15 replies to this topic

[TheMoss]

The earliest I can remember seeing "founders" for a game was MWO. Then I seen planetside2 do it. Then I just started to see it all over the place. Was MWO the first?

[Mongoose Trueborn]

Dig really deep and you might find someone here that cares.

[Cyb3rPr1m3]

MWO was the first place I saw it...

[Vermaxx]

They probably stole the term from Kickstarter. No idea where it first began, but I seriously doubt PGI has been the "first" company to offer a "Founder" status for an early buy-in.

[Thoummim]

For many games its called "pre-order now and play the beta".

[Timuroslav]

Mongoose Trueborn, on 06 March 2013 - 07:36 PM, said:

Dig really deep and you might find someone here that cares.

Invalid, I care, but I don't know why.

[eblackthorn]

DDO had a founders package which gave early access to the beta and ingame items, that was a few years ago.

[Boomar]

Starwars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) by Bioware was the first time I had heard of it, and they offered a visible title as well.

http://oceanicgamer....-swtor-players/

[Shazarad]

The Founders program was similar to any other game that offered a sort of buy-in now get exclusive beta access/content later on in the game's release. In name, this is the first game I've heard of that uses the name "Founders" but the idea behind it has been around for years.

[TheMoss]

Thoummim, on 06 March 2013 - 07:50 PM, said:

For many games its called "pre-order now and play the beta".

But there's a distinction there, pre-orders you are "Buying" the game, you cant buy an mmo and own it outright, which reminds of all the people thinking they were "buying" planeside2 when they offered their founders. It was so strange so many ppl didnt understand the concept.

Retail game release - preorder
MMO game release - founders

Boomar, on 07 March 2013 - 12:17 AM, said:

Starwars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) by Bioware was the first time I had heard of it, and they offered a visible title as well.

http://oceanicgamer....-swtor-players/

Yep that pre-dates mwo.

eblackthorn, on 07 March 2013 - 12:10 AM, said:

DDO had a founders package which gave early access to the beta and ingame items, that was a few years ago.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Founder
DDO seems a little strange though because you WERE pre-ordering it, did it have a monthly sub fee too? But it does go back to 2006.

Edited by TheMoss, 07 March 2013 - 05:36 AM.

[Monsoon]

I can confirm that DDO had a pre-order that offered access to Beta, early access to the "released" game (5-7 days early), and a few magic items of limited usefulness, like a +5 hit point hat.


MWO seems to the first in 're-branding' this process for F2P calling it Founders. But that might be because most F2P prior to this were subscription based games (or Asian in origin) that then made the switch to F2P. ie. DDO, LotRO, STO, EQ2, Champions Online, etc...

Edited by Monsoon, 07 March 2013 - 06:10 AM.

[TheMoss]

Monsoon, on 07 March 2013 - 06:05 AM, said:

MWO seems to the first in 're-branding' this process for F2P calling it Founders.

Ya, thats what I'm talking about, every f2p game now has a founders and like it started with MWO. Was SWTOR a f2p game when they offered the founders? Or was it pay and then switched to f2p?

[semalferuzA]

S2 Games did it for Heroes of Newerth. That was several years ago now.

[Adridos]

Not the first to comewith the idea, but I think we can credit them to the 3 tier system all the recent "founders" in games have.

[Apoc1138]

Adridos, on 07 March 2013 - 06:20 AM, said:

Not the first to comewith the idea, but I think we can credit them to the 3 tier system all the recent "founders" in games have.

try 10 or more... there's a couple of not even yet beta MMO's that have pre-paid tiers stretching up to $10,000
a lot like a kickstarter program but with tangible rewards for ever increasing pledge amounts

one of these games even has a list of game features that will happen if they reach a certain funding level via the program

[Chrithu]

Whatever you call it. It's a pre-order with beta-access. That concept is quite old.

The cynical in me thinks calling it founders packs and giving the impression that this money would go into development in the same direct way as in kickstarter projects or even "worse" giving the impression that not being founded means the game wouldn't be made is the way of publishers/investors to participate on the kickstarter hype. Which they decided to do VERY fast.

Edited by Jason Parker, 07 March 2013 - 06:28 AM.