queeshai: Well people didn't actually pay me. The money went into the prize pool so people would have more incentive to build competitive decks. (Also beta was at least as fun as regular play so maybe they should have paid :)

I think it is not such a good idea. It would be a big turn off for me and I think plenty of other people as well. With such a small user base the last thing you should want to do is further divide that user base. The less people actively playing games against each other the less appealing and the less engaging the game becomes.

No matter how you cut it you may run into such troubles.

If you only give the premium subscribers advantages with their decks against the AI (ie. access to more/all cards only against AI) then they will be spending more time fooling with their armies and playing against the AI to try all sorts of things out, and less time playing real games against other players. Also they could try out all sorts of combinations and then just purchase those specific cards they need to pull off really powerful decks and strategies which would give them major advantages over non-subscribers in actual play against them.

If you give them advantages against non-subscribers in-game then it will further unbalance the game and make it less appealing to people who don't spend real cash or spend less real cash. You should try to retain all players because the more players the more appealing and engaging the game, which means the more chance of more new players and better retention, and some of them will certainly buy cards/gold.

Finally, $10 may not seem like much to you - but in practical terms it is more like $65 to me - because I live in China and earn a modest income in Chinese RMB. I mention this because personally I think the gold prices and deck prices are already a little pricey - especially for people in other countries who's currency is worth less. Buy a couple packs and enter a domain tournament and you already spent $20 (like $130 for me, in practical terms)...

To sum up:
* People who spend more money on this game already enjoy some major advantages over people who don't, or people who spend less. To further unbalance this equation would not be very appealing to most new players.
* It would further divide the player base, and while it might make the game more appealing to a portion of players (for whom the game is already appealing), it would also make the game less appealing to the other portion of players.
* Finally, there is also the risk that some players would get to try out all those cards or get more additional cards but also have the overhead of the monthly subscription fee and this may end up causing them to tire of the game, cancel their subscription after a couple months, and quit playing - kind of the way cheats can prematurely ruin a good computer game.
* It would make new players feel even more like you have to pump a lot of money into this game to be competitive, which would be a big turn off for many.

* * * *

Personally I think you should try a different tactic entirely.

Create more free opportunities to earn gold in-game (without needing to spend anything).

Give new players a chance to choose a couple packs of phantom cards (not the 20 day kind, but the permanent phantoms like your starter decks). This would involve new players more deeply in the game, let them feel like they have unique decks, and give them a taste of how cool it is getting a couple packs of new cards. Maybe these packs could have less cards in them then the packs you buy with gold - They could only choose two packs or something anyway so it is not like it would have a tremendous impact in practical terms, but it would be a real boon to new players. Good to give them a choice of a few different types of packs though so they feel more actively involved in the process.

Lower real world $ prices considerably. People should not feel like they have to spend $60+ in order to really get into this game and be competitive. Of course people don't have to spend that much, but it is easy for a new player to get this impression. Especially once they play a few other people, and then buy a few packs, and then realize they still don't have anything like what they just got stomped with.

The idea here is to bring more players and retain more players, because even if some players don't spend any money, and even if some spend less than they do now - once you have a really solid player base a large enough portion of them will be spending more than enough to easily compensate. Plus those who spend $15/month now, would likely continue to spend $15/month - they would just get more bang for their buck.

In this kind of game, even if you create ample opportunities for non-paying players to gain gold, there will still be plenty of people willing to fork out real cash in order to speed the process. The main obstacle to this though, is the player base. Once you reach a certain point the inertia of growth becomes a rapidly accelerating process.

So ultimately, the key here is to grow the player base, if you can do that, and retain it, then everything else will follow easily. The suggestions here would go a long ways towards making that player base grow.

Guys, I think we've just had another genius enter our forums.

BIG HUUGE BUMP

now as it is it's all messy, so I suggest we start with good old original post that Voices opened this thread with;



My ideas and comments:

- make it not a monthly payment, but rather something like:
'After spending certain amount of real cash on game features (purchasing gold, those stupid in-need-of-remake premade decks etc) player's account is upgraded to a premium account.'
*this I imagine would work retrospectively, thus everyone who already would have exceeded the given amount would be granted Premium (note that it would in no way be me so I am not suggesting this to help myself)

- having access to all cards to test them sounds good, however I can't see tournaments with them happening (maybe you could challenge another premium member to play with the deck, but nothing competitive)
*On the second thought .. I'd leave only for testing vs AI

- on the other hand tournaments for premium members would be most welcomed (keeping tournaments etc for non-premium members as well though!)
*Interesting idea might be ECs giving out gold to premium members, Power to non-premium members, with the old rate of 50 pow to Domain (possibly making domain for non-premium folks accessible only with power?)

- save game feature sounds cool
*no need to implement all premium features at once, this is one of the things I wouldn't mind not having from the very start

- statistics as well, but the same as with save applies

- forum enhancements never hurt

- finally I would like to see good old ladder with gold for premium members - it could calculate the amount given out from a/ number of premium memebers, b/ number of last week participants, c/ number of ladder games played last week /d mixture of any of those

- with the current discussion of trades, maybe some trading feature for premium members?
*bearing in mind last paragraph Voices wrote about only adding spice

so? are we ready for another big discussion (and who knows, maybe some new genius will arise again )

My opinion is mainly on the opinions.

Realistically, if a premium service was implemented it would have to be relatively simple, sticking to around 2 implements, not including the implement of a premium pay button. The moderators likely don't want to make a huge 10 item implement and you probably don't care about most the implements. They're just there to make the idea sound better. Not that they can't be implemented later.



My suggestion is:
Cost: $5.50 for 30 days. $18 for 120.

1) Auto g-->. 11 gold a day. Take first in an EC every day! (20%+ extra gold, but over time)
2) Access to player to player trades.

It's just a minimalist suggestion to get the premium service started. The only flaw I see in it is it isn't totally appealing to current players with plenty of gold. But more implements can be added at a later date to fix this. It also makes up for that partially in two areas.

One, the auto gold is noob friendly because it lets them tweak their decks every day or so rather than just building a deck and not having any idea what works and what dosn't. Two, player to player trades help you get around market tax. Also this taxes p2p sales as well as, and this is important, gives the seller more to sell. A seller selling a partial collection will just result in having more gold to sell. A seller selling a whole collection will have to wait a whole month to sell everything and theres a good chance he/she will have gold to come back to if they change their mind. Anyways, I like the old traditional feel of paper and being able to sell my cards. You have to grind ecs extremely hard to have a decent collection to sell anyways.

Just wanted to say that a gold/pack subscription with a better rate sounds like a great idea. Keeps players logging in, tweaking and playing. I'd buy it.

So you would basically be paying $5.50 for 330 gp.

_________________

Altren wrote:

I agree with Keyser, and that's what I'm planning to implement actually.

|| The Rise of the DCC | Plasmatium Netherious | Tastes Like Chicken | The Astridian Conspiracy ||

Guild -> | Platypus Rising|

The 4 month subscription offers 47% more and costs way less transfer fees.

I think that's a pretty good balance. 20% on one month, 47% on 4 month.

Even if you think you can find a better deal from a player, both players would have to pay the $5.50. I find this to be a fair deal for players and staff and still let's the staff implement the changes they want, such as removeing phantoms and offering new players real cards.

Thing is I don't like the idea of paying monthly /quarterly, w/ever fees.
I support the idea of one time payment and that's it. You are in no matter what happens - you lose your job and suddenly find every penny being *** important? No worries, you are still welcomed here with full services. Because we value our customers forever, not just as long as they are constantly paying. Because we want our players base remain big and growing ....
Clear?
Cheers

Maybe an idea for a premium feature could be something along the following lines.

If you buy gold now you get... gold. Perhaps it could be something more when you actually buy gold. So, for instance, for $10 you get 1000g. If, however, you are willing to spend a bit more in one go, say, $20, you get 1600g, but you also get some additional bonuses that are not specifically related to cards. I am here thinking of things like additional statistics, badges on the forum, etc.

The basic idea would be that a premium feature would not give you additional advantages in terms of actually playing a single game against an opponent, but more in terms of an 'enhanced experience'.

Basically, you do get slightly more gold when you spend more money (a discount feature), but you do not get any access to more cards etc. Also, this would not involve a monthly fee, which several people seem to be strongly against.