1) I prefer the "all cards" option, but I guess this or more reasonable. However, the all cards option was there to allow one to test cards before buying, which would give a person more incentive to subscribe.

2) This would drive down the value on Odd cards drastically. I would prefer 2 packs... domain specific or otherwise.

3) I like!

4) I like!

5) Doesn't matter to me either way.

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Looking for: Crumbling Alone (2)
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how about:

#6) Bonus EC's for premium players.

The most important thing to me is that the premium members must not get any advantages when playing. Hate games where one can buy the victory. If they dont I think this could be a cool idea. Personaly I only support games that doesnt give me an unvanted advantage by doing so.

In a sense I totally agree with what you are saying, CT. I think that what you are driving at here, and something I agree would be a terrible thing, is if premium members were given all cards and then could use these cards to compete against non-premium members in the EC. That would not be very good, I think.

However, TFW is a collectible card game where, other things being equal, spending a lot of cash will give you an advantage. If you have all good cards, you are obviously likely to prosper given that you have some basic idea of how to play. Whether you spend money on a Premium (whatever it in the end will or will not include) or whether you just buy loads of packs or play Domain League with 20 alts, money will give you an advantage in this game. And that, obviously, is the way it is intended.

So I would like to see some kind of rewards for Premium members that do not interfere in too crudely a way with the way things are now. I like the idea of a discount for additional packs and I am somewhat inclined to think that domain specific packs might be good as well (not sure whether it would ruin Domain League and, if so, whether that is a good or a bad thing...).

I think there are loads of things to include in a Premium package that do not deal directly with cards (statistics being one) and it might be that we will come up with good stuff for guilds as well once they play a more important role.

I am going to end with a thing that I should probably have written in my OP. This is that it is very hard to discuss what should be in a Premium package without having discussed if, and to what extent, TFW really is Free to Play. It seems to me that you can't really compete if you don't spend some money and this is the way most FTP games work if they have micro transactions at all. So it might be that we need to dicuss the importance of this before we even to even consider whether Premium features are of interest at all. (I would very much appreciate an extended input from jed regarding this )

Great input from you all!

Woot! I broke the tie, for now...

Yeah, premium is a very good idea IMO.

Cool new symbol to right of name in lobby and premium only tournaments with power as a prize are great ideas! Also, a special forum that allows you to practice against AI or other players with EVERY card in the game would be cool and fun. You would own none of these cards of course. Still would be very cool.

To me it is just about finding the right balance for your money. Premium = "x", and player gets "y" is the central question. Time to release the edogs of TFW.

I agree that you don't want to make premium required to compete, just more of a really gnarly perk. Seems fine and dandy to me.

DarkJello

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There have been a lot of good suggestions, so mine are a bit redundant, but here I go anyway. From the online TCG games with premium memberships that seem to work and not give an unfair advantage (beyond what you could get for just spending $10,000 on packs) the following seem to be good elements.

1) Make memberships only available in multimonth installments (such as 3-months, 6-months, 1 year). This assures the game a steady source of money ahead of the players actually getting all the benefits. And I suspect it keeps players more attached to the game. I would say cost could be $30, $55, and $100 respectively.

2) Related to part one make a key benefit that you get packs (I would suggest 2) every month. I would not make these domain packs because it would help to kill the domain league which is one of the more active parts of TFW currently.

3) The other major perk I would provide is any one card of the players choosing each month (if this is difficult to program or really unwanted by the devs/players make part two 4 packs each month). I hypothesize that once the couple of very highly valued cards get taken by almost everyone the value of this free card would level off at about 200 gold. Combined with the two free packs it would make premium membership worth about 500 gold or $10.

4) The more occasional benefit should be that premium members are allowed to enter the betas before each expansion is released. There would still be an entry fee paid in (as with the BL betas, were the last fees like 50 or 100 gold?), but it would assure that only committed players were testing the cards, and I suspect would help to boost premium memberships around expansions. On a related note as I've said elsewhere I'd strongly vote for 4 mini expansions a year which would make this a more consistent benefit.

5) Finally something cosmetic like a symbol next to your name in the lobby. This would also direct new players toward who could help answer questions.

Anyway, any comments are welcome, and at least for me the main benefit of premium is that I think it would provide more financial support for this great game.

I vaguely suggested something like this awhile back, but did not think there would be this much support for the idea. My vote for the form it should take...
For $10/month you get:
- 500 gold
- Discount on packs (whatever the devs feel is appropriate)
- Entry into a ladder like tournament which awards gold/power intstead of phantoms
- Whatever symbols or lobby perks people want
- Reduced price entry into Beta testing leagues

I would rather see the membership buy gold rather than directly buy packs. This would allow people to enter keep cards or domains with the membership instead of buying packs, if they so desire.
I like the idea of making it available only in multi-month installments.

Hm, interesting... I'd join that even without the discount on packs. At least you get exactly what your paying for (500g). The advantage to the developers is the regular influx of $$$ for people wanting to join the premium service and get in on the subscription-only ladder/tournaments.

I don't like the idea of multi-monthly fees, though. Sure, $10 may be a drop in the bucket for most of you, but for those of us living in the third world, that's a hefty price tag. My currency is a little more valuable than gold, so I generally think of gold as being 1:1. That also means that for every $10 I spend in the game, I'm actually tossing in 500 bucks.

Now maybe the more... hm, I'll keep the attacks away. Maybe those that can't figure why it hurts me so much to give the extra 50g to domain league for games I'll never play will get a clue and realize that not everything fits into their perfect little world. That 50g in real life could have bought me at least 2 meals... for an American... that's a dollar, barely even more than the price of a cigarette. (Shameless plug for domain-specific packs to be available on the market).

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Looking for: Crumbling Alone (2)
Also looking for: Revenant Bishop, Osin Faith Healer, Pilgrim's Cairn, Avenging Angel (2)

I like the idea of giving out gold roughly equivalent to the membership fee. I think this would be a much new-user-friendly way to stimulate the economy than domain. I would suggest including 10% less gold than membership is worth with a one-month subscription, 5% less with a three-month subscription, and equal value with a six month subscription. or something like that.


consider changing this into a (small, like 5%) discount on buying additional gold.


speaking as someone who would not pay this premium, I like the idea of a premium-only ladder that has some reward that is more tangible than phantoms. however, there is a downside to consider in that when non-premium members click this, they get a message that this feature is only available to premium members. this could be turn away some new users. in any case, I think the rewards should have VERY low value, otherwise this becomes another cash-cow for the best players to take advantage of the newer/weaker players, e.g., domain.


I find this to be hilarious. really, jed convinced people to *pay* to test borderlands? beta-testing should either be open to all (for free) or based on submitted bugs (that were actually bugs).

I find the queesh version of pug's idea to be the best premium so far.