Game Costs

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Tanuvien
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Game Costs

Post by Tanuvien »

First off, let me start by saying I love playing Drakkar. I have played several other games, but always end up back in Drakkar.

But, with all the current and ever increasing competition for RPG games (on PCs and consoles), how can Drakkar still charge upwards of $39.00 per month (Gold plan, plus UGH on 4 slots), when all the other games charge $9-$12 dollars per month tops.

I understand Brad needs to make money. The hardware, bandwidth, and time he puts into this game is enormous. And I honestly thank him for that commitment. But, cant there be at least a discount for players who want the full package?

I expect some flaming. But please dont -- this is a honest question, given all the current and new games coming on the market every month. And, I know, if I dont like the pricing I can go somewhere else. But I enjoy the game, but just wish I could afford the full experience of it.

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Yeti
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Post by Yeti »

i have just one suggestion, dont have UGH for all 4 slots

theres no reason for it other than simply wanting to give brad money

GOLD plan is handy, but it is far from necessary. That'll save you 5 bucks a month if you switch to silver.

UGH isnt needed on more than one character at any time.

The only time UGH/Gold are really needed are when your talking to the survival trainers, and well, that doesnt have to happen all the time

and besides for that, im more than happy to pay 10 bucks for gold and 7 bucks for UGH in order to play drak rather than 9 bucks or whatever it is for some of the other "awesome" 3d rpgs, a pox on them -_-

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Ambrose
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Post by Ambrose »

I never minded the costs back when I had more time to give Drakkar ... back when it was my entire entertainment budget.

But the eroding of free accounts to squeeze more money is unconscionable .. (sorry .. couldn't think of a 'nickel word' that meant the same).

The are dozens of incentives that would have required a like amount of code change that would lure people who can pay to do so. But this is the state of business in this country.

I like the game, I like the people ... but the blind loyalty that I had is gone.

saucon21
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Post by saucon21 »

When i first started i liked this game only reason being it was FREE when you start. Then when i level 18 i got silver ok that was great, cheap and all but once i hit 30 and got my GK2 hally and gear i was basically like i did everything i wanted to really do.

Basically the beginning of the end was once i got a Job i had more money to spend and find much better games not really hard at all anymore. Game was great i believe when it started now it is below most games in terms of well everything, if you figure in fun, money and people now other games seem to be better as time passed

The fact of the Price of this game will never change becuase brad needs the money to power the game. what i would love to know is if new player are paying for the game or just playing free and leaving soon after and how many players leave each month compared to who is staying arounnd. i believe this game will not be able to live to much longer with the current State of the game(Fourms, Players, Game and Price)
As of a few mins ago players were yelling at each other in the Lobby nothing new i see



As it stands i will be Playing World of Warcraft when it launches(Preordered it a 1-2 months ago) would love to know if anyone is planning on playing it as well

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Frozboz
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Post by Frozboz »

I am. The beta is incredible.

Warpath
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Post by Warpath »

Originally posted by saucon21

As it stands i will be Playing World of Warcraft when it launches(Preordered it a 1-2 months ago) would love to know if anyone is planning on playing it as well

Definatly, I have been waiting for this game for awhile now. It looks to be good.

:)

saucon21
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Post by saucon21 »

Hopefully see you there, would like to play on a West coast Server but i believe Wow is or was gong to force the Servers

ConcertorX
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Post by ConcertorX »

Well for most people that play drak, cost is not a problem, they have good jobs and everything, so i think brad goes for the majority and not the minority, he's gonna charge up to $39.00 a month because most can afford that easily, also gold and UGH are just extras that are not needed.
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

Lets be clear, drakkar costs 4.95 a month base. Claiming the cost is 39.95 is like saying the cost to buy groceries is 750,000 because you sum up the entire contents of
the grocery store as the cost, or claiming your cable TV costs $300.00 because you
want to sum up the cost of every channel and every pay per view event.

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Darge
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Post by Darge »

but brad, we NEED every channel ;)
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Ambrose
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Post by Ambrose »

the cost of transportation is a Hyundai ... not a Hummer2

*but the Hyundai is not gonna do much carnage along the way :P
Last edited by Ambrose on Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

saucon21
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Post by saucon21 »

True you don;t need all that would be a bit insane but having more then one is a decent amount though over $20 if i remember correct it is not to uncommon to see player with more then 1 upper and if you are going to run upper GH most run if not all have Gold on there account to

Silver is great to start with but as time goes on you need more, Upper GH and Gold
Some player would love a flat fee but that will never happen as you player base may not like that and losing any player could really hurt seeing as you don;t have that many( i don;t see 300 if that, that many)

On the Job topic hehe missed that one i have a job but i rather not shell out alot of money for something i can get better and cheaper, granted if you love the game you will pay anything, love is blinding :D

Granted it is useless to Say anythign about cost, becuase you can;t really do anything can;t lower the price since we can all problay guess you don;t make much if anythign off the game, but headaches
Last edited by saucon21 on Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Mihey
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Post by Mihey »

I have always had silver plan; I do not plan on getting gold or anything else (except maybe NL if I find a pirate treasure or something) unless my gameplay is severely limited by the plan.

Since I am content with everything silver plan offers and do not need anything else.

Who needs portals? Walking is good for your health. Barbs dont need youths. And skill comes along the way. Extra hitpoints? Meh, overrated. I bait chipper and dont mind losing hits at all. 100 less hp only mean like 3-5 more deaths per week. Trivial.

I will never go gold, gh or such until I am FORCED to. And I like to play it this way; gives me the good feeling I EARNED everything.

NL is still an option, though.
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

Get NL, they have great take out

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Mihey
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Post by Mihey »

And bite nails for nearly a month for the MO to arrive?

>.>
<.<
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

Bah, your popular, get someone to buddy pay you.

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Mihey
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Post by Mihey »

Lol, I'm not that popular or I would not be gone for so long... All I got buddypayed was two months :p

No worries, I'm going to get a valid CC sometime... not any soon, tho...
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Cirion
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Post by Cirion »

I ran silver plan on my pally until it was prolly around 55 or so, sometimes had gh/gold for a month at a time before that, couple times total. now that i have a full time job i pay gold instead of silver... 10 a month is not a big deal seriously. and you dont absolutely need gold/gh just nice to have. you can still grow without it
;|

Ravaillac
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Post by Ravaillac »

I'm sorry to say I lost pleasure in Drak because NL took soooo long to develop and deploy. If I understand correctly, it's still in "beta."

I keep tabs on Drak and would like to return when it looks like content is further along.

I'll not play WoW - the graphics look like a bad disney movie. Similarly, EQ2 looks like claymation and is too "carebear" for me.

If anyone is curious, I'm currently plaing lineage2 on Devianne server. I've bumped into at least one drak player (Dimitrius) over there so far. If you'd like to say hello, look for Gordon in clan SPQR. TTFN.

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shadeth
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Post by shadeth »

For the last six months, I have left my two accounts open (~$35/month). That is until last month. I was giving myself the time to readjust to the NL style. But it has not happened and I have now closed my accounts.

I have paid and played Drakkar for eight years. I hope Brad will rethink NL, or offer new advanced content, that has a fun pace. All other scenarios where fun and challanging, for each of my seven slots.

Here are some observations, that I hope are of help...

The main complaint that I have with NL is that it does not have a fun "pace". [Please note that I have not advanced beyond the first NL map and its quests.]

What I mean by "pace" is that it takes too long to move around and kill stuff. Every night that I played NL a few hours, I logged off with pain (from so many mouse clicks per round). Even more importantly though, I was slowly losing my "love affair" with Drakkar, because it took too long to kill anything for the rewards offered. After playing NL for many weeks, I found it a very boring place because of the "pace".

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djcruella
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Post by djcruella »

Originally posted by shadeth


For the last six months, I have left my two accounts open (~$35/month). That is until last month. I was giving myself the time to readjust to the NL style. But it has not happened and I have now closed my accounts.

I have paid and played Drakkar for eight years. I hope Brad will rethink NL, or offer new advanced content, that has a fun pace. All other scenarios where fun and challanging, for each of my seven slots.

Here are some observations, that I hope are of help...

The main complaint that I have with NL is that it does not have a fun "pace". [Please note that I have not advanced beyond the first NL map and its quests.]

What I mean by "pace" is that it takes too long to move around and kill stuff. Every night that I played NL a few hours, I logged off with pain (from so many mouse clicks per round). Even more importantly though, I was slowly losing my "love affair" with Drakkar, because it took too long to kill anything for the rewards offered. After playing NL for many weeks, I found it a very boring place because of the "pace".

Good Hunting and Success to All,
ShaDeth
Just as an aside, since so much programming focus is put on NL and its improvements - I was curious as to what percentage of the Drak community has subscribed to NL. ??
As someone who played Drak back in '95, (left because of cost then) and has only been back about a year - I've noticed that ShaDeth's comments aren't unusual - they just happen to be voiced in this forum.

Cob/Nork has a long amount of playtime available before NL even becomes a viable scenario. If the majority of Drak players are paying their monthly fees for those areas, shouldn't those areas get the most attention for improvements/modifications?:)

Finally, with World of Warcraft coming out in a couple weeks (as was mentioned above) I can imagine some of the Drak community (who apparently love to play fantasy roleplaying games) will be leaving to spend their time and money there.
Last edited by djcruella on Tue Nov 09, 2004 9:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Morgar
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Post by Morgar »

I don't have NL. At this point its not a viable option for my budget and given the comments about NL in these forums I see little incentive for getting it. My wife's main crit is a healer, which from what I understand has only one purpose in NL, a walking IH bottle, and my ment, burning regions to let people leech skill off me. No NL is not all that much fun sounding if you ask me. I'm just thankful I don't have a barb as a main, that would be really humiliating.

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Sadie
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Post by Sadie »

Everything is what ya make of it. Drakkar is either a place where ya come to socialize, grow the biggest crit ya can or both. We all have differant goals coming into this game. NL/DL are whole differant challenge then Nork/ Aleria/ Cob. I stil like to go back to the other lands and play, But I love to play in NL/DL. Its hard, I cant play alone for the most part. But that is what makes it fun. I dont regret the investment I've made. Sure beats sitting in uppers/pillars mindlessing hitting attack/fb/ b/ arg/ect. Like mom always said try whats on the plate before ya say ya dont like it.
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Yeti
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Post by Yeti »

hehe, dont knock nl before you try it

its actually challenging, you cant just expect to solo everything, and the "pace" is fine if you ask me... borderlands gets kind of repetitive as far as grunting, but thats just because people dont want to do anything that isnt the BEST skill/exp for their time investment, there are plenty of areas in borderlands that are rarely or never hunted because people think they are too hard, or too slow or whatever.

best part about nl, its not cob. You cant throw all the best gear on a level 1 merchant and expect it to live. You actually need levels and skill, and party members, to survive most places.

-Yeti
If Practice makes perfect, and nobody's perfect, then why practice?
If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t more people happy?
What are those little things on the end of your shoelaces called?
and finally...

If money is the root of all evil then how come churches ask for it?

Ravaillac
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Post by Ravaillac »

I just think we need to get back to the basics of what makes the game fun.

I think Brad has added some stuff to nameless simply because it is fun for him to program - but that doesn't necessarily mean it's fun to play. Shadeth is right about requireing many mouseclicks to move around. It causes carpal tunnel because brad wants the segment to "feel" bigger than the size of the gridmap will allow.

Mjorin is an example of how "big" players can be made to feel "little" with clever design. I'd like to see more of that type of element in the future.

I've cancelled subscriptions to all my accounts except one, because I'm basically hybernating until content in NL is refined a bit more.

I also think that Brad should consider offering a flat-rate plan where for the price of Gold Plan and UGH on one slot, you get Gold + UGH for free on all your other slots.... but pricing is, of course, up to him.

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