Possible Additional Pledge Tiers to Fill Gaps

You, sir, are a genius!

 

I agree, a $20 level is ingeneous... it would help entice and hook people. Give it access to Episode 1, and "non-early bird access" to the Beta. Call it "Traveller" or some such.

 

Yep, $20 would do it. Then there is potential for them to pledge more. Much smarter.

Smack's 1st good post

 

I agree with the focus on the lower end to draw in more people - I think it is way way way more important than another high tier pledge level with title and house. We need as many people invested in the game as possible and a $20 pledge level will do that I think. More people with a link to the game means more people trying it and getting others to try it with them.

Otherwise what, are we creating a game for a millionaires club or only people who we expect to drop 5k on a pledge? Come on. I'm not saying we shouldn't appreciate the large ammount of money some people have pledged - those people are taking a risk with a lot of money and that is a wonderful thing. I just think we need more people over people pledging more.

 

It doesn't fit...

Loss of Profit:
Most of the $20 pledgers would jump in at $35... people are used to shelling out $50-$60 on games already.

Loss of Reward
So how would that fit into the recruiting system? "Hey let me recruit you so I get a $25 bonus... and you pay $20"... We'd have people making fake accounts... so now to offset they would have to kill that reward for the lower level recruiting which 90% of players would likely start at. No more recruiting bonus.

Devaluation of TALV
A lot of these early pledgers would be future clients at full retail... If we drop the value that low then the Total Added Lifetime Value of having someone who gets the full game for nearly the same cost as a pickaxe (Prosperity Pickaxe, normal value $15) they would be less likely to see value in the add-on store and less likely to continue their investments... Hooking a player is important because they're your client and keeping a client is important for making money on them tomorrow... you cannot devalue the product to the point that they think it's worthless as well.


This is just my feeling on the matter... we're talking about a revolutionary game here... it doesn't have to be given away for peanuts.

 

You bring up some valid points. Thats for sure.

However, the current model is not working well.

 

CONSOLE gamers are used to shelling out that. And certain popular AAA franchises fetch that asking price. SotA isn't in that sort of marketing bracket. And I certainly won't be paying that much for any game in the next 12 months besides dark souls 2 collectors edition. Otherwise I'll be sticking to steam deals.

But you raise a good point about the reward system that would need considering. However I disagree regarding "TALV". More players can hook more players (generally via word of mouth) and offering a discount on pledgers (effectively pre-orders) is not devaluing the product. And many won't buy at full retail - they'll sit on the fence until a deal comes along and then pick it up.

Also I find the comparison to the ingame pickaxe a poor one simply because I don't think those items should even be IN the store at this stage given no one has even had the chance to alpha test crafting. As such we have no real idea what the true value of those items is in regards to actual gameplay.

 

I like the lower pledge idea. maybe $25 rather than $20 though, to bridge the gap between $10 and $45 a bit more evenly. you want that next jump to seem worth it, afterall.

As for the recruiting, make it clear that they have to come in at the full $45 level to get recruiting credit?

 

As much it would be fun to have a Celtic based lord level in addition to the Viking that is proposed, lets work with the tiers we have and finish the game on time.

To me the Jarl level would kick all pledgers at The Lord level and devalue the town property. This Jarl is scope creep and is not necessary right now. Maybe in ep 2 or 3 they could introduce other lord titles at the same price of the current lord level.


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Well, it's essentially a discounted $25 First Responder deal without Alpha access or other rewards/perks. Those lower priced tiers (including $30 2nd Responder and $33 Pioneer) were extremely popular during the Kickstarter, accounting for nearly half the current number of backers.

So it's not exactly peanuts but the precedent has been set. In any case, my $20 number is just that, a number. Make it $25. The point is, the barrier to entry is quite likely still too high vs the perceived value of the game. You can either solve it wth slick marketing, which I don't see SotA spending money on doing, or you lower the entry fee.

But the bigger question is, do we have enough of a game to even entice those new backers at a lower price point? I mean, at this point in the cycle, is price alone going to drive backer growth? If they've been on the fence, will the price entice them or do they need to see more of the game?

 

This.

 

I think $20-25 would work better for an unproven kickstarter game. Less people are willing to risk funds on a game not even released and only a 6mo demo to decide.

Thats the difference. You really don't have a product yet.

 

You could even run it as a limited-time special tier, that will go away again when the full alpha comes online (in March).

 

Yea. When I think back to the kickstarter, a few of my friends, whom never played UO or ultima, pledged at that $25-30 tier , just for the hell of it.

They figured that was a nice amount they would be willing to eat if the game didn't appeal to them. $45 would not have worked for them on my word alone.

I even bought 2 $25 pledges for friends that were out of work etc. If it was at $45, I probably wouldn't have helped them out. So even gifting the game at $25 is more resonable.

 

I can think of at least two people I would probably shell out $20-25 to gift them the game, but at $45 it's just too expensive for that.

As for the referral thing, if you pledge on payment plan currently, the person referring you doesn't get credit until you hit $45 actually paid anyway... so just make it the same... you only get the referral bonus if and when they upgrade to at least the Adventurer level.

 

I know a few people that would pledge if there was a tier that was cheaper that guaranteed just the game. They tell me there is too little information currently to bother with pledging for a higher amount ($45 or more). Maybe that will change once the alpha testing is done and more word spreads, but I think a $20-$30 tier would be nice to have. It doesn't really need anything but a guarantee to the first episode. It would be enough to draw in more backers, and in turn when more news becomes available it gives them a nice starting place to jump to a higher tier.