Flowerpot Games

MMMMCoffee

Greetings!

As promised, TWS is back with a vengeance!

There are many elements to a game and we’ll discuss several topics over the next few weeks to create some sort of rough framework or boundary, which will help us dubiously define what the heck this monster we call Shadows of Nightside is.

This week I’d like to talk about a topic that has come up on our forums in the past and periodically asked about in our public irc channel … How much will SoN cost.

Well, if you’re here on this site, chances are you are a gamer … more particularly, you’ve tapped the vast market of MMORPG’s out there. There’s a ton of variety in the plethora of games in this genre, and we’ve all played lots of them.

What is going to set SoN apart? What is going to make it different?
Why will you want to play it over some of the other options out there?

First off, it is important to remember what market we are braking in to. SoN is an indie-mmo… we don’t have investors, we don’t have huge financial backing, we don’t have a staff the size of a small army… Nope, just us, a group of people with a little bit of know-how, our own personal PC and Mac computers, and a heck of a lot of ‘elbow grease’.

Anyway, one of the things we feel is going to be attractive about SoN to the average (indie) MMO gamer is the affordability SoN provides… We don’t want to disqualify people purely because they can’t afford to ‘pay to play’ every month. At the moment, we are planning on a multi-tiered pricing platform..

The first tier will be the option to play 100% free … download the game client for free, logon whenever you want for free, whatever. There will, however, be limits imposed on free players … You won’t be able to progress past a certain point, (SoN will be skill based, so the cap will be on the skills your character has) and there will be other restrictions we have yet to finalize. The idea behind free play is to let people get a taste of the game in all its glory, without having it all. A lot of these limitations are up in the air right now, but over time we will get them figured out.

The second tier will be an initial purchase price for the game; this is pretty on-par with most games. More then likely the game client will be able to be downloaded, which will pass the savings on to you, our customer. A price has not yet been set for the client, but I imagine it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $30, give or take.

The third tier will be an optional monthly fee. The benefit of the monthly dues will give the player some perks like additional bag and bank space, more alts, and the ability to name crafted items. Bear in mind that paying a monthly fee does not necessarily give an advantage to a player, merely convenience. While, again, a firm price has not been set, we are thinking that somewhere in the $5 to $10 per month range is acceptable.

The last tier will most likely be a system of one-time payments of real money in exchange for credits that can be used to purchase some of the perks you get with the monthly subscription, on a temporary basis. For example, you can use ‘FlowerPot Credits’ to purchase the ability to name a crafted item, or to buy a month of additional storage space in the bank.

For more detailed and in-depth info on the different tiers of pricing, see Shoshanna’s Nightside News post.

Well, I think that’s enough to chew on for this week, but do post comments and questions. Let us know what you think… we like feedback!

NEXT WEEK: Graphics & Eye Candy… Quality, Performance, Realism & Limitations (AKA Cit doesn’t want to buy a new graphics card so we are making this thing scalable!)

Stay thirsty my friends…

-S

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