Implementing Premium Edition Business Model

[Diogenes]

Hi there,

I am relatively new to this game (am still downloading it for the first time!) from reading through these forums and comparing many different MMORPGs, has there been any thought to implementing at some point an optional premium edition of the game for one time nominal fee, that will enable some addtional features, such as a couple new playable races / weapons / skins / spells / etc. There does not seem to be enough content yet for this approach, but this model (which is used to great effect by Praire Game's Minions of Mirth, for example) seems to be greatly effective at satisfying both the player community and the development team. Why?

1. Stingy players can still play the game for free, forever, with most of the content enabled.
2. Players more liberal with their cash can play with new content, making them happy.
3. The dev team gets some monetary compensation for all of their intense, time consuming, often thankless, and difficult work.

Yes, yes, I know that Free Forever! will always be a battlecry for many people - but who wants to kill rats forever? Seems this appraoch could solve a great many issues much faster, and provide a more professional game all around.

What do you all think?

[steuben]

>> has there been any thought to implementing at some point an optional premium edition of the game for one time nominal fee

yes and then soundly rejected.

>>There does not seem to be enough content yet for this approach,

* steuben points to pre-alpha sign ... somewhere

not that anything short of _alot_ of money is going to solve any of this fast.

>>but who wants to kill rats forever?
there's rats?... how long have we had rats?

>>What do you all think?
i should stop reading [gm]dave... he's giving me ideas.

[Santiago]

Since the developers are volunteers, money does not have the power to magically increase their productivity, making this a moot point. This is something I have heard several developers point out in the past. Also, one of the original goals of PlaneShift has always been to reward players for their loyalty and roleplaying in the game, rather than give "OOC" advantages based on whoever has the most cash to spend on the game.

I'm sure others will raise the other points that have been discussed at length many times in the eternal "free vs paid" debate. But thank you for your thoughtful post, and welcome to the PS community!

[Karyuu]

Yes, yes, I know that Free Forever! will always be a battlecry for many people - but who wants to kill rats forever?

No one, which is precisely why we're going to be preventing that through greater new content as the game expands :]

We are satisfied as it is, really. The very goal of the project is to provide free access to everything for anyone, and changing this would drastically change the project itself.

[FyreBrand]

Hi there,

I am relatively new to this game (am still downloading it for the first time!) from reading through these forums and comparing many different MMORPGs, has there been any thought to implementing at some point an optional premium edition of the game for one time nominal fee, that will enable some addtional features, such as a couple new playable races / weapons / skins / spells / etc. There does not seem to be enough content yet for this approach, but this model (which is used to great effect by Praire Game's Minions of Mirth, for example) seems to be greatly effective at satisfying both the player community and the development team. Why?

1. Stingy players can still play the game for free, forever, with most of the content enabled.
2. Players more liberal with their cash can play with new content, making them happy.
3. The dev team gets some monetary compensation for all of their intense, time consuming, often thankless, and difficult work.

Yes, yes, I know that Free Forever! will always be a battlecry for many people - but who wants to kill rats forever? Seems this appraoch could solve a great many issues much faster, and provide a more professional game all around.

What do you all think?

I think there is more to a game than hack-n-slash (killing rats forever).  There are some aspects to this game I am really enjoying that other games haven't offered in the same way if at all.

1. Mult-Platform:  I really appreciate that the developers have gone through the extreme pains to make this multi-platform.  That vision alone was what made me initially investigate PlaneShift.

2. Unknown World:  There is no in game walkthrough on what to accomplish.  I can kill rats and rogues or I can mine and develop crafting (or both).  Even at this stage of development there is a lot to do.

3. Actual Roleplaying:  It's not an easy thing to find.  The roleplaying here is great and the community is fun.

4. Hobby:  I love the fact that this is developed in people's spare time and that it is less subject to "mad cash cow disease" than commercial products whose sole purpose is to generate revenue.  I have no problem with paying for software or games for that matter.  I own quite a few.  But this whole idea of pay for additional content is one of the worst ideas to plague the gaming industry in recent years.  I have happily paid retial for a single player game and I've paid my monthly fee for some online games, but I don't want to piece-part content together.  What kind of story and immersion is there in that.  All I think when those models are implemented is, "Ah, their original business model sucked and they couldn't make it so they are going to gouge their customers."

I'm really glad that the development team is satisfied with their game becuase it rocks.  Please OP, don't make me sick [GM]Dave on you. Thats never pretty.

[eldoth_terevan]

The game is perfect the way it is... please leave the model and the community alone. Thank you. [later: of course you meant well diogenes, just wanted to put up a concise thought probably sounded harsher than i meant. all discussion is good. Thank you Santiago ... I should have said, Diogenes, that if you were looking for a few honest people you have definitely found them in here...]

[Santiago]

I am sure he meant well with his suggestion. It is something that has been brought up many times in the past, and has always created interesting discussions around the various possibilities.

[FyreBrand]

I was just kidding about [GM]Dave.  Brainstorming on improvement is always good.  I probably could have said concisely that generating revenue is good, but I don't care to support the pay for content by the piece type of business model.

[Sisilam]

* Sisilam shakes herself of a BAD BAD shudder that runs down the back

[Nimfis Altmer]

Sure it sounds like a good idea. But then again after recently playing silkroad online and knightonline. two games were the free2play people have almost nothing whatsoever to do and are greately limited in terms of gameplay,items etc. I would have to disagree.