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DU is Going Free to Play...?


blundertwink

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Hello everyone,

 

We understand your concerns and why you would suspect that we intend for Dual Universe to go to a free-to-play model. Without going into detail about the open position, we can however let you know that there are currently no plans to change Dual Universe into a Free-to-play model for several reasons, “Cost-per-User” being one of the major ones. Nor do we have any plans, or intents to introduce any "Pay-to-win" microtransaction systems into Dual Universe. This position is open for another project and NOT for Dual Universe.

 

We hope this cleans up some of the assumptions that are being made in this thread.

 

Best regards,
The Novaquark Team.
 

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I apologize for making the false assumption and greatly appreciate the clarity...in the context of the original posting, it does heavily imply this is for DU. 

 

2 hours ago, le_souriceau said:

This tho creates new assumptions, about how NQ resources used between DU and this "new project". Major point of concern.

 

Sure, but we've known that they have been working on new projects for a long time...

 

There's a lot I've actually liked about DU despite [too] many criticisms, and I appreciate the honesty about working on a new project. 

 

It's actually kind of silly to expect NQ to spend many resources on DU at this point.

 

The game didn't scale, it can't scale, it won't scale. It was always a moonshot; most MMOs receive 10x NQ's funding (or more) to deliver an infinitely more simple concept!

 

I do hope they try some creative changes with the game with whatever resources they have left on the project, but let's not pretend that it's possible for a studio of NQ's size to juggle multiple games at scale. The game is what it is and it's great if you enjoy it in its current form, but don't expect a lot of updates in the months or years to come. 

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On 3/9/2023 at 6:33 PM, Atmosph3rik said:

And i think people who are discovering the game, and then leaving, aren't leaving because the game costs too much.  They're leaving because NQ hasn't spent enough money giving them a reason to stay.  I think they would pay more, if there was more to pay for.

So true.

i would pay double the price per month and make 3 alts, but the “game” is not worth my money AND definitely not my time.  It excited me the first three month but then- I got literally bored. A pitty because I could have been really great. 

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12 hours ago, Nemezir said:

So true.

i would pay double the price per month and make 3 alts, but the “game” is not worth my money AND definitely not my time.  It excited me the first three month but then- I got literally bored. A pitty because I could have been really great. 

 

Pay more? the price per month is already higher then triple a rated mmo's. And there you actually can DU stuff, has events that matter, stuff works, companys communicate, upgrades are upgrades, limitations are there to actually balance gameplay and not reduce server stress, Nuff said?

 

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6 hours ago, Aaron Cain said:

Pay more? the price per month is already higher then triple a rated mmo's. And there you actually can DU stuff, has events that matter, stuff works, companys communicate, upgrades are upgrades, limitations are there to actually balance gameplay and not reduce server stress, Nuff said?

 

 

The thing is i was paying $10 a month in 1999 to play Everquest.  At the time that was a huge expense for me.  But i was willing to pay it because the game was new and there was nothing else like it.

 

But i don't have any interest in playing any of those new triple A rated MMOs, at any cost.  Even with all of its problems, DU is still a thousand times more interesting than any of those games.

 

I'm not saying i would pay more for what we have now.  I'm saying i would pay more if there was more to pay for.

 

 

 

 

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On 3/15/2023 at 4:28 AM, NQ-Nyzaltar said:

This position is open for another project and NOT for Dual Universe.

 

 

This is quite a concerning post, would like to hear more details on this......Will this "other project" end up replacing DU? Are we all just wasting our time playing this current game you have? 

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3 hours ago, DemonAn9el said:

 

 

This is quite a concerning post, would like to hear more details on this......Will this "other project" end up replacing DU? Are we all just wasting our time playing this current game you have? 

 

Its certainly replace DU in priority and resource distribution. 

 

DU may tho have some time to wither naturally in parallel, on minimal life support. Not like game devs, especially KS sort, do something like this first time.

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6 hours ago, DemonAn9el said:

 

 

This is quite a concerning post, would like to hear more details on this......Will this "other project" end up replacing DU? Are we all just wasting our time playing this current game you have? 

 

To look at it another way, why would NQ spend most of their resources developing a game that's failed to scale, can't support that scale technically even if it was popular, and is locked into a naive subscription monetization model because of its core design...? 

 

For all the many criticisms I've given, it would be kind of dumb for NQ to keep piling money into a project that has no realistic chance of success. 

 

I can't say I'm optimistic for whatever project they're working on, but can't fault NQ for trying to pivot. DU has been dead in terms of dev for a while now, this isn't anything new that they are spending most their resources elsewhere.

 

I don't know why people are surprised when they have said they are working on other projects since before release...

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1 hour ago, blundertwink said:

DU has been dead in terms of dev for a while now...

 

Yeah, its honestly root of "personal beef" with whole story, that it happened years ago, but NQ continued to like put make up on dead body, so to say : ) And some people too stubborn to admit it.

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On 3/15/2023 at 8:28 PM, NQ-Nyzaltar said:

Hello everyone,

 

We understand your concerns and why you would suspect that we intend for Dual Universe to go to a free-to-play model. Without going into detail about the open position, we can however let you know that there are currently no plans to change Dual Universe into a Free-to-play model for several reasons, “Cost-per-User” being one of the major ones. Nor do we have any plans, or intents to introduce any "Pay-to-win" microtransaction systems into Dual Universe. This position is open for another project and NOT for Dual Universe.

 

We hope this cleans up some of the assumptions that are being made in this thread.

 

Best regards,
The Novaquark Team.
 

Thanks for saying the silent part out loud. Now players can finally address the obvious issue of most of the devs working on other projects and finally move on from a game that's barely been on life support since day 1 of launch. We appreciate the confirmation.

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14 hours ago, VarietyMMOs said:

Thanks for saying the silent part out loud. Now players can finally address the obvious issue of most of the devs working on other projects and finally move on from a game that's barely been on life support since day 1 of launch. We appreciate the confirmation.

 

I wish NQ had been more up front about this, although to be fair it was never really hidden...I've been talking about this for a long time now and NQ's CEO had been very, very clear that their focus was on other projects in their public posts -- for well over a year. 

 

But many people continue (even now) to insist that DU is healthy and growing (despite data from multiple sources and NQ's own statements). They're sitting around waiting for promised features as NQ works on their other game. 

 

People are still joining the game and wasting their money to try a game that the devs have already effectively given up on...I wouldn't go as far to say it's "scammy" but it sure isn't honest either.

 

Of course they might say "oh we haven't given up, we have all these changes planned"....but it's absurd to suggest a company of NQ's side can actually juggle game projects and that they'd give equal weight to a commercial failure of a product even if they could. 

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1 hour ago, blundertwink said:

 

 

People are still joining the game and wasting their money to try a game that the devs have already effectively given up on...I wouldn't go as far to say it's "scammy" but it sure isn't honest either.

 

 

It is scammy for some time now. Selling a brick as a plane because it can fly is just as scammy, just be fuzzy about the actual length it can actually fly and add enough limitations to what you believe the word flying can mean.

It also helps to make sure your HQ is not in the US or EU and your probably safe from legislation. 

 

Disclaimer: Scammy is an immaginary term and all names or items or localizations are based on fiction. No animals or aliens were hurt in this post. No claims can be made from anything people can anyhow read in this post either in full health or under really good funny medication or muschrooms or other means of self education

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On 3/20/2023 at 11:02 PM, Aaron Cain said:

It is scammy for some time now.

 

Well, its what some people seen in one way or another for years (with more evidence or less, relying on gut feeling, experience with game industry), some were better in formulating it, then others. All this discussions, about economy, wipes, population. At core it was about is NQ to be believed or not (obviously - not).

 

Early whistleblowers, like Blaze, had it hard, with more conformistic players attacking them.

 

Now its pretty clear to almost everyone, but some super die-hard fanatics. 

 

 

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6 hours ago, le_souriceau said:

Well, its what some people seen in one way or another for years (with more evidence or less, relying on gut feeling, experience with game industry), some were better in formulating it, then others. All this discussions, about economy, wipes, population. At core it was about is NQ to be believed or not (obviously - not).

 

I understand that perspective 100% -- and can't really defend the integrity of the company, overall.

 

That said...the definition of "scammy" has sadly evolved in even the last few years.

 

For all their faults, NQ spent 8 years trying to make this game. It was absurdly ambitious, poorly funded from the start (relative to the genre), but they did invest time in an effort to make a game.

 

I think that effort is still worth some level of respect, especially for the devs that invested so much time for relatively little reward (as game devs are notoriously underpaid). 

 

There are "play to earn" MMOs (like this one) that really epitomize what "scam" means in the modern game industry. 

 

NQ is far from perfect and hardly the most honest company or a company with great PR / communication skills...but I don't think it's a full on "scam" compared to many of the seedier players in this industry today. They could have spent a ton less effort to make a lot more money if they really wanted to be like that.

 

Not saying I trust NQ or view them as a company with a lot of honesty, but I'd learn toward "they tried but didn't have the experience" versus "this was all a scam from the start". 

 

Of course...for all I know, NQ's next project is some sort of similar web3 / NFT / play to earn BS -- NQ's leadership hasn't been shy about embracing these silly concepts...so I guess we'll see...? 

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7 hours ago, blundertwink said:

For all their faults, NQ spent 8 years trying to make this game. It was absurdly ambitious, poorly funded from the start (relative to the genre), but they did invest time in an effort to make a game.

Yeah, this.  Scammy games, IMO, are games which just intended to take peoples' money and nothing else.  I think NQ genuinely did have plans for DU, and are even now still trying to make it work.  If it were my business, though, I would also be putting a lot of effort into a replacement revenue stream at this point and it looks like that's what they are doing.  It's hard to fault it even if it is sad, from our POV, that NQ the company doesn't want to put 100% into DU and then go down with the ship.

 

7 hours ago, blundertwink said:

I think that effort is still worth some level of respect, especially for the devs that invested so much time for relatively little reward (as game devs are notoriously underpaid). 

 

Same.  I'm still playing DU even today as my 6 month subs start to expire and most of my characters start to go away.  It was fun and I got my money's worth out of it.

 

7 hours ago, blundertwink said:

Of course...for all I know, NQ's next project is some sort of similar web3 / NFT / play to earn BS -- NQ's leadership hasn't been shy about embracing these silly concepts...so I guess we'll see...? 


Even the really successful developers can succumb to the blockchain BS it seems:  https://venturebeat.com/games/ccp-games-raises-40m-for-new-triple-a-web3-game-in-the-eve-universe/

I have yet to see a genuine blockchain based app that didn't also have a trusted entity somewhere in the value chain, undermining the whole proposition but so long as there are idiots prepared to put in money for buzzword compliant blue sky projects the crypto world will keep retrying this over and over and over and over.  I wish NQ and CCP luck with this but in the words of Dragons' Den "I won't be investing, I'm out" ...

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23 hours ago, Zeddrick said:

 It's hard to fault it even if it is sad, from our POV, that NQ the company doesn't want to put 100% into DU and then go down with the ship.

 

I always felt, that, usuing this ship analogy, or submarine even, that NQ always little bit too practical-cynical and eager to use players as "ballast" of some kind for their buisness maneuvers.

 

Per most well famous (but not only) example: I'm absolutly sure, they knew it will be wipe for a good part of the year before it happened. And by this intentionally allowing people to play (to keep some online) while their efforts were doomed. While its not per se scam, its not in good faith handling too, by far.

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21 hours ago, le_souriceau said:

 

Per most well famous (but not only) example: I'm absolutly sure, they knew it will be wipe for a good part of the year before it happened. And by this intentionally allowing people to play (to keep some online) while their efforts were doomed. While its not per se scam, its not in good faith handling too, by far.

 

Completely agree that they planned for the wipe for a long time.  It makes a lot of sense of things that happened over that time (for example the schematic giveaway not being rolled back).  It makes me quite distrustful of the company as a whole and makes me think that taking my money and using it to fund other projects while running DU on a shoestring knowing it will be short lived is definitely something they would do.

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with even 11 dac in my pocket, there is no reason to get back. Updates are late, expantions vaporware, and the basic game is worse then the end-alpha version (when it was marketed as alpha, not the version we have now that is barely not alpha)

Even a free version would be a waste of time compared to other once pay/always play space games.

A firm rebounse to the roots with a well defined redevelopment could change that but that requires the vision that people need other stuff more then, lets say, purple voxels

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On 3/27/2023 at 2:14 PM, CptLoRes said:

Speaking of Metaverse/Web3/NFT/whatever and NQ, watch this video (long one, but worth it) and replace Decentraland with Novaquark.

 

I've spoken with some of the Decentraland people because some splintered off to form a scammy "pay to win" MMO which I've linked to before. This interview was at the request of one of their C-suite execs who told me way more dirt than he should have (including that they made more in their initial NFT sales than NQ has ever raised). Very glad I didn't pursue the job. 

 

This video mentions faulty assumptions about how these are adults trying to 'revolutionize the concept of ownership' -- and that is funny to me, because there's no way in hell that they actually care about anything other than making money.

 

Any "ideology" that these clowns pretend to have is utter crap.

 

The people that are true "believers" in this NFT/crypto BS are often the ones being exploited -- because the people that made Decentraland never believed in anything other than personal enrichment....which is perhaps obvious to people that understand ponzi schemes.

 

Maybe you'll never get all your DU backer rewards, but at least you didn't sink thousands into a crappy MMO's NFTs believing they'd increase in value, lol. 

 

Ah, the "metaverse" -- redefining the benchmark for what "scam" means in gaming. Great time to be alive. 

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