You know you want them.

I opened this thread a long time ago waiting for someone to bite. Well, heres why I think we need subscription fees and bonuses.

A moment of your time. First let me say the bonuses should be new additions for the game and none of the original game should cost a subscription fee. Also, this idea benefits everyone.

Heres a list of bonuses im suggesting: (not neccesarilly all of them and not theyre all neccesarilly enough.)


Map editor (for custom maps)
Gold
Persistant Phantoms
Accomplishments
Missing phantoms (For future deck ideas and direction)
EC Bye Priority
Chat Text Coloring
Chat Text Movement (Wave, Shake, etc)
Enhanced Market (Last 3 sale prices of individual cards. 3 lowest sellers 3 highest offers)
Increase Chance for odds in packs
Change Name Color Option
Access to free Battle Draft Format (which is fun)
Buildings Spells and Enchantments on profile picture
Affinity for profile picture (small increase in chance of getting card on picture when possible)
One random special donator card from a set of donator cards every payment.


Why this benefits everyone: (The members, the non members and the creators) Making the game more free by making it membership.

Gold could be given away more freely. This is an important issue. From what Im told activity has decreased greatly since gold hasnt been given away every match. I dont doubt this because activity is also down since the ec frequency has decreased.

I think we could all benefit from increased activity. (heheheh and addictiveness)

So, this actually is a major change. Its making the game unreliant on gold and reliant on subscription fees to stay running, not that gold couldnt still be purchased. But everyone "can" benefit from it. I didnt say will benefit because there obviously are going to be some protest from people with already large collections or people who have purchased gold and dont want more free gold lowering their real life dollar value on their collection. Im sure these people can be bought off somehow.

My last note:

Im hugely in favor of the "One random special donator card from a set of donator cards every payment" idea for several reasons. It gives people who invest money in subscriptions a way to sell out their collections and get some of it back (since more gold means less dollar vaue) as seems to be the intention of jed, I cant really speak for him. Also, its a huge incentive for the subscription to be purchased as well as incentive to stop people with already large collections to not complain without giving them the full subscription. Its not a corner stone idea though.

If the game is intended to make money or at least pay for its servers, it shouldn't be intended to be able to be played indefinitely for free (except for limited free content).

On the website it has a whole section on going infinite: http://thefarwilds.com/Going_Infinite.html

There it states, "If you are an above average player it is possible to go infinite. This means you never have to buy gold but always continue to gain cards and gold."

Now, I'm sitting just outside the Top 20 in rating and would be higher if I didn't mess around in rated matches with experimental decks. I very often get power when I get a chance to play the EC's, but unless I limited my purchases to very, very infrequent, I am nowhere close to going infinite and don't expect to ever get there really.

When ladder paid gold (and before the abuse got bad) I could get gold from it regularly. When the EC's were closer together more power was given out. At that point it might have been possible for me to go infinite, but I think that window is now closed.

I think the expectations should be set not that it is a free game if you're above average, but that it is a fun game that doesn't cost a fortune to play and is well work it.

One might need some gold to get started since the starting decks aren't as good as they used to be but I do believe its entirely possible to go infinite. If you are good enough at keep cards tournaments it is not very difficult to earn more than the cost on average, through winning often and selling cards. Winning power from ECs can provide a little extra boost. The game is really only infinite with respect to time though.

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Well.. no negative feed back. Confusing feedback about the suggestion but nothing negative.

Based on the KC's I've seen, to make money on them I'd have to win at least 50% of the time...against some of the best players in the game. I've never seen anyone not in the Top 20 win a KC and I rarely see anyone not in the Top 20 enter a KC (besides myself and I'm not far off).

Yes, it is possible to go infinite. If you're one of the top 3 players in the game and already have most of the cards you want.

That might be a bit strong: I actually am infinite if I only play KC's once I get enough power from EC to do it and I'm patient enough to wait that long...but I'm not that patient.