Would you......?

[Vermithraxx]

As somebody else mentioned...

If I were to donate money, I'd rather know who the company is and invenst in their stock. If they need the cash, stock options are the way to legitimately raise it.

I do agree with finding more ways to raise cash... in game items that will not unbalance the game can easily be done. Real world products (T-shirts, hats, etc) could show a profit.

But, there's alot to fix. The game is barely playable due to lag, dragon quests are nowhere near finished, T6 nodes, etc.

Have to disagree with lifetime memberships. The game costs us ~$156 per year. Even allowing for a 'lifetime' at $300, after 2 years the game would HAVE to shutdown due to lack of income.

I know a ton of EQ2 players who would come here, if only for a few months due to having finished EQ2, if the game had playability.

[RuneDragoon]

Real life cash should not be used to purchase ingame assets. Its so very unbalancing, period.

If you need an example to see how detrimental such a thing is to a game, check out a little game called eudemons online. In the game's marketplace, there is the ingame gold, and cash bought points. NOBODY sells things for ingame gold there. So if you need something, you have to spend money, and its expensive... But lets think, what happens to those who just dont have money? They get left out.

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

The best possible source of income I can think of for the game with the least overhead is a regular subscription. Not only is it a constant influx of income that can be easily predicted, but it requires no overhead and allows everyone to focus on the game. Subs let you track things like new player churn and general trends that can help focus development efforts on what's needed.

[Peaches]

The best possible source of income I can think of for the game with the least overhead is a regular subscription. Not only is it a constant influx of income that can be easily predicted, but it requires no overhead and allows everyone to focus on the game. Subs let you track things like new player churn and general trends that can help focus development efforts on what's needed.

I agree with you one million percent. Nice post and right on target.

[Vermithraxx]

Really depends on how it is done. Donate for fluff items that have no in game bonus would be great. Shoulder pets, forms for armour that has all the stats of another drop (not rare drop but common drop or buy able) forum but looks different, would be great I think. Though some in game gains could be gotten for saling them, but I do not think that would be that unbalancing as long as there were other drops of different looking armour that you could not buy with real world cash. Or appearance fluff that you can buy that shows you support the game.

<chuckle> Exactly. It depends on WHAT the item is.

Quick example: EQ2 makes a game of this regularly. Every time a new expansion or adventure pack gets released, you have 2 ways to buy it. Online download, or spend the extra 5$ + tax and go get the retail boxed version.

Thousands of players still spend that extra $5. Why? Because when you enter your retail registration code, you can also claim a free in-game item! Some of the players have 100% of the items, it's a matter of... honor? obsession? ... with them.

And what are the items?

Gotta explain a detail here: In EQ2, we can't build plots. Instead we buy houses. Little pocket dimensions (zones) all to ourselves that we can decorate to our hearts content.

The freebie items are house content. Fluff items that can't effect game balance. The last pack (EoF) came with a little gnome tinckered helicopter robot... set him loose in your house and watch him fly around (wheee).

In game items could be purchased... if the items were done correctly.

But if nothing else, the company could make a profit by adopting a /claim system and seeing who willing to pay a little extra for fluff items.

[Shur]

Real life cash should not be used to purchase ingame assets. Its so very unbalancing, period.

i must agree. i used to play a lot of Navy Field (http://www.navyfield.com/) and when they introduced the premium ships/sailors those who could afford to spend 300-500 dollars buying a super-crew and premium ship were suddenly owning the crap out of everyone else. this led to premium ships being banned-on-sight from battle rooms, which started a three-way war between the normal-players, premium-players, and the admins regarding unfair playing/hosting practices.....

long story short: unbalanced purchasable extras ruineed the community.

[mage]

Oh, yeah, the guy that sunk the Titanic, attacked the Alamo, burned the library of Alexandria, sacked Rome, is personally responsible for global warming, and fuels his MMO success by sacrificing thousands of live kittens to Karl Rove, right?

Come on, Spartikus, let it go. It's time to move on.

I would also like to mention that according to most accounts I have read David Bowman was vital to producing a playable version of Horizons. Without David's help Horizons might never have been finished. Personally I have a great deal of respect for David Bowman based on his words and his actions that I have read about over the years that I have followed the game. I want to thank David and the rest of the team for all of their work towards creating a world that has proven to be so unique, entertaining and enduring!

And I have to agree with Peaches and Laughing Otter that it is not productive to dwell on the past. Instead let us focus on traversing the path ahead and on striving toward a brighter future.

[C`gan]

I would be willing to pay regular subscription fees to the new company if:

1) The new owners care about growing the game and the community.
2) That there would be hope that eventually some new content might be added.

I am very patient with the new content part; just knowing that the new owners really care about the game and the community would be enough to earn my trust.

To answer 1), does answering support tickets help in this regard? What about the responses we're getting here in the forums?

To answer 2), no new content COULD be added without the use of Blight as a test shard. The reason is that in the hardware and programming system used for Horizons, you have a closed-system development computer (Genesis), a test computer (Blight), and live servers (Order, Chaos, Unity, etc.). While technically, everything patched and bumped from Genesis SHOULD be full-well tested before going live, it was the use of Blight to integrate the new programming components in the code that allowed for additional, breakable testing and revision so the fixed code could then be forwarded on into the live shards. Now that Blight is back, all the deltas pushed from Genesis to Blight can be continued in testing and revision and new content can once again flow.

[LaughingOtter]

While technically, everything patched and bumped from Genesis SHOULD be full-well tested before going live, it was the use of Blight to integrate the new programming components in the code that allowed for additional, breakable testing and revision so the fixed code could then be forwarded on into the live shards. Now that Blight is back, all the deltas pushed from Genesis to Blight can be continued in testing and revision and new content can once again flow.

The content must flow!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Anyway, there's only one reason to have Blight up & running, and it's not the subscription income from the people playing there. Blight's hardware can't support more than a handful of players; it simply doesn't have the physical resources needed. The number of players it will support isnt great enough to pay the cost of running the hardware.

The only reason to have Blight running is because you have Genesis and the ability to use it.

It's great that the Blight community can go home again and I'm delighted for them. However, the greater cause for celebration is that the game is going to need them once more.

[AA0]

Actually, nothing should really be tested from Genesis, that server made blight look like a powerhouse, the thing couldn't even keep mob spawns on for the one person that would be on it.

[Vidken]

I'd be more than happy to support HZ if I knew the company was trustworthy enough to pay and that the billing system was secure. This is the only MMO I care about anymore after nearly a decade of trying so many out.

It's just a bit rough to want to pay when the money's going into a vaccum where the game isn't getting any support and the payment info is running over bare html.

I can likely afford a yearly subscription as I attend school.

[LOVWYRM]

Having read the"good news" , now I know, what my contribution will be:

Some days before Unity was shot down, I promised friends to pay their accounts, if they had no credit cards, or otherwise would not be able to subscribe.

So I simply keep my promise. They plan to make that work.

[Kulamata]

I really do like the idea of sales of special items for real world spot cash money on the barrelhead.

Peaches and others are right of course, selling unbalancing items would be a terrible idea. But that leaves a lot of room for alternatives.

Mentions above of shoulder pets, even if only the originals, parrot, ogre, maggot, and PARTY COW, would be great. Emotes. Unique armor dyes. Resurrect some of the experimental shield designs. Unique armor and weapon styles, new look, techable, standard stats. (Feathered helms?)

Bake sales; modeled on the Halloween stuff perhaps. Gummy worms that cause you to glow in the dark for a while... A fireworks pack. Snowballs that burst into coruscating displays...

And of course titles.

There should be items in all price ranges, from perhaps 25 cents/renewal to expensive, with nice, imaginative items at all price ranges. I'd vote for Esther, the Party Heifer, for the least expensive item.