How to make CoH more profitable to NCSoft

I guess that makes sense, now that you mention it. My only personal experience with virtual servers was at my last job, where I was able to assist a bit with the transition from "a box for every department" to a single server cabinet virtualizing everything.

If it weren't 4 AM here, I'd have probably realized a bit more quickly that a game with thousands of concurrent connections would have different usage requirements than a company with only 70-ish employees.

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Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

I like the idea of a Gold account tier to be added. I also think the VIP access should be £5 per month or the $ equivalent which I would have no hesitation in paying if only for access to incarnates. As it is I only buy PP's when I need them now. With a reduced VIP basic tier I could fully agree with making more stuff available on the market and putting the tier 9 rewards in Gold tier and not VIP. Yes many people would pay more but I think that many, many more people would pay that £5/$equivalent to access incarnates. Other account stuff could be monetized too. Also, a more direct approach to the RMT spammers should be implemented. They encourage players to skip the content thereby depopulating the main game. With that in mind I would reduce the rewards from AE or limit them. But mainly I think 50,000 £5/$7 would bring in more than 2,000 £20/$30.

It's always a question what you would pay more for. I enjoy spending cash on costumes, and do sometimes buy powersets that I feel fit my character concepts. I bought the five mission slot package for Mission Architect too.
My purchase history outside of subscription is full of appearance/expression related ones, but very few that actually improve my character performance.

So here is a list what I would pay for:
Increased size of architect missions. (gold member or 1-time purchase)
More features in Mission Architect (cut-scenes, earlier access to new powersets etc) (only available for gold members)
New costume parts. (1-time purchases)
New SG base items. (1-time purchases)
Female muscle in costume designer (not sure about which pay model is best)
A smartphone app for access to character list, auction house, chat and perhaps costume editor (only available for gold members)

Advertisements are fine, as long they don't decrease performance and fit in (that's why I dislike most web ads). Put them as textures on some walls in game. Not sure if it's a big cashcow thought.

I do however know that some players can spend a lot on character performance boosts, aka pay2win. It's not my cup of tea, but I think that hardcore wallet warriors are a cashcow.

keep the ideas coming! :P

For the servers: I didnt realise that the 16 "realms" we had might have been only one server. That might shoot down that idea. However, if the possibility of doing would save money and they would consider it, I would be all for it. Even if I did loose my name/base/friend list. Cause it's either loosing that, or loosing the game entirely.

For the different accounts: This seems the most popular idea so far. As long as the current account types are not changed, I see this as having the least impact on the community and the biggest impact on the income.

In game adds: I knew there was a reason it didnt work! LOL I wouldnt count this one out yet tho, I,m sure there are ways to implement something like this and make it profitable. Like how they changed the mannequins at the Icon store and replaced them with mannequins wearing purchasable costumes, that was a great way to advertise items from the store! Maybe do ingame adds for items we can buy from the store?

Pretty certain that was closed.

Ideas Spun off the Initial Thread Idea
New Account Configuration

Free, Premium, VIP, Gold and perhaps one more layer....
so VIP 14.99, Gold 19.99 and Platinum 24.99
VIP should stay the same (Obviously) except perhaps lower the paragon points to 200
Gold should have additional bonus missions and perhaps some Gold only costumes or modifications and perhaps 300 points The same for platinum but more...

In Game Ads
Having actual adverts would be awful...however anyone else notice the massive amount of billboards and posters in the game...why not use those as add spaces? They could be re worked every few months....movie releases, comic books, comicons etc... have advertizes pay per board

Reduce the Amount of Servers

Name conflicts are a viable issue...give players the option to rename characters if overlap occurs...it would probably have to be a sort of first log on first choice model though considering the originality and variations of names in this game, it may be less of a problem than one might think.

Pay For Content
This already happens, but there should be more pay for content like more path trails, more costume options, more cape types etc. Perhaps even have some additional pool powers be available only through the market like what already happens with the transportation models and the like. An example could be mach speed...an extreme version of super speed...or ice paths (and I don't think anyone could sue for that since characters across most comic universes have popped up with a similar ability) or additional minion sets.
Maybe up the prices on these things a bit? or just make the paragon points cost a little bit more...

IPad, IPhone, and other media compatibility. (an issue with MMORPGs across the board)
The game is difficult without text so that wouldn't be smart unless the player had a keyboard, also the screen is too small for full play. That being said there could be an array of game tie ins for these media types. Say for instance you log in to a CoH app with your game id, chose one of your characters and get to play a mini game based on archetype and allegiance? Points you earn in the mini game could directly transfer to influence and or xp the next time you log into the larger game. Most game apps cost around $5 - $10 dollars, but it could be more and the game membership could be upped a dollar a month for those with the extra access (or for everyone prompting more people to buy the apps
The possibility for tie in apps is endless in and of itself and there should be some that don't require a CoH account to pull in the non CoH players from a wider audience, then if they like it they could come over and play.


The overall consensus I've seen though is that most of us would be willing to pay a little more to stay in Paragon. This would work even if NC soft decided to let another party take over the game....more profitability means less risk of this happening again if the impossible is reached this time.
Good thing Heroes are good at making the impossible happen. See you all tonight at 5!!!!

OMG! I hadn't even considered the iPhone/apps possibility!

They could make like a hero builder app, or like some one said a costume editor, or even an offline wiki that you could update.

The possibilities are endless, an I would pay for all of them!!!

Keep the ideas coming peeps! Odds are even if we can't make NCSoft see a profit in this we might convince someone else.