[Greetings from the Netherlands]

Greetings and salutations! 

 

Dual Universe really looks like an ambitious project, will be interesting to follow and maybe (given the opportunity) test. And lets be honest, this concept is like how we all imagined space MMO sandboxes should be right? Its really frontier stuff that is planned here, lets hope they will succeed for all our sake! 

 

Anyways, I'm from the Netherlands... any other dutch on this forum?  

[DevBlog: Monetization, player happiness and economic viability]

I'm all for players paying for game--I've generally subscribed to games I've played. But that said, I've had issues with most of the payment models:

• F2P cash shops typically sell aethetics only, with maybe some "booster" items (XP, etc.) or some "metagame" expandability (i.e., vault/pack space, etc) in order to avoid the "P2W" argument. But to me, this incentivizes development priority to add what many might call "fluff" over features/content, and/or leads to possible "nickel-and-diming" over QoL features.
• The problem I have with B2P is what has already been mentioned--a high bar to entry that can't be significantly lowered over time since this is how the game is funded. And if you do offer significant "sales", then either people wait for the sale or people who bought full price feel gypped. Plus, it runs into the problem of "how often do you offer a paid expansion" and how do you co-exist with people who don't buy it (If you're familiar with Destiny, then you know the controversy over how the game has left those who did not buy with less "things to do" than when the game shipped).
• Subs have the issue that the price is "one size fits all" (typically), which leads to people who play infrequently drop off because the full sub price is not worth it for an hour or two per week. I'm also not comfortable with the "sell a sub token for in-game money"  for almost a similar reason: a person who plays a little is likely strapped for credits, so in essence, you are telling them to sub for 2x or more to get the game money that allows them to play for their limited time, thus exacerbating the "is the value worth the cost?" issue. Plus, now you put in front of the player the question of whether they should play "for fun" or farm credits just so they can play at a reduced cost. Depending on the economy, farming for credits can also cause its own imbalance.

Personally, I think a pure "sub" with no base cost for a game is where I'd like to see games move to. But along with this, I think subs should somewhat be not wholly time-based, in order to give the casual player more value for limited playtime. What I mean is that, for example, a sub's base life is one month or X number of "activity points". If you use all your activity points in a week, no matter, the sub is still good for a month. But if it takes you 3 months at a limited level of activity to use up those points, then your sub lasts that long.

 

I have typically avoided subbing to more than one MMO at a time, since most of these games presumes that it's a second job, and it feels like I'm wasting money if I don't play a game I've bought time for.

 

I dunno, I think many people overestimate the cost of a sub... Going to the cinema cost about the same amount as a average monthly game subscription... although watching the movie in the cinema will be like 2 hours where during a month you will probably find more then 2 hours to spend in the game...

 

I understand that it can feel like wasted money if you only play 5 hours in that month but it's quite misplaced  Unless you feel even more so when going to the cinema    

[DevBlog: Monetization, player happiness and economic viability]

I prefer subscription over F2P as it gives me full access to the game and generally turns out to be cheaper then F2P games... I dont think B2P is an option here as its an MMO, as such there is an expectation of continuing updates. A subscription would serve well to provide the funds for these updates, while given all players access to 100% of the game. A plex system like that of EVE Online is a really nice addition to the subscription model.

 

I'm a bit on the fence about the cosmetic shop though... When paying a subscription I have an expectation to be able to access the entire game and future content updates. A cosmetic shop would basically be a paywall to certain cosmetic content. It would undermine the basic principle of the subscription model, a big offender is World of Warcraft, who doesn't just dubble dip, but tripple dip! they are B2P with subscription and shop... I find this quite criminal and these practices destroy the willingness of players such as myself to support a game financially.

 

I think B2P with subscription + plex model would suit me better as I would not have to worry about paywalls (even if it's just cosmetic). But don't go charging money for future updates though! I expect my subscription to cover that

 

Looking around these days, you see too many developers trying to squeeze out their player base for every last penny. Many got away with it, but you see a growing resistance against it among players who are tired of these practices... For example look at the backlash Total War: Warhammer got from trying to sell a crucial race (Chaos) of the game as DLC with pre-order... There was a whole campaign to dislike their trailer on youtube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC1Y2pFP2ls look at the dislikes, those are not because they hate they game )

 

There are some developers/publishers that do approach this subject with a more fair mindset, like Paradox Interactive. Their release of City Skylines and more recently Stellaris are very successful. Sure, these are not MMO's but i'm talking about the fact that they don't just ask 60 euro just because they can... Stellaris was 39,99 at release, which i can appreciate. I know full well that there's plenty of expansions and dlc's on the horizon. But even those prices are agreeable. The point i'm trying to make here is that i'm far more willing to support Paradox games financially just because of their fair business models. And I don't think it's just me, Paradox Interactive has a very supportive player base.

 

I know any company has to be profitable... but there are many different ways to be profitable, and there's long-term and short-term... I suppose there is an underlining question that wants to know what kind of company Novaquark want to be or become?           

[Why Dual Universe?]

Yea, i'm also quite interested in the story behind the name  Please enlighten us