New Starter Packs Replace Founder Packs

AmbrosiaAmor

Hmm it seems that "New" Starter Packs have replaced the Founder Packs... and it seems to have ticked off quite a few people:


http://forums.archeagegame.com/showt...-founder-packs


Skimming through the 140 responses shows that almost everyone is ticked off about the new packs since they are supposedly worth more. Is this true? I didn't buy any founder packs so I'm not sure, maybe someone can chime in. Someone took a pic of the new packs here.


http://www.bilder-upload.eu/show.php...1410894765.jpg

ionxeel

I take a different approach with f2p games. I don't spend any money until the game proves worthy of from my own, personal experience.

JeroKane

Is anyone even suprised anymore with TRION?

Next month the LP pots will be back to their intended 4 hour cooldowns. Mark my Word.

VooDoo_Papa

ya, it appears to be worth quite a bit more. I bought the 149 founders pack. the one big difference between the two, is there are things in the founders pack that you cant obtain in the game that I'm aware of like the glider, the title and the ..chinsy cloak. The armor costume, it can be obtained in game.

everything in the starter pack is in the shops or available somewhere, but its definitely worth the price vs. what youd pay in the cash shop. its also more valuable in my opinion, then the founders "trailblazer" pack.

am I pissed about it, well it sort of sucks because I could definitely use most of whats in that starters pack more then the stuff that was given in the trailblazer pack.

itchmon

the founders' packs were more 'cus they got you into alpha/beta.  and, on some of the original servers, they got you prime-time land.

 

to me the starters packs are not what people should be complaining about- it's the lack or compensation for having half the head start nullified by infinite login problems.  this is from someone who got the 50$ founders' pack.

 

i will say this though, once you get in the game and finish the land-rush-a-thon the game is fun as heck.

VooDoo_Papa

Originally posted by itchmon

the founders' packs were more 'cus they got you into alpha/beta.  and, on some of the original servers, they got you prime-time land.

 

to me the starters packs are not what people should be complaining about- it's the lack or compensation for having half the head start nullified by infinite login problems.  this is from someone who got the 50$ founders' pack.

 

i will say this though, once you get in the game and finish the land-rush-a-thon the game is fun as heck.

ya, though im not even worried about the land situation. A lot of this frustration stems from not really understanding what happens to land once the owner goes on an MMO vacation for a month of so or decides patron isnt worth it. The 15 star houses arent really that useful in my opinion, so Im playing the waiting game and saving a few hundred stars, maybe save for a manor/mansion and placing it somewhere around a contested area where Im actually going to be playing after I hit 50.

all those expansions scrolls, character expansions , even the 6 house warming gifts really make that top tier starter pack worth the money. 

LuciousVictis

Not surprised at all, anyone could see by how trion handled AA so far. This is only the beginning, it will get much much worst as the hype will die down and they will run after every cent that they can milk out of their left over player base. 

That must be the most terrible re re release of a game EVER. Seriously, how can you fail to release a game that is well polished and been running on your servers the past 4+ months, what a shame really. Trion is a bunch of incompetent, yes all of them.

tachgb

Humans like a good old moan about anything and ofcourse, everyones forgotten their immediate Alpha/Beta/Early Access now haven't they?

syriinx

Originally posted by tachgb
Humans like a good old moan about anything and ofcourse, everyones forgotten their immediate Alpha/Beta/Early Access now haven't they?

yes, all bow down to XL for allowing us to pay to be guinea pigs

grimal

<nvm>

observer

Ouch.  That's damaging to loyalty.  I guess all those founders weren't loyal enough to Trion, even though they paid $149, on top of a subscription during beta, and even more for cash shop items.

Kataline

I am sad about this whole situation. I feel like I've been stabbed in the back. Why go to great lengths to get perks that cost a lot of money, just to find out that you actually could've gotten more items in the newer packs offered. I love the game, don't get me wrong, but I kinda feel betrayed that Trion went and did this. I didn't get to play much of the 4 day headstart due to queue times and login issues, so that was a waste of money. I am currently debating whether to try and get my money back, or just take the loss and try to enjoy the game the way it is. *hugs*

zaberfangx

Originally posted by JeroKane

Is anyone even suprised anymore with TRION?

Next month the LP pots will be back to their intended 4 hour cooldowns. Mark my Word.

You have a lot hate for trion, why is that? did you forget that XL game runs 90% of the show, and  trion work with them make it easyer for them to get the game off and running in the west and making money for them and trion for what ever fee they put on xl game.

Distopia

Originally posted by syriinx

Originally posted by tachgb
Humans like a good old moan about anything and ofcourse, everyones forgotten their immediate Alpha/Beta/Early Access now haven't they?

yes, all bow down to XL for allowing us to pay to be guinea pigs

WHat do founders expect? The big fee was there because they knew people would pay it if it meant they could play. That's all it boiled down to. There was no other reason to pay for it.. I'd think everyone knew they'd offer this kind of thing at launch... Anyone who knew how F2P actually works anyway.

 

 

AmbrosiaAmor

That thread now has reached over 350 responses. Scapes did respond with the following:

 

A more accurate title is that they're different than Founder's Packs in a number of ways. Let's look at the contents of both.

Founder's Packs contained intangibles including Alpha and Beta access, Head Start, titles, unique gliders, and capes. Comparatively, Starter Packs are collections of existing and future Marketplace items. Both Packs contain Credits and items but Founder's Packs contained a lot more Credits and some of its items were exclusive. For instance, the mount in the Archeum Starter Pack will eventually be available on the Marketplace. It's literally a collection of items useful to new players.

 

There was another thread that took a poll on the recent changes to ArcheAge's packs as well as recent queues.

http://forums.archeagegame.com/showthread.php?47099-Did-trion-pull-the-rug-over-ALL-founders-just-now

1065 are unhappy about the founder packs versus 125 that are happy with it. That is 85% versus 10% versus 5% that didn't care either way.

 

On a good note at least TRION is keeping these threads open, but I'm hoping they give the community an answer (well a more substantial answer than what Scapes gave). As a business, yes you need to make money, but don't introduce methods that will frustrate off a good portion of your customers, or at the very least run a high risk of pissing them off outright...

zaberfangx

Originally posted by AmbrosiaAmor

 

On a good note at least TRION is keeping these threads open, but I'm hoping they give the community an answer (well a more substantial answer than what Scapes gave). As a business, yes you need to make money, but don't introduce methods that will frustrate off a good portion of your customers, or at the very least run a high risk of pissing them off outright...

Yeah on the rift froum,  Trion will let threads open unless people make keep making new ones or start fame wars, then they will close them.

Distopia

Originally posted by AmbrosiaAmor

 

On a good note at least TRION is keeping these threads open, but I'm hoping they give the community an answer (well a more substantial answer than what Scapes gave). As a business, yes you need to make money, but don't introduce methods that will frustrate off a good portion of your customers, or at the very least run a high risk of pissing them off outright...

What really needs to change is the attitude of the buyer, they need to come to grips with what is being sold here.. They go on and on about the freebies that come along with it (items, credits, etc..) yet mislead themselves over what they're really paying for, the early access...

IN F2P this is the practice that takes the place of pre-ordering... IT's all about pushing early sales, and the best weight behind that is exclusive access.. Once that access is over, that's when it really shows what it was worth... As everything else is not exclusive... It will be leveraged later, as a means to make up for the lack of a box price on entry (starter packs).

 

 

holdenhamlet

Founder packs gave you headstart.  It was the only way to get headstart so that value is intangible.  You also got alpha/beta access.

Of course there's going to be more value in these new packs- they don't have these things.

I don't think anybody bought these packs for the items in them, and now they're all complaining because the items aren't worth as much as the new packs items....

For me the items were a total non-factor in judging the value of my silver pack.  I paid 15 dollars for headstart, with 20 dollars of credits and 15 for patron status for a month.

I sure as hell didn't buy it for the experimental glider.

Satsunoryu

You also got way more credits with the Founder's than the new one, didn't you?

SlyLoK

Seems to me like they are doing this to try and thwart people selling their $150 Founder Packs.

Valkyrie

Originally posted by AmbrosiaAmor
Hmm it seems that "New" Starter Packs have replaced the Founder Packs... and it seems to have ticked off quite a few people:


http://forums.archeagegame.com/showt...-founder-packs


Skimming through the 140 responses shows that almost everyone is ticked off about the new packs since they are supposedly worth more. Is this true? I didn't buy any founder packs so I'm not sure, maybe someone can chime in. Someone took a pic of the new packs here.


http://www.bilder-upload.eu/show.php...1410894765.jpg

Considering that several of the founder pack perks were awarded the first six characters but starter perks go automatically to the first character (only) this might not be so different.

I've done some math and the Archeum Starter Pack is 19400 credits (around $105 for the largest credit pack) plus $40 for the patron status, aka $145 dollar worth if one would buy that for money from the shop.

Not sure why anyone would argue about that, the Archeum Founder Pack was 11500 Credit cash plus $40 for the patron status plus six times the Glass Phoenix Glider (six chars), 6x Desert Assassin Plate Costume, 6x 10 Evenstones, 6x 10 Hereafter Stones, 6x customisable Founder’s Cloak (+3 to all stats), 6x Title (+3 to stats), 6x 10 Pet Healing Potions. I don't have the numbers for the latter but am pretty sure the 6x easily turns that into 8000 worth of Credits? It is basically 1400 credits per eac of 6 chars ...

Azdul

Originally posted by observer
Ouch.  That's damaging to loyalty.  I guess all those founders weren't loyal enough to Trion, even though they paid $149, on top of a subscription during beta, and even more for cash shop items.

If the starter packs will keep selling - it means that Trion/XL won't have to mess with the game to force existing players to spend more money in the cash shop.

Instead of starter packs, Trion could say "fuck you founders, we've already have your money" - and start selling 500$ swords in the cash shop. 

Superchieftian

Anyone who thought this game was anything but a cash grab was kidding themselves. This was pretty obvious from the beginning and no one should be getting upset about it.

saurus123

Originally posted by Azdul

Originally posted by observer
Ouch.  That's damaging to loyalty.  I guess all those founders weren't loyal enough to Trion, even though they paid $149, on top of a subscription during beta, and even more for cash shop items.

If the starter packs will keep selling - it means that Trion/XL won't have to mess with the game to force existing players to spend more money in the cash shop.

Instead of starter packs, Trion could say "fuck you founders, we've already have your money" - and start selling 500$ swords in the cash shop. 

the game is going the same way as korean and russian version

 

soon you will have this

http://mmoculture.com/2013/11/archeage-game-goes-bears-with-november-cash-shop-update/

and more silly things that change the game to hello kitto and farmville or something familiar

 

i feel sorry for all the players playing it

Trion just gonna milk you all

Peer_Gynt

Originally posted by Distopia

Originally posted by syriinx

Originally posted by tachgb
Humans like a good old moan about anything and ofcourse, everyones forgotten their immediate Alpha/Beta/Early Access now haven't they?

yes, all bow down to XL for allowing us to pay to be guinea pigs

WHat do founders expect? The big fee was there because they knew people would pay it if it meant they could play. That's all it boiled down to. There was no other reason to pay for it.. I'd think everyone knew they'd offer this kind of thing at launch... Anyone who knew how F2P actually works anyway.

 

 

I wonder how long before we start to see health warnings on MMOs like we do on cigarettes.

"Warning, medical research has shown these kinds of games and their merchandising tactics to be dangerous to gullible morons. These games have been known to cause hysteria and financial insolvency in those with weak minds and impulse control issues."

SpottyGekko

Originally posted by Superchieftian
Anyone who thought this game was anything but a cash grab was kidding themselves. This was pretty obvious from the beginning and no one should be getting upset about it.

99.9% of F2P games are cash grabs by definition. They all front-load the spending requirements, because they know players will abandon the game much quicker if they're not "invested" (in all senses of the word).

 

Unless your F2P game is a MOBA or something like Angry Birds or Candy Crush Saga, chances are that you're counting players in multiples of 100K, not in multiples of 10M. Games that only have a few 100K players cannot survive if 5% of the population spend $5 a month. With 10M or 20M players, that 5% is more than enough.