What worried me a little was when Dan said ' I hope they continue with the Featured Episodes'. Although it's been a long time since we've seen one, the FE's are my favorite part of the game. I know not everyone likes them but for me they are great and I look forward to them. So to PW keep the FE's.
Finally got some time to sit down and listen. Mostly some feedback to what Dan said.
I can totally appreciate wanting to make sure that people returning as free players aren't barred from getting in by too many hoops to jump through, and I think the build restrictions over at Champs caused a lot of forums.
Still though, its possible to make subscriptions attractive upgrades without locking things away.
What it boils down to; You guys really need to sit down and work through all of the numbers again, and see what sort of value subscribers get for their $15.
Examine what a player could get for $15 of CPoints (roughly 1250 points) versus subbing and getting 400points and a Gold membership.
For Gold you get:
+1 Character slot
Foundry building access
Full sized banks
BO Slots as you rank
and the standard respec tokens as you rank
No additional ship or costume slots
A player can easily spend their 15 bucks and get these things in ONE MONTH (per toon) and still have points left over to buy other things. The ONLY true carrot in there is foundry publishing rights, which thus far are not announced as purchasable.
I think its pretty inexcusable to ask for subscribers to pay for additional service items like that. If they are subscribing, they should be earning additional server resources - You should be OPENING DOORS to keep them playing (and paying) rather than making them buy the keys, A Player who subs 100 days certainly has earned more costume slots, and why not give out a ship slot at 200 or a character slot at 300. If 300 days of sub money doesn't offset the storage costs they would create, you guys have some SERIOUS infrastructure issues to solve.
You have a GREAT opportunity to add some awesome incentives to the veteran rewards to make that subscription plan more enticing.
Something is very wrong if an existing player thinks they will get a better value for their money by dropping their sub and playing for free. Not being able to afford the sub, or not thinking the game is worth subbing to is one thing, but not finding VALUE in the sub package is just terrible.
Its not really going to hurt you. You will still have plenty of shiny things rolling on the C-Store, and that 400points won't go very far on premium items, so you'll still get the pound of extra flesh, even from your lifetime players.
You don't want to bar players from getting back into the game with F2P barriers. Don't bar current players from continuing to enjoy the game by setting infrastructure barriers. Open up those slots for your paying customers.
Something is very wrong if an existing player thinks they will get a better value for their money by dropping their sub and playing for free. Not being able to afford the sub, or not thinking the game is worth subbing to is one thing, but not finding VALUE in the sub package is just terrible.
Oh goodie! He pulled the "debateable" riff again. This mean the F2P matrix ain't changing. :mad:
EDIT: I was not impressed with this podcast.
The debetable thing was amusing.
But ultimately, I am fine with that. None of the suggested limitations really convinced me. If Cryptic doesn't think they need a ton of subscribers, maybe they _really_ don't?
If you're on a 15 $ a month subscription right now, and think it's not worth it, just become a F2P player.
But I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people don't realize what all these inventory slots, bridge officer slots and the like actually mean to them, until they lose it and end up buying them anyway.
But the good thing is - the new F2P players most certainly won't miss them, since they don't know them. And no one can wave them into their face like the Freeforms in Champions Online.:p
If the money will come from the F2P players buying stuff on the C-Store anyway, it doesn't matter if the subscription package is interesting or not. The only people that would care about it are lifers. But they can't unsubscribe anyway, and so they will be "forced" to live with all the irrelevant subscription advantages.
I tried but I can't listen to this. Who is the creator of this program, I have some feedback.
Hi there Sekrit, I'm sorry to hear that you couldn't listen to this weeks podcast, is it a technical problem with the stream or a different issue?,
Also if you'd like to leave us feedbacl then please send an email to priorityone@thequantumcafe.com, We look forward to hearing from you
Really wish the Priority One website had an option to turn off the stupid sound effects when you visit the link.
Neal, what sound effects are you hearing whilst on the Prio One website, I have vistied the page a few times today and haven't heard anything, could you clarify as to what you are hearing so we can look into it?
Thank you all for listening to this weeks show
~Genex
Hi there Sekrit, I'm sorry to hear that you couldn't listen to this weeks podcast, is it a technical problem with the stream or a different issue?,
Also if you'd like to leave us feedbacl then please send an email to priorityone@thequantumcafe.com, We look forward to hearing from you
Neal, what sound effects are you hearing whilst on the Prio One website, I have vistied the page a few times today and haven't heard anything, could you clarify as to what you are hearing so we can look into it?
Thank you all for listening to this weeks show
~Genex
Why didn't you guys pin him down on why he thinks it would be funny to lose the extra income a subscription would provide?
If you're on a 15 $ a month subscription right now, and think it's not worth it, just become a F2P player.
But I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people don't realize what all these inventory slots, bridge officer slots and the like actually mean to them, until they lose it and end up buying them anyway.
But the good thing is - the new F2P players most certainly won't miss them, since they don't know them. And no one can wave them into their face like the Freeforms in Champions Online.:p
Any current subscriber that chooses to drop to silver tier will KEEP all of their inventory, bank, ship, character slots. Anything you have on your current account will NOT be removed. So, they won't really be missing anything except the "privilege" of making content for Cryptic through the foundry... oh, and the $15 fee.
Comments
Who doesn't like content?
Ok...Ok ... maybe I'm wrong about that.:p
EDIT: I was not impressed with this podcast.
I can totally appreciate wanting to make sure that people returning as free players aren't barred from getting in by too many hoops to jump through, and I think the build restrictions over at Champs caused a lot of forums.
Still though, its possible to make subscriptions attractive upgrades without locking things away.
What it boils down to; You guys really need to sit down and work through all of the numbers again, and see what sort of value subscribers get for their $15.
Examine what a player could get for $15 of CPoints (roughly 1250 points) versus subbing and getting 400points and a Gold membership.
For Gold you get:
+1 Character slot
Foundry building access
Full sized banks
BO Slots as you rank
and the standard respec tokens as you rank
No additional ship or costume slots
A player can easily spend their 15 bucks and get these things in ONE MONTH (per toon) and still have points left over to buy other things. The ONLY true carrot in there is foundry publishing rights, which thus far are not announced as purchasable.
I think its pretty inexcusable to ask for subscribers to pay for additional service items like that. If they are subscribing, they should be earning additional server resources - You should be OPENING DOORS to keep them playing (and paying) rather than making them buy the keys, A Player who subs 100 days certainly has earned more costume slots, and why not give out a ship slot at 200 or a character slot at 300. If 300 days of sub money doesn't offset the storage costs they would create, you guys have some SERIOUS infrastructure issues to solve.
You have a GREAT opportunity to add some awesome incentives to the veteran rewards to make that subscription plan more enticing.
Something is very wrong if an existing player thinks they will get a better value for their money by dropping their sub and playing for free. Not being able to afford the sub, or not thinking the game is worth subbing to is one thing, but not finding VALUE in the sub package is just terrible.
Its not really going to hurt you. You will still have plenty of shiny things rolling on the C-Store, and that 400points won't go very far on premium items, so you'll still get the pound of extra flesh, even from your lifetime players.
You don't want to bar players from getting back into the game with F2P barriers. Don't bar current players from continuing to enjoy the game by setting infrastructure barriers. Open up those slots for your paying customers.
Business 101 right here
But ultimately, I am fine with that. None of the suggested limitations really convinced me. If Cryptic doesn't think they need a ton of subscribers, maybe they _really_ don't?
If you're on a 15 $ a month subscription right now, and think it's not worth it, just become a F2P player.
But I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people don't realize what all these inventory slots, bridge officer slots and the like actually mean to them, until they lose it and end up buying them anyway.
But the good thing is - the new F2P players most certainly won't miss them, since they don't know them. And no one can wave them into their face like the Freeforms in Champions Online.:p
If the money will come from the F2P players buying stuff on the C-Store anyway, it doesn't matter if the subscription package is interesting or not. The only people that would care about it are lifers. But they can't unsubscribe anyway, and so they will be "forced" to live with all the irrelevant subscription advantages.
Hi there Sekrit, I'm sorry to hear that you couldn't listen to this weeks podcast, is it a technical problem with the stream or a different issue?,
Also if you'd like to leave us feedbacl then please send an email to priorityone@thequantumcafe.com, We look forward to hearing from you
Neal, what sound effects are you hearing whilst on the Prio One website, I have vistied the page a few times today and haven't heard anything, could you clarify as to what you are hearing so we can look into it?
Thank you all for listening to this weeks show
~Genex
Why didn't you guys pin him down on why he thinks it would be funny to lose the extra income a subscription would provide?
especially when, according to dstahl, STO has been doing great to begin with.
Any current subscriber that chooses to drop to silver tier will KEEP all of their inventory, bank, ship, character slots. Anything you have on your current account will NOT be removed. So, they won't really be missing anything except the "privilege" of making content for Cryptic through the foundry... oh, and the $15 fee.