17 replies to this topic

[Delas Ting Usee]

The reason I ask the question is because, well...GXP is terribly hard to grind for - playing for 2 months for about 2 hours a day, earns you about 20,000 GXP which is why I use MC to convert my Mech XP to GXP.

But there are those who are adament about not spending a dime on ANY supposedly free game. (Their words not mine)

I understand that the company needs to make profit and MC is the best way to do it...but it's terribly unfair if those players who wish NOT to, or can't, spend any real money, will have to grind for that long.

Instead of 15,000 GXP for some of the modules, how about lowering it to 10,000 GXP - still a grind, but it's an attainable goal and not as psychological daunting.

Again, a company can only stay in businees IF it makes money which is why consumerables cost MC. I get that. Everybody on the forums gets that.

But is MC the only way for PGI to churn a profit?

This is my first ever FPS game ever. Heck, it's my first online game ever. And I see at least a dozen passive ways that PGI can make money off this game without its players forking over a ton of money. (Maybe half a ton instead)

-Consider renting out ingame advertizing space - you have river city - put in a somewhat coherent billboard that advertizers a client's product like 'Pepsi' or 'Coke'. - like I said, a dozen ideas at least.

Profit from this venture and others like it, will allow you to ultimately lower the cost of Modules and consumerables, it's a win, win for everybody.

So please PGI, implement some other source of income besides using MC to buy premium time, hero mechs, mech bays or modules and consumerables.

After all, If someone like me can come up with a dozen ideas (that might or might not be feasible) in one morning, over a cup of coffee, I sure you guys can do better.

Edit: Grammer and what not

Edited by Delas Ting Usee, 17 March 2013 - 08:33 PM.

[Kaspirikay]

Come on mc sale where are youuuuuuuuu

[Kdogg788]

They've said that modules are end game goals and as such they would not be lowered in xp cost. Why would that affect MC sales at all as modules are not bought with MC? If they want to implement other means of income, it's up to them, but I don't think it would affect the gameplay or your in game prices if things.

-k

[Taemien]

I believe once Community Warfare is in, we could see things like Premium Memberships where you get the premium boosts all the time for a monthly fee. In addition they could give a monthly stipend in MC (sort of like SOE does with its games and SC). That would be well worth it.

At the moment, since all the game really offers is a launch button and two game modes, there's little incentive to pay for such a thing. But that could very well change in the future once more content is in.

[Deathlike]

Already got the forsaken Capture Accelerator for the light mechs (and Cicida) and gotten the Advanced Target Decay module.. and working on finishing the Advanced Sensor Range module. It's taken quite a bit of time to get them....

It takes a lot of (possibly wasted) time, and frankly, you could still play the game w/o most of the modules. Unfortunately, I think the coolant module upgrade is might be the lame gamebreaker that would change this. I could be wrong.

[Lukoi Banacek]

It takes weeks of relatively casual regular play to grind enough GXP to get all of the few existing modules in this game. If weeks of time is too long of a grind for someone, there are plenty of Korean style MMO's out there that will give them more timesinks they can enjoy I wager.

[Grand Ayatollah Kerensky]

Considering the glacial pace at which new modules are released, I don't see the problem. I have more than enough GXP to buy the consumables modules and in 3 months I'll have enough saved up for the next one.

[Bogus]

MC is indeed currently the only way, and I'm in the camp of not wanting to buy extra MC until there's actual playable content to justify it. That being said, PGI raised over 5 million dollars from the founder crowdfund and there's been allusions to mysterious "investors" giving them money too and I doubt they've burned through that yet.

[Delas Ting Usee]

Kdogg788, on 17 March 2013 - 08:36 PM, said:

They've said that modules are end game goals and as such they would not be lowered in xp cost. Why would that affect MC sales at all as modules are not bought with MC? If they want to implement other means of income, it's up to them, but I don't think it would affect the gameplay or your in game prices if things. -k

I thought that consumerables like the ones on the March 19th Patch will cost MC no? I might have merge consumerables and Modules as one - my bad.

Taemien, on 17 March 2013 - 08:38 PM, said:

I believe once Community Warfare is in, we could see things like Premium Memberships where you get the premium boosts all the time for a monthly fee. In addition they could give a monthly stipend in MC (sort of like SOE does with its games and SC). That would be well worth it. At the moment, since all the game really offers is a launch button and two game modes, there's little incentive to pay for such a thing. But that could very well change in the future once more content is in.

Again, it's all MC base. Which Is fine in any case. But think outside the box, if passive avenues of income is generated, maybe the relative cost of MC related products can be lowered significantly is all I'm saying.

[Vassago Rain]

I have every single module unlocked, and over 30k gold points banked. This after I accidentally used 21k to purchase master on my RS atlas, and converted it back with some MC.

[Arcturious]

Please no to in game advertising. Just no. No no no.

No.

Nonononono.

MC Sale: Yes!

[Ralgas]

1 off advertising space income wont keep the server upkeep running, nor put food on the table for the entire team. Although it would make for a good solaris idea should it ever be implemented, Map walls defined by paid holo adverts

[Delas Ting Usee]

Narcisoldier, on 17 March 2013 - 08:46 PM, said:

Considering the glacial pace at which new modules are released, I don't see the problem. I have more than enough GXP to buy the consumables modules and in 3 months I'll have enough saved up for the next one.

The trend I'm seeing is that within a year, that glacial pace you speak about, will be a thing of the past. The more consumerables that are put forth, the more customized your mech becomes - which is attractive to many players. I mean look at how many hideous, ahem, mind blowing paint jobs on mechs there are out there currently. Consumerables is another way to make my Cataphract varient different from YOUR cataphract varient. And not just externally.

[Delas Ting Usee]

Arcturious, on 17 March 2013 - 08:49 PM, said:

Please no to in game advertising. Just no. No no no. No. Nonononono. MC Sale: Yes!

LOL. I hear you. It's just an idea, I'm sure you can come up with some passive ways or alternative income that's not offensive to you and I bet many others. Again, its all in the hopes that these passive revenue streams could potentially LOWER future MC costs.

Ralgas, on 17 March 2013 - 08:52 PM, said:

1 off advertising space income wont keep the server upkeep running, nor put food on the table for the entire team. Although it would make for a good solaris idea should it ever be implemented, Map walls defined by paid holo adverts

Why would you do a 1 off advertizing space? :-)
Love the holo advert ideas on Solaris!
Imagine players that are good enough finding sponsors, now you have mechs with decals - on Solaris that makes perfect sense.

[S3dition]

If someone is willing to play this game for months and not even spend $15 a single time, then they deserve to keep pushing that boulder up a hill. It's not a lot of money, and if it bothers someone enough, they can drop a few dollars to support the game and convert xp.

If they're of the opinion that they should never have to pay for anything, well, let them suffer the psychological torture .

[Gorthaur]

Honestly, most of the modules aren't even worth the worry for GXP. I haven't bothered spending MC on conversion (i think i used like 50 MC on conversion once because of extreme impatience) and have 1 unlock left now since the open beta reset. I mean i use my modules always, but besides the cap accelerator, the other modules just don't really matter.

So until the modules get better, this is a non-issue. With consumables coming up I might change my mind, but I still feel the GXP rate is fine. PGI needs to make money somehow, so the really impatient people who can't play enough and can afford it make their paychecks with XP conversion.

[Taemien]

Delas Ting Usee, on 17 March 2013 - 08:47 PM, said:

I thought that consumerables like the ones on the March 19th Patch will cost MC no? I might have merge consumerables and Modules as one - my bad.



Again, it's all MC base. Which Is fine in any case. But think outside the box, if passive avenues of income is generated, maybe the relative cost of MC related products can be lowered significantly is all I'm saying.

With Community Warfare comes more content. When I say content I mean something more than just new mechs, variants, paints, camo's and maps. We're talking gamemodes that come with assaulting planets. I don't think the current concept of Assault and Conquest would lend very well to capturing entire worlds. Theoretically they might make it so that multiple conquest/assault games are needed to take sectors and thats how they'll probably do it at first. But I think we'll see more things added.

With that said newer modules might be available to offer more flexibility. But there has to be something 'more' than what we can currently purchase with MC to justify having a subscription. There has to be some sort of perk available.

Consumables might be a good start. I could see another slot being added to the mechs for consumables. Perhaps a mech has 1 or 2 slots. a subscriber gets 4 instead. In a way its pay to win by some people's definition. But by the standard its not. As no one can pay more money then another to get an edge, everything is even once your subbed. This is a perk commonly used by MMOs, subscribers get more inventory slots.

Mechbays could also be a perk. Perhaps you get 4 or 8 mechbays for subscribing (but lose access to those mechs if you let it run out).

The ability to start units/merc corps could require the leader to have a sub. This is very fair and not too far fetched to require. Most unit leaders are putting money into their units anyway (for VOIP servers).

GXP injection. This is an idea I've got from Planetside 2, subscribers get a passive cert gain which is used to unlock perks to weapons and unlock equipment. Perhaps 100GXP is given per day to subscribers. Combined with the 500MC per month, they could easily rack up some modules in a few months.

This game doesn't have a PVE side to it so its very difficult to justify adding content for subscribers while keeping F2P players viable in combat against them. But these are just a couple of ideas to toss around. I know some of them seem pay to win, but like I said before, the perks couldn't get better by simply throwing more money at it, you'd have to sub up and you'd get the same thing as every other subber.

Ralgas, on 17 March 2013 - 08:52 PM, said:

1 off advertising space income wont keep the server upkeep running, nor put food on the table for the entire team. Although it would make for a good solaris idea should it ever be implemented, Map walls defined by paid holo adverts

A bit off topic, but if they ever go e-sport with Solaris VII, then having ads of team's sponsors on the walls would be pretty cool. Course if they ever do Solaris VII, they need to get in touch with George Ledoux... who does browse these forums on occasion.

[SuomiWarder]

Premium Time is the other means of direct income. Although I suppose that this has an MC value as well.