Hello (again) IMC Games!
I decided to make another topic, since you said that you are trying to find out how you should handle the situation. According to this:
https://forum.treeofsavior.com/t/with-regards-to-community-concerns-about-the-founder-s-server-exclusive-access/145387
…you still have some question in mind. However as I saw from the founder’s server announcement, the pricing and this whole western launch, it’s clear that you could use some help. Long post incoming, and it might help you.
Possible solutions if steam let you change the model
1, Buy to Play model - The one of the possible solutions
The B2P model is pretty populer here. Nothing can prove that more and better than the korean free to play mmo, Black Desert Online.
While Daum Games knows that a free to play game would be a success here too, they suddenly realised that they still shouldn’t release a korean free to play model game to the west. They went for the buy to play model with cosmetic shop which was used by Guild Wars 2 and (well it’s not an mmo, but the perfect example) League of Legends.
This only shows that the western community is rather playing for a game a little bit, than buying advantage from the cash shops.
This also means that our community is really into personalization. We love to feel different from each other, we love to give personality to our avatars and more of that, we love eye-candy.
The prices of Black Desert Online are 30€ and 50€ in Europe. This includes the full game without any disadvantage.
While we are at the topic: We will talk about the prices later, cause I think you forgot something important.
2, Subscription model
This model is not recommended. Not because it’s the most expensive, but because it needs larger preparation, a whole new shop system and a many features.
Like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV as the leader of this model, it’s proven that only the biggest companies can keep this model alive. Well , this is not even true, cause even the Star Wars MMO and the Elder Scrolls Online MMO was forced to switch models.
While Tree of Savior is loved and cherished, do not forget… this is still a small community.
Of course if you are eager to use this model you can still rehaul the whole shop system and making real premium content in the cash shop. However that would mean , that the current shop should be gone, and the hairstyles and so on should be accessable by default to every subscriber.
Again…this would need a large work and with the community being so small, a large amount of players to actually pay.
Possible solutions without kicking up the F2P aka current model
What we have to do first now is point out the problems which led us to this situation.
1, What was the problem with the founder’s server?
It diveded the community way too much. Also, the 3 month headstart was just a bad idea, cause that deepen the gap between us much more than it should. Not to mention that a Founder server would be the main server after that.
This could led to other servers downfall. Nobody would want to play on other servers, because you guys would always prefer the elite, VIP server over others, since paying costumers are there. Of course, others could use the cash shop on the free to play servers too but we all know.
If you take care of the Founder’s server, you can make much more money there, since they already paid a larger prices, it much more possible that they are willing to spend more money to the game.
You basicly killed the other servers with an elite server.
Look at other games headstart and founder packs!
Always make the pack special and the person for support and not the server!
What should you do? It’s easy to answer, do what the big ones are doing and learn from them. You know, we will still love you, even if you guys will copy the veterans.
So, what were the problems?
- The Early access had way too long headstart time.
- The price was out of control.
- The community was divided
- You made an “elite” server
- You lost trust due to the lack of communication
How to solve this?
Give each founder pack a personality, example:
- Traveler - 5$/5€ - 3 day early access / title
- Explorer - 10$/10€ - 3 day early access / title / X amount of coin
- Wanderer - 20$/20€ - 3 day early access / title / x amount of coin / a unique costume or pet which can not be purchased later.
Another neat thing from @greenfoxy21:
250 … prior + cool merchandise and maybe a figurine …
2, Why the same headstart and why not special server?
The basics of launching an mmo is never ever divide the community. Never ever split the playerbase, cause believe or not, if you do this, you will lose players. You will make money from us and that’s ok, because it’s a business.
Now, here comes the lack of communication and the bad PR.
- Let us feel important, even if we only supported you guys with 5$/5€
Yup, only if we supported you guys with that much, you should appreciate it. Even if you don’t mean it, just let us feel good about that. That will lead us to love you guys, cause we will believe that you are happy for even this amount. Even if it’s totally clear that you don’t give a … so well, just let us believe.
Eventually this will lead the players to spend more money on you, cause they will feel attachment to your company.
- Communication is essential
While I said that we will attached to you guys, never forget that you will need to communicate with us. Look around you. The biggest and most succeeded companies are all active on forums.
The personal attachment is very important, cause some people will develop feelings toward those guys on forums. Some of them will only support you guys with money, just because they were threated as human beings by one of your communication manager.
You don’t have to restrict yourself for news and announcements, cause some funny answer and human communication is more than enough.
In every mmo, the community managers are not just simple persons, but something more. Example is League of Legends and World of Warcraft. Look at the forums and how happy are the people only because one of the devs or employees answering to their silly posts.
- Same headstart
While 3 day seems a pretty small amount, trust me, it’s not. The most desperate players will surprise even you. They will 24/7 play and basicly take advantage of that 3 day, which is perfectly fine.
Every mmo has these power leveling guys, they want to be world first or server first characters. That’s ok, we need them, cause they are essential to keep the game alive.
There are those other guys, who will only pay for you to reserve their name.
For many of us, this is the most important thing.
Also, there are the supporter guys, whose are just want to be nice, and the ones who just want to play as soon as possible.
However in neither case we did separate the community!
Everyone is happy, and the free to play players wont feel like that they are left in the dust, just because they do not want to pay for a game they do not even know. Even if you guys announced that it’s free to play and that it wont be pay to win.
Pay to win not only means that you can buy items of power in the shop, but also means that if you are not paying, you are left in the dust and you wont be missed.
The essential thing in the free to play game is your service (like the communication as I said above) where you prove us that our money goes to a good place when we spend it in the cash shop.
So , with this 3 day headstart even this players will just say that "meh, waiting for three days and joining my paying friends. It’s not a big deal.
And we, the paying ones will still feel special and be happy to support you and get our unique things. Yeah, even a unique and cool title is enough most of the time.
Not to mention that we will still playing with our friends just after 3 day lonewolf time. Remember, that most of us will use that 3 day just to wander around the world, cause we will wait our non-paying friends to level up together.
Also, never launch a server named like Founder’s server, as I stated above, that would lead to a mess. Not to mention that newcomers wont go for the new servers, even if you want them, cause nobody would believe that the newly opened server will get the same attention as that one. Of course, even if you name a founder server like Cthulhu snack we will all know that stands for the founder server.
So basicly: every server and every player is important to you just as much! No exception!
3, The Prices
Please, do not forget that your game is still in beta and not even tested or played by many of us. That means, that these high prices are overkills currently.
Note that this will cost even more in Europe, cause Steam will just convert 20$ to 20€ and trust me, this is not a small difference.
Also this:
I will help you to understand the AAA game thing. Those games require much more source of power and money to keep alive,polish,upgrade and etc than example: Tree of Savior.
That means if Tree of Savior requires a monthly income of let’s say: 10k USD then Dark Desert Online need 30k USD and World of Warcraft needs 100k.
Basicly, that means, that the pricing should be done after that, but well… that’s not the case.
The only problem here is until they live up to the expectations and the quality of the service, they shouldn’t think about going ahead of these guys. Cause if these companies can provide a better and much more polished service for less, than IMC should ask for the same amount of money at max.
With the same amount of money they can do much more than those titles, cause basicly, it costs less. That profit can be turned into the game while putting food on their table too.
That’s why everyone is bringing up the AAA games thing.
and this:
Fun , no fun is not a factor in here. This is a game, not based on our opinion. It’s fun to you, fun to me…ok, and? Price is not determined by that, but by the service.
Also, going with your logic, IMC shouldn’t even implement Founder packs, since we will pay after the fun we have in their in-game shop.
We both know, that the hype will calm down, you and I , and many people will just reach the point in the game where it will be boring, cause it’s only beta. The fun will mostly come with playing with others. Also, if we pay for the fun we have, that would mean that the game with the largest playerbase should ask for more money.
If a game has more player = it’s more fun. No arguement here, cause the product which can get the more costumer is better one. No feeling here, just business wise. So even according to that, we will get to the point that Tree of Savior shouldn’t even think about asking for that money.
You want to spend more on them? Why not do that in the in-game shop? Do not force others to play more, cause you think it deserve it, cause this mostly comes from the hype. While I know somebody who would pay 20€ a month for World of Warcraft, and would agree to raise the subscribtion price to this high, I myself, would never ever consider that game that good.
That’s the personal preference. Never ever let your personal taste about these kind of things, cause in the end, it’s just business/service.
You can however support them as much as you want when the game starts. People just want to stomp others with the higher enter into the beta prices, nothing else. We all know, that if these guys just want to spend money, they can do it in the shop ingame too.
Sorry, was lazy to write it down again, my bad.
Ps.: A friendly reminder that when you run a professional business, you double and triple check every announcement and every picture which will be on your site.
While you only see the word accessory spelled wrongly, we see the rush, and the greed in it. That you just wanted to say that we will have to pay the money, that you didn’t even care about these bonus items spelled in the proper way, cause who cares what we got, an accessory or accessary (whatever is that)? The important thing is what you got!
On the topic, see above why you shouldn’t include not unique items in packs.
I hope that you guys wont rage because of this topic, and we will keep the discussion in good manners!
Cheers
In all of my suggestions them allowing those of us who wish to spend more doesn’t hurt those who don’t so… yea i’mma just leave it at that.