So quite a few users are going on about how the game is Pay2Win, definitions of Pay2Win and over all flaming other users over their opinion of how a business can work.
There are also several users going on about pay-walls and bring up valid and not-so valid points.
There is also those who are trying to brainstorm more reasons to cash.
This thread, will be open to reasonable discussion and debating… as I would like to see us as a community develop the cash shop in a way that the western market would love and flock to. I’ve seen many MMOs in my days adopt the cashing practices of the Eastern market and because of this fail severely in the Western market.
You’re welcome to debate with my ideas or factor in your own. Really I just want this thread to be the baseholder for us as a community to possibly drive IMC in a positive direction toward cash flow for a Western Audience.
However, not everything can be free. I’ll use my own experiences, research and those I know as a bit of weight to my words. (I used to want to be a Game Master/Moderator when I was younger as well as a 3D modeler)
You need to hire programmers, which the price can go from $35 a hour however the better he/she is at their job the more their hourly wage goes up. You have to factor that and these will be the people working with the developers mostly on fixing errors with the game caused by western changes.
A 3D modeler’s average hourly wage goes from $21 and higher, similar to the programmer the better they are at their job the more they are paid per working hour. Factor in that both of these are full time positions but that’s not all.
Game Masters or moderators get paid $13+ a hour as well and you need a lot of people in these positions as they’re the ones in charge of usually looking at what the community has to say forwarding positive feedback and bugs to the developers and programmers not to mention usually the ones behind disposing of bad players, those who break the TOS and of course… the bots we all loathe.
This isn’t all the costs people, servers have to be strong and powerful enough to handle all the people connecting to them. This cost alone I can’t even measure nor will I try to, I can just tell you it’s in the thousands per month.
There’s other costs as well, IMC is not a charity they are a business. We have to make this cash model successful and enough to pay their employees, costs and as well make them a profit.
Anyways, onto my own ideas (Some of which inspired by other peoples’!)
P2W Argument: Stats on Accessories
Nothing should be changed honestly, look at the first few posts in this thread for as to why. Originally I had a wall of text explaining that the cost should be lowered but if that were the case then the guild war incentives would be pointless. Besides it’s not like you can’t buy enchanted accessories off players or win the guild wars, right?
P2W - Premium Mounts:
I don’t know enough about this upcoming feature honestly but honestly premium mounts should only look cooler and appeal to those that want to say ride a tiger, dragon, etc. Something people would much rather ride then Bulbasaur’s ugly cousin and Leaf Raptor. You’d be surprised how superficial Western Culture is, especially for the more feminine gamers who love cute things. I even stated myself that if I could get a cute Fox to ride on while firing my pistol and crossbow I’d throw money at the screen.
P2W - Token Benefits
This is a touchy subject… Very touchy.
Keep in mind I AM a token player on Klai but on Orsha where I play with two of my best friends I have no token. I’ve experienced both ends and not having my token benefits has frustrated me severely.
Trade between Characters
Buy Shop
Max items on market at once
Tax on market sales
Number of Attributes Learnable at Once Raised
Movement Speed Bonus
Alright, so Trading Between Characters should be accessible to everyone. Team Storage should not be behind a pay wall at all. However a Free Player only has ONE slot to trade items from whereas a token player gets three as well as access to the collection that increases team storage. This means that Free Players can transfer items over but it’d take them longer because they only have one slot, this makes Token look MORE appealing without severely punishing free players. (IE: They can do it, it’s just more convenient for token.)
Shops are fine as they are, other then I personally think that free players should be given two slots to utilize whereas tokens as of the notes now have 10. Again, convenience. Also lower Free’s tax to 20%, 30 is just brutal. But it can also be left alone as the token is accessible to those who can’t spend TP so I guess it’s a fair point… Although personally I still feel 30 is too much.
The attribute thing is probably the one thing I REALLY didn’t like in those patch notes personally. I think allowing Premium Users to bypass the time limit was entirely stupid. I felt the current system was fine, 2 for tokens and 1 for free… Not too punishing again. Convenience.
Now here’s the debatable one, movement speed. I personally think this is an okay bonus for Token to keep over free player. Yes it is a stat I know but really how useful is this stat aside from making things more convenient? If your worries are related to the PvP mode we haven’t quite gotten yet, perhaps the movement speed bonus can be disabled there.
EDIT
Okay so after a lot going on this thread maybe making the movement speed bonus apply to OUT OF COMBAT only which the game does recognize is a better alternative, that way Token users can keep the convenience of moving faster but they don’t get to utilize it in combat which is a straight up advantage.
Token also gets bonus EXP, this is PERFECTLY acceptable.
So what else can we do for Token? Perhaps two channels that are Token only, premium channels if you will. When queueing on 1P or 2P for a dungeon you will still be matched to anyone on any other channel. You can argue this causes segregation but if a premium player feels a map is being infested too much by bots or just other players they can swap to their premium channel.
You see what I’m suggesting here right? I’m stressing “Convenience.”
Now as for the western market… like I said we are a VERY superficial market. We LOVE cosmetics, straight up love them from the loli lovers to the feminine gamers to the gamers who just want to make their character look cool.
However a new NPC would be needed in town… a Fashionista NPC who manages a storage purely for premium items. This Fashionista NPC’s storage is accessible on all characters as well. Can be expanded even larger with TP too of course but the size is maybe… HALF of what Storage currently is, so it’s not too much space but not too little. Allow people to expand it if they so desire and stick hair, costumes as well as companions bought with TP in here. Nothing else.
You can easily market off us with costumes, hair styles, dyes and mounts believe me on that one. If you want to even test this, do a ‘discount’ on older cosmetic items pick them at random where you slash the price by 10-20%. Make the selection of items random and don’t EVER discount your newer items while they’re still fresh on the market but if you’re a business, you knew that.
Something else that could be thrown in for possible sales is enhanced EXP tomes that are better then the standard ones but of course cost more. They last longer or give more EXP bonus. Pick your poison.
Anyways as a community I hope we can come to a reasonable and fair agreement that still will make IMC a profit but also strengthen the game in the Western Market.
Edit: Added Fashionista, Removed Scrolls, altered tax.