Shattered Pricing Plea (From Officials)

[Monotonous]

Thought this post from officials needed discussion on the real Gemstone forums. Sums up why Gemstone is dying, what Simutronics can do to fix it, and will soon be either ignored or responded to with typical customer is always wrong cynicism.


I've been a fifteen year veteran of Gemstone, and like everyone else here, I know what kind of enjoyment can be found playing it. In many ways it can be more satisfying than any of the new MMOs like World of Warcraft.

The major issue I've had since Gemstone left AOL is that the tiered pricing starts at an unreasonably high point for new player entry. I have told many, many people about Gemstone over the years, but have been unable to convince any of them to come try it out because it required a starter subscription of $15. They just chuckle and say they'd rather be paying that for Warcraft.

Shattered presents a brilliant opportunity to completely change the marketing environment for Gemstone. Not only will Shattered have a larger appeal to the general gaming audience with less roleplay and more action, but it is going to be a fresh world where a new player can experience the same thing many of us die-hards experienced during the AOL days.

It was extremely disheartening to hear that Simu is releasing Shattered as a sideline attraction at the extra cost of $5 to existing accounts. The logic of this decision is difficult to understand. Existing subscribers who want the Shattered experience are going to be paying the $5 regardless of it being a "tacked-on" fee or a separate subscription.

In offering Shattered as a separate subscription, Simu could reinvigorate interest in Gemstone from thousands of former and new players. There are many, many potential customers out there who could provide an entirely new income source. Instead, however, we see a pricing decision which is difficult to comprehend... There cannot possibly be any new accounts generated with the current plan. It will be doomed to the same slow decline that Prime has unfortunately undergone.

If not at least an affirmation that this may be considered, could the thought behind Simu's pricing be discussed? We want Simu to be successful just as much as Simu does!

[Celephais]

Deaf ears... deaf ears.

[Kitsun]

So many people have clamoured for Shattered that they'd be silly to offer it as anything but an upsale attempt. They would be risking a net loss if current prime subscribers ditched their accounts and went for $5 Shattered accounts.

[Celephais]

The absolute best anyone could hope for would be a shattered only option that costs the same as a standard account. Really what they should be doing is having a shattered character be the same as a prime character, so if you only have one character slot you can be in either shattered or prime, if you have two, one or the other... the fact you can't play both at the same time sets it up perfectly for that model.

[Monotonous]

So many people have clamoured for Shattered that they'd be silly to offer it as anything but an upsale attempt. They would be risking a net loss if current prime subscribers ditched their accounts and went for $5 Shattered accounts.
You missed the point of the post. You're talking about interest exclusively from a pool of current subscribers and hardcores.. Anyone who still plays can tell you that this isn't a very large group of people.

The post is talking about bringing in potentially thousands of NEW subscribers, who would make any loss that you describe negligent -- They'd probably run multiple $5 accounts anyway. Honestly.. You're thinking like a Simutronics employee, and they've run it into the ground.

[crb]

I fully support a $5 prime account with various limitations placed upon it.

But I agree with their decision to market shattered as an upsell.

[Bobmuhthol]

<<The post is talking about bringing in potentially thousands of NEW subscribers>>

lol gl

[Monotonous]

<<The post is talking about bringing in potentially thousands of NEW subscribers>>

lol gl

Why not? If retarded shit like Farmville can bring in 80 million players and 17 million dollars a day, couldn't Gemstone bring in a few more if priced and marketed correctly?

[Drunken Durfin]

Wasted effort.

[Parkbandit]

If I was that interested in playing the game.. an extra $5 won't stop me from playing. If you can't afford $5.00 a month.. or $.17 a day.. then you have bigger problems than playing a game on the Internet.

And really, if the regular game isn't bringing in "thousands of new subscribers", how do you think they will manage to do that in a version of the game that will be nothing more than a grief-fest.. and will only be successfully played by people who are good scripters and multi-accounters?

[Bobmuhthol]

Retarded shit like Farmville appeals to retards. GemStone doesn't. If you want thousands of new subscribers you're going to need a pretty fucking small price. As far as marketing, I have this funny feeling that anyone who would be interested in GemStone knows about it by now.

<<If you can't afford $5.00 a month.. or $.17 a day.. then you have bigger problems than playing a game on the Internet.>>

Being able to afford it doesn't mean I (general) want to spend it. I could certainly afford $21/mo to play Shattered but it is not even close to being worth $21/mo for me.

[Celephais]

If I was that interested in playing the game.. an extra $5 won't stop me from playing. If you can't afford $5.00 a month.. or $.17 a day.. then you have bigger problems than playing a game on the Internet.

And really, if the regular game isn't bringing in "thousands of new subscribers", how do you think they will manage to do that in a version of the game that will be nothing more than a grief-fest.. and will only be successfully played by people who are good scripters and multi-accounters?
Like Bob said, it's not always about the actual cost of it, but the value you get out of it and even the principle of it. There's a lot of shit I could afford to do, and would like to do, but don't do just because I think it's too expensive and/or it'd be a waste of money.

[Monotonous]

If I was that interested in playing the game.. an extra $5 won't stop me from playing. If you can't afford $5.00 a month.. or $.17 a day.. then you have bigger problems than playing a game on the Internet.
So.. I should be able to convince friends to try it because, "$5 is the same as $20, brah". Right.. Marketing major? The majority of users don't rationalize it the way you do. We're talking about new players, not fans.


And really, if the regular game isn't bringing in "thousands of new subscribers", how do you think they will manage to do that in a version of the game that will be nothing more than a grief-fest.. and will only be successfully played by people who are good scripters and multi-accounters?
This isn't really relevant. It will be fun for many people for many different reasons. That has nothing to do with price entry points.

[Asrial]

Go ahead and sugar coat it on the official boards..

..but don't try to bullshit us here.

SUMMARY OF YOUR POST: I want to be able to access Prime at the same time as Shattered.

I think attacking the pricing structure that way is going to be more effective.

I'm not going to sign up for Shattered under its current setup. If I could be in both at the same time, I would.

[Monotonous]

<<If you can't afford $5.00 a month.. or $.17 a day.. then you have bigger problems than playing a game on the Internet.>>

Being able to afford it doesn't mean I (general) want to spend it. I could certainly afford $21/mo to play Shattered but it is not even close to being worth $21/mo for me.
Exactly. It appeals only to hardcore fans because of the cost. So... What is the logic in offering it at such a high cost just to appease, at most, 100 or 200 people? Why not offer something (with little or no customer support) for a very low entry point to bring back players like you, and potentially bring in new people too? Where is the harm? Where is the loss?

[Monotonous]

Go ahead and sugar coat it on the official boards..

..but don't try to bullshit us here.

SUMMARY OF YOUR POST: I want to be able to access Prime at the same time as Shattered.

I think attacking the pricing structure that way is going to be more effective.

I'm not going to sign up for Shattered under its current setup. If I could be in both at the same time, I would.
That actually couldn't be further from the truth. I don't give a shit about Prime. I've stopped playing it. I'm looking forward to Shattered, but its going to basically be Dead On Arrival with the current pricing plan.

I really don't get the nerd rage here... I'm talking about a win-win situation that literally benefits everyone, and you neckbeards are up in arms. Bizarre.

[Tordane]

That actually couldn't be further from the truth. I don't give a shit about Prime. I've stopped playing it. I'm looking forward to Shattered, but its going to basically be Dead On Arrival with the current pricing plan.

I really don't get the nerd rage here... I'm talking about a win-win situation that literally benefits everyone, and you neckbeards are up in arms. Bizarre.

I see Shattered with a higher character population over Plat, and it requires Customer Service. Might not be more players, but I bet it will have more subscriptions. It won't be dead anytime soon as those of us who enjoy scripting will be expanding our skills and challenging ourselves for as long as we still have something to learn/experience.

[Buckwheet]

I don't understand your argument.

The Gemstone you have told all your friends about will not exist in Shattered and so as far as enticing thousands of new players I am highly skeptical.

I don't see people saying: Hey let me try out Gemstone by playing Shattered, because the rule set is so massively different.

Its sort of like saying: If you like WoW you are going to love Unreal Tournament.

[Asrial]

So let me get this straight...

You honestly think that Shattered has the capability to revitalize GemStone and jump the population back to 2000 people daily?

You're not just being coy with your true desire then.. you're just fucking stupid.

[kookiegod]

Exactly. It appeals only to hardcore fans because of the cost. So... What is the logic in offering it at such a high cost just to appease, at most, 100 or 200 people? Why not offer something (with little or no customer support) for a very low entry point to bring back players like you, and potentially bring in new people too? Where is the harm? Where is the loss?

The simple fact is....

Plat folks are getting it for free. So plat is gonna be a ghost town, and whomever quits plat for shattered is gonna be a net loss, i'm guessing about 20 percent of the existant plat accounts. How much is a matter if they downgrade to prem or basic.

Prem/prime folks are gonna move over, I'm guessing about 200-300 accounts worth, they gonna pay 5 bucks more (net gain 1000-1500 per month). I expect half to quit in 90 days, so thats down to 500-750 per month, which will more or less offset the plat loss.

Then there are new people/those coming back. Those coming back, depending on advertising (well, ok, but I expect at least an email to ex-subscribers) brings back X people, of which Y people will quit within 90 days, as not much has changed as to why they quit. I expect Y to be very high, 70 percent or over.

New people? Do you really think new people want to play a PK/no help/little if any merchant/events? I think they'd be better off in prime at a trial pricepoint for the first year.

I like the idea of a more attractive pricepoint for simu games, in the 5bucks a month the first year, can't go over level 20 out of 1 realm, or whatever, but Simu is hardly gonna make a ton on this honestly, and could lose a ton if people who went to shattered all of a sudden saved 9.95 a month.

~paul

[Monotonous]

So let me get this straight...

You honestly think that Shattered has the capability to revitalize GemStone and jump the population back to 2000 people daily?

You're not just being coy with your true desire then.. you're just fucking stupid.
Shattered is the bone they're throwing us. It isn't so much about that as it is the pricing of Gemstone which has been a major detriment to its sustainability. It just isn't keeping up with the times.

Idealistically... Yes, I think it could revitalize Gemstone. If well-executed and marketed it could bring back a lot of people and attract new ones.

In practice.. It isn't going to happen. When was the last time you saw a banner ad for Gemstone? I don't think I've ever seen one and they cost practically nothing to get out there. Simutronics is apparently dead set on company-wide suicide. They must have some major internal culture issues that someone should write a book about sometime.

And it's grossly apparently from the responses to this thread that their fan base is also mired in the same short-sighted, losing philosophy...

So, I'm wasting my time.

[Monotonous]

New people? Do you really think new people want to play a PK/no help/little if any merchant/events? I think they'd be better off in prime at a trial pricepoint for the first year.
This is how Gemstone was on AOL when I first started playing, and it was incredibly fun. It was the wild west.. The iron-fisted policy enforcement of recent years has probably done quite a bit of harm, and isn't really a selling point.

As for the rest of your post, I agree in principal, but I'm trying to be optimistic. Simu would apparently rather be dead in a ditch than offer Prime at anything less than $15. My thought was that maybe they could be convinced to consider a different approach that has worked for many other games with the opening up of this new instance.

[Celephais]

Despite the initial loss, I think this is a perfect opportunity for them to stop the hemoraging, they should give all existing accounts free access to shattered at the current price point, and lower the price point of all non-shattered accounts by $5. Sure several people will then cancel the shattered addition and be saving $5 a month, but $9.95 is kind of a sweet spot for the basic account.

Again deaf ears, I don't see it happening.

[thefarmer]

... but I'm trying to be optimistic.

Here's your problem

[kookiegod]

This is how Gemstone was on AOL when I first started playing, and it was incredibly fun. It was the wild west.. The iron-fisted policy enforcement of recent years has probably done quite a bit of harm, and isn't really a selling point.

As for the rest of your post, I agree in principal, but I'm trying to be optimistic. Simu would apparently rather be dead in a ditch than offer Prime at anything less than $15. My thought was that maybe they could be convinced to consider a different approach that has worked for many other games with the opening up of this new instance.

I know where you are coming from, but my experience with management and what I know paints a different picture than you selling.

It wasn't wild west either, cause I was there in 1995. Would Bleeds survive in 2010 GS prime? No, but he didn't do anything without cause and the pay-per hour crowd was more forgiving then many of the whiny brats who play now and not want anything bad to happen to them, either from other players or mechanically.

POLICY isn't the worst thing, but its not the best either. A happy modicum would be best but Simu took the road that avoided people cancelling, so no negatives, from breakage to pvp.

Shattered will be an interesting experiment.

[AestheticLife]

For the last while, I was assuming basic -was- around $10/month. Kind of silly that it's more. Weird.

Anyway, it's definately an outdated price one way or another. Why not just grab Premium if you end up playing at all?

[Kuyuk]

I think they should offer Shattered Stand Alone accounts for $5 a month.

That way people can come back at $5 a month, not $21 to play shattered.

And also, people who have prime accounts would still have that account, and just have to have a stand alone account. And could then be in both at the same time.

[AestheticLife]

People would cancel their prime/premium subscription for a single Shattered account. Lots of people.

[Celephais]

I think they should offer Shattered Stand Alone accounts for $5 a month.

That way people can come back at $5 a month, not $21 to play shattered.

And also, people who have prime accounts would still have that account, and just have to have a stand alone account. And could then be in both at the same time.


People would cancel their prime/premium subscription for a single Shattered account. Lots of people.
Finally something intelligent from you. Yeah, you can't expect them to offer a standalone shattered for less than prime, they'd lose money on it, plain and simple. If it were the same price as prime that would make sense.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

Why not? If retarded shit like Farmville can bring in 80 million players and 17 million dollars a day, couldn't Gemstone bring in a few more if priced and marketed correctly?

Because the Gemstone marketing budget is exactly zero?

[Monotonous]

Finally something intelligent from you. Yeah, you can't expect them to offer a standalone shattered for less than prime, they'd lose money on it, plain and simple. If it were the same price as prime that would make sense.
Most people who pay for prime do it for a reason. They like the rules, the roleplay, the events, etc. The fans aren't going to go away, and they aren't going to give up their beloved characters to save a few bucks. The only people playing anymore are the die-hard fans. They won't be lost. Give them free access to Shattered as planned with Plat/Premium accounts.

I bet if you polled the population of Players Corner members who no longer play Gemstone, you'd find that the vast majority would be willing to play Gemstone again if the price was reasonable.

Bring people in at a low price. Get them interested. Offer more once they know they like it (like Prime, Plat, Events, etc).

The status quo has, for all intents and purposes, killed Gemstone. Why not try a different approach? The worst that can happen is nothing changes from the norm.

[Inspire]

Shattered - 1 Character - $9.95
Prime - 3 Characters - $14.95
Premium - 10 Characters - $25.00?
Plat - Stupid - $40

[StrayRogue]

What about standard?

[Asha]

I can't believe plat is forty bucks a month.
I literally can't get over it.

[Cephalopod]

I can't believe plat is forty bucks a month.
I literally can't get over it.

That's because it's not.

It's actually $50.

[Bobmuhthol]

If you can't afford $40.00 a month.. or $1.33 a day.. then you have bigger problems than playing a game on the internet.

[Bobmuhthol]

If you can't afford $50.00 a month.. or $1.67 a day.. then you have bigger problems than playing a game on the internet.

[Inspire]

If you can't afford $50.00 a month.. or $1.67 a day.. then you have bigger problems than playing a game on the internet.

I don't think it has to do with being able to afford it, rather the value versus the cost. For most people, the answer is no, it's not worth it.

[Asha]

If you can't afford $50.00 a month.. or $1.67 a day.. then you have bigger problems than playing a game on the internet.
If you pay $50 a month for an unpopulated, out dated text game then you have even bigger problems than that.

[Asha]

I don't think he was actually being serious, Inspire.

[Celephais]

Both of you need to pay attention to the rest of the thread. He's mocking old people.

[Archigeek]

Exactly. It appeals only to hardcore fans because of the cost. So... What is the logic in offering it at such a high cost just to appease, at most, 100 or 200 people? Why not offer something (with little or no customer support) for a very low entry point to bring back players like you, and potentially bring in new people too? Where is the harm? Where is the loss?

Yep. Especially when all you're going to do is squeeze a mere $5 a month out of customers you already had... drawing them AWAY from a game you already had them signed up for. They'll gain at most a dozen of you guys who left who'll stick with it for more than the trial. It's called canibalization in retail. The cardinal rule is "don't build new stores too close to your existing ones, unless you plan to get out the wrecking ball, because your sales are going to weaken at the existing store". The same will happen here to some degree, to a product that is already weakening.

On the other hand, if you set up "shattered" as a cheap, near-zero maintenance version of GS, you're going to get a lot more NEW customers, just because it's a game to play for cheap. Maybe they like it, and try one of the more expensive products.

[Celephais]

I can't imagine anyone playing Shattered and then moving on to prime.

If there biggest problem w/ Shattered is that there are too many high level/scripted up characters, they're going to have that problem in prime. If there problem is that they are getting PK'd left and right, I don't think they'll bother sticking around long enough to think "I could pay another $10 and have no PvP". If there problem is there aren't enough merchant events, they'll find it pretty hard to come across them in prime, and then when they do the restrictions will be a bother.

It's not a stepping stone to prime, that's for sure.

[Ugotfaced]

People would cancel their prime/premium subscription for a single Shattered account. Lots of people.


If they're only 5$ a month, everyone would have 2-4 accounts. I play standard Gs, with 2 char. slots it's like 17-18$ a month. I could pay 2$ more for 4 accounts. And MA a hunting group. But then you'd have the people who have their GS budget set at 40$ a month. And they'd drop their account. And pick up what? 6-8 shattered accounts? Not saying anything about your post AL but wouldn't you still have the 'problem' of huge MA accounts just wtfpwning everyone?

Honestly I'm going to play shattered regardless. But a 5$ shattered only, or hell, even a 9.95$ shattered only subscription would be a very nice thing to switch to.

[Monotonous]

I can't imagine anyone playing Shattered and then moving on to prime.

It's not a stepping stone to prime, that's for sure.
It most definitely would be a stepping stone to a Premium account though, which would include Prime with all the other benefits.

I think it's premature to speculate just how "horrible" Shattered is going to be as far as griefing and abuse. It will exist, sure, but people are still answerable to their reputation. They still have to play the game with everyone else for months or years to come, unlike the beta servers. The mindless murderers will quickly grow tired of the punishments the community relentlessly imposes on them, even months after their offenses.

I loved old school Ultima Online which was basically free-for-all in the same style. Certainly there were PKers and griefers, but reputations were earned, protective groups formed, and communities thrived regardless. It's a badge of honor and part of the fun of the experience to rise above the chaos to forge a name for yourself.

[Inspire]

I run 4 prime characters now.

I'll be dropping down to 2 shattered characters.

So in the end Simu will be losing $20 from me.

Now if shattered was $9.95 for 1 character, I'd run 4-6 characters

[Celephais]

It most definitely would be a stepping stone to a Premium account though, which would include Prime with all the other benefits.

I think it's premature to speculate just how "horrible" Shattered is going to be as far as griefing and abuse. It will exist, sure, but people are still answerable to their reputation. They still have to play the game with everyone else for months or years to come, unlike the beta servers. The mindless murderers will quickly grow tired of the punishments the community relentlessly imposes on them, even months after their offenses.

I loved old school Ultima Online which was basically free-for-all in the same style. Certainly there were PKers and griefers, but reputations were earned, protective groups formed, and communities thrived regardless. It's a badge of honor and part of the fun of the experience to rise above the chaos to forge a name for yourself.
I agree with you that it won't be that bad, which is exactly my point about how it's dumb to think that shattered would be a stepping stone to prime. Any account is a stepping stone to premium, but if you honestly think that a "good" business model would include having shattered cheaper than prime, you're not thinking it through.

What would anyone gain from moving from shattered to prime? They'd lose everything they built up, they'd have to start from scratch in a already well established enviroment and they'd enter additional scrutiny for scripting. I can't imagine a person who loves RP developing within the shattered enviroment and then think that moving to prime would be the way to go, it's not like there's a whole lot of RP in prime to speak of.

If they did $9.95 for prime only, $9.95 for shattered only, $14.95 for both (letting you log in them both at the same time), $20-25 for premium (both) and $40 for platinum I think they'd have a much more reasonable and longer lasting billing model. I'm not holding my breath. What I will never expect to see would be shattered for less than prime.

[pabstblueribbon]

I agree with you that it won't be that bad, which is exactly my point about how it's dumb to think that shattered would be a stepping stone to prime. Any account is a stepping stone to premium, but if you honestly think that a "good" business model would include having shattered cheaper than prime, you're not thinking it through.

What would anyone gain from moving from shattered to prime? They'd lose everything they built up, they'd have to start from scratch in a already well established enviroment and they'd enter additional scrutiny for scripting. I can't imagine a person who loves RP developing within the shattered enviroment and then think that moving to prime would be the way to go, it's not like there's a whole lot of RP in prime to speak of.

If they did $9.95 for prime only, $9.95 for shattered only, $14.95 for both (letting you log in them both at the same time), $20-25 for premium (both) and $40 for platinum I think they'd have a much more reasonable and longer lasting billing model. I'm not holding my breath. What I will never expect to see would be shattered for less than prime.

^

Still, the fact of the matter is that there are thousands upon thousands of mud players out there. Usually their prerequisite is to be able to log in without some strenuous rigamarore(sp?).

If you allowed people to log in as guests accounts (without all the signing up and registering etc, much like a traditional free mud) to set the hook, and then as discussed in another thread, limit their exp, playing experience or whatever to get them to fully subscribe.

I still think they should go to limited access to your char while your subscription isn't active. IE not being able to use x skills or whatever but still allowing you to log in.

[Archigeek]

I run 4 prime characters now.

I'll be dropping down to 2 shattered characters.

So in the end Simu will be losing $20 from me.

Now if shattered was $9.95 for 1 character, I'd run 4-6 characters

This is exactly what I described as canibalism. To gain the $'s they're losing on you, they'll need 4 more suckers who are willing to pony up an extra five bucks for shattered. Meanwhile, they're going to gain zero new customers, because next to no new customers are going to pay "extra" to play an unregulated game. All they're going to do is pull a handful of customers away from their other products. It's a dumb business model. They should be out looking for new customers, not peeling the ones they have off of their existing games. People are already leaving prime GS because the population is down, so their solution is to add a new game that will drive the prime population down even further? Dumb.

The only "new" customers they're going to gain are a small handful of unhappy old customers, (some of whom like to post here), who will most likely get bored and leave again in short order anyway.

My prediction is that shattered will have OK numbers at the start, and then turn into a population about equal to plat. It will in some ways be a lot of fun. Particularly the social model that will develop in an unregulated game will be interesting.

The only way shattered would lead to more customers would be to sell it for what it is: same game, but with a lot less staff interaction/regulation, and as a result it's cheaper. You get what you pay for. Hopefully that would bring in some new customers, not older ones. And some of those customers would try the game, see that it isn't quite what they want, look at the grass on the other side of the fence and try one of the other games. Not many, but a few.

Selling a game that costs them less as an upsell is just plain dumb.

[Drunken Durfin]

Currently 2 Premium and 1 Prime.

Switching to 2 Prime/Shattered.

$94.85 to $39.90.

Simu loses $54.95 per month.

Even if I make a third Shattered account, they still lose money.

[SpiffyJr]

I'd signup and keep a long term account for $5.00 a month. Right now, they aren't going to be getting shit from me... likely ever again.

[Celephais]

Currently 2 Premium and 1 Prime.

Switching to 2 Prime/Shattered.

$94.85 to $39.90.

Simu loses $54.95 per month.

Even if I make a third Shattered account, they still lose money.
You know you could have premium shattered accounts?

I know that if I were to come back and play prime I'd have a hard time not doing premium (because I have so much crap in my locker). But if I come back to play shattered I won't be needing the locker space.

[Lumi]

People would cancel their prime/premium subscription for a single Shattered account. Lots of people.

This.

[crb]

If you pay $50 a month for an unpopulated, out dated text game then you have even bigger problems than that.

Fuck that... some people buy books. That shit is like 2000 year old technology, and they'll pay $20 for a new release, and spend 5 hours reading it. That shit is like $2 an hour.

Fucking donkey raping shit eaters.

[Ugotfaced]

You know you could have premium shattered accounts?

I know that if I were to come back and play prime I'd have a hard time not doing premium (because I have so much crap in my locker). But if I come back to play shattered I won't be needing the locker space.


Why pay for two prem. shattered accounts if you can save 20$ each basically by switchin them to prime?

[Kuyuk]

Finally something intelligent from you. Yeah, you can't expect them to offer a standalone shattered for less than prime, they'd lose money on it, plain and simple. If it were the same price as prime that would make sense.

Perhaps.

But if they're offering a zone of the game that has basically no to very very little GM support, they essentially have no overhead on shattered other than cost to run the server.

Whereas you take prime/plat/etc and you have to have shit going on, and pay (lol) GMs.

Yes, they would lose accounts, but I would be interested to see the actual financial breakdown of support costs of prime/plat vs shattered, once it's finally running, if ever.

I would pay 9.95 for stand alone shattered, but not 19 for standard +5 for shattered. :(

[Drunken Durfin]

You know you could have premium shattered accounts?.

Methinks Celephais owns Simu stock.

[Loagan]

At this rate they could just open up two instances of the game: Prime, and Shattered. The prices would stay the same for prime/premium/platinum, and they give us the option (even if that means pay to transfer) to switch our character over into Shattered.

[cizzymac]

If Shattered accounts were $5/month, sign me up for 2 (at minimum). That's 10 bucks more than Simu will see from me otherwise. And I'll wager there are a shit-ton like me that would do the same thing.

[Celephais]

Why pay for two prem. shattered accounts if you can save 20$ each basically by switchin them to prime?

Methinks Celephais owns Simu stock.I meant that I'm under the impression that shattered will still have basic/premium. So if you've been premium all this time, why exactly do you not want premium benefits in shattered? Using premium points in shattered would be one of the rare ways to get high end gear, heavy padded armor will be worth quite a bit (although take quite some time for higher enchant).

If you "don't think that stuff is worth the cost" then why did you bother having premium for prime? My little story was to illustrate the fact I actually kept premium because I didn't have the locker space to 'unpremium' when I was playing.

Perhaps.

But if they're offering a zone of the game that has basically no to very very little GM support, they essentially have no overhead on shattered other than cost to run the server.

Whereas you take prime/plat/etc and you have to have shit going on, and pay (lol) GMs.
I imagine the overhead will be nearly the same. I don't think they spend an awful lot of money on paying GMs to handle policy issues, that's dealt with by free GHs.


Yes, they would lose accounts, but I would be interested to see the actual financial breakdown of support costs of prime/plat vs shattered, once it's finally running, if ever.

I would pay 9.95 for stand alone shattered, but not 19 for standard +5 for shattered. :(

I agree with you there... I think I'd even pay the price of standard to play just shattered (I think it's 15, not 19), but paying a premium ontop of the standard fee to play shattered is a bit of a rip.

[4a6c1]

Why not? If retarded shit like Farmville can bring in 80 million players and 17 million dollars a day, couldn't Gemstone bring in a few more if priced and marketed correctly?

In Farmville they let you have horses...

[crb]

Perhaps.

But if they're offering a zone of the game that has basically no to very very little GM support, they essentially have no overhead on shattered other than cost to run the server.

Whereas you take prime/plat/etc and you have to have shit going on, and pay (lol) GMs.

Yes, they would lose accounts, but I would be interested to see the actual financial breakdown of support costs of prime/plat vs shattered, once it's finally running, if ever.

I would pay 9.95 for stand alone shattered, but not 19 for standard +5 for shattered. :(

Shattered will have no CE GM support.

Shattered will still have DEV GM support. Platinum, Prime, (and then shattered) all support thd DEV GMs who bring out new spells and hunting areas and whatnot, which get put into all instances of the game.

[doughal]

If they're only 5$ a month, everyone would have 2-4 accounts.

QFT!

I'd have at least 3 stand alone shattered accounts at that price, probably 4 or 5. Heck, I'd consider 3 at 9.95. At $20 a month, I'd love to have three, but I will probably have to stick to 2.

I would also love for them to be stand alone so I could continue playing Prime with my characters there and still be scripting in Shattered. They way they are doing it they will be draining players away from their current games.

I don't however think they will lose many plat players. The people in plat are there for a reason and that is the community and the GM interaction, neither of which they would get out of Shattered. Not to say some Play folks won't play shattered, but I doubt it will be more than a secondary for them.

[faloon]

I know of 3 people (4 accounts) that are leaving plat for shattered. Of course I don't know how long that will last.

[kookiegod]

I know of 3 people (4 accounts) that are leaving plat for shattered. Of course I don't know how long that will last.

I know a lot more than three...

[Fallen]

"leaving" is subjective. Are they dropping their plat account, or will just be focusing on their shattered characters for a time? I think it is a mistake not to allow people to log into both instances at once.

[Lumi]

"leaving" is subjective. Are they dropping their plat account, or will just be focusing on their shattered characters for a time? I think it is a mistake not to allow people to log into both instances at once.

I think the one-instance-at-a-time rule all but guarantees that those people will drop plat accounts entirely for Shattered.

[Traelin]

The hard core Platinum RP'ers will not be leaving platinum, but I know the community will take a hit. Some of the less sociable people will leave. What draws to plat is the RP and community.

[That Jay]

I know of 3 people (4 accounts) that are leaving plat for shattered. Of course I don't know how long that will last.

YAY!!!! Woohoo!

[Delias]

Just speaking as someone who actively tries to enroll his friends who are both literate and enjoy roleplaying, I think a large number of them would play, if they could get over the psychological hurdle of a basic account costing the same as world of warcraft and using inferior technology. It isn't necessarily that the price of gemstone is too high or that people can't afford it, it's just too high for the current market, given the games that are available for the same, or less. I'm honestly amazed that the game is still in existence and apparently makes enough of a profit to continue as a pay to play game. There are apparently quite a number of free muds out there that seem to be my primary competition when trying to convince friends to play GS. Fuckin' Threshold. As far as shattered goes, I probably won't bother, based on the shittastic nature of my script writing abilities. Best of luck to all who do play it, though.

[doughal]

Yeah, I have to agree, having access to only one instance at a time is going to cost them accounts.