So wait! If you sub, build a house, and stop subbing, your house poofs?

Mkilbride

This is what I've gathered.

 

You get your items back, but none of the materials. It's just gone. All the effort you made into making it, designing ti to be like yours, one month you decide -not- to sub, just for a reason , to take a break, bam, it's gone! Unless you pay every month?

 

I imagine this is going to be a major weakness in the game. People love housing in Sandbox. Seriously, one of the biggest things I hear about in MMORPGs are housing, housing, housing.

 

I can't imagine spending dozens of hours customizing my house the way I like, taking a break from the game, coming back and it's just gone. It'd demoralize me. I'd not want to sub again.

 

I understand for space reasons, i.e, a bunch of houses of people who never are coming back, but still!

Utinni

Advice to OP-

 

Don't ever play Rust.

Mkilbride

Originally posted by Utinni

Advice to OP-

 

Don't ever play Rust.

 

Rust is not a MMORPG.

mcrippins

They give you a certain amount of time to resub before you lose your land plot. Your house design, along with your decor, is sent back to you in your mailbox. It doesn't just evaporate.

centkin

This is typical to all games where housing is a literal place rather than a virtual place in the world.  IE in asheron's call and horizons by example, if you do not sub, your house goes away.  They are actual places in the world.  In games like everquest 2 where a house is a virtual apartment thing, it does not go away.

Mikeha

It would not make sense to be able to just leave the game and expect for your house to still be there if it cost to have the house.

Kyleran

Just be glad they don't let other players take it from you while you are subbed.

rojoArcueid

losing any items by unsubscribing and taking a break would suck horribly, but i actually like the idea of getting all my stuff in the mail if i decide to leave the game and come back in the future. Its like moving to a new home in a new city. As long as i get all my house stuff (including the house materials) in the mail, or the equivalent in ingame currency, then im ok.

Talketzanto

Ultima online worked the same way.....it will take no less then a month after unsub for it to poof....maybe even longer but thats the only way to keep land open for people who are actually playing and subbing....its only fair really

Utinni

Originally posted by Mkilbride

Originally posted by Utinni

Advice to OP-

 

Don't ever play Rust.

 

Rust is not a MMORPG.

Oh damn.

Building

Crafting items

items drop off mobs

lots of players at once

mybaaaaaaaad. its a moba

Loktofeit

Originally posted by Torvaldr

The game has monetization identity disorder. It doesn't seem it knows what and how it should sell itself. I think locking game systems, like housing and such, behind the sub was a bad decision. They could have easily figured out a better way to design access to this, but they didn't.

MMO players don't like losing resources/gear/progression that they've obtained simply because they aren't playing. This will be one to watch how it evolves and it highlights what I consider one of Trion's biggest weaknesses. They never seem to have a bold vision of the game they want to make. They change their game based on their metrics and data collection according to what they think the players want and it just doesn't work for them.

I don't know how far they've gone this way with ArcheAge, but their schizo payment model seems to reflect their lack of direction. Are they doing the stupid thing where they try and squeeze as much cash as possible at every turn out of their customers? Are they unsure whether F2P is working out for them in Rift? Maybe communication and vision with XLGames is a factor as well. I don't know, but they really have me shaking my head with this game.

How is this different from subscription games with open world housing (ex: Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, EVE Online)?

 

GeezerGamer

SWG had maintenance. Same deal, you had to keep paying. 

Otherwise the abandoned housing becomes a blight on the game. Anarchy online had monthly fees as well, but players had so much damned money they set up their cities to be paid for for years with the credits in the bank. The game was overrun with cities that were essentially abandoned. The continuing players couldn't use the plots or anything of the sort. It's a real problem. And I for one think it's a good idea to require that anything in the world that occupies virtual real estate require an active subscription. Believe me, you want it this way.

ArcheAge2014

well you'll get back your house in the mail, the problem is finding a new plot.

 

there are thousands of players waiting to take over your plot of land in an instant.

doodphace

Originally posted by centkin
This is typical to all games where housing is a literal place rather than a virtual place in the world.  IE in asheron's call and horizons by example, if you do not sub, your house goes away.  They are actual places in the world.  In games like everquest 2 where a house is a virtual apartment thing, it does not go away.

That wasn't the case with SWG. For better or for worse, servers were packed full of ghost towns once the vast majority of players left the game around 2005-2006.

doodphace

Originally posted by GeezerGamer

SWG had maintenance. Same deal, you had to keep paying. 

Otherwise the abandoned housing becomes a blight on the game. Anarchy online had monthly fees as well, but players had so much damned money they set up their cities to be paid for for years with the credits in the bank. The game was overrun with cities that were essentially abandoned. The continuing players couldn't use the plots or anything of the sort. It's a real problem. And I for one think it's a good idea to require that anything in the world that occupies virtual real estate require an active subscription. Believe me, you want it this way.

Not sure why you mention AO in that light, as if that didn't happen to SWG as well. I played SWG well after the NGE, and let me tell you, there were ghost towns everywhere for years. Yes, SoE did purges later on, but there were still plenty of ghost towns and ghost shops in SWG.

GeezerGamer

It was a problem in both games. 

I'm saying AA should be different.

psiic

Just to point out houses stayed in place in SWG forever you could come back 2 years later just had to catch up on upkeep to get inside

 

Karble

Originally posted by Mkilbride

This is what I've gathered.

 

You get your items back, but none of the materials. It's just gone. All the effort you made into making it, designing ti to be like yours, one month you decide -not- to sub, just for a reason , to take a break, bam, it's gone! Unless you pay every month?

 

I imagine this is going to be a major weakness in the game. People love housing in Sandbox. Seriously, one of the biggest things I hear about in MMORPGs are housing, housing, housing.

 

I can't imagine spending dozens of hours customizing my house the way I like, taking a break from the game, coming back and it's just gone. It'd demoralize me. I'd not want to sub again.

 

I understand for space reasons, i.e, a bunch of houses of people who never are coming back, but still!

You get your house blueprint back..but your stuff goes open to loot. You can also gather more tax credits to pay in advance I think or family a property to others so they may be able to pay your tax and use your house while you are gone. It sure does have a stronger element to it to keep your subscription up than other games though for sure. Similar to UO back in the day.

Mkilbride

Originally posted by Utinni

Originally posted by Mkilbride

Originally posted by Utinni

Advice to OP-

 

Don't ever play Rust.

 

Rust is not a MMORPG.

Oh damn.

Building

Crafting items

items drop off mobs

lots of players at once

mybaaaaaaaad. its a moba

50 players does not a MMO make.

synn

Originally posted by Torvaldr

The game has monetization identity disorder. It doesn't seem it knows what and how it should sell itself. I think locking game systems, like housing and such, behind the sub was a bad decision. They could have easily figured out a better way to design access to this, but they didn't.

 

 I personally think housing locked behind a subscription payment was a great move. this is from there FAQ "As a protective measure against infinite placeholder accounts claiming precious land, ownership of real estate is reserved for paid players at launch." I'm sure there will be accounts made with the sole purpose of getting a plot of land and selling it for real money if the game is a success. This would be even worst if f2p gamers were able to do the same thing.

 

 

 

Caldrin

This is not a bad system really.. the land is limited in the game so just allowing people to own it forever even if they dont log on or whatever is a bad idea as you owuld be stopping players who are actually playing from owning land and enjoying that part of the game.

 

I dont believe you lose anything other than the plot of land you had built on.

 

sketocafe

Originally posted by Jockan
It would not make sense to be able to just leave the game and expect for your house to still be there if it cost to have the house.

You don't leave the game if your sub expires. You can still log in and play. People aren't going to like a Sub game pretending to be f2p.

Mothanos

Only patron status members can keep farms as the space for plots is limited.
Not paying your sub is byebye landplots.
Otherwise it would be easy to abuse this system, and we cant have freeloaders claiming all those plots now do we ?

synn

Originally posted by sketocafe

Originally posted by Jockan
It would not make sense to be able to just leave the game and expect for your house to still be there if it cost to have the house.

You don't leave the game if your sub expires. You can still log in and play. People aren't going to like a Sub game pretending to be f2p.

when you lease an apartment and you let the lease expire should you be allowed to stay in your place even though someone else is ready to sign a new lease for that place? Same concept, when you let your patron status expire should you be allowed the benefits of a patron when there is someone else that is still paying for patron status but doesn't have a house cause all the plots were taken?

 

 

edit: I'm not a founder and probably won't even get patron status till after playing the game for at least a month, but I do see the reasoning behind this move.

lunatiquez

Lands/plots are limited. What do you think will happen if the players who owned a house stopped playing and there are no lands left available for newer players? Yes, the game will be doomed.

An4thor

Originally posted by inemosz
Lands/plots are limited. What do you think will happen if the players who owned a house stopped playing and there are no lands left available for newer players? Yes, the game will be doomed.

"Who cares about others, the world revolves around me."

-A random human-