Richard Garriott interview on WarCry

Ok, I stated in an earlier thread about the selling of houses and a fishing pole "When the Store items become necessary to complete the game and not just some nice extras, let me know. Until then, I'm not going to get all upset over voluntary purchase options. ".

What I've read in the interview comes VERY close to this. The houses I think still get a pass, at least so long as there is a way to pay for them via in-game currency.

The Inventory space bugs me a LOT more, ESPECIALLY if it is a monthly payment to keep. I've paid Path of Exile twice for extra Stash Tabs (2 bundles of 6 Tabs), but that was a one time cost, not a monthly one.

I do not mind paying for something (or not paying for it, depending) that I would consider an "extra", but I'm against the idea of having to pay MONTHLY for such an extra, especially with real cash for something that would quickly be seen as a necessity, not a luxury such as increased inventory.

 

For me I think anything that can be obtained with real money should be obtainable with in-game cash. Also I'm more of a fan of one time Add-On store purchases as opposed to having to pay $5-$10 monthly to have a larger inventory. How about I pay $10-$15 for a larger bag from the addon store and that's that. Anything that's monthly should be avoided at all costs but I have no problem with special items, new features, and special skill trees being add-on store purchases. I understand that they need to make money off of the game and such. I would also encourage them to add more physical good to the store since people are more likely to buy those and it's basically free advertising for them.

 

To be able to see beyond the veil, we should expect the unexpected and be prepared to throw everything out the window and try again. Heck, the Devs have said they'd throw away their desired deck combat if it proves not to be fun. As the saying goes, the only constant is change and that is never so more true than a game 6 months into its dev cycle and that will also include its unknown business model.

Remember, as backers, we didn't buy a finished game. We're supporting a vision and participating in the discussion to help shape its creation into something we all want to play. And for some of the more divisive topics, it may not go the way you want. But as they slowly reveal more about their plans over time, criticism is not only desired but necessary. Though I doubt anyone here will win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

 

Absolutely. As I said... I'm fine with an either/or. You must contribute to the game to get the shinies... either by being an active part of the community (and thus almost certainly having the influx of coin for rent, etc.) OR you can pay a little RL money to the game for the convenience of not needing to worry about scrounging up the coin if you have limited playtime.

 

Please people, stop defending this stuff. I know they originally said it would just be buy to own and it turns out well maybe not. Instead of just trying to get money out of me each month for several things they should just come straight out and ask for a subscription. Non subscribers get... well a lot less I suppose. HONESTY is the best policy here. People will complain anyway but people will also know where they stand.

I don't like it but neither do I want to have to budget an online game every month either for a list of several different things. Oh can I afford to have this many items this month? Can I afford to go there? Can I have this thing this month? I'd rather just pay a flat rate because I can work that into my life much easier than the variable alternative. I don't have a huge disposable income like some of you but I have budgeted for entertainment stuff.

 

I guess for me I'm not going to worry a whole lot about this until we get some better clarification from the Dev team also we have almost a whole year before the official release so a lot can change between now and then.

 

The inventory statement bugs me the most.
I hope he is not talking about how much inv you can carry on your avatar.

 

Paying real cash to sustain in-game property? I seriously hope that is an alternative or subscription or there is more to it, otherwise I'm now extremely disappointed...

 

You do not need real cash to sustain in-game property. You can pay the rent on your virtual property with gold in-game.
This is not new, and was one of the reasons quite a few Kickstarter/Backers pledged to get the rent-free deeds.

The only thing I see spoken about are basic micro-transaction options. This by no means implies that you have to set up a monthly cash payment to SotA, nor does it imply that you have to pay to unlock game features to "win". It only suggests that they will be offering overrides on some fixed point systems to allow players to opt into.

I am still anxious to see which other areas will have micro transaction possibilities.
Let's try to bring the topic back on the rails and have some constructive discussions with it.

 

excellent interview and lots of things I really like, especially the item system, the conversation system and the system for deciding with whom you'll be playing:

Hopefully it'll work and prevent situations where players are put together, where at least one player absolutely does not wish to play with the other one (which can have a lot of reasons)

And this sounds like a really good and most importantly fun way for meaningful PvP (instead of evil because of evil):

@Dean478: In the Interview RG makes it pretty clear that everything will be buyable with ingame currency and the real money option will be just another alternative or for people, who are looking for a comfort sollution or want to support Portalarium after release. The question will be how expensive the rent will be with ingame currency. We'll probably see that in Beta.

The only thing I don't really like are inventory caps, that can be circumvented with real cash, since inventory space is very important for me (as yet I haven't encountered a RPG, where I haven't reached the inventory limit). But I'd have to see first how expensive this would be with ingame money.

As long as everything is affordable with ingame currency, I'm fine with it. As soon as important things (for me inventory is important) are ridiculously expensive or not available for ingame currency, I have problems with it.

 

I think for me that's where the problem is if the inventory system is preventing me from being able to play the game without issue and I have to pay $5 a month to fix it and there is no in-game alternative that's a to me. I know a lot of other free to play games have a ton of cosmetic stuff that they sell as add-ons and that type odd thing is fine or even if the inventory upgrade were a one time fee as opposed to monthly sure go ahead with that as long as it's reasonable.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

I hope it going to be with the bank since many people will not have a house to store items, but if its with the avatar that would annoy me

 

Talk about them, Vjek. I'm curious what the backers think of this.

 

Greetings!
I will try and offer some clarity...
IF you are a BACKER and own property, you will NOT be charged in game (or other) currency to perpetually own your lot and any home you have put on it.
IF you are NOT a backer at the level or property ownership, then lots will be for sale IN game for IN game currency, and they will have an IN game currency "Tax" rate, so that people either "actively play" or release the lot for others to use.
Because this world is all in 1 meta "shard", there are VERY finite numbers of lots available.
- Richard "Lord British" Garriott

P.S. And oh, yes, as TheCaptain suggests... we will have to adapt once live, I am sure there will be plenty of emergent "issues".

 

Ok, the first is the apparent bias regarding no option to raise your inventory cap with in-game currency.

Specifically, from what has been described, there may be the option to pay either RL currency or in-game currency for your property taxes/rent. Great, that's fine. I'm not keen on using RL currency for this, but making it optional is less bad.

However, there has been no option enumerated to increase your inventory cap using in-game currency, ONLY RL currency. That potential bias concerns me.

 

Again to repeat....
People who are pledging advance monies to us, are receiving as many gifts as we can think of as PERMANENT benefits, as a THANK YOU for being responsible for our ability to make this game.
People who join us POST LAUNCH, we must make money from over time.

- Richard

 

I was just wondering what the $5-$10 per month for inventory all about? Is that bank inventory, or avatar inventory?

People always need more inventory space that's a good place to get a monthly fee.

 

At the moment, we have no plan for 2 currencies.
Thus anything you can buy IN GAME could be done with in game currency.
Early on, we discussed having two currencies, but we have moved away from that.
Richard

 

Thanks for the clarification.

The article seemed to cut a very hard line about how support moneys are going to be collected. Maybe the FAQs can expound on this a bit more so that there is a single, published source for this info?

 

Exactly this. When something is decided in the plan, enter it in the historical (hysterical) record.

And the inventory question is still lingering =)