SE, if you're that desperate for money...

[OSUBuckeye4]

Here are some ideas on how you can make additional cash that won't cause in-game imbalance:

1) "Minion of the Month" club - Charge $2/month and on the 1st of every month every subscribed and paying member gets a unique minion.

2) "Mount of the Month" club - Charge $5/month and on the 1st of every month every subscribed and paying member gets a unique mount to ride around on.

3) FC House Jukebox with additional/customizable soundtracks - Implement a jukebox for FC houses, and allow people to purchase additional/custom tunes for it.

4) Access to a special "VIP lounge" location for paying members only - Charge a small monthly fee, and let people who pay the fee enter. Maybe have the lounge sell a few unique vanity items/potions/minions/mounts. Nothing that is greater than the top gear in the game, but, stuff that is unique to VIP's.




I'm writing this to warn you SE... the path you're going down in a very slippery slope that sets an awful precedent.

While $2 a month (in perpetuity) is not a big deal for most of your customer base (myself included), you're going to come to other points where you can either nickel and dime your customers, or not release promised content. If you continue to nickel and dime us, you're eventually going to reach a tipping point where a sizeable percentage of us (myself included) are going to leave.

If you really want/need to go into fundraising mode, stick to selling thing that don't give people who pay for the additional fees distinct in-game advantages (having 20 more spots on the market board and additonal venturing are big advantages) over those who do choose to pick the fees. An example of this would be the Fantasia potion. No one has a problem with you selling those. Selling market retainers is a completely different ballgame. Tread lightly.

[Issac]

Did you know that pay-per-additional-retainer was a plan from the start? The very start, from the release of 1.0 we've all been waiting for it.

[Zourin]

Did you know that pay-per-additional-retainer was a plan from the start? The very start, from the release of 1.0 we've all been waiting for it.

Pay per additional character was also the plan from the start.

Just because 'something was the plan for the start' doesn't mean it's a good idea. You should have learned that in spades from 1.0's cornucopia of failures

[Issac]

Pay per additional character was also the plan from the start.

Just because 'something was the plan for the start' doesn't mean it's a good idea. You should have learned that in spades from 1.0's cornucopia of failures

Personally I feel if they handed out additional retainers for free they would only stand to lose profits. More retainers for everyone means more packrats which in turn means more server resources. More server resources leads to more spent and thus less profit. Paying for additional retainers is a disincentive for people to be unorganized packrats.

If you are of the opinion that SE should just eat the profit losses and give retainers to all without reservations, you are entitled to it. That's okay.

I'm not sure if I need another retainer yet. I'll hold off for now.

[Huginn]

Pay per additional character was also the plan from the start.

Just because 'something was the plan for the start' doesn't mean it's a good idea. You should have learned that in spades from 1.0's cornucopia of failures

1.0's conucopia of failures you say? im glad to meet someone with firsthand experience

Join Date: Oct 2013

Gee, i didnt realize that 1.0 started in late 2013

[Amberion]

1.0's conucopia of failures you say? im glad to meet someone with firsthand experience

Join Date: Oct 2013

Gee, i didnt realize that 1.0 started in late 2013

Umm, you should probably know that your forum account is not created at the same time as your service account.

I'm also a legacy player. But I never used the forum back then.

[ReplicaX]

Join Date: Oct 2013

Gee, i didnt realize that 1.0 started in late 2013

Yep, cause that date by no means reflects when someone registered on the forum itself.

#trollharder

On topic, I blame the Industry as a whole setting the terrible precedent to begin with and the player demand purchasing it. SE seems to be just following what's past practiced via a different method.

At least they didn't do what ESO did.

Announce this:
"There will be no paywall beyond the sub"

Do this:
Collector's Edition = paywall for a damn playable race.

[LemmingKingXXX]

On topic, I blame the Industry as a whole setting the terrible precedent to begin with and the player demand purchasing it. SE seems to be just following what's past practiced via a different method.

This is a self-set precedent really. I could pay extra money for mules in FFXI starting from the game's release in 2002, and I could do a ton more damage to the economy with them through gardening than what it appears Ventures will be capable of, and gardening was much more fire-and-forget gil generation requiring just the setup and regular maintenance without any experience grinding required and with the techniques I used it self-generated the seed materials required.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...rThanTheyThink

[Felis]

Pay per additional character was also the plan from the start.

Just because 'something was the plan for the start' doesn't mean it's a good idea. You should have learned that in spades from 1.0's cornucopia of failures

we have this still in some way.

Personally, as long as they don't stop letting us put Event Items in the Armoire as a sneaky attempt to make us buy more retainers, I'm fine with the 2$/extra retainer.

Fix is coming with 2.2.
With 2.2 you can now sell event items to make space and buy them back later with gil from the calamity npc if you want them again.

Aside from the terrible precedent it sets, it's the "per month" thing that's really troubling. People are really okay with spending what could eventually be hundreds of dollars on some additional storage space an auction house slots? It's absurd. If they're going to go down that route (and they really, really shouldn't have), they should at least do the sane thing and make it a one time fee. Even free-to-play MMOs get that part right.

During 1.0 a character slot had cost 3$/months extra. And there were no 10 threads complaining about it.
Some people also bought a second character slot for additional storage space. It was easy to sell in an empty market ward like in Gridania with a separated market system the stuff to a second character with a retainer for 1 gil the piece.

[Naunet]

During 1.0 a character slot had cost 3$/months extra. And there were no 10 threads complaining about it.
Some people also bought a second character slot for additional storage space. It was easy to sell in an empty market ward like in Gridania with a separated market system the stuff to a second character with a retainer for 1 gil the piece.

Again: if you only had the one character, you did not pay the full sub. This is money asked for ON TOP OF a full sub. That is a very important difference.

When will you jump out?

To be honest, I'm already considering it.