Interesting first Kickstarter update.

[GraXXoR]

Here's their first update from 8th of September 2016!

 

I had completely forgotten they wanted to have a F2P tier, initially.

reading the 1000+ comments, it's clear the salt started hard and early, with loads of backers completely unaware that the game had moved out of alpha to it's current pseudo-beta (balpha, as I like to call it) version. 

At least I realise why they called it a beta now... some backers apparently only had beta access... so it's possible they moved the naming to include them? (clutching at straws here)....
 

--------

 

Hi guys! Already 135,354€ and 27% covered! This is amazing! We can’t thank you enough guys, thank you for your support!

 

So, this is the first update, and we wanted to bring some light on one important point. There has been a lot of discussion recently about the monetization of Dual Universe, and the question of the subscription model.

Let us clarify here what we have in mind, so that you can see all the options we will offer:

 

• Free to Try “trial” access: there will be a free to try access to Dual Universe, with limitations on things like how much skill, money and/or space you can access to. The details of the limitations are not yet defined precisely, but it will be made such that you can enjoy the game and have a taste of its large scale potential.

 

• Pay to Play “premium” access at a price at launch that we will keep in the range of comparable products on the market (typically around $10-$13/month or 10€-13€/month depending on the country), decreasing when bought in large bundles: this is the full scale game, with no limitation.

 

• DAC access: Dual Access Coupons are items that you can buy on the in-game markets with the in-game money you make while playing, and that you can turn into one month of Premium play time. You can also buy a DAC from Novaquark to sell it on the in-game market in exchange of in-game currency. DACs will have a price of $18/€18 at official release (for reference, items similar to DACs used in other MMORPGs are priced around $20/€20).

 

• Alpha/Beta access: no subscription involved.

 

As you can notice, the real money price of a DAC will be higher than the normal price of one month of subscription, which may have caused confusion as some people, quite understandingly, assumed that the monthly premium sub would cost as much as a DAC. This is not the case.

 

We hope this helps clarify our future business model. The reasoning behind the choice of a Pay to Play premium access has been discussed in detail in a devblog post about monetization that we made in April. We believe this model is the best to ensure both a high quality of playing experience and the best possible support for our customers. Remember also that Dual Universe is meant to become a massive MMO experience: if we are successful we will have to run a large and costly cluster of servers, especially since we have this unique continuous single-shard approach.

 

Again, the team at Novaquark wants to thank warmly all the 1700 backers that have supported us so far! Don't hesitate to spread the word and get everyone on board!

 

----

 

 

[Aaron Cain]

13 hours ago, GraXXoR said:

 

• Alpha/Beta access: no subscription involved.

 

 

 

 

So why did people pay for beta, do they get their money back?

[XKentX]

Once i hear DAC and no f2p/trial i laugh as there is no way to use your DAC in this case.

 

The f2p they described is again an eve online ripoff as most of this game.

[Atmosph3rik]

7 hours ago, XKentX said:

Once i hear DAC and no f2p/trial i laugh as there is no way to use your DAC in this case.

 

The f2p they described is again an eve online ripoff as most of this game.

 

it says there will be a f2p/trial.  Although this is from five years ago so i'm not sure why we're analyzing it now.

 

If they decide not to do a f2p trial, how would that stop you from using your DACs?

 

 

[GraXXoR]

3 hours ago, Atmosph3rik said:

 

Although this is from five years ago so i'm not sure why we're analyzing it now.

 

 

It’s because it’s from five years ago that it’s interesting. 
 

it’s fascinating to see what has survived and what has been culled in the interceding time. 

[le_souriceau]

7 hours ago, GraXXoR said:

it’s fascinating to see what has survived and what has been culled in the interceding time. 

My overall feel, that beyond all initial buzz about super-tech this and that, millions of players, they actualy encountered immensly more tech trouble, then expected initialy. Painful process to make things reasonably work in multiplayer enviroment (still dodgy and not finished yet), eaten up almost all dev time, leaving other aspects (actual quality disign of gameplay systems/assets) in completly miserable state. They hastly throwned something together just to not be completly empty-handed. Now NQ acting on huge (if surmountable ever) "gameplay" debt.

This also I guess principal reason for global lack of transperancy and wiggling around. They can't just say, yes, were failing to make game technicaly work as advertised for years and spend all time on this.

[XKentX]

12 hours ago, Atmosph3rik said:

If they decide not to do a f2p trial, how would that stop you from using your DACs?

1) Assume you are a player that plans to use DAC. You have no way to "start". You don't have a trial so you can't farm(mine) you first DAC to start the process. This will make DAC option only available post initial purchase.

 

2) Assume you are a returning player, you may have quanta for DAC but there is no way for you to purchase and activate the DAC as your account is suspended.

 

The other game that has lots of similarities with DU fixed "2" by allowing 24h reactivation of a suspended account. "1" could not be fixed and had they had to enable a trial.