Info > Feedback and Suggestions

Suggestion: Increasing Playerbase

(1/6) > >>

Sir Cunnington III:
It is just a thought that I felt like sharing. I have no idea how hard it would be to implement but I think the game is a solid choice for a free to play game. This game is incredible and I'm amazed that it doesn't have a few 1000 people playing it at a time to be honest. I realize it is a difficult game to pick up for a lot of people, and they fade away as another copy of Icarus goes unused, but that is what makes this game great to me. I like that it is hard because when I get better... I'm going to have some boss airship battles and nerdgasm all over the place.

If the game were to become free to play there are so many things that could be put for sale. A lot of character cosmetic items are already available but what about tool and ship skins? Putting new ships for sale for dollars and some kind of in game point system so people can avoid paying by playing more. I think that although the game is great it would really benefit from making store items purchasable by playing, if winning 20 games gets me enough points to buy a new hat or something i'm probably going to squeeze in a few extra games and I know i'm not the only one. I often toss on $10-20 on free to play games I'm really enjoying and more then once is not uncommon by any means. I don't recall how much I paid for GoI but it was on steam and probably on some crazy sale for a couple dollars as that is really the only way I buy games. Whatever the average paid price is i'm sure it wouldn't compare to free to play revenue if the game being free encouraged people to play it.

Free things are easy to share.

Players that own the game already get some kind of thanks you were awesome freebie and all ships unlocked forever ;).

I'm going to leave it there and see if that sparks a conversation. Once again great game that needs more people online and a way to encourage people to play more. 

Newbluud:
A free to play model that affects gameplay is a really bad call for a PvP game. If this were to happen, then the cosmetics should be where the money comes from. This would require a huge increase in the variety and type of cosmetics, which cannot all be pulled from the workshop as there are simply not enough people making things for this game. I don't think Muse would be able to put the resources into the costly process of concept art, modelling and implementing aesthetic things at present, on a scale that would make a real difference to the amount of cosmetics available.

It's hard to prove why a game has a low population, but I feel it has something to do with the way people approach this game (in how it is advertised and so forth.) People see it as a sort of party game to blow a couple hours on with some friends, not realising that the skill floor is quite high. Players tend not to want to stick around because it's either a one-time, fun experience or they get crushed so hard by mechanics they are not prepared to put in the time to understand.

The issue with having gameplay elements available via a pay-to-win/drop system is that, unlike in games like tf2, there is no "stock" that fills the niche of a particular ship/class/team composition. Pretty much every weapon and ship has unique strengths and weaknesses, that aren't just a slight deviation from a good all rounder (see unlocks compared to stock weapons in tf2). This would mean you'd be at a much more notable disadvantage when you first boot up this game than you would with other free-to-play games where pay-to-win isn't much of a thing.

TL;DR
 - Yes, if money is only exchanged for cosmetics and enough cosmetics are added to make a worthwhile market.
 - No, if money is ever going to unlock or provide gameplay options or direct advantage.

At the end of the day, Muse make their own financial decisions and probably have more of an idea how to forecast this kind of thing than myself. I'm just spitballing.

Schwalbe:
Sir, you've no clue of what you are talking about.

Sincerely:
Schwalbe, asshole second in command on GOIO forums.

Hoja Lateralus:
I've got a response to this issue directly* from Devs. It says

NOPE

*devs didn't actually say that, but from the beginning of their existence they were opposed to the f2p model, legend says that "no f2p!" were first words that Eric has spoken

Some even say that on the same day clouds on the sky formed into letters "opisafagit".

DJ Logicalia:
It's been floated before, I think it's a bad idea. I can't think of one free to play game with a quality community, and one of the biggest draws of GoI is how great the community is. The players like it, and the devs do too.  Going F2P would destroy what good the game has, and add little of serious importance

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page