Premium Players get less than expected!
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
Heh, a lot of players on this board don't care for what I have to say, most likely because of jealousy. Either that or my style of covering every single little detail in long-drawn out posts leaving no room for any counter-argument just invites players looking for every tiny in-accuracy they can find just so they can throw insults and feel better about themselves.
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Nope, sorry Dechs, I agree with Je-saist in spirit. We might have different ideas on where to draw the line, since I've not fully decided yet, but offering some of the content of Incarnates (even if only to previous GR buyers) is a good idea.
No amount of marketting blurb or word of mouth can replace experiencing something. The incarnate system is another level of gameplay. You should be able to experience some of it, and want more of it.
That is a sustainable business idea.
Putting the best toys in a VIP lounge so that the Premiums can see and never, ever play with them?
That just leads to them finding ways to be perfectly content with what they have.
Because if you never had something, you can't miss it.
Forse: lvl 22 FF/NRG Defender
Tam Krannock: lvl 37 Shield/Mace Tanker
Toppa Grace: lvl 25 Fire/Ice Blaster
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Red Commissar: I'm in the Queen Mother. Only more awesome. And alive
Nope, sorry Dechs, I agree with Je-saist in spirit. We might have different ideas on where to draw the line, since I've not fully decided yet, but offering some of the content of Incarnates (even if only to previous GR buyers) is a good idea.
No amount of marketting blurb or word of mouth can replace experiencing something. The incarnate system is another level of gameplay. You should be able to experience some of it, and want more of it. That is a sustainable business idea. Putting the best toys in a VIP lounge so that the Premiums can see and never, ever play with them? That just leads to them finding ways to be perfectly content with what they have. Because if you never had something, you can't miss it. |
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
Nope, sorry Dechs, I agree with Je-saist in spirit. We might have different ideas on where to draw the line, since I've not fully decided yet, but offering some of the content of Incarnates (even if only to previous GR buyers) is a good idea.
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Likewise you'd have to include that in the GR package now, or maybe just as a new item.
But you can't sell access to the level shifts, other iPowers, or the iTrials, except perhaps as a license like the IO system.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
give 'em the Alpha without being able to iTrial. It allows you to slot it up, but at a horribly slow pace through weeklies and randomly dropped shards. Which is devilish, but a carrot to dangle non-the-less
Member: Mutant Force Five, Chaos Legion & Team Awesome
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Not remotely. You're forgetting that a sub does come with a monthly stipend. Eventually you could buy the incarnate content with that stipend.
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In addition you are assuming that Incarnate would be bought in a single shot whereas there are numerous ways that it could work without gating behind a subscription. The invention license is of course one model of this. As is EQ2s model of not allowing certain rarity of equipment unless you pay for unlockers for each piece (in this case paying to unlock each paragon slot as well as each level of incarnate powers would suffice).
As I said, yes some people would buy out of subscriptions, but that doesn't mean that they will not be paying a large sum of money to do so and won't have to continue to pay afterwards in order to get all of the things VIPs get. Personally I do think its a travesty that VIPs are not receiving future powersets for free and I think this should be added to the VIP list of things they get for free. However, there are still a ton of reasons to subscribe.
Heh, a lot of players on this board don't care for what I have to say, most likely because of jealousy. Either that or my style of covering every single little detail in long-drawn out posts leaving no room for any counter-argument just invites players looking for every tiny in-accuracy they can find just so they can throw insults and feel better about themselves.
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So, in the style of Nash's WTFIWWY let's do the math:
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Even if bullet three is true, bullet one invalidates the notion that giving premium players access to incarnates would meaningfully affect that outcome in any case.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
[...] Current subscribers would have little to no reason to continue subscribing if the incarnate content was not behind a subscription wall.
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I think the store could sell 30-day licenses to access each trial. A player could buy a Keyes license to see what it's like; or a former subscriber might come back and drop $2 to see a new trial that just came out, and they're not yet sure there's enough new stuff to warrant subscribing. Premiums could be limited to only using Incarnate powers during trials, so they get much less utility out of them than subscribers - but they still get to play with them, like a video game console in a department store, the ultimate goal being "Mommy will you buy this for me?" (Except most of us probably have the ability to buy stuff for ourselves, of course!)
Although that doesn't address the issue that Incarnates are beyond the sight of Premiums without getting them to pay first, but that can be addressed without negating the value of a subscription, too: a Free or Premium account could get a voucher on their first 50 that grants them a 30-day BAF+Lambda license. An Incarnate Trial trial, if you will. What would be wrong with that?
Edit: And now after posting I see you've made another reply about license-based Incarnates. Curses!
This much I can agree with, as I've actually stated a few posts back. Give them the first two tiers of the Alpha slot, which is what GR might have been released with.
Likewise you'd have to include that in the GR package now, or maybe just as a new item. But you can't sell access to the level shifts, other iPowers, or the iTrials, except perhaps as a license like the IO system. |
That's $150 to unlock all of the slots and $300 more to get all of the slots filled to top tier. Are you saying that people should not be allowed to pay $450 to get full access to the system because you think everyone would stop subbing keeping in mind all of the other things subscribers get?
Personally I do think its a travesty that VIPs are not receiving future powersets for free and I think this should be added to the VIP list of things they get for free. However, there are still a ton of reasons to subscribe.
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I hope.
As for the rest of this debate, I am of the mind that there has to be a middle ground rather than "all or nothing." The simple window-view of the Incarnate system will nurture a "haves vs. have nots" situation, which may be enough to inspire some Premiums to upgrade to VIPs, but will probably inspire resentment amongst the majority. Resentment usually results in either indignant complacency or outright rejection. In other words, Premiums will either feel that they are going to "stick it to the man" by deliberately not upgrading to VIP despite wanting access to the Incarnate System, or feel that they can get their ultimate power trip elsewhere and leave.
While I do not support nor wish to be around either of those attitudes, if the Powers That Be want to entice people to upgrade to VIP status, the Premium players need a taste of what they are missing rather than just a window view. Let's be the one that actually offers a free sample of one layer of that delicious 5-layer-cake in the bakery window!
@Winter. Because I'm Winter. Period.
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I am a blaster first, and an alt-oholic second.
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I consider a video of Positron stating at PAX that Going Rogue included the first tier of Incarnate access (which I linked earlier) fairly conclusive proof.
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If the advertising copy and the box didn't say incarnates included it wasn't included in the final release then.
But it's MY sadistic mechanical monster and I'm here to make sure it knows it. - Girl Genius
List of Invention Guides
To whichever Mod renamed this thread:
I love you. <3
@Quantum Evil Rad/Rad Corruptor
Making the world safe for maleficent particles since 2004.
give 'em the Alpha without being able to iTrial. It allows you to slot it up, but at a horribly slow pace through weeklies and randomly dropped shards. Which is devilish, but a carrot to dangle non-the-less
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I don't think you get how the Alpha slot works.
Brawling Cactus from a distant planet.
After running Remiel's arc you could slot the Alpha all the way to tier 4 purely through random Shard drops and the Notice of the Well from the Weekly Strike Target. Indeed, I DID on at least 6 of my toons.
I don't understand how YOU think it works.
After running Remiel's arc you could slot the Alpha all the way to tier 4 purely through random Shard drops and the Notice of the Well from the Weekly Strike Target. Indeed, I DID on at least 6 of my toons. |
Yes but they said it would take ages, it does not do so. You get the slavage for the Alpha slots from doing Task Forces (to my knowledge not locked to premium players), it takes a maximum of free weeks unless you are a villain/rogue in which case it takes two weeks.
Brawling Cactus from a distant planet.
Actually, they do. The Alpha slot can be used, even the +1, in standard content. No Incarnate trials were promised as part of the sneak peak. In fact, before the argument goes there, the slot was pulled because there was no content to go with it and to make it less grindy.
Another alternative is to have things which need to be bought multiple times. Another game limits spell power and equipment, but allows you to buy the ability to equip or upgrade a limited number of them. You have to buy that every time you want to equip such equipment. People who don't like subscriptions can live with that, while people who want to use these things often and don't mind subbing can do that. Plus there's also a lot of other stuff you get.
There's no shortage of working models which don't completely gate abilities behind a subscription. That doesn't mean that Freedom's model is bad, just that it's not the only viable one.