Incarnate access for Premium Players
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2012-07-01 07:11 in Suggestions and Ideas
Just to try and give this some real thought instead of dismissing the idea out of hand:
Maybe a month of incarnate access could be a repeatable tier 9 reward for premiums? They'd still have to spend that $15 for it then, but not necessarily all at once. Say last month you bought a costume bundle, this month a powerset caught your eye... you've earned a token! Instead of signature summons or enhancement unslotters, try out the incarnate system for a few weeks!
EDIT: Wait, no... VIPs get a token every month; this would basically mean tier 9 VIPs could get two months of incarnate access for the price of one. Subscribe, wait for subscription to expire, spend token on incarnate access, repeat. Oh well. It was a nice thought, anyway.
FUN FACT: That burst of light when you level up is actually the effectiveness escaping from your enhancements all at once.
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Pretty much this, in fact I'd go so far as to say Premiums get too much already.
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Originally Posted by I Burnt The Toast
Just voicing my opinion:
No Premiums get a helluva lot for nothing. |
Story arcs:
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If I could keep access to the Incarnate system, I would have no reason at all to continue subscribing.
Since I don't spend more on the game than my subscription fee, I save $15 a month, and the game loses $15 a month.
Now, consider how many other people this same scenario is true for.
The people who still subscribe on a monthly basis are what keeps this game alive. If they gave away the few things you need a subscription for, the devs will be forced to churn out a bunch of nickel and dime stuff in an ultimately futile attempt to keep their jobs.
The more stuff they try to put out to entice people to spend money, the more the quality of that stuff is going to drop. That would lead to us having to pay for stuff that is currently free to everyone.
The number of people who would cancel their subscription if they could have Incarnates for free is far too great a financial loss for it to even potentially be a good thing.
There are very few things I would call a "game-killer"*. Over the long run, this idea is one of them. NCSoft is NOT shy about pulling the plug on games that done't make enough money for their liking. If CoH ever gets to where it is costing more to run than it is bringing in, it WILL go away.
Potentially losing that many subscriptions would put it dangerously close to that threshold.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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I've long wondered if they'll open up the Alpha slot for freemiums - as you say it gives a taste of what's available from the first and most distinct slot available. |
Originally Posted by Ynaught
Honestly, I do think that they should give some of the Incarnate content away for free.
Allow free/premium players access to the Alpha slot only. This would give them a taste of Incarnate content and might just entice them to subscribe to try more. And since Shards drop everywhere outside of Incarnate content, there's a LOT of things that the free/premium players would have access to to collect their shards. Right now, once a free/premium player hits 50, there is very little for them to do except exemp down and run stuff they missed on the way to 50, or make an alt. The problem is, free/premium players only get 2 slots per account, unless they buy more, of course. Some players when presented with limited options will still play for a while after hitting the level cap, but at some point they want to make progress again. But once they get that second character to 50, they may feel there's just nothing else for them to do and leave. Sure, they can (and probably do) start up another account and continue making alts that way, but allowing them Alpha slot access would let them progress for quite some time on just one account. And the longer they stick around, the more invested they become in the game. Not sure how hard it would be to actually allow something like this, but it doesn't seem like a bad idea. Does it? |
It uses different incarnate salvage to all the subsequent slots, and that salvage is available from content they already have access to rather than the iTrials.
If the 2 Alpha TFs (Apex and Tin Mage) were re-worked into more of an iTrial format (each scenario continuing directly into the next rather than exiting, talking to contact then onto the next) they could act as a very good preview while still locking out the showier powers like Destiny, Lore and Judgement for subscribers only.
@Hakeswell
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Defiant Expeditor, Hakeswell
Arc: 70119 Hellion Initiation
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High tier vets have access to pretty much everything, yes.|
Originally Posted by Mystic_Fortune
Pretty much this, in fact I'd go so far as to say Premiums get too much already.
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But then, those people have contributed substantial material support to the game over the years- it's a much appreciated "thank you!"
As for the lower tiers, if you're gong to offer a 'free' play mode it serves you well to make it engaging and as full featured as you feel you can get away with. During my re-introduction to the game, which lasted six weeks or so, I wasn't paying a subscription but I still spent $30 on the game via the Paragon Market.
The ideal is that VIP remains an attractive option (which it does for me simply by dint of the # of character slots it opens up), but Premium is still a fun, full featured game- the longer someone hangs around, the more integrated they're likely to become with the community and the more opportunity they'll have to drop a few $$$ on the store even if they don't sub up.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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And while I was Preemie, it really was appreciated. I came back in as a T6 Preemie. I'm not sure I would have re-subbed if I hadn't been treated so well by the people responsible for the system. The game recognized that I've been loyal in the past and rewarded me for it. I was encouraged and rewarded the game right back.|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
High tier vets have access to pretty much everything, yes.
But then, those people have contributed substantial material support to the game over the years- it's a much appreciated "thank you!" |
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
As for the lower tiers, if you're gong to offer a 'free' play mode it serves you well to make it engaging and as full featured as you feel you can get away with. During my re-introduction to the game, which lasted six weeks or so, I wasn't paying a subscription but I still spent $30 on the game via the Paragon Market.
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
The ideal is that VIP remains an attractive option (which it does for me simply by dint of the # of character slots it opens up), but Premium is still a fun, full featured game- the longer someone hangs around, the more integrated they're likely to become with the community and the more opportunity they'll have to drop a few $$$ on the store even if they don't sub up.
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I've just started down the Incarnate rabbit-hole and maybe I'll be more addicted to it than I suspect.
- Ashley
[Rocker Girl (Earth/Earth Dom); Sweet Venom (Plant/Time Ctrl)]
No. Incarnate content sucks lately, with all the gimmicks they use to try and flat out kill characters. Most iTrials just seem like D&D with a DM that wants a total party wipe anyway.
Personally, I keep subbing so I can keep my 25+ characters. And make more if I want, as I've a few slots still open. I imagine if I stopped my subscription and went to freemie, I'd lose some characters. Not to mention transfers to get those I lose to playable servers.
Just voicing my opinion:
No
Premiums get a helluva lot for nothing.