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Would you pay for a CO expansion pack?
riverocean
Posts: 1,690 Arc User
This question is purely theoretical and has no basis in fact. With that being said - If Champions were to announce a huge expansion pack, but wanted to to charge for it - would you purchase? Of course there's lots of variables, but let's say it had a new zone, some new powers, new costume pieces, and new playable content. It's pretty much your dream expansion for CO. Would you buy it or would your pass?
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The Game is f2p and should stay f2p even for expansions.
But yes, I would pay for an expansion if it doubled the number of zones.
1- It'd need to be more than one zone. Otherwise I'll just take the level cap and grind through alerts and call it a day.
2- It would need to have a lot of missions. I shouldn't be playing every mission in the zone to get 2 levels and have to alert-grind for 3 more levels to advance.
3- It would have to add new powers in some way. I'm not going to grind to level 50/60 just to get a stat increase.
4- The writing would need to be drastically improved, or at least directed away from un-funny pop culture references and slapstick comedy.
5- It would need to show an array of new enemies, or re-imagined older ones. I'd rather not just have new maps where I'm fighting Viper, Argent, etc. Additionally, it should have more than one open world mission and boss fight.
6- It would need to have a crisis for each area. Should be optional, but it also shouldn't require a team if you want to do it solo.
7- It should be a a few diverse Zones. One extra map tends to make me believe we'd get another Viboring Bleh map, where I'd be reduced to fighting low-level (thematically speaking) enemies more suitable for a non-powered or low-powered hero in a completely different setting.
But said expansion would need to offer also a new leveling path from level 6. At least one.
Regular new content is standard for an MMO, it's the reason people pay a monthly subscription fee.
If this game had no subscription model, then paying for an expansion would be fair. But asking for additional money on top of a subscription to unlock game content while nothing new is added outside of said expansion is outrageous.
Doesn't WoW charge like... $50 for an expansion? I mean, not saying this game is WoW caliber... but what if Subbers got it free, and Silvers had to pay?
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
Zones are still level restricted, as are lairs. Rampages make sense to be level restricted but Nemcon's 40 only (even with a preformed group) limits it. Level 11 is low enough that AP/CS effectively don't have one (thankfully).
Make the zone free then sell a pack of stuff with the theme of the new zone.
1. They add a new "zone" with at least a 5 lvl increase (this should not be a missions zone but an alert zone. You go into this zone and it's a battlefield where you fight off waves of enemies trying to reach a goal => stopping an invasion/destruction/something. This should be a continuous event zone where you need to team up and fight strong enemies). The best example would be SAOs tower advancement or maybe something like DoTA.
2. More lairs/dungeons (whatever you want to call it) -> we need those for longevity. NOTE: when designed the DEVS should take into account farming thus long un-skippable cut scenes are a BIG NO, so are any clunky or gimmick mechanics. Anything that slows you down is annoying when farming. (Forum Malvanum's cut scenes are really painful after the FIRST time. It's just annoying to see them over and over and over and over and over again. No more un-skippable cut scenes.
2. New costume set/pieces (more than just 1)
3. Good/Decent story line (could be as simple as and invasion or the like, it's the most common used plot point in comics and it still works)
4. New power set (Beams and/or Gravity -> come on, how hard can it be to make beams as for Gravity, we already have the animations for those from Vehicles)
1. What those other guys said.
RIP Caine
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Throwing money at Cryptic via a paid expansion isn't going to fix the problems that put CO into the position it is today. Mismanagement and poor F2P implementation did that.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
^This.
Also I kinda like the idea about having a sort of kickstarter allowing people to help support a new zone by sending money specifically for a new zone, I'm sure some people would complain about it but it might appeal to the people that are concerned that the money they spend on CO is just going to Neverwinter, Star Trek, or the Cryptic Mystery Project instead.
How will they pay for work hours or new talent?
With a loan? What if it bombs?
I've already paid good money for City of Villains, Going Rogue, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, and Mines of Moria through Riders of Rohan. But I'll be damned if I'll pay one thin dime for an expansion to a game I've already paid a monthly or lifetime subscription to play. [shakes fist]
Wait. Am I doing this right? Maybe I should come in again.
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
This right here.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
This argument would have been relevant if the game was still exclusively pay-to-play.
The times have changed. Silver players can already access the full game content without paying for anything. To expect that an expansion with a new zone, new mission, new lair(s), etc. be made entirely free to everyone, especially silver players when they already get so much for free, when the game is in F2P mode is ludicrous.
What I'd go with is a new zone being offered at a significantly-discounted price, as far as 50% off, to gold players, while the full price remains for silver players.
And yet GGG (grinding gear games), a small company with only one game, gives away all of their content for free. This is a company that has everything to lose if their game tanks and here they are, being profitable with free content updates. I suspect in the future small and indie studios will continue to embarrass large companies.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
You omitted certain information, like how the number of registered accounts have hit 2 million as of early last year:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/16/path-of-exile-player-accounts/
2 million registered accounts is pretty exceptional and would be a huge factor as to why they can afford to rely solely on microtransactions for profit and not a subscription model. Not exactly a fair comparison.
This is pretty much it right here.
So what? It's a game by an indie studio and they are wildly successful. The game launched last year and already has 2 million accounts. I fail to understand how your link makes what I said any less true or relevant. Looks like an indie company putting larger ones to shame. I'm sure ZeniMax only wishes TESO could be so well received.
PoE is not irreverent because they are successful, their success makes them a model that other people should look at.
The mechanics and ethics of free-to-play in Path of Exile
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
Whatever the case, the 2 million registered users figure is an important point, even though it's an indie company. Does it put huger companies out there to shame? Maybe, but that's beside the point.
2 million players is an amazingly huge market of players and the profit potential from microtransactions would definitely be very remarkable, so much so that they wouldn't have to rely on a recurring subscription model. I don't expect CO to have such numbers to afford doing the exact same thing. That was the point I was making. That's why I'm in the opinion that a new expansion with a new zone and all expected to be offered for free is not realistic.
Another important point that wasn't mentioned is that Path of Exile is an action-RPG rogue-like dark fantasy game, a genre immensely popularized by the Diablo games. The superhero MMORPG genre pales a whole lot in comparison when it comes to popular genres. I'm pretty sure that helped a lot with its current success and it isn't a simple case of any small, random indie company going up against the giants and winning.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
You're free to do whatever you want. I never imposed upon you about what you could or could not do. I was only pointing out certain facts about your example to show that it goes beyond the reasoning of a company being small and doing something that a larger one should be capable of doing.
A very niche superhero MMO genre with a small but dedicated playerbase versus a a hugely popular mainstream genre with 2 million registered players. Do I really need to explain it further?
How many registered accounts does CO have ?
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
It would also allow people with monthly subs to 'pay for it' the same way (assuming monthly subs still get a Zen stipend).
Making it a separate purchase with no Zen buy options is a big middle finger to the gold community, life timers or just subbers like me.
Hell, I think upgrading to gold sub model as well as upgrading to Gold should be possible purely through Zen.
Let the people who choose to farm and or save a stipend a long time get a discount on buying gold to LT.
I don't see your point. GGG didn't magically come with a large player base nor did they have the budget for a marketing campaign. They had to work for their audience and did it without some big studio helping them out or having paid content. Cryptic and PW do have those kinds of resources and look at where CO is.
A paid expansion isn't going to convince all the people that gave up on the game to come back and I doubt it will draw in new players. People can see that this game has been unloved for a long time. A paid expansion isn't going to change that view. If Cryptic is serious about CO's success, they need to show people that they care about this game, treating it as something more than a cash grab.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
I can't see it as much of a coincidence that the usual methods of monetizing an mmo were shot down by this community, and now we're left with money-grabs like gamble boxes. Of course we're left with cheap gimmicks now, people shot down all the stuff that actually makes sense.
I still think the adventure packs should be paid, too. Maybe they'd actually drop real rewards. Hell, nobody had a problem buying those.
RIP Caine
On the other hand, all Perfect World has is a gamblebox hammer, and every MMO they publish looks like a nail. We're not special in that regard. That's just What They Do.
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
Just release OTHER THINGS also.
That was essentially my point.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
I doubt we get a free expansion so I take what it is more feasible.
Just hurry up and take my money!
IN A LOCKBOX???
could be temporal, maybe like a week(after it gets activated.
I support "Sell Z-store items individually" & Japan Zone