As i already said:
more communication, something like: “we’re thinking about doing this for ToS what do you guys think?” so that stuff like this last 24 h don’t happens again.
add more stuff and cute things to faunders pack
make the headstart if not 3 days at least 1-3 weeks instead of 3 months.
I think almost everyone would be happy with these
Uuuhm, let’s see.
Oh, yeah, they nerfed the coin gain rate from 1 per 2 hours to 1 per 4 hours.
Why? No idea.
I forgive you, IMC. Now give me my EU server, and goddess costume, and more buritos as HP potions.
Make the game buy to play and release it next week.
I actually agree with you on the communication point, the game isn’t even launched, but the communication is lacking of presence, really.
On the other hand this one point creates a lot of questions and problem for players who are not living near NA (server I mean), opening the question of server characters transfers, or simply the “will we have a EU server ?”, it concerns a lot of people. And with more communication or just conversation between staff & us it wouldn’t be a problem, it certainly would be solved. I mean come on you’re about to launch a game that team up a lot of different countries around the world, but you’re indicating nothing, whistle we are evaluating the offers of closed beta for a certain price but we cant even know such simple things…
And this is just an example (which involved me ok, but i’m sure there are plenty others linked to this problem !)
Shimapan head gear
Communication and feedback would be great if they can maintain this.
They also shouldn’t try the same underhanded move they did just recently.
The communication during the CB periods were nice until they just ended up being too quiet recently.
Buy to play? Cool.
With this level of jew microtransactions? No thanks.
Like the OP said, 3 months with no wipe is a game killer. It will fracture the community and drive all economic power to the founders. More so if they say they wont open new servers while the first ones dont fill.
I agree with the early 1-3 week acess, but I am not sure if people are willing to pay $50… I personally didn’t care too much about those hats, they looked pretty boring and generic.
I would personally be happy with:
Most people have already said it, but honestly the most important thing to do right now is to communicate with the playerbase. I haven’t been on the forums for months and it feels like it’s in this heavily bruised and fragile state. At least having a staff member come by and participate in the conversations even a little bit would help because it would cement IMC’s presence in people’s minds. Staying silent for too long just gives people time to imagine the worst and sows seeds of doubt. And that’s the last thing the game needs right now.
i think the best way to do now is:
Why would I pay to play a game which I don’t know if it’ll work, even more considering how terribly it worked during the beta?
See, everywhere I go now it’s full of people who think they have the next best idea for IMC to switch to. At this point, no matter what option they choose people are going to feel like they were outright ignored and that IMC doesn’t care about them. I think the best course would be to just forget about pushing the founders packs and pushing the game out super hard and instead focused on repairing the connection they had with the community in the beginning.
I think words wont do much at this point, people have been tricked. They wont trust them without seeing proof. That’s why people are demanding changes.
best idea?
If IMC launch true free to play OBT at 22 March and make sure no lag = everyone will happy
but it is impossible to happen
Open Beta for all, As Promised.
The Problem: The incompatibility of the freemium model and the steam early access model.
Early Access promises an initial investment for a future product. Fifty dollars is roughly the cost of a new game from major game manufacturers in the US, and this strategy invokes that expectation. Adding the idea of early access implies ownership as well. Instead, a tangible product doesn’t appear to be offered or implied here. The customer will be asked to pay for further features on top of their initial investment. Pay to win/freemium model is clearly a part of the game and this isn’t changing.
Freemium promises free access with pay to win and/or market inflation. In-game currency inflation follows the decline of consumer interests. Currency is discounted to boost consumer interest. Repeated discounts lead to temporary boost of customer interest at the expense of the game economy instability that will plague your long grind game. Additionally, pay to win further alienates those interested in the grind as it tends to reward those who grind the least.
The potential solution. Either lower your initial early access to 10$ or alter your freemium model substantially to fit the expectation of ownership. The second solution seems much more difficult to implement, as this is a fundamental aspect of the korean version and you appear to be offering a staggered translated release.
A concern: The problem of bots won’t be swept under the rug so easily and you may want to look for other solutions in a direction the rest of the industry has taken. This may mean that you hire a consultant with some of the early access money you raise – I expect you may have already considered this. Goodluck!
I’ll just copy paste here what i said on my other post, cause it’s basically my opinion about what you ask xD
I really want to share some feedback, my thoughts. Maybe this is a way to release all the frustration? And maybe it can help (not so hopefull on them reading this)
Well, the main thing is misscommunication and greedyness. I’d glady pay the ammount if it was fair, I can afford it but I just don’t want with the way they are doing things.
First of all, they are asking as much ammount as AAA mmos, for a huuge early access and TP. What if I don’t want the TP. I mean, i would probably spend those 50$ in this three months but the way they want to force me to do it is just wrong.
So… basically my thoughts on this:
1- You can’t just separate groups of friends. When a new MMO is released, you usually join it with a bunch of people. So far, those MMO I joined alone, I left them in less than one month. I just stand if I can play with my friends, which makes things funnier. I think is bad enough the fact that I can’t lend they silver or trade objects with them. But if now I can’t even play with them, better I’d move to other game.
2- You can’t just annunce OPEN BETA and then do this. I mean, remember the leaked message? It said game would be released for free 14 March. Now they do this. Is kind of a rush and cashgrab. It feels like they didn’t care about the game and since things are going badly in Korea they want just to make us pay for it.
3- Usually there’s 3 models of MMO payments. Cash shop is one. Premium subscription another. And lastly, B2P. Usually games choose one or another, but IMC where SO greedy and… choosed them 3!! which would be ok with NORMAL prices, not as huge as their prices are. Remember token is almost 200 tp which is around… 20$? Is not enough for them to make you buy to play the first three months but you also have to pay for token if you want something as basic as trade. Even games like FF14 are 15$ cause they have monthly subscription. And it are FINISHED games.
4- The way they announced it. It was ■■■■. They just went for the money. They didn’t even made a decent FAQ, just prices. It was sooo rushed, cause they made the annuncement and in 24h it would be avaliable. Like, what the hell? We don’t even know the details. We don’t know how much the TP is worth. We didn’t know (now we do) if there was about to be new servers, wipe, server locations, cash shop prices…
5- Paying for testing bugs? Is the first time I see this. Unfinished, full of bugs game, worth $50 when other big tittles are being released this season… I don’t know, is silly.
6- This is just the beginning. Makes me afraid about how they are going to react when things aren’t going ok. P2W objects on the cashop, for example?
It was enough badly about the trade, markets and so, cause that doesn’t work so good on western community but I was willing to take the token if needed, tho I know most my friends couldn’t afford it (yay spain crisis!). I know IMC is a buisness but let’s be honest here. Is not the only buisness, there’s plenty MMOs and nobody attempted something like this xD The nearest example we have is archeage and look how it’s going right now. Completely death. Other MMO with microtransactions works just fine. Cashshop + token would be enough.
For those fanboys (i considere myself a fangirl from this game, was waiting for it for so long) who are willing to pay and calling us crybabies, please think for a moment: you aren’t helping anybody. Don’t be that selfish. you want to be playing on a empty server in three months? Cause I wouldn’t want to. And that’s why I wouldn’t purchase the founder pack even if I already had spare money to waste on this game.
The whole idea is just wrong. Average casual player last one-two months on one game. Three months of early access is an already “old” server. people already reached high levels and finished with their gears. Payers would be asking for new content or leaving the game cause boredom while newbies would be still starting.
I know they already threw a message talking about how they are considerating to change the options but I don’t have high hopes.
If only the founder’s pack would add some keys for those friends who can’t pay it (2 would be enough) i would be happier.
Also, the EA. Its so wrong. The best they would do is 3 different bundle, them all starting at the same time. Something affordable without any kind of “gift”.
They aren’t just trying to milk the cow but also kicking out future potential customers that just decides to spend money once they are happy with the game (I know plenty of those)
Going alone for the NA/EU market without establishing solid cash flow on TOS in Asia was a mistake on IMC’s part. They should have either waited on NA release to allow the Korean TOS fix the various issues and to get a clearer picture of sales potential of TOS, or gone with a partner with an established infrastructure in NA.
I think it is possible that because IMC had to invest considerably in setting up NA/EU service (servers, hirings, etc.) and compounded with the fact that Korean TOS launch is below expectations, IMC is now having cash flow problems.
This can explain why they are trying hard to raise cash fast.
Sadly Western PC f2p MMO market is far less lucrative than Korean, Japanese, or Chinese markets (which is why many games don’t make it to the West or gets to the West very late, because frankly Asian MMOs don’t make much money in the West, just look at Nexon’s annual report)
Anyways, the price range of $50 is too high for the western f2p audience. Monthly fee of $20 is also likely too high for western f2p players. Although western f2p players are generally very critical of any p2w elements on f2p games, IMC should consider lower VIP price + moderate amount of p2w elements for sustainable business. One idea is to break down the VIP bundle where the basic bundle costs less, such as ~$7-10 a month, and some added individual benefits can then be sold separately such as: the movement speed buff for $2, additional market slots (on top of the VIP) of like 10 trade for $1, etc.
IMC should take care not to limit the f2p players too much (trade limits, dungeon limits, insane taxes, etc.) f2p players have to have sufficient ability to make decent in-game money and progress, and f2p players who play a lot should match that of p2p casual players. If there are no f2p players making decent progress and in-game money, the p2p whales will have no one to sell their tokens to, which means no revenue for IMC.