Poll: Would you pay 2€/2$ now for a addon, which unlocks new skills, buildings,items?

[ElCapitan1701]

As most of you know the business modell of Salem isn`t clear yet. There are different options like a cash-shop or a item-shop. I would like to add to those options another one: selling small addons, which unlocks new skills, new buildings, new items. So everyone could play free, until he reaches end of content and then needs to expand the game by buying a addon. This concept builds on the desire of players for new content. If the need for new content make you spend 2€/2$ - that`s what the poll about. You can get more information about the "addon-business" here. As there has been no new content the last past weeks - this is the right time, to do this poll

Please have in mind, that you will have to spend money in Salem to make it profitable for the devs. Most players, speaking for cash or items shops, assume, they will get around those expanses. Maybe you will, maybe not. Please make this poll about how you would like to spend your 2€/2 and not if you would like to spend it or not.

Here`s the poll:
Poll: Would you pay 2€/2$ now for a addon, which unlocks new skills, buildings,items?

[Dallane]

Like everyone said in the thread you linked.

NO

[staxjax]

lol, 7 votes total...I wonder who voted 'yes'.

[ElCapitan1701]

lol, 7 votes total...I wonder who voted 'yes'.

Well, I haven`t voted yet

Also: it`s even interesting how the no-votes are distributed.(And the poll is up for 20 minutes)

@Dallane - In the thread I linked 6 people contributed to the discussion - 4 of them speaked against the "addon business-modell". Most of them also are against any form of pay-to-win (which includes all the other options too)

[Skurcey]

well 2$ is really not much. I'm totally against DLC with big commercial companies (damn console players). But when they warn players before, to avoid expensive cost, i think it s ok.
Item shop willn't blend good in the current economy, or maybe you gonna change it?
I cannot state a better idea, but i think you need to aim higher :/ One of the $ driven economy in a MMORPG i know is entropia universe. A pretty cool idea in theory, but on the bottom, the only way to earn money is to rip of other players or make shady business... If the skills were limited, it could be cool to have a more players driven economy, where real money would speed and give business opportunities. But i think it s hard to implement.
As it s a sandbox game, i think you really need to dig the economy system, because money is the most easy way to motivate players. (i hope i m clear in my sentences D

[VitaminK]

Am I the only one confused by the options?

[ElCapitan1701]

Oha, why`s that? My bad english?

[VitaminK]

Oha, why`s that? My bad english?

No just little information on actual implementation of any of those options. I know its just an 'up in the air' thing and all...

Well I for one would rather pay a one time fee than continually buying things from some shop/micro transaction thing.

I am interested in why more people would rather have a cash shop then a low cost one time purchase? Its pretty surprising to me anyway. From the looks of things I would think most people here wouldn't want that sort of thing.

[jtwain80]

The ideal FTP model involves allowing players to pay pay money for cosmetic and stylistic options only. If new skills and new structures allows you the option of making an item essentially identical to a Wortbaked Wartibte, but using Milkweed instead of Oakworth, and had a cooler name, that would be fine. That's a new option available to those who want to pay for it, but doesn't give any real advantage to them directly. Other good cash store options are purely cosmetic, with new clothing to wear, or hair styles. The sketchiest cash store option that still produces a viable game are options that increase the speed at which you progress, though not the potential limit. In Salem, this would be things like making proficiencies finishing studying twice as fast as normal, or making digging/crafting etc instant rather than delayed by a progress meter. There are many things people would spend money on to make their game experience more convenient or stylish, that do not improve their power level. Any power increases that require cash destabalise the community between free players and paying players, and are to be avoided if possible.

[VitaminK]

The ideal FTP model involves allowing players to pay pay money for cosmetic and stylistic options only. If new skills and new structures allows you the option of making an item essentially identical to a Wortbaked Wartibte, but using Milkweed instead of Oakworth, and had a cooler name, that would be fine. That's a new option available to those who want to pay for it, but doesn't give any real advantage to them directly. Other good cash store options are purely cosmetic, with new clothing to wear, or hair styles. The sketchiest cash store option that still produces a viable game are options that increase the speed at which you progress, though not the potential limit. In Salem, this would be things like making proficiencies finishing studying twice as fast as normal, or making digging/crafting etc instant rather than delayed by a progress meter. There are many things people would spend money on to make their game experience more convenient or stylish, that do not improve their power level. Any power increases that require cash destabalise the community between free players and paying players, and are to be avoided if possible.

Well I agree with you there. There wasn't really a option I completely liked. Just ones I like a little less than the other.

[siis]

no

pay to win in such a small niche game won't bring you many customers

[ElCapitan1701]

The ideal FTP model involves allowing players to pay pay money for cosmetic and stylistic options only.

Yepp. But there is no game out there, which is working like this. Selling cosmetic things only doesn`t make enough profit. So sooner or later there will be items which are essential. I have no doubt it will start with cosmetic things, but it won`t end with it.

@siis: Salem doesn`t need to be a small game. There are thousands of beta-key-requests and there are is a gigantic player base for the first real crafting mmo.

[MagicManICT]

Yepp. But there is no game out there, which is working like this. Selling cosmetic things only doesn`t make enough profit.

How can you even make this judgement when the game hasn't even gone live yet? Do you know how much it costs to run an MMO per 1000 players? I'll tell you right now I don't, but some of the costs are pretty obvious, such as servers and IP. I can also make a rough estimate that 1000 players at about $12-$15 US per player is more than enough to stay profitable.

[milonti]

Yepp. But there is no game out there, which is working like this. Selling cosmetic things only doesn`t make enough profit. So sooner or later there will be items which are essential. I have no doubt it will start with cosmetic things, but it won`t end with it.

League of Legends does that quite well actually.

[ElCapitan1701]

League of Legends does that quite well actually.

@MagicMan: I'am talking about other MMOs out there. Maybe Salem could work like this, but the experience from other games doesn`t give to much hope for that. And I don`t know why you are talking about 1000 players? Sometimes I got the feeling the established "old" community wants to keep the numbers down. As I understood the devs are working on a multi-server setup. You don`t need a multi-server setup for 1000 players. And, if you only assume, there are 3 devs, and we grant them a saluary from 3000€ a month, they need to generate 9000€ profit a month. IF only every second player spends 5€ a month you will need about 4000 players to play Salem.

@milonti: I don`t know the business modell of LoL. But I do know, they have millions of players. Well - Salem won`t have millions of players.

From a player perspective you should also think about how the devs spend their time. If you make an item-shop, they will have to make new items on a heavy pace to generate enough profits. Who is developing the game then? If they make their money by expanding the game and selling it as small addons everything is fine.

[Effigy]

I actually do know of one MMO that has been running for a while now that only makes money off of cosmetic options: Glitch. The caveat to this is that Glitch is a pretty cutesy game which depends a lot on its unique, diverse and detailed art styles, and therefore attracts players who really care enough about how things look to want to spend real money on changing the appearance of their character or in-game house. The dependence of the game on beautiful art also means that the cosmetic options are generally very desirable. So, it IS very possible to make a game where its profitability relies completely on cosmetic options that provide no advantage to gameplay progression. But, I don't think Salem is the right kind of game to utilize that possibility.

[Essemecks]

The whole "pay more for modularized content" concept is basically how City of Heroes has run since it went FTP. It seems to be working pretty well for them, although I found that among my friends and I at least, it basically amounted to a small one-time purchase to get the powerset that best complemented our playstyle, and then we didn't need anything else. We paid far less under that model to get what we wanted than when it was subscription-based.

[Raneman]

I'd pay for an expansion pack, hell yeah

[alioli]

I am sorry, how is it legal for you to profit of their game..?

[ElCapitan1701]

This thread is about how the devs could make profit with Salem.