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Dark Space as a free to play MMO(premium membership based) |
Chewy Squirrel
Chief Marshal
Joined: January 27, 2003
Posts: 304
From: NYC
|  Posted: 2009-09-27 12:45
Looking at the current market of MMO’s you can see three types: The monthly fee plan, which DarkSpace currently falls under, The micro transaction plan, and the standard/premium membership type. DarkSpace isn’t very well suited to the microtransaction plan, as there is really isn’t anything to sell that wouldn’t give players an unfair advantage, except for maybe bling for their ships. The only way I can see a microtransaction plan being “fair” is if the only thing sold is different paint jobs for ships, decals, and other shiny things that don’t affect stats. Now people aren’t very likely to buy these things so that plan wouldn’t work.
However the standard membership/premium membership plan might work very well. For those unfamiliar with this kind of membership plan, the game is for the most part, free to play. A standard member can get most of what the game has to offer, but not the most powerful things. This kind of plan is fairly popular, most notable used by Runescape(I know Runescape sucks but look at how many players play and how much money they make). Other examples I can think of off the top of my head include Shattered Galaxy, Faldon, and Dungeon runners. The advantages of such a plan over a monthly fee plan are obvious. People love free things, and are more willing to try something that is free. This will over time increase the player base. While the majority of these new players will start off as non-paying, over time they will grow to love the game like the rest of us do, and pay for a premium membership. All these new players will also help solve the problem of dread space, which has plagued the game for a long time now.
Of course we need some nice incentives for being a paying member. The main thing would probably be the ability to gain over a certain rank. Vice admiral seems to be a good rank to allow free members to rank up to, as you just begin to get the taste of dreds at that rank. Other possible benefits of being a paying member could be:
Possible member only benefits(i.e. things free members can’t do)
--Rank over vice admiral
--More garage space
--More SY warehouse space
--20% more prestige gain
--Ability to use blue/purple enhancements
--Ability to use assault load outs
--Ability to use second level engineers/supplies/transports
--Ability to swap out parts(Just to the degree currently allowed, not complete customization)
--Ability to stack resources in piles of 2000
--Ability to lock planets
Existing players might complain that this will severely cripple them if they don’t pay the premium membership fee. Well they pay a subscription fee currently, and this wouldn’t be any different than that, except they would actually have other players to play with. The premium membership fee could also be something lower than the current monthly rate, that is something that would need to be “felt out” over time.
I love this game, and would handily subscribe if there were more players playing regularly, and I am sure many people share this same sentiment. Making the game “free*” would drastically increase the player base over time, make the game more fun, and make people more willing to pay for a premium membership.
Thank you for reading, I know this ran a little bit long. Let me know what you think
-Chewy
Edit1: This was originally a response to Sardaukar's post asking about how to gain exposure for the game and draw in players. I think that's a very important question because even if the game is free, we need a way to draw players in. So I am going to post it here so it's more visible. I guess this can also be considered "Phase 2" of the plan to go free to play:
"...Exposure will probably be the biggest problem, however there are solutions that do not cost lots of capital (if any at all). When/if the game goes free to play, we (the players) can send in tips to various gaming blogs announcing the change to free to play. Blogs such as kotaku,destructoid,joystiq, etc. Hopefully one or more of them will pick up the story, and publish it. These sites receive many views, and publish stories like this, especially if we tout DarkSpace as a fast paced alternative to EVE that is now free to play!
Then of course there are always sites such as Digg, and Shoutwire that we can attempt to get a front page story on, once again spinning it as a free fast paced alternative to EVE.
One other thing I can think of is doing a promotion with MMORPG.com where you give out gift keys to say a beginner pack of enhancements. The pack can contain a handful of limited enhancements, and one blue/purple enhancement.(of course it would be limited to 1 key per account and if possible the blue/purple enhancement would be un-droppable) Many MMO's do this to gain exposure for their game, and the free stuff is a great incentive to get players to try the game.
Then there’s also the posting on various gaming forums announcing the change.
Hell if there is enough money left in the coffers there’s also the option of banner ads proclaiming DarkSpace as a free action packed space MMORPG. People love that kind of thing.
Anyway, there's many free ways to get exposure to the game once it’s free, and if we as the community take a proactive approach I am sure we can get some nice high profile spots."
[ This Message was edited by: Chewy Squirrel {Yum!} on 2009-09-30 21:08 ]
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xplosiv
Fleet Admiral
Joined: October 10, 2007
Posts: 43
| Posted: 2009-09-27 13:04
Love this idea and completely support it
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Enterprise
Chief Marshal
Raven Warriors
Joined: May 19, 2002
Posts: 2576
From: Hawthorne, Nevada
| Posted: 2009-09-27 13:11
Wow, when I read this, I pretty much almost thought it was a good idea.
Especially since having Vice Admiral means your first Dreadnought (and having a Dreadnought means you won the game).
But then I'm a stubborn old timer. I have to vigorously oppose anything that changes anything in the game by law.
WHAT DO I DO I HAVE NO IDEA TO REACT TO THIS
-Ent
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Julian Delphiki
Fleet Admiral
Joined: June 19, 2002
Posts: 171
| Posted: 2009-09-27 13:17
Like.
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Silent Threat { Vier }
Marshal
Anarchy's End
Joined: August 03, 2004
Posts: 278
From: Waiting...watching...
| Posted: 2009-09-27 13:30
This sounds like it would work to me. As you mentioned it works really well for Runescape.
One thing though, I would stop at cruisers. Not only would it make dreads rarer as they should be, (people complain about DreadSpace anyway as you mentioned), but getting to VA doesn't take all that long and you will still end up with a lot of dreads.
I think paying members should have that whole ship class advantage over the unsubbed ones. Stations don't count.
My thoughts...
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Fattierob
Vice Admiral
Joined: April 25, 2003
Posts: 4059
| Posted: 2009-09-27 15:18
Quote:
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On 2009-09-27 13:11, Enterprise wrote:
WHAT DO I DO I HAVE NO IDEA TO REACT TO THIS
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Just ignore it like every old timer has been doing with the recent "fix darksapce dis way plz" posts.
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Sixkiller
Marshal
Courageous Elite Commandos
Joined: May 11, 2005
Posts: 1786
From: Netherlands
| Posted: 2009-09-27 15:34
you know, this is actually a good idea. Why didnt anyone else think of this earlyer?
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-Daedalus-
Grand Admiral
Joined: September 26, 2006
Posts: 549
| Posted: 2009-09-27 15:50
Because no one would listen.
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Ham&Swiss
Grand Admiral
Joined: October 12, 2004
Posts: 418
From: 10$ to whoever finds me
| Posted: 2009-09-27 16:18
Wow, i'd actually go for this...
It needs some hammering out obviously, but wth, i'm on board!
H&S
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If violence doesn't work, Your not using enough!
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Supertrooper
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: March 18, 2004
Posts: 1895
From: Maryland, U.S.A
| Posted: 2009-09-27 16:27
What is this, Navyfield?
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Tommas [ USF HunnyBunny ]
Chief Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: February 04, 2006
Posts: 581
From: Norway
| Posted: 2009-09-27 16:52
Yeh this aint such a bad idea! Lots of other games have this and they make alot of money from it.
But that also means u got to have alot of players for that to work, and maybe 10-20% will pay. But i do also belive that most of the one that plays now will be payin so migth just be the same.
And we have seen that activity realy gets up when the free play is in order.
Anyhow nice idea
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Sops
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 07, 2004
Posts: 490
| Posted: 2009-09-27 17:12
As far as I can tell, it wouldn't hurt to try. I would say let the devs release a few changes just to polish up the game and get any major bugs worked out. Institute this new system and start a small media campaign to promote it.
Worst case senerio Faustus doesn't like the new system and he switches it back.
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Walrus of Apathy
Admiral
Templar Knights
Joined: August 07, 2005
Posts: 466
From: Dorans Basement
| Posted: 2009-09-27 19:46
Quote:
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On 2009-09-27 17:12, Sops wrote:
As far as I can tell, it wouldn't hurt to try. I would say let the devs release a few changes just to polish up the game and get any major bugs worked out. Institute this new system and start a small media campaign to promote it.
Worst case senerio Faustus doesn't like the new system and he switches it back.
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And then everything would suck again?
I really like this idea, it would work great for me, as i never have any money to pay for games monthly.
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Lux (Polaris)
Fleet Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: April 20, 2004
Posts: 835
From: Asgard
| Posted: 2009-09-27 20:02
It sounds like a good idea. Hopefully one that will be seriously considered, even if it has already been in the past.
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Loyal Admiral of the Interstellar Cultural Confederation Navy.
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Sardaukar
Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: October 08, 2002
Posts: 1656
| Posted: 2009-09-27 20:09
While this should not be taken as opposition to the idea (and this should not be taken as favor), I'd like to note that the rank of the OP is Vice Admiral. Not that this invalidates the point, just saying. Holding neutral on this one.
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