Different solution to "Free to play"

[Sircus]

Regarding Entropia being free to play, I though about another suggestion. How about this;

You can dl for free and create an account. If you dont deposit after 30 days your character will be deleted. Amount to deposit is 100 ped. This will continue for 12 months. After that you wont have to deposit anymore and your character is what we have today. All players currently registered would count past the 12 months.

In many ways I thought this would be good. What do you think?

 

[ghita]

Are you working at MA Pimp my game team ? )

Maybe 1 depo would be good.

 

[Sircus]

Are you working at MA Pimp my game team ? )

Maybe 1 depo would be good.

I wish! (Well atleast I wish if I got paid)

Hmm 1 depo you say? Still 100 ped amount? What about the 30 day rule, what do you think of that?

 

[aridash]

i think its been done, cant remember what its called.

oh yes, its SUBSCRIPTION.

 

[mastermesh]

It works best as it is.... If people want to sweat for decades let them. If people want to chip up to level 1000 in one week, let them as well. People want 'options' and freedom of choice. Once you start taking that away fewer will stick around, and before you know it everyone will abandon ship. EU definitely isn't perfect, but if people want to play free for a day, a week, a month or years let them. They'll deposit when they feel like it. For some that may be tomorrow... for others it may be a decade. Some of those that play free for the longest period of time probably become the biggest depositors eventually. Why cut them out of the picture before that potential can come to be realized?

If you like subscriptions, why not pretend that they are required and make sure to deposit every month. You control your money and your wallet. Stop trying to control other folk's money. Yes, it's always fun to play spend other people's money if they let you, but leave well enough alone.

 

[Sircus]

i think its been done, cant remember what its called.

oh yes, its SUBSCRIPTION.

Ah sry, didnt know that WoW became free to play after 12 months.

 

[KijkkiJikki]

This sounds like a subscription scheme. No thanks. If people dont want to depo and are prepared to play with out peds then that should be fine. I just don't want to prop them up with artificially maintained sweat prices and such

 

[Mac]

In many ways I thought this would be good.

Reminds me of lyrics in Devo's Freedom of Choice...

freedom of Choice
is what you got
freedom of choice!

then if you got it, you don't want it
seems to be the rule of thumb...

 

[Dan59]

Nobody play for free here.
Bills need to be paid.
So some ppl play on expenses of depositing participants and call that playing for free.

 

[Buds]

I think if MA wants people to deposit regularly then give some reason and incentive to deposit, obviously in such away as to not disrupt the games economy... (Don't want them breaching their own EULA)

Have to agree with Dan though no one plays for free as someone has paid for it somewhere along the lines...

 

[NeutrinoX]

And the whole point of this would be...?

One of the things I love about EU is, while far from being "free to play", is the fact that it's not subscription-bound. You can pay as much as you want, in the way you want, for the extent of time you want. While the current model is far from being perfect with MA being kinda lazy advertising their product, pretty much leaving to Planet Partners and players the brunt of the work, and the ever-lasting loot balance issues, but other than that, things seem to be working.

 

[Sircus]

things seem to be working.

Are you a person who believes that if you close your eyes really hard the problem doesn't exist?

Once again, this suggestion wouldnt affect current players. See instead the possible reaction from a new players side. Less illusion.

 

[Mac]

I think he means, other than it working, its working.

 

[NeutrinoX]

Where have you been the last 2 years?

Right here, playing just like you. Again, read what I said, a lot of the issues can be traced to a lack of income for MA, a playerbase that has barely grown since several years now and thus poorer conditions for us players. Things that can be solved with proper advertising (When was the last time you saw an ad for EU?) and loot rebalancing (Less huge HOFs/ATHs, more frequent globals/minis), not by changing models. If anything, it has been proven that free to play does work (Used to have a link here to a news article, but a certain game about lords and rings and a bunch of guys with hairy feet has doubled its revenue after going F2P), but not in the way you described. You can argue that's only for certain kind of games, and yes, I would have to agree with you, but I don't think forcing monthly deposits to new players would do any better either. This is just my opinion, of course.

EDIT: Oh, you edited your post. Well, certainly I'm not closing my eyes to any issues, I recognize things aren't as pretty as they could be, with the whole SEE thing just exacerbating it further. MA's financial report is not too encouraging, either. I just don't think forcing new users to deposit would solve all these issues.

 

[hogfather]

This way the game would be "Free to try".

In essence, you'll be asking them to buy the game for 10 bucks after a trial period of 1 month. Don't see it bringing more players in, rather sending them away.

 

[Mac]

This way the game would be "Free to try".

In essence, you'll be asking them to buy the game for 10 bucks after a trial period of 1 month. Don't see it bringing more players in, rather sending them away.

Agree, this way its more like a loss leader.

The problem is not getting people, the problem is keeping them. It cost more to get new people than it does to keep the ones you have. Improving the experience for people that are here so they don't get pissed off and go away and bad mouth the game, or make it so current users aren't embarrassed to recommend it to their friends, is kind of key here. Clean up the bad rep by improving the experience and advertise so new people are aware of what the game offers and take care of them when they get here and this wouldn't be an issue.

I'm reminded of the term Stockholm Syndrome when I read some posts here, I find it ironic that the game is from Sweden...

 

[wizzszz]

Regarding Entropia being free to play, I though about another suggestion. How about this;

You can dl for free and create an account. If you dont deposit after 30 days your character will be deleted. Amount to deposit is 100 ped. This will continue for 12 months. After that you wont have to deposit anymore and your character is what we have today. All players currently registered would count past the 12 months.

In many ways I thought this would be good. What do you think?

Worst idea ever...

And btw - there is already a mechanism that forces people to deposit: It's called loot, bad bad loot, and it still works far beyond the first 12 months and the first 10K US$ deposited...


Oh, and:
EU was never free to play - free to download maybe, but as soon as you use anything you pay.

 

[Peezle]

This idea puts people under pressure, so no thanks.

If only the promoters of EU ( if they exist ) would realize that it's OK to promote the game as it really is, and play to its strengths, not this rubbish about FTP : it only leads to scamming whiners or those who rightly feel they have been misled. That's no good for anyone.

Sweating has to go.

Reverse the thinking: what if players had to pay $20 upfront to play the game forever, if they chose, knowing the realities of the RCE. Damn, mums and dads would pay the $20 to shut the kids up.

 

[Mischief]

In a way the suggestion is valid.
We know that there are several games out there that do come with a monthly fee, subscription, and we do know that quite a few of them works and attracts a lot for players. But it's hardly the monthly fee that makes these games successful, it's something else. May it be the plot, may it be the game play itself, it's graphics, it's whatever.
You can argue that a monthly fee would guarantee Mindark a steady income and that would help in developing the game. You can also argue that if having a monthly fee then people would expect to be able to play it in the same way they play WoW, EVE or whatever. That the monthly fee combined with a lot of hours spent at game play would be all that is needed to prosper towards uberhood.

I don't believe that the game would attract more players if they first have to pay a monthly fee just to be able to log in and then to find that the fee isn't enough, they still can't really play since that would require yet another deposit. I can also see a problem with the 30 day deletion of the character if payment are not made. What if I go for a vacation, moves to another city etc and don't have time to play at all. Should I be required to pay the fee or having my avatar deleted. The same avatar that I've spent time creating, put some cash into to develop it etc. Even if you say it's just for a few months that the fee would be required I still say it would put more people off than it would attract.

What the game need is a slightly altered loot distribution, something more to do for the new players except wasting time, better advertising of the game itself and its features but most of all it needs less whining about everything being bad may it be loot, exploiters etc.
I believe that this community is somewhat responsible for the lack of new players coming in. We have a tendency to sabre everything, to pick apart every new thing that comes along to find that tiny little detail that isn't up to standard and then putting this detail forward with such verbal powers that the good things disappear in the smoke of that debate. Because no matter what they tell you when asked, the first thing most people do when stumble over something new is looking for more information about it, to read up on things. And what do they find? An ongoing flame fest, constant whining over details.

just my

 

[Megga1]

Regarding free play

It works best as it is.... If people want to sweat for decades let them. If people want to chip up to level 1000 in one week, let them as well. People want 'options' and freedom of choice. Once you start taking that away fewer will stick around, and before you know it everyone will abandon ship. EU definitely isn't perfect, but if people want to play free for a day, a week, a month or years let them. They'll deposit when they feel like it. For some that may be tomorrow... for others it may be a decade. Some of those that play free for the longest period of time probably become the biggest depositors eventually. Why cut them out of the picture before that potential can come to be realized?

If you like subscriptions, why not pretend that they are required and make sure to deposit every month. You control your money and your wallet. Stop trying to control other folk's money. Yes, it's always fun to play spend other people's money if they let you, but leave well enough alone.

I agree; not everyone can afford to depo. Why are you trying to make EU exclusive?? Everyone should have the right to play. Leave well enough alone.

 

[Peezle]

not everyone can afford to depo. Why are you trying to make EU exclusive?? Everyone should have the right to play. Leave well enough alone.

You can go into the cinema without paying, but what happens when you want to actually watch a movie? The game is a business not a hippy commune.

EU will never be for everyone, but what it should do is focus on the RCE niche and develop the potential playerbase from this position. The play for free tag is a lie, and it's a lie that nobody is happy with.

 

[ChairmanEdgewise]

I do wonder if anyone would stay in this game if they were forced to deposit the 12 first months of playing.....

 

[Spawn]

the thing has a nice free to play model. They give out free stuff, but it cannot be traded, it can only decay (and get stuck in inventory or storage). SO there is no loss for neverdie. If a free to play player wants to get their hands on the arctic chopper, they need a bigger weapon than the free pistol or the free assault rifle.. they need the shotgun from tt that costs 2 ped, or some rocktropia weapon (which does more dmg and costs a bit more). And then there is the mini-rig where free oil gets spat out. I believe the spatting of the oil is tied to the amount of pvp going on there. So the oil isn't really free... it's payed for by pk-ing players.

All in all you get nice content, nice missions, a lot to do for a lot less money you would have to pay for on a regular planet. And Neverdie still gets his decay. More of these movie-planets please!

 

[Soradin]

Regarding Entropia being free to play, I though about another suggestion. How about this;

You can dl for free and create an account. If you dont deposit after 30 days your character will be deleted. Amount to deposit is 100 ped. This will continue for 12 months. After that you wont have to deposit anymore and your character is what we have today. All players currently registered would count past the 12 months.

In many ways I thought this would be good. What do you think?

Put simply.. no.

If MA ever implemented anything like that, I'd chip out, sell off, and withdraw in protest. It wouldn't impact me directly, but it would indirectly impact me by changing the model, and decreasing the possibility of some people joining and staying with the game.

No, Entropia does not need a cover charge.

 

[Matho]

Sircus is clever guy, but this idea is step out of the way, I´d say.

We simply need more players - give them a chance to "play" for free, they will decide later, if they will stay and pay, or will leave.
Force them to pay - bye bye.

 

[Sircus]

Sircus is clever guy, but this idea is step out of the way, I´d say.

We simply need more players - give them a chance to "play" for free, they will decide later, if they will stay and pay, or will leave.
Force them to pay - bye bye.

Thanks for the compliment
This thread has given me alot of input, but I still cant see how free to play would make less players quit after short time playing this game. The 30 days give people a chance to play for free. Most people who dont like the game quits in less then 10 hours according to the reviews from gamesites.

One can always withdraw the subscription compared to other games, that would be strong point. You cant do that on other games. As Dan said before, everything is payed for by someone. Staying doesnt mean they contribute, not saying I hate leechers. I think that alot of people who want to play it safe will dabble with trade. Not a bad proffesion.

MA gave away free peds back in the day to get players. Now its just free. I want swing the pendulum the other way since the current model F2P doesnt work. It might work if you combine advertisment but F2P is an illsion that hurts the brand.

 

[Dusk]

I do wonder if anyone would stay in this game if they were forced to deposit the 12 first months of playing.....

I probably wouldn't have lasted the almost six years that I have, that's for sure.

But fair play to the OP for trying to be imaginative. If MA took notice of some examples of imaginativeness of the EU community then this game/casino/call-it-what-you-will might be a bit more diverse than it currently is.

 

[Jimmy B]

Regarding Entropia being free to play, I though about another suggestion. How about this;

You can dl for free and create an account. If you dont deposit after 30 days your character will be deleted. Amount to deposit is 100 ped. This will continue for 12 months. After that you wont have to deposit anymore and your character is what we have today. All players currently registered would count past the 12 months.

So your different solution to "Free to play" is..... wait for it..... wait for it.... this is going to be legendary.... here it comes.... "Not free to play"?

 

[Sircus]

So your different solution to "Free to play" is "Not free to play"?

Free to try

 

[Oleg]

If EU had been as you suggest when I started, I would never have made an account. Instead I am still here over 5 years later.