rsclark

They won't "notice" that it is different because they won't have anything to compare to, but they will certainly notice that they are hitting less than makes for an enjoyable game. They will notice they run out of endurance running a single target attack chain and a toggle.

They will notice the game isn't fun, which (as I said) is the opposite of what the devs want.

That attitude would make this entire experiment a failure. Virtually no one stopped subscribing because $15 was too expensive, so dropping the price by $13 is meaningless. They stopped playing because they didn't like something about the game. The trick is to make them believe the game is better now. The way to do that isn't to give them a game that isn't better.

"Oh, I remember why I quit" is not the result they want to get from Freedom.

Another huge pile of not fun.

Those are the people who are already here. Changing the billing model and doing nothing but appealing to the people who are already subscribing is stupid.

No, it would be extra effort by the devs to benefit people who might be enticed to pay, but never will, because they forgot that you actually have to show the mule the carrot before you pull it away.

Scenario: former player decides to give the game another look. The download the client, start the game and then are immediately faced with the need to either respec/level a second build or to re-subscribe for $2 a month instead of $15 if they wish to play their old characters.

If they weren't in the mood to subscribe for the last 2 years, then they have experienced absolutely nothing at this point to change their mind. The whole "entice them to resubscribe" part never gets to happen, because the first thing you hit them with is a pretty strict limitation instead of an enticement.

For new players it makes sense, because IOs aren't something you hit right away with brand new players, but for returning players it's backwards. You don't hit them with the "gimme money" spiel as soon as they walk in the door. You need to get them a little drunk first - show them a good time - then you hit them up for the cash.

There was a guy on Pinnacle a couple of weeks ago who would join teams in RWZ and then offer to farm AE for inf. If you turned him down, he would just drop the team.

Most aggressive marketing I have seen.

Well, at least they also get special, exclusive content confirming those defects.

I'm glad that the "raid with the devs" thing doesn't affect me so I won't be faced with moving a character I want to continue playing. And it's easy enough to make a lowbie throwaway character for the other things (as long as the ingame stuff is account wide or mailable). So, for the listed things it seems an unobjectional as any server specific content could possibly be.

But it is a bit worrying.

And it's irrelevant. From a player perspective, in order for it to act as an incentive to continue subscribing, the player would have to now only know that they would still be subscribing in 7 years, but also know that the game would still exist in 7 years - in a field where that is exceedingly rare.

It's like that ****** in Mexico City who promised to love me forever if I bought her that diamond ring. Somehow it wasn't a great incentive.

None of the tiers have only temp rewards except for the repeatable ones, and you can't fill those in.

It gives them bragging rights, presuming they still live in their parent's basement and have nothing more significant in their lives to brag about.

Anything that involves 7 years of continuous subscription. You aren't under the deluded belief this game will still exist in 2018, are you?

In a very likely scenario, anything greater than the 3 year vet rewards served no function whatsoever. They reward an impossible behavior.

I bought one cake and zero of everything else you just listed. Sounds like you were trying to solo.

Wouldn't have needed the cake if my plate wearing cleric didn't do that underwater maze.

Buying the content was what cost the real cash over there. New zone = $10. Fight a new dragon? $10.

If any of those numbers are greater than zero, it is a waste for anything 99% of potential players have no chance of ever seeing.

Being a "dedicated" player is something that is without value. You cannot devalue something that lacks intrinsic value.

And by my calculations, for the amount of time I played, my payments were something like 6 times what a subscription would have cost me for the same time.

They made a pretty smart business decision.

Part of the fun requires power escalation, which necessitates playing for reward.

Yes, that's called being intelligent at business.

Having a series of rewards that most people will never have access to does not act as an incentive. It's just a waste of development time and effort.

We did GoS with three of us, and it wasn't that bad - didn't even have a dagger crafted. We sat for a while with a SS/inv and a ?/kin slamming away at him but not beating the regen until we got a stalker and took him down easily. If you've outleveled his hordes of minions, he's not a problem.

By everyone who was in beta when we were listed as free players.

He covered that last part when he said "bad game design".

That may be the case for you, but I doubt it is for me. I would more likely just quit playing the game if it ever got to that point. I have quit several times in the past, and it was always because there was nothing I wanted to play at that point.

That's not entirely powerset based, but if I don't think I would ever get to the point where I didn't know what I wanted to play. If the only "hard" character choice for me is "which character do I make first between two good choices. The choice you describe above is really just "do I quit now or stall and quit later after I confirm I'm bored."

Street Justice is not delayed because they have work to do on it. It is "delayed" because they don't want to bring it out. It is a marketing decision. They only took it off beta because they wanted beta to be as close to 21 release as possible, not because it needed any special work.

The only way SJ is coming out with 21 is if Beam Weapons explode the servers.

That's not what you asked. You asked if a hero SOA gets one. There are two answers to that. 1. you can't start hero with a SOA and 2. if you switch hero before you do the patron arc, you don't get the patron powers.

The proper way to "compensate" is to not use your powers poorly.

A hoverboard-like power that would only allow no altitude and looked like a motorcycle would be amazing.