seasonal. So do I. Save money when your working so when your not working you have money. Pay your bills in advance, so when your not working you don't have to worry about paying them. 

Then you can afford to pay premium when you have time to play.  Simple really.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I have to do.

 

 

What is being said is you are paying other players for items instead of paying rolf for the game he made. If you can only play a few days a week and can't keep up with the grind I suggest 1 of 2 things or perhaps both. Play on epic, the higher curve makes it easier to get those goodies you want. The other idea would be to get a sponser (Though you need to be active for that) or give up on running your own deed and join one. On freedom you don't really need the deed. Build a fence, make sure a 1x1 shack can be seen.

 

I have plenty of time to play lately, and I don't own a deed so I have no upkeep. In fact, I help a premium player who has a deed in return for the 40 QL stone house she gave me. That's just trading services though, I need some form of in-game income or perhaps someone who would be willing to smith me a good Huge Axe in exchange for labor. Long as I can keep 70+ QL gear, it doesn't bother me too much that my skills are capped. When I can't seem to earn enough in game to even replace my axe quicker than I wear it out though, that really sucks. I posted a thread in Celebration that I'm looking for work, but with less players on my server than most of the others, and lots of other f2p players already working for most of the people who do have money to pay for labor, well, it could be a challenge to find anything reasonably close to me.

[Druidnature 1,118]

Not trolling, it's a serious suggestion. It's my opinion that skills should really be earned, not bought, or rented out. In fact, the whole premium thing has discouraged me from spending more on the game than it has encouraged me. I'd be much more willing to spend money on a deed or currency than I am willing to spend just to raise my skills.

Your not buying or renting skills. Your paying to play the full game that will have updates from time to time.

[Jeixi 146]

Druidnature, on 20 Feb 2014 - 09:23 AM, said:

Your not buying or renting skills. Your paying to play the full game that will have updates from time to time.

 

Aside from raising your skills, what other benefit do you get from going premium? What else in the game is not available already to f2p players? I've got 70+ QL gear, some horses, deer, bison, and pigs. And I live in a 40 QL stone house made to look like a castle with parapets and everything. I wear a santa hat even. You're basically just paying to raise your skills, then paying rent on those skills you earned through hours of grinding each month. Everything else can easily be obtained by buying a few silver, or working for a premium player in exchange for services. Maybe if more premium players were hiring on my server it wouldn't be a problem, but pretty much everyone I know on Celebration is always broke after deed upkeep and premium costs. As for selling to tokens, it doesn't seem worth the grind with the cap on how much you can make. It would take several months of mindless grinding to afford 1 month of premium, and that's after taking into account my gf being online to help me sell to stuff make double the selling cap.