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monetizing foundry
soriedem
Member Posts: 150 Arc User
During Podcast UGC's 100th episode, i suggested a way to monetize the foundry, through the sales of specialized asset packs. Stuff that normally appear in game should not be considered part of these asset packs. instead, I'd like to see detail objects, sets, and costumes that belong to certain eras. For instance, a Captain Proton asset pack that will give authors the ability to build missions with those assets. Or another staple of Star Trek are the wild west or world war II episodes. Because they are not a part of the normal Star Trek Online universe, I think making them available as a zen-store purchasable asset pack that extends foundry in new ways would open countless story-telling opportunities in new and exciting ways. Plus it might encourage Cryptic to dedicate more resources towards developing Foundry.
Some of the asset packs, i'd glad throw zen at would be:
Captain Proton
Wild West
1920s
1960s
Moriarty
World War II
Vacations (ala Neelix's Resort Program)
ect...
What do you think? What asset packs would you be willing to throw money at? How much would you be willing to pay for them?
Some of the asset packs, i'd glad throw zen at would be:
Captain Proton
Wild West
1920s
1960s
Moriarty
World War II
Vacations (ala Neelix's Resort Program)
ect...
What do you think? What asset packs would you be willing to throw money at? How much would you be willing to pay for them?
Post edited by soriedem on
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I think that some one shot holodeck based stories both from the Foundry and from the Cryptic side of things altogether would be a great thing. Plus if you make it with the intent to use primarily with the foundry, this might be an interesting gauge on usage of the foundry based on sales.
Cathains
Romulans
Cardassians
other races that exist in cannon but not in game
Talaxians
breen
There are many many more!
I would support this, so long as there is a way to grind for it. But, to be honest, I don't think it will happen, unless Cryptic makes the stuff for a FE.
Foundry authors are such a small minority of players. If they had to decide, "Do we make a Captain Proton costume set for the C-store or devote resources to sets and props for foundry authors?" the choice is obvious.
We can't even get most of the stuff that they make added into the Foundry by the folks who make it.
But, at this point, I would buy assets, if that is the only chance of getting new stuff added.
If 1 person had this job, it would be a godsend to the Foundry.
In the Z-store? Nothing makes any money in the store unless it cost $50. I said add Foundry asset packs to the lock boxes! Really really want to make a Captain Proton Foundry mission? It could cost you.
Beers,
Jengoz =/
=-=-=-=-=-
Play Farts, Cause they are funny!
As to motorization of the Foundry in general, there simply isn't enough Foundry authors to justify charging for Foundry assets. Think of how rare it is for KDF to get new C-Store items. This is due to a low return on investment. The Foundry author community is even smaller than that.
Now before someone runs off yelling that the Foundry is doomed without a monetary income, that's not how the game works, especially a F2P game. It's not about every feature in the game funding itself. Cryptic uses items which have a low development cost , but a high return to fund all of the things that don't.
The problem isn't that the Foundry isn't generating any money (it does generate value which is another aspect,) it that Cryptic must look at the needs of the Foundry in the context of the entire game. Simply put Cryptic has bigger things to deal with at the moment.
I am not looking to pick a fight or troll you, but what game are you playing?!?
The Devs have flat out stated that they will not put resources unless there is a direct return attached to it. Doffs system? Attached to selling doff packs in the z ?store and lockboxes. Starbases? Dilithuim Resources sink design to get you to grind or buy Dilithuim.
Beers,
Jengoz =/
=-=-=-=-=
Play Farts, cause they are funny!
This is precisely WHY it IS a terrific idea. By monetizing it, the devs have a reason to essentially "commission" their team to sidetrack and make these packs for the Foundry team that does want them.
Signed. Great Idea.
(and making cryptic all the monies)
1. Foundry a Lockbox!
2. sell prop packs.
3. sell map packs.
4. sell animation packs
5. sell behavior packs
6. move additional mission slots to the Z store
7. allow mission creators to charge Dilithuim to player for their missions.
8. Lower the cap on assets you can add to maps (mobs, props, etc.) and then charge to raise the cap per mission.
9. charge for upgraded tools. Ie Cut scene creator , custom map creator, custom mod creator.
Beers,
Jengoz =/
=-=-=-=-=
Play Farts, cause they are funny!
Cryptic already makes money indirectly from it because it gives another content source for people to continue playing.
Foundry Mission Database
Check out my Foundry missions:
Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan
Hmmm yes NO Maybe,,
Now i love this idea but i would like too see these features added for foundry but make it so they can only be activated on things like the holodecks.
I agreed with the podcast i dont leave ESD these days i just hit buttons and go places it would be nice to HAV to travel again and to go the other side of the map for a borg ww2 mission i would be all over that,
Long and short of it i like it and they do it in the secret world so why not here
Anything you buy on the c-store should come with an unlock to for the Foundry. Speaking just for myself here, but when those cool-looking EVA suits came, after looking at stats and price and and seeing it was per player as well, I thought "You know, I would buy one of those if it meant I could use it in the Foundry, but since I can't, I'm not going to buy one at all."
So I'd say any c-store purchase of a ship or a costume or like the Ferasans/Aenar ought to unlock said purchase for use in the Foundry. Cryptic would have to task a programmer to get all the remaining stuff in there, but they'd some return on that investment. It might be a lot, but more than they had before and maybe enough to cover the cost of the work.
And if they do that, they should definitely grandfather in anything from the c-store that's there for free now (Odyssey variants for example) and grandfather in any previous c-store purchases (I've bought tons of costumes, for example, and would hate to have to buy them twice).
Not taken as a troll, and keep in mind that anything I say is my own personal opinion. It's not a crime to disagree with me.
You are right in that the systems you mentions are, or have components meant to bring in revenue. But no where has a dev stated that things will only be added to the game if they have a direct monetary income. Otherwise we would have never gotten the Winter event or the recent Temporal Ambassador episode. There are in fact a multitude of factors that guide decisions by the development team.
It would work if the revenue generated from the release of these packs was greater than the cost to make them. I'm afraid that in reality it would cost sufficiently more create the packs than they would bring in. There just aren't that many Foundry authors and very few of those are likely to make a mission that requires these assets.
In the end I'm not opposed to these assets being in the Foundry nor is it a terribly big deal to me if Cryptic charges for them. I'm just saying it makes little sense for Cryptic to do this. I think KF is right in that you best bet would be if Cryptic created these assets for a FE or some other content.
This 100% is what I had in the back of my mind but couldn't quite think of how to word it.
Actually, you are making a summation that it HAS to be of an equal value. Think of it more as a "tip" for devs vs how authors get tipped dilithium.
In my opinion, the problem with a Captain Proton (for example) FE is that it doesn't fit into universe very well. Holodeck adventures would work as a zen store extra content thing. Sell holodeck adventures in the c-store that has the asset pack attached for foundry.
Sorry. Got to keep this one going. Bort posted directly it directly on the Jupiter Force forums before he stopped posting there that Cryptic would not put resources into areas of the game unless there was some form of direct monetizing . And Geko has said it a few times on interviews.
As for the Ambassador episode and the winter event. How is giving you a free ship and then asking for $30 to upgrade it not monetizing? How is having you race for 30 days for a ship or lett you buy all the photos on day one not monetizing?
Face it, without monetizing it, the Foundry will face a slow death. And we are not talking "tips" level monetizing. If the foundry can't raise Ship purchase or lockboxes level revenue, then this is a good as it will even get for the Foundry.
Beers,
Jengoz =/
=-=-=-=-=
Play Farts, cause they are funny!
As many people in this thread have already pointed out --
1.) The subset of players creating good Foundry missions is microscopically small and would not equal a return on investment even if all the Foundry authors bought every pack produced. There's not not enough damn authors, guys. If the Klingon C-Store ships were a net loss of revenue invested for Cryptic (and ships are way cheaper to render and produce than ground assets like costumes), (and there's a Hell of a lot more Klingon players than Foundry authors) there is literally no way in freakin' Hell that anything we buy in the form of packs will ever be worth it to them.
2.) The Foundry is not only full of hurdles that make mission creation difficult: it's downright incomplete, missing Jupiter Uniforms, Academy Uniforms, Open-Jacket Uniforms, Odyssey and Bortas Uniforms, EV Suits, Mirror Ship Versions of Every Federation Starship and their Skins (we know they exist, we fight them), Mirror Universe NPC Contacts, Tholian NPC Contacts, Hazardous Environment Zones, and that is just annoyances off the top of my head. They will not add in and tag new assets and features when they can't even get the ones that already exist in there and working worth a damn.
Even if we did equal a sufficient amount of a player base to render a return of investment on anything they create and sell, it's fundamentally wrong on principle to be paying money to complete a tool they said they would complete two years ago but moved the team working on it away to another game. I'm sorry, that's wrong. You keep your promises. And that is completely made moot because we are completely revenue agnostic at best, and revenue losing most likely.
So I wish this idea would roll over and die. Typically our podcast comes up with several great ideas, but I'm pretty certain if Episode 100 would have gone on long enough I would have had 6 of our 7 hosts arguing with me "Hey, why not sell your soul to the Devil, Hav!?" because the suggestions were getting that stupid.
Final word: they should get back to fixing and enhancing the Foundry the same way they always said they would and for the same reason: it adds free content to the game. The amount of time I spend making one mission is astronomical because this tool set is so restrictive and broken in so many ways. I am not going to pay them for the privilege of using their assets to create content for them, and the idea that this slippery slope would even be suggested in light of its absolute futility bothers me.
Check out my Foundry missions
Fed: "To Helna and Back", "Rema Donna", "Animations with Helna", "Mudd's Weapons", "Waiting for Wednesday", "Monolith"
KDF: "Time the Enemy", "Time the Ally", "Time the Traitor"
I understand your point here, but we're dealing with a game that has much of the following:
Pakled Admirals
Captains who fly Breen, Cardassian, and (soon) Borg ships.
Mini-games where Vice Admirals scan rocks on New Romulus.
People running around in every uniform of every era of Star Trek.
I could go on, lol.
I really like your list of sets and there are so many, many things that we could do with them that do fit well in the context of a holodeck. I just don't think we'll ever see any of it in the Foundry unless Cryptic is making the stuff for something else.
We're lucky if they put it in the Foundry.
It's no different really, you are purchasing "extra features" and I have to 100% disagree with you Hav that it is "fundamentally" wrong to do this.
The Foundry has Cryptic ROLLING in the dough right now. Dont you guys get it? If there was no Foundry, to play good missions, crappy missions, exploit missions, afk missions, and all we had right now in Feb 2013 was the content Cryptic has given us, then the game would have been DEAD today. Theres no way the lockbox buyers keep going if the Foundry wasnt carrying 3/4 of the content load in this game. Dan is exploiting Foundry authors far worse than exploiters are exploiting in this game. If Dan doesnt want to add indirect assets to the Foundry to add overall player volume to his game, thats his loss. Right now their numbers say the little effort they give to Foundry has players playing and providing good profit. When their metrics show their half hearted attempts at upkeep for the Foundry has players leaving and profit suffers, THEN we will get a massive boost in Foundry assets.
In the past I suggested themed Holodeck adventure zones for the Wild West, etc for players to pay for as extra fun content. That Id buy. But theres no way Id pay for the assets as an author to provide content for Cryptic. Thats insane and Sori you are insane for suggesting it.
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
I think the link between zen store and foundry is going to be key in monetizing the foundry.
I can't make certain species of costumes if I haven't purchased them as playable species. All I can do is import other folks costumes and edit a few things.
So what's the answer?
Monetization is one idea on how to entice them to do it. If that doesn't sit well with you, what are some other ideas?
Nobody suggested that. The "option" to get some themed asset packs is just that-an option. You would still get free assets, the pay ones would be unique assets that are only obtained through money.
No, I understood what you meant; I consider that to be one in the same.