No license and how it hurts the community.

Game Discussion Levelling and Economy
21

If this isn’t addressed by the time the game leaves “beta” (which is an odd thing to call it, since beta is traditionally a **short period** of testing before a game is released, maybe 3 months at most) and starts selling items for actual money (oh wait… funny how they’re already making a ton of cash off an unreleased game… yes, beta is unreleased), then this game will die very quickly.

 

Right now, there are still enough players online, because people who bought steam packs got free license.

I got 30 days, some other people got 180 days (I don’t even know how that works). So, there is enough with license to keep it going and active, and keep 4-man squads running for corps etc.

 

In another couple months, when this ends… well, I don’t even want to think about it.

It’s already bad enough that dying *twice* in T4 will mean you won’t be able to afford repair cost. Without even paying for ammo.

This will be the nail in the coffin.

 

Things that you SHOULD sell for cash:

  • premium versions of Mk3 items. That’s fine.

  • ships. but, don’t have separate cash ships. Have an option to unlock credit ships for cash OR credits. (the way planetside do guns). This way there is 100% balance for cash/credit ships because they’re the same thing. and you can put it on every ship so you might even earn more.

  • visual customisation - skins, flags, stickers, fins… engine trail colours? different missile explosion animations? (but keeping missile stats unchanged). also alternate ship models, or things like extra fins etc

  • progression boosters - xp/rank/credits etc (though make it possible to not bankrupt players immediately by not having license from repair cost)

  • ship/inventory slots

this should be plenty enough to get people to spend cash. no need to break the core gameplay over it.

Agreed and im savin the time to type this myself :smiley:

22

“Also don’t imagine that I’m speaking as a free player. I’ve already bought my one month license.”

 

Well I am a free player and havn’t encountered the problems that you imagine we have.

23

“Also don’t imagine that I’m speaking as a free player. I’ve already bought my one month license.”

 

Well I am a free player and havn’t encountered the problems that you imagine we have.

 are you in a corp? do you play by yourself? so many variables you are leaving out.

24

Only one quarter of corp members needs to be licensed pilots to fill entire corp in squads of 4 ppl players.

25

I have not gotten my friends in, but I’m intending to do so. But if what I read here is right, it might make it very tough to do so.

 

So, to clarify, if I wish to play with my friends, in the same game, I need to group up with them in a squad. And to group up with more then 1 other player and a max of 4 or 6 players, everyone would need to have an active license? 

 

If so, then yes, I would agree this is taking things too far. I have seen how a closely knit and well coordinated squad can really affect the game, but on the flip side, that is rare, and does promote the desire to get into a squad or corp. This would then promote the longevity of the game with higher social and community interaction, which would then increase the average revenue per user. For the most part, I believe Gaijin has done a reasonable job in monetizing Star Conflict. But for this particular situation, I do feel it’s too short-term and while it would not majorly affect Star Conflict’s revenue in general, it would limit it’s long-run potential.

 

They have to look into alternative ways of generating revenue, other then limiting what some would consider core features. A suggestion would be more prominent aesthetic features like paint jobs, and not stickers as stickers are for the most part unnoticeable. 

 

DryEagle: This is off-topic, but a beta can range from a month to a year; essentially, as long as the developer wishes. Of course, there are other factors, e.g. milestone agreement or internal deadlines, but for the most part, they are subject to change based on the agreement of the team and related publisher/investors. Sadly, in recent years, many developers and publishers have took to “public/open betas” as a way of increasing their user database, and even more recently, revenue as well. 

 

In a perfect scenario, the game is good, and one would be inclined to purchase items which would help fuel development. The game can transition to a true commercial state smoothly, without so much of an extended downtime. But more often then not, it is used as a cheap disclaimer if something does go wrong, and a clutch that is usually unfair to the customers. It also gives customers a false perception of the game and it’s state, and puts the developer/publisher in a comfort zone that they may be unwilling to leave.

26

So, to clarify, if I wish to play with my friends, in the same game, I need to group up with them in a squad. And to group up with more then 1 other player and a max of 4 or 6 players, everyone would need to have an active license?

Only 1(one) player need to have an active license to play in squad of 4 ppl. There is no 6 ppl squads right now ingame.

 

1 licensed+3 free=squad

2 free=squad

3-4 free can’t form a squad

 

Btw Top1 ELO rated pilot don’t have license. He can fly without it at T4 just fine.

27

As I’ve stated previously, I may play the game for now, but without the ability to play with my friends, it loses a lot of its lustre and I can’t honestly say I’ll still be around two months from now. I am certainly not willing to put down money on a game that doesn’t let me play with my friends for free. It’s awful that this isn’t even mentioned to the player at any point before the license expires, it feels deceitful, like you guys know it’ll discourage people and put them off from the game if they find out. (Because that is certainly what has happened in every community I’ve seen talking about the game when it has come up. People are deciding, right then and there not to play and I don’t blame them.)

 

There are some forms of microtransactions that I am okay with. Cosmetic changes primarily, but decreased grind is alright too. What I don’t like and will not support are pay2win shenanigans and ultimately, that is what this ends up being.

 

Simply put: If you’d like to have me as a customer, let me play with my friends and don’t turn the game into “Whoever has the most money wins”.

 

I don’t know what more I can say here, because I know my comments are going to fall on deaf ears. When has a company ever listened to customer feedback seriously?

28

Only 1(one) player need to have an active license to play in squad of 4 ppl. There is no 6 ppl squads right now ingame.

 

1 licensed+3 free=squad

2 free=squad

3-4 free can’t form a squad

 

Btw Top1 ELO rated pilot don’t have license. He can fly without it at T4 just fine.

It’s less about the monetary rewards and more about the inability to form full-sized squads. In a teamplay dependent game that is kinda a really wierd move, especially if the game is still in beta and still has a low playerbase

29

Basically,

You shouldn’t limit squad-size based off your license.  Not allowing people to play together is just a silly reason to try and make money.  People are more likely to snuff a game that is forcing them just to try it out together.  If the model is free 2 play, let them play it for free together and then decide once they enjoy it to pay money.  People are not likely to just drop 50+ dollars for a 6 month license to try out a f2p game with their friends.

30

There are working, profitable games with the same model as is currently used by Star Conflict.

 

The problems claimed by posts like the OP are simply not significant enough to warrant a change in the license system. There are proven business models (WoT) that demonstrate this.

31

Just because another game is doing fine with a certain business model or type of game does not mean that others in the future can simply follow their lead and be as successful or even successful.  This is easily exampled by taking World of Warcraft.  It stole the MMO market and was top of it’s class in subscribers, and every MMO after it “followed their business model” and were not nearly as successful and think of all the failures.

 

World of Tanks is a perfect example of this as they are the top-end of all games with this model-type and should not be used as a “they’ll be fine, look at WoT” example.

32

Just because another game is doing fine with a certain business model or type of game does not mean that others in the future can simply follow their lead and be as successful or even successful.  This is easily exampled by taking World of Warcraft.  It stole the MMO market and was top of it’s class in subscribers, and every MMO after it “followed their business model” and were not nearly as successful and think of all the failures.

 

World of Tanks is a perfect example of this as they are the top-end of all games with this model-type and should not be used as a “they’ll be fine, look at WoT” example.

 

It’s exactly what it means. In business; pursuing successful, proven business models is both how you achieve profitability and (more important in early stages) how you drum up financing.

33

There are sure working F2P games with this system, but if you look closely how many ppl are playing them its sad. But if we look on F2P games that lets you buy mainly cosmetics (no EXP, CASH, REP boosts) those games allow full accesss to the game without limiting party play, those game only limit Auction houses which we dont have and we dont need, also what other games are limiting is the number of characters you can create in our possition it should be limited to hoq many ships we can have (not in hangar but in general) my friend just buys every ship from all 3 factions in T2, the game should make for example 3 ships of one tier that would make ppl focused into one faction but not all at once and it would bring money for the devs because everyone would want to see if the other factions are good or not.

34

I’m really happy to be able to do 6 man squads at all.  

 

And 3 for free is reasonable.  Would be nice to have one more.  

 

I don’t mind paying now and then for Star Conflict.   

I have had more fun this week than the last year in World of Tanks and I shudder to think of the money I have spent on it.  

I can see myself playing Star Conflict a long, long time.  

35

*Edited*

Your arguments are falacious in that they don’t counter anything stated previously. There are working models with the current system. This is true and proven. Whether or not other models might work doesn’t change this. Star Conflict is using a model shown to be robust in the current business environment. 

 

Apple computing might make money selling groceries. But they already make money selling computers.

 

But, it’s not true and proven. It’s shown that it seems to work adequately with a single game, not with every game out there, and the example of World of Warcraft being copied by so many others and all of those copies failing was completely lost on you. It seems to me that the only common denominator here for you is money. If it makes money it’s good, if it doesn’t make money, it isn’t good.

 

As I stated, that’s a very nice capitalist mindset that completely ignores the externalities of the market, like how players/customers feel about it. Because of your blindness to reason, you refuse to see the possibility that the game could make more money with a different business model. No, it’s gotta be - force the players to pay money to play with friends, that’s the only way this game can be successful and no other business model could be looked at instead because it would never be as successful as this particular one.

 

As I stated previously, we have examples of both LoL and Dota 2 that are successful and don’t require you to pay money to play with your friends. Gaijin has the opportunity to earn goodwill with their players, and I am re-iterating again that they are spurning it with their business practices.

36

“Also don’t imagine that I’m speaking as a free player. I’ve already bought my one month license.”

 

Well I am a free player and havn’t encountered the problems that you imagine we have.

 

 

If you like playing with one friend at a time that’s fine. A lot of other people would disagree with you.

37

It’s exactly what it means. In business; pursuing successful, proven business models is both how you achieve profitability and (more important in early stages) how you drum up financing.

 

No, it isn’t.  I thank you for coming in and responding to my post, but the fact of the matter is that there is a FLOODING of the game market with “Free 2 play” titles.  I suppose some of these free 2 play titles are doing well, but this one has lost more than half it’s average population in the course of 7-10 days.

 

Now that business model is doing wonderfully, yes?  They should just keep chugging along because World of Tanks is a freak of nature and bucking the trend of f2p titles?  If one title works it does not mean the others who copy it are going to work.  I dont’ know why you act like that is not the truth.  Sure, mimic successful business models but don’t think because you’re doing the same thing as another successful business that you don’t have to change your model for your client base and to keep yourself afloat.

 

I don’t want to see this game close it’s doors and give up.  I want to see it succeed and it seems that it’s a bit too expensive for many people, and/or grindy for the free 2 play players, and this is important because the F2P players keep the populations up and the paying players keep the game running.

If you lose one or the other, or both…

 

It isn’t a good thing.

38

I don’t want to see this game close it’s doors and give up.  I want to see it succeed and it seems that it’s a bit too expensive for many people, and/or grindy for the free 2 play players, and this is important because the F2P players keep the populations up and the paying players keep the game running.

 

$10.50/month is expensive? What demographic should an online game be chasing that can’t afford 30 cents a day?

39

Paying for liciense and etc(money, exp, rep) never gonna happen i my book, paying for cosmetics to look difrent or cooler yes always.

40

$10.50/month is expensive? What demographic should an online game be chasing that can’t afford 30 cents a day?

 

Statements like this are pretty sweet.  $10.50 a month is expensive for a LICENSE that grants you bonus experience/credits/reputation.  This is something that isn’t required to play the game and an added bonus, yet makes the game manageable in terms of credits per win/loss vs repair ratio otherwise people are finding they have to drop from t3-4 to t2 to save up for repair bills which is really just frustrating for those who have to do it.  Also, people play multiple games now and some of them have fees associated with them or they can perhaps afford one game a month, or every 3 months, ect.  You want YOUR game to be that one they pay for and not the other ones, so price is a huge deal, especially if someone is say, playing WoW and wanting to play this game casually.  They might not want to pay 10.50 to earn their stuff faster…

 

When you look at games that come out that are 59.99 to start with and offer free patches/content afterwards without paying monthly, 10.50 suddenly does look expensive because 6 months from now you will have paid more than a new game that does this sort of thing for free and only for a License that lets you play with more squad members and earn at a faster rate.

 

This does not include any ship purchasing which dont even give you the option to choose a ship with an actual faction module, just a generic one(which is a HUGE deal for me).  I do not want the Aramada Cloak, I want the other one.  I earned the ship that lets me get that cloak but I was less inclined to buy a ship that gives me a generic one.

 

The ship costs are a bit too much in my opinion if you look at trying to actually equip them with full gold modules as well.  The ships in t3 are what, $12+ a ship or so?  Then each module is like $2-3 dollars so by the time you purchase one ship from one faction you’re at $25+ dollars a ship.  Thats in tier 3.

I’m sure some people are willing to continue using the excuse its “free 2 play” or “that isnt much money” but for some people like myself I enjoy comparing value vs cost, and the value of one ship for 25+ dollars, or 10.50 a month to simply ASSIST with my grind is a bit too much money for myself to pay and the numbers of people leaving show me that I’m not alone.