Concerns about Cash Items

You know, when I made this topic I really hoped people would not hate me for bringing out my feelings on this matter. What it has turned out to be is a great post with a ton of great thoughts being brought forth. I am glad I created this. And hope people don't hate me
With that said, I did read where someone said that there are people who think they are part of the company for backing this game. I do believe we are part of the company. Would the game have gone forward without those of us who backed it? Who knows. As a backer we ALL should feel we have a say in how things go.
I do not mean we should demand this or that, but be able to add input and have it heard, even if it goes nowhere

I just want a great game, and to see more and more people come in to fund it. We each give what we can, some more than others, but it all goes into the same pool. I just don't want potential new backers to come to the site and see the (in my opinion) overpriced shop items and think this is a pay to win game. The shop needs to stay, but maybe lower the prices on stuff if they are really relying on this for the new funding.
Whoops forgot to add I would love to see a royal "throne" added to the shop complete with fly's buzzing around it

 

In the meantime I'll be watching you very, VERY carefully if you go anywhere near my hot tub....

 

Back on topic; Since I made my post, two kind souls have privately offered ways I can either borrow or buy a frigate, and I wanted to say that for the most part, this has been one of the most mature and unselfish communities I've been part of. It's possible that will change once the game goes live, and indeed my own wishes to see lower entrance requirements might run counter to that... I'm not going to say investing leads to quality, but it does perhaps select for those who truly care for the game rather than themselves.

However, even so... I do still argue for moving the funding price points down to tiny transactions. And one reason is that I already have the bonus of being here, and being relatively visible and known. I'm already invested in a different sense. But there's a huge swathe of decent people I know, crossing decades of gaming experience, who'd come and join in and enrich this community further, if only they weren't so put off by the hideous store prices and the uncertainty it entails. I've not had time to think about the offers I was kindly given yet, but perhaps if I can get hold of a frigate, I can in turn pass my lower pledge house on to a second person and set them up with a home in New Britannia too. But it would just be one person; I don't have much literal power beyond that. So budget store items would do far, far more than I possibly could to hook others in; they spend a dollar, but we gain someone who feels invested themselves. And they stay around long enough to become known too, and enrich you in turn... hopefully.

 

haha somebody saw it!

 

This is a good "from the outside looking in" perspective. When you say tiny transactions, what do you mean?

I know I've bought the pavers package and been in the middle of decoing something and said "Crap, I need a few more to finish". I want to go to the store and buy those couple more but I dont want to pay $17 more to get 2 tiles and have some left over. Overall, splitting those up would seem like a viable option.

Is $1-3 considered a tiny transaction? And what other items would it be feasible to do this with?

Keep in mind, I think the items(except a few) on the add-on store are appropriately priced.

 

Look at the iPhone App market. It's boomed on the back of sub $1/£1 sales. Look at Steam, which makes enormous profits on similar pricing; There's the Summer Sale active now, Elite Dangerous for instance has made over 30,000+ new sales on Steam alone because of a 25% price cut. Steam, remember whose lead in game Team Fortress 2 sold endless hats and weapons for sub $2. Both also then leverage their market penetration as a form of advertising which supports sales of larger priced apps or full priced games too because people become predisposed to feeling Apple and Steam have done right by them. It's a virtuous cycle.

Here at Shroud, the problem is almost everything is coming in at 5 times the cost of a full game or app elsewhere. Whilst this is justified by it being used to fund the full game, to the end user it feels completely different, and more alienating. As a consequence, the attitude to Shroud in turn sours; it's negative advertising. Your pavers are a good example of that; in a free to play game where they got the rest of the content free, players may support such a large cost, by arguing "Well I got the game, I'm just paying the generosity back". Here, they need to still buy the basic game, and it's not even a complete one yet.

Thus I'd start throwing far, far more $1 transactions into the game here; and more importantly, I'd not put them into the Store until they were ready to be used here and now. A campaign of "Play with this today, for $1!" would be much more likely to sell the core game, and raise funding that way, than $30 single items that aren't even patched in yet... yes, the dedicated Whales here will keep buying it, but I don't believe it's doing the game's wider future any good.

What sort of things? It's hard to imagine, because so much has already been cash-gated off, which illustrates the problem: Frankly everything in the store to me is hideously over priced. They should have all been tiny, impulsive priced right from the start. But thinking for a few minutes, I've come up with some rough first drafts at ideas

1.) Pot Plants. Simple decorative items, water them now, transfer them to your garden later! (Don't have a garden...? Land deeds are in the store of course)
2.) Custard Pies or something similar; I would have said snowballs, but they are already in as a reward. Something players can run around with and play simple tricks on each other... emergent gameplay like Gustball basically. Custard pies may be a bit silly, it's just an example; but it gives people something to do in game.
3.) Reserve your character name now! (Ensures people will be coming back later for them) This may be open to abuse though.
4.) Limited time access; this was done with various Webpage give aways and public events (I won a free weekend for a friend from one). Would require some serious backend work, but I believe it would pay off long term. Especially if let's say $5 unlocked the game for a week, but also stayed on your account as future credit towards the full price of the game.
5.) Unique decorative paintings, based upon in game events / calender, especially if player driven events. "Lord British Killed By Fire Field" type art work. Something tying the player to the game's history; get them laying down roots now. Want to be part of these events? Sign up for the game and whack a monarch yourself!
6.) There's already a veteran Piano. Make it play music from paper roll (and there be craftable paper rolls in game), and get players to submit their own versions of ABCDABCD notation style songs; Lord of the Rings Online had this, and it was amazingly popular. Then every few months release a selection of favourites, "Portalarium Presents Songbook Volume X" with authors names in it which can be fed into the pianos etc. (I'd expect players to be able to publish these in game too)
7.) More Starr Head Licking / Team Lake events; these were great fun and weren't tied to any particular price point; the latter was an under-looked part of their success.

I'm sure people here can think of millions of things they'd pay $1 for. The point is to offer it to them at that price point and start generating that cheap and cheerful buzz, instead of "Damn, I'll never afford that..."

 

Just don't buy them. Those items are optional for those who want to buy them. There is nobody forcing anybody to buy them. If you really think this game sucks then you should feel no desire to even look at the cash store let alone buy anything.

Although If you do like the game then why are you upset that they continue to get funding for development? They have a lot of work ahead of them and that takes cash.

 

Agreed.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/collectors-economy.13267/#post-235811

 

They probably could spark some revenues from time to time by igniting some flash sales on addon items...especially those that support the stretch goals.

I'm a sucker for impulse buys when I can save big...for only a short time...on stuff I view as luxury purchases. I mean I saw that $10 for $10 deal and said "Ah! I gotta act now!!!"

 

I like this idea. Although it still would be nice to see them lower prices on the items to begin with.

 

Think this one would be a great money maker.