|
Post by Cory Trese on Sept 3, 2015 9:48:13 GMT -5
What an exciting thread.
Given the choice between buying Google Play IAP tokens a month at at time vs. signing up for a subscription on Google Play ... does one sound better or worse, if the price was the same?
|
|
|
Post by hissrad on Sept 3, 2015 10:51:19 GMT -5
I'd guess having the tokens as iap would be the simplest way but I'm not sure.
|
|
|
Post by En1gma on Sept 3, 2015 14:04:04 GMT -5
Whichever is the easiest to do... I think the token approach would be best here, as this would allow a player to buy a month at a time, instead of locking them into a subscription. The more freedom you can allow your players the better, especially since this will be your first P2P game and people might be wary of you making this type of change.
|
|
|
Post by Cory Trese on Sept 3, 2015 14:35:53 GMT -5
That's interesting feedback -- very enlightening.
It seems to show that Google/Apple/Amazon have done a pretty poor job of promoting the terms of their subscription services and helping users of their respective app stores understand how they work.
This is probably also true of all their other IAP products, just based on how much e-mail I get asking basic questions about how IAP work.
Le sigh =)
|
|
|
Post by resistor on Sept 3, 2015 15:29:16 GMT -5
I used to play a tick based strategy MMO called Battledawn. It could be fun if you learned how to play (which wasn't exactly an easy task), but there were problems it had which eventually led me to quit. The most relevant issues to this discussion I had with it were: 1) Commands could only be given by the player while they were there, and even the slowest tick speed servers were 1 tick an hour, so simply going to sleep could make you vulnerable for about 1/3 of the day. 2) Players could form alliances with 9 other players (on most servers), but more powerful alliances would often have weaker players form "sub alliances" that serve the "main alliance". Sub alliance empires could make the game uncompetitive, especially if they were the only powerful group on the server.
|
|
|
Post by Cory Trese on Sept 3, 2015 15:37:04 GMT -5
1 tick per hour seems brutal! Looks like Battledawn is still out there, chugging along ... although it is a Flash app the page says which puts them at a big of a disadvantage these days.
In today's IAP world, I expect they'd charge you coins to be invincible while you slept. =)
|
|
|
Post by hissrad on Sept 3, 2015 17:04:40 GMT -5
1 tick per hour seems brutal! Looks like Battledawn is still out there, chugging along ... although it is a Flash app the page says which puts them at a big of a disadvantage these days. In today's IAP world, I expect they'd charge you coins to be invincible while you slept. =) Sleep is for the weak!
|
|
|
Post by Brutus Aurelius on Sept 3, 2015 21:14:15 GMT -5
Now would a game like this, say that theoretical 4X, have PvP, PvE, both, or one or the other? And would "private" servers, where only certain people could access it (say forumites), be available?
|
|
|
Post by CdrPlatypus on Sept 3, 2015 21:40:30 GMT -5
Cory Trese I think token would be better than subscription especially for a small studio such as yourselves. Lower perceived barrier to entry would give you a better chance at getting new customers.
|
|
|
Post by johndramey on Sept 3, 2015 22:43:16 GMT -5
100% in line with CdrPlatypus and En1gma on this, tokens or some kind of player controlled system would be best because they would seem a lot less like a commitment. Subscription immediately turns a lot of people, especially non-hardcore players, off.
|
|
|
Post by CdrPlatypus on Sept 3, 2015 23:01:36 GMT -5
johndramey , Cory Trese , fallen also at least here in the USA everything seems to be moving to a pay as you go model. It started with off brand carriers, but Verizon now is shelving its 2-yr contract system and following the system that the smaller carriers came up with. Most MMOs except WOW and EVE (EVE brings a new meaning to hardcore) have switched to pay as you go after failing a subscription model. There is also the dual tier model, but I don't know if it would be worth the overhead cost to TB Games. Where you have a pay as you go system and a parallel recurring subscription system.
|
|
|
Post by Brutus Aurelius on Sept 4, 2015 5:31:31 GMT -5
I think, if the app markets allow it or make it easy to implement, a dual system would be a good idea, especially for those people who want to just set up a payment schedule, or those like me who primarily use gift cards to pay for things on mobile stores. It gives the ability to try the paid features for a month, without being locked in if you don't want to continue, the ability to stock up on tokens when you want to, or to just go with the classic 3/6/12 month subscription if you know you want to stay around fpr a while.
|
|
|
Post by contributor on Sept 4, 2015 8:13:23 GMT -5
Like all of our games, we'd definitely support a Free and Paid version so you could try it out before you buy it. Also, you'd also be able to setup in your game the "tick speed" as contributor put it. Daily, hourly, weekly -- it would be something you'd configure as you created a game and found players to join up. I think that CdrPlatypus get's the credit for that.
|
|
|
Post by Officer Genious on Sept 4, 2015 9:02:40 GMT -5
What kind of strategy are we talking here? Small-scale tactics like Battleforce, battle-focused ones like Advance Wars or major war-scale strategy like Risk/Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Or Civilization-based like... Civilization? And is there a coop mode, or a way to just fight AI? Sooo many questions... Oh, and "I hate you". Stop tempting me with games that aren't out yet!
|
|
|
Post by Cory Trese on Sept 4, 2015 9:21:15 GMT -5
I don't know what fallen has been dreaming up, but I am thinking of a game that is battle-focused and player vs. player. We'd probably build a simple AI so you could play single player version of it offline as fast as you wanted to practice. However, the real goal of the game would be to get players to compete with each other, run a ladder and allow alliances, betrayal, competition and endless war.
|
|