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Kanoth!
MMO_Munk
Member Posts: 299
I see that your the GM, well bro, heres a few things i wanted to get off my chest.
I for one would be disgraced ifi worked for a company such as yours, nickle and diming people ,makeing them pay to pre-order to beta test. Making people buy ingame money to just advance? Thats a little unheard of. I mean its bad enough the rich get richer and poor, well you know the saying, its just that A GAME is suppossed to be a "LEVEL PLAYING FIELD" You know cause i might be crazy but, um, yeah, someone that has 15$ a month to "Donate" compared to someone that has hell, 250$ extra month to spend, is a huge difference but of course your company wants that, in a their game i mean its a higher income, bottom line way of looking at things, but you dont realize that they guy spending 250$ a month on this may actually be killing hte game experiance for other players with limited wallets. I believe you should put a CAP on how much you can erhm "DONATE." To at least give a little balance within this game. But as for everything else, you guys are doing a great job.
And i promise you this that if you get rid of although i highly doubt it, the
donate for ingame money hooplah. I will have another 10 accounts to contirbute to your game, through me and my friends that have been watching this game closely, the whole idea of being able to buy your way into the game is just lame and is not a good move for an MMO maybe if it was an FPS or a MUD or so forthe, but not an MMO.
Comments
All right mate here's the deal.
If someone donated X million dollars a month, they would gain an advantage over someone who played for free. Yes. You're correct.
However, that gain is not as significant as you think.
Even the richest guy in the game will drop when a peasant hurls a trident at his head.
Higher money donations will not result in Uber characters running around with 'sword of goreblightdeathchopper +1000 magic damage' omgwtfpwning all the free players.
Infact, this game with the 'controversial and criminal revenue model' will most likely have one of the smallest gaps between the strongest and weakest players in any MMORPG.
Furthermore, there are benefits to the revenue system in that monthly fees are optional, so the game is accessible to almost anyone.
For the record, I will admit that it is most likely that those who donate higher amounts will be the ones that dominate economically. However I do not believe this will ruin anyones gaming experience.
And if you're upset that some rich guy might fill RedBedlam's pockets with money through outrageous monthly payments, don't be. Because RB deserve every single cent for doing something positive to the MMORPG genre.
Munk from what I've heard there will be monthly limitations to how much money you can buy. If not, I'd be angry as you are.
I second all that magicalsteve said and I'd like to add that all that donation money will not be earning them more than they would get if they'd put monthly fees. So they're not doing this to squeeze more money.
Good point OrigihiNomad; the occassional rich donater will probably not offset the massive swarms of free players. I think RB are being selfless.
i hope your right that they have a cap on how much you can buy, although i cannot find a link that says so, so i'm kinda sceptical. Hopefully Konath will rear his face in here and tell me.
Making people pay to test??
Maybe you should think about what you say before you decide to ramble on about something you know nothing about. Players are given access to the beta test as a free bonus when they PREORDER the game. No one is being made to do anything you ignorant jackass. Personal attacks on someone who has dedicated countless hours of their time for something that isn't even their real job; wow you are cool. PS there will be a cap on how much in game money players can donate, but I guess you would rather make attacks based on no actual evidence, go right ahead. I don't understand why people cry like this when a game company throws them a bone.
Get a clue you don't know what on earth you are talking about.
-wombat
http://usera.imagecave.com/wombat9897/RomaVictorsigdone.jpg
Munk,
Since you have played Roma Victor and know how the economy will balance out when it is released maybe we should listen to you. What you havn't played and have no idea what you are talking about? Nevermind then. How about we explain how Roma Victor actually works now and how it is projected to work in the future.
Note: Project Entropia had something kinda like this revenue model so it isn't new.
You are never on a level playing field in a game. Especially in Roma Victor since it is more player skill based so the gap between worst and best will be larger. The way I feel it should be. Player potential should not be limited.
Anyway, Roma Victor has no uber items to buy that will make the richest the best. You may have 10 NPC guards but, 3 skilled players would be able to defeat them still. This is what many people that say the same thing as you seem to overlook.
Skills won't progress just from having money and you won't just be able to throw money at people and kill them.
From the way I understand the economy, it is like a real economy with a finite amount of money. That finite amount is deteremined by how many players have purchased money like how much money is printed in RL. I think NPC merchants start with some money to buy items but, they also have to sell items to make money otherwise they will stop buying items until they sell some to make money. I don't think NPC's just spawn with loads of money. I believe you are more likely to get real loot like hides from animals or equipment from a humanoid. Quite a bit of trading goods rather than goods for money like it was more like back then I believe. People could get in to the testing without preordering as many did. People need time to learn RV, it has a lot more than other games have. It isn't just go and fight these monsters until you level and then do this quest so you can level to fight these monsters to level.
You would only need lots of money if you plan on just buying everything instead of working for it. If you do this everytime you die or buy something that is goods and money put into the economy.
Sorry if this was a bit harsh.
Your mind is like a parachute, it's only useful when it's open.
Don't forget, you can use the block function on trolls.
"The man who exchanges Liberty for Iconic classes is a fool deserving of neither." - Me and Ben Franklin
you paid to pre order the game, and were offered a spot in the test. If you pre ordered JUST to test, well thats your problem.
_____________________________________________
"Old UO is now but a dream that will live in the hearts of the faithful for eternity."
Think you have what it takes to take the 'Oath of the legion' and become a true soldier of Rome?
Service guarantees citizenship!
Sorry I've been away for so long.
First, a bit of an explaination, there are maybe 3 guys at RedBedlam that actually get paid when we have money to pay them. I've not seen one dime for my 3 years (or is it 4 now) of work with them. KFR, the President, hasnt pulled in a paycheck since 2000 because he's working on this game.
Your concerns are valid, people discuss this point on the boards all the time. I suggest you head over there and check it out to see what I, KFR, and our virtual economics guys have to say on the subject.
Also, as others have pointed out in a slightly rude way, we arent making people pay to get into testing. We're offering a Pre-order with the bonus of allowing the customer to jump into testing and help out. Then they're also given access to the live game server at the end of march, 2 weeks before the general public.
We dont intend to get rich, though we would like to pull in a good salary for once.
"Rome wasn't coded in a day"
- Kanoth
Philosophically, if you think about it, if it is unfair to allow money paying customers to donate their way to power then you would have to also agree that players who have more time in their lives are therefore adding to the injustice. So married or overtime workers who play this game are really "victims" of an unfair game set-up if you think those with more disposable income are somehow "wrong". So essentailly to make this game fair, we would have to only allow people with a certain amount of income to play and only allow people with a certain amount of time play?
Bah, games aren't meant to be fair through and through. The donation does not scare me one bit. Aren't we all confronted with others, by no fault of their own, who are richer, stronger and smarter than we are. Does this detroy or progress? No and if it does then you need to build some character. Perhaps this unequal distribution of wealth might lead to a more realistic and enjoyable game experience due to the challenge it will have for the majority player? Remember, even thr richest Roman could not stop the mob nor the determined barbarian. Oh well, my two cents.
If ur game is good and keeps me playing I will glady pay a few bucks every once in a while to keep u all goin plus I like how your payment system gives me the freedom to choose when and if I will donate because I might be broke for a few months and still wanna play and be able to pay down the road. I also have read that making curency ingame a viable option as well but no doubt having some extra starter cash always helps.
I have high hopes for your small team to pull this one off and the fact I see u posting on differant sites actualy listening to the customers makes me think u will at least do better than SOE when it comes to makin mmo's.
{(RIP)} SWG
We're all gamers, so we know how you feel (cant wait for BMEII to come out).
We'll do our best to make sure we've covered all the bases. But unfortunately in this business, a missing " in 500,000 lines of code can cause a real problem. Such is the nature of the beast.
"Rome wasn't coded in a day"
- Kanoth