Psyte

Life's full of examples where immediate gratification loses out to patience, and honestly? Fine by me

Nice and sensible. We've got so many in-game incentives to team with lower-level players (unlike most any other MMO I can think of) that it seems logical to continue that philosophy.

• Higher level players helping lower level players means there's less "ghost town"ing of content compared to other titles.
• This cooperation helps build community.
• Building community helps retention and general good feelings of the game.

Add in VIPs helping Free and Premium players?

• Paying players are literally walking ads for things free players might want.
• Longtime players can form a reliable core for furthering the community.
• Networking ties means that if a Free or Premium player wants to do more with VIP players, they'll eventually run into paid content (Signature Stories, Incarnate content), and have more reasons to pay or subscribe.
• Players become "partners" with Paragon in a more literal sense than before. We've always been good word of mouth, naturally, but this adds to that in a manner similar to free time for referring players.

I should mention I've been in advertising for the past 10 years, and as a hobby used to really read up on the business side of gaming (Edge, Next Gen, Gamasutra, etc). As such, my suggestions will be more pro-Paragon the business. As someone who sells a service product, I want them to do their best and get paid accordingly (consumers nickle and dime too!), but this is one of those "everybody can win!" situations, you know?

Yep. Duel Pistols, Kinetic Melee, Demon Summoning and Electric Control were all with Going Rogue, then there were all the COV AT's. More than that, extra classes are established saleable items

From most of the subscription games pricing on stuff out there? COH's pricing for about everything is dirt cheap. Heck, the cost of the Science Pack, which offers its gender-changing benefits to all charcters, is the same as a single do-over for a single character in that Warring Guilds game (which, arguably, gets a pass since it has no sub).

I recall someone saying they will have bonus Paragon Points for large/bulk purchases, but the devs are not ready to show that yet (marketing or still in the works). If someone could help me there's a TON of rednames to go through, so I can't find it or it doesn't exist

It doesn't work. And even if it did, this is a super-hero universe, so she'd simply come back again and again and again...

Someone suggested that emotes/smilies cost 80pp each. Just sayin' - you could retire off of Golden Girl.

I like your pricing, but at the same time some of the costume pieces are $1/80 points. A powerset is a lot more work, so $2.50/200 points seems a bit too low to me. $5/400 points seems more equitable, or at least a better minimum.

The problem is its easier to go down than up in regards to price. I think they'd be more apt to start high and frequently run discounts/sales than start lower and eventually go up (either in general or for future saleable items of the same price).

True. As such, keeping it big enough to be appreciated but small enough its not worth exploiting would be key. Maybe a small inspiration (or less) of one type cast on you, but with no indication how much time is required to get it - keep the progress bar hidden, with irregular intervals between triggering - an hour, three hours, half an hour, five hours, repeat. Maybe a random day job bonus. Or just have the small rewards come from a pool. It should be like one of the devs/community reps coming up and giving you a Starburst or a mini-candy bar

True, but lets see what else comes up. My next VR will give me Merits, for example, and there are plenty of things/activities in game that provide ways to get things. Things that might not be available in the shop. Merits, Alignment Merits, etc.

And, again, we might see something that awards points - nothing is set in stone, after all. Personally? If teaming with free and premium players could earn points (or discounts) that'd be pretty cool - sort of like the Sidekicking/Exemplaring badges. There are plenty of reasons to sidekick/exemplar already, but that could be an interesting twist.

Honestly, I wouldn't /mind/ seeing some sort of perk to teaming with non-VIP's. Nothing overpowering or so compelling you had to do it, but a little "thank you" from Paragon. Call it a bribe or proactive karma, but hey...

I would be quite happy and content with your understanding of things, but at this time its not the case.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...18#post3707518
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...14#post3707614
That being said, remember you also will have Free players who will become Premium players, but may never become VIP players. But letting them try the Incarnate System might get them hooked into being VIPs. Passes are one possibility, so are "Everyone can try it this week!" events.

And, again, everything is still up in the air, so it could well change between now and then, and like any MMO/service, can change even after that based on feedback, player demand, whatever. So, wrong now, right later? We can hope

True, true. And that's why we're providing feedback now, and will likely continue to do so whenever it hits closed and open beta (I guess its in super-seekrit beta right now?). But it seems to be about the norm (actually, a little cheaper) than some of the "other" games. The difference between us and them is for them its a single thing - a class, basically. For us its something we can mix and match with a variety of classes and AT's, thus arguably a better deal. A melee set goes with 4 AT's, a defensive set with 4 AT's, a ranged set with 4 AT's and a buff/debuff set with 4 AT's.

Given the nature of the thing (functional, requires balancing, animation work, etc), I'd be hard pressed to imagine them for sale for under 400/$5 except when they're on sale. But, I'd LOVE to be wrong!

While I'm thinking about it - Impulse still needs NCSoft games, and Gamestop owns Impulse now - it seems like a very good idea to be available there. Amazon as well. Likewise, there are other places to buy NCSoft downloads (Direct2Drive comes to mind) that should be able to offer points, plus there are those game cards folks can buy that can be redeemed for many different games which might be worth looking into (7-11 has them, Gamestop, Wal-Mart, etc).

More options = better, in my opinion.

It would be nice for us, but even with the Incarnate system COH is very alt-heavy. In my opinion keeping it as a VIP exclusive makes more sense, OR offering some sort of "Incarnate Pass" (allowing access to content and abilities) that expired within a day or three. I'm sure that would be met with all sorts of hostility, but it could be workable in that it would allow access short term while keeping a VIP subscription the more attractive option.

That'd be $25 and $50, respectively. That won't sell. 400 ($5) to 1200 ($15) max would be my opinion. I'd personally guess maybe around 800 ($10) to buy the powerset for all applicable AT's, but that's just a gut feeling.

I personally wonder if the pricing is such that its available but at the same time somewhat discouraged? After all, if used regular trips back and forth, I wonder if the database might not like it, increased chances of something going wrong, player arguments when returning back to a server only to find "your" name was taken, etc.

Now, given we did have free transfers for a while there, that might've been an experiment to see how things went. I dunno. But, I agree, the sooner we have a way to make cross-server teaming a reality (either by inexpensive transfers or a system just for that) the better.

Its pretty common. I had read (and now can't find!) an article discussing the psychology behind it, but if you look at the other big companies/games doing F2P with micros, or even Microsoft/Live, you'll see $1 does not equal 100 points (or however). NCSoft used to sell NCCoins at a $1 to 100 rate, but that flopped over here.

Two theories I remember are:

• Since we're so conditioned to money being in units of 100, $1 equaling 80 points means when we see something for 80 points we think $0.80.
• Since conversions are less obvious, so is comparing international pricing and exchange rates and all that stuff.

As a side note - buying things in set amounts versus buying solely ala carte? By doing it this way Paragon/NCSoft gets hit with less credit card processing fees. Good for them and good for us since, as a business, such things would get passed along and there would be that slight mental barrier ("Do I really want to buy $5 worth of points for a hat?").

Just a thought - since our COH login and password can be different than our PlayNC accounts? And I do recall we can set spending limits on credit cards on file associated with the account? That might be a nice tool for parents - little Bruce's account could be set for no more than $5 a month, whereas slightly older Diana's account could be set for $10.

I'm hoping that, like NCCoins, we'll be able to buy Paragon Points with time cards. I had spent a fair bit of money on Exteel, and thought they handled all the microtransactions and such well on that game (and that was following a strictly Korean/Asian model). Now, a few years later? I think Paragon/NCSoft is doing an excellent job adapting COH, and based off of my past experience I see myself continuing to be a happy customer.

From past readings on the subject they're well in line with Korean MMOs for vanity items and such. Typically, micros are meant to be impulse friendly, and these look it. Certainly, they're in line with my memories of Exteel (waaaah!). My only worry is that for a reasonably sized chunk of the playerbase they'll actually not have enough to offer! There are some lunatics, like myself, that have all, or darn near all, the available boosters!

While maybe heresy for some, i think "renting" private instances might be a good VIP/micro perk. Rent an instance of the Ski Chalet, a PVP zone, etc, for a week or something. Yes, i know its isolating, but sometimes that's not a bad thing!

Very Art of Fighting 3! That answers my question perfectly, thanks!

20 years? I've read more than a few times that the industry is a grinder, so congratulations on keeping in it so long!