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Originally posted by Orcc
Will the be a lot of unqiue monsters in the game, as opposed to seeing numerous copies of the same monster with a new name and slight change in their skin hue? In most other MMORPGs youll see a Goblin Welp, then a Goblin Basher and a Goblin Cracker then a Goblin Brute etc, but they all look exactly the same. Will HJ move to remedy this with a large amount of different creatures to fight and interect with, or are you focusing on having a smaller number of creatures that are more fleshed out?

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Considering what Simu has done with their MUDs, I'd have to go with both. In Gemstone IV, you may see 2-3 different kinds of Kobold, a bunch of Orcs and a bunch of Trolls. But, the description of some of the orcs varies from others, while very few are the same. Same with the kobolds and trolls. So, they make look similar, but not be the same.

Also, Gemstone has some retarded number of creatures all with unique descriptions, so I'd say they are going to flesh it out. Note that this is just an educated guess.

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Originally posted by Renian

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Originally posted by Orcc
Will the be a lot of unqiue monsters in the game, as opposed to seeing numerous copies of the same monster with a new name and slight change in their skin hue? In most other MMORPGs youll see a Goblin Welp, then a Goblin Basher and a Goblin Cracker then a Goblin Brute etc, but they all look exactly the same. Will HJ move to remedy this with a large amount of different creatures to fight and interect with, or are you focusing on having a smaller number of creatures that are more fleshed out?

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Considering what Simu has done with their MUDs, I'd have to go with both. In Gemstone IV, you may see 2-3 different kinds of Kobold, a bunch of Orcs and a bunch of Trolls. But, the description of some of the orcs varies from others, while very few are the same. Same with the kobolds and trolls. So, they make look similar, but not be the same.

Also, Gemstone has some retarded number of creatures all with unique descriptions, so I'd say they are going to flesh it out. Note that this is just an educated guess.

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Originally posted by SIMU-MELISSA

Hero's Journey will have a pricing structure similar to our other games -- though they won't be exactly alike.  (Pricing may be different, for example.  Or features may differ -- in our curren games player housing is a Premium offering, but housing will likely be available to all players at the basic rate in HJ.)

However, it's safe to say that if you pay the basic rate, you'll have an amazing experience, and you'll have all the standard benefits you expect from a game subscription -- actually, more than you've come to expect.  We really don't feel that our pricing structure is about "nickel and diming" our customers (as someone stated above.)  We feel that we're offering various levels of service and allowing our customers to decide what price point THEY are comfortable with.  More choices is a good thing.

While we will be utilizing a tiered pricing structure, it's important to understand that what you see done in our text games will not necessarily be echo'd in Hero's Journey.  It's a different culture, and a different type of product.  It all has to be carefully reconsidered and researched for Hero's Journey.  I suspect you'll be seeing more surveys about this sort of thing before the game goes live.

I'm thinking that this is probably not the best place for this discussion ... Hrmm.

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Well, I've been excited about this game's release, now I dread it...considering that it will have a tiered pricing structure.   This looks like it will be a great game and and I hate to see the "tiered pricing structure" become popular.  This allows for the game to offer a competitve price at launch to make it mainstream enough to sell a lot of boxes.  The ONLY thing I see healthy about a tiered pricing system is if it charges more for extreme hardcore play (just to discourage it) ...so the devs aren't constantly trying to stay ahead of the extreme gamers, using up all their resources at the expense of fixing existing bugs and furthering the story line.

Tiered pricing structure means that for an outrageous price you get added benefits which ends up actually meaning reduced services to the "basic" gamer.

Why?

In order to assure that the premium members get their money's worth for that added $$ per month, the normal members have to get inferior customer service and less of everything..char slots, bank slots, ubar weapons, etc... less GM events, less added content....less everything....otherwise those premium gamers would be raising hell about how they weren't getting their money's worth.

Really sad to see this happen, but it will probably work, few gamers think that far ahead, they will see a normal price for  basic play and not see that the existance of premium content means mediocrity for them in the long run.

Anwar/Geezer/battrosl

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Originally posted by anwar

 Well, I've been excited about this game's release, now I dread it...considering that it will have a tiered pricing structure.   This looks like it will be a great game and and I hate to see the "tiered pricing structure" become popular.  This allows for the game to offer a competitve price at launch to make it mainstream enough to sell a lot of boxes.  The ONLY thing I see healthy about a tiered pricing system is if it charges more for extreme hardcore play (just to discourage it) ...so the devs aren't constantly trying to stay ahead of the extreme gamers, using up all their resources at the expense of fixing existing bugs and furthering the story line.

Tiered pricing structure means that for an outrageous price you get added benefits which ends up actually meaning reduced services to the "basic" gamer.

Why?

In order to assure that the premium members get their money's worth for that added $$ per month, the normal members have to get inferior customer service and less of everything..char slots, bank slots, ubar weapons, etc... less GM events, less added content....less everything....otherwise those premium gamers would be raising hell about how they weren't getting their money's worth.

Really sad to see this happen, but it will probably work, few gamers think that far ahead, they will see a normal price for  basic play and not see that the existance of premium content means mediocrity for them in the long run.

Anwar/Geezer/battrosl

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Originally posted by anwar

Originally posted by SIMU-MELISSA
Hero's Journey will have a pricing structure similar to our other games -- though they won't be exactly alike. (Pricing may be different, for example. Or features may differ -- in our curren games player housing is a Premium offering, but housing will likely be available to all players at the basic rate in HJ.)
However, it's safe to say that if you pay the basic rate, you'll have an amazing experience, and you'll have all the standard benefits you expect from a game subscription -- actually, more than you've come to expect. We really don't feel that our pricing structure is about "nickel and diming" our customers (as someone stated above.) We feel that we're offering various levels of service and allowing our customers to decide what price point THEY are comfortable with. More choices is a good thing.
While we will be utilizing a tiered pricing structure, it's important to understand that what you see done in our text games will not necessarily be echo'd in Hero's Journey. It's a different culture, and a different type of product. It all has to be carefully reconsidered and researched for Hero's Journey. I suspect you'll be seeing more surveys about this sort of thing before the game goes live.
I'm thinking that this is probably not the best place for this discussion ... Hrmm.

Well, I've been excited about this game's release, now I dread it...considering that it will have a tiered pricing structure. This looks like it will be a great game and and I hate to see the "tiered pricing structure" become popular. This allows for the game to offer a competitve price at launch to make it mainstream enough to sell a lot of boxes. The ONLY thing I see healthy about a tiered pricing system is if it charges more for extreme hardcore play (just to discourage it) ...so the devs aren't constantly trying to stay ahead of the extreme gamers, using up all their resources at the expense of fixing existing bugs and furthering the story line.
Tiered pricing structure means that for an outrageous price you get added benefits which ends up actually meaning reduced services to the "basic" gamer.
Why?
In order to assure that the premium members get their money's worth for that added $$ per month, the normal members have to get inferior customer service and less of everything..char slots, bank slots, ubar weapons, etc... less GM events, less added content....less everything....otherwise those premium gamers would be raising hell about how they weren't getting their money's worth.
Really sad to see this happen, but it will probably work, few gamers think that far ahead, they will see a normal price for basic play and not see that the existance of premium content means mediocrity for them in the long run.
Anwar/Geezer/battrosl

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More options =/= bad thing. It doesn't limit the person who's paying less it opens doors to players who can't afford to pay more. For everyone else its irrelevant, if you can AFFORD to pay 15$ a month on it and you choose a lesser option, thats your indication you're not willing to pay 15$ a month for what you get for that price, that you're content with what you get for 10$ or something. For those who CANT afford to pay the full thing, this gives them options. Which is definitely great, bigger audience.

Plus even if its tiered the top price isnt going to exceed 15$ im sure, it would likely be 15 and below. Maybe 3 tiers with 5$ increments (all speculation of course) so it really has no affect on you if yo uwere going to pay 15$/mo anyways. You'd still be doing so and getting the full services.

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Originally posted by sygmas

Plus even if its tiered the top price isnt going to exceed 15$ im sure, it would likely be 15 and below. Maybe 3 tiers with 5$ increments (all speculation of course) so it really has no affect on you if yo uwere going to pay 15$/mo anyways. You'd still be doing so and getting the full services.

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I think you're mistaken about the top price not exceeding $15. In fact, I assume that will be the basic price ($14.95/month is the going rate for WoW, EQ2, EVE, etc). Dragonrealms and Gemstone IV's "premium" price is $25.00/month, and their "platinum" price is $49.95/month (Gemstone IV and Dragonrealms are run by Simutronics). While Melissa did say that much of the pricing system was still to be decided, I suspect a premium or platinum price that's equal to today's average monthly fee of $15.00 is extremely unlikely.

I think the largest danger of tiered pricing lies in the minds of the players and potential players, not the differences in services offered. If they're paying $15.00 a month (because that's all that they can afford) and aren't getting as many features, goodies, etcetera as other players, there's a real danger that they'll just take their money to a game where all players are treated equally. Even if the differences between the tiers are minimal, the perception of $15 per month buying a "lesser" game may very well exist in the minds of consumers. Heck, it exists in my mind already.

I'll play Hero's Journey for the features, but I'll resent it for the pricing. Ultimately, that means I'm ripe for alternative games from the very beginning. Perhaps I'll be in the minority, however. Perhaps no game with similar features will launch to pull me away. Or perhaps the tiered concept will be scrapped before the game is released. There are a lot of "ifs" at this point, so I suppose it's too soon to be speculating. I do have fairly strong feelings about this issue, however, and I'd really like the opportunity to take part in some of the upcoming polls Melissa alluded to. If Hero's Journey were any less of game than it's shaping up to be, the mere idea of this pricing system would've already pushed me in a different direction. For better or for worse, that's not the case right now.

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Originally posted by Jenuviel

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Originally posted by sygmas

Plus even if its tiered the top price isnt going to exceed 15$ im sure, it would likely be 15 and below. Maybe 3 tiers with 5$ increments (all speculation of course) so it really has no affect on you if yo uwere going to pay 15$/mo anyways. You'd still be doing so and getting the full services.

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I think you're mistaken about the top price not exceeding $15. In fact, I assume that will be the basic price ($14.95/month is the going rate for WoW, EQ2, EVE, etc). Dragonrealms and Gemstone IV's "premium" price is $25.00/month, and their "platinum" price is $49.95/month (Gemstone IV and Dragonrealms are run by Simutronics). While Melissa did say that much of the pricing system was still to be decided, I suspect a premium or platinum price that's equal to today's average monthly fee of $15.00 is extremely unlikely.

I think the largest danger of tiered pricing lies in the minds of the players and potential players, not the differences in services offered. If they're paying $15.00 a month (because that's all that they can afford) and aren't getting as many features, goodies, etcetera as other players, there's a real danger that they'll just take their money to a game where all players are treated equally. Even if the differences between the tiers are minimal, the perception of $15 per month buying a "lesser" game may very well exist in the minds of consumers. Heck, it exists in my mind already.

I'll play Hero's Journey for the features, but I'll resent it for the pricing. Ultimately, that means I'm ripe for alternative games from the very beginning. Perhaps I'll be in the minority, however. Perhaps no game with similar features will launch to pull me away. Or perhaps the tiered concept will be scrapped before the game is released. There are a lot of "ifs" at this point, so I suppose it's too soon to be speculating. I do have fairly strong feelings about this issue, however, and I'd really like the opportunity to take part in some of the upcoming polls Melissa alluded to. If Hero's Journey were any less of game than it's shaping up to be, the mere idea of this pricing system would've already pushed me in a different direction. For better or for worse, that's not the case right now.

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They won't be able to pull that off in the MMORPG genre, because it would never work (As you said people would think its a lesser game) MUDs are much less of an investment than MMORPGs, so if they plan on tiered they will likely be offering LOWER priced options capping out at 15$ for the highest (or 20$ if they want to push it, but likely nothing above that) I can't see them doing anything more because then it will just do as you said.

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Originally posted by sygmas

 
They won't be able to pull that off in the MMORPG genre, because it would never work (As you said people would think its a lesser game) MUDs are much less of an investment than MMORPGs, so if they plan on tiered they will likely be offering LOWER priced options capping out at 15$ for the highest (or 20$ if they want to push it, but likely nothing above that) I can't see them doing anything more because then it will just do as you said.

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On the contrary, I don't see how they wouldn't be able to pull it off. I mean, right now they've got payment options lingering around the fifty dollar mark for TEXT BASED GAMES, and those options have been around for a while. Are they the most popular options? Probably not, but they are there nonetheless.

If they can offer premium services that expensive for a text based game, I don't see how it's out of the question for a graphical MMO. If you think about it, a fifty dollar premium service for a graphical 3d MMO seems less ludicrous that one for a MUD.

I gotta say $50 monthly fee for ANY game seems ludicrous to me. Anything more than $20 and I wont touch it.

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Originally posted by Kane

I gotta say $50 monthly fee for ANY game seems ludicrous to me. Anything more than $20 and I wont touch it.

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Are any races going to have speciality weapons. aka the cat race may be better at whips and dwarves (if they have them, not sure) at axes.

And any armor that some cannot wield aka in Morrowind, or that they may have a better proficiency in.

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Originally posted by darquenblade

Originally posted by Kane
I gotta say $50 monthly fee for ANY game seems ludicrous to me. Anything more than $20 and I wont touch it.

Well yeah, I agree--I wouldn't pay fifty bucks a month for any game either; I was just saying that if they can have a premium service that expensive for a text based game, then it surely wouldn't be out of the question for them to offer one for HJ.

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Darquen the text based game genre is a different genre, its not as high risk, and people are used to MUD offerings that are premium services with high prices. In the MMO genre its a lot more sensitive, so if you start making discernable differences in what you get in terms of how much money you put in and how much you get out of it, it will simply shy away a lot of people regardless.

When you design a MMORPG the idea is to at best appeal to as much of the mainstream as possible without compromising your design goals, that way yo uboth have a good business model and a good game. MMOs are still a baby genre and the bar to entry has always been the price point, so focusing any more on the price point would only be counterproductive. They wil llikely provide options as to REDUCE the bar to entry, not to EMPHASIZE it. I.E. price points LESS than 15$ so people who are unable to play due to this bar to entry, can play, and enjoy a 'core' game, and those who can pony up a bit more will enjoy premium features of the game. But this would not exceed say 15-20$.

Hey! Former DR player here (started playing back in the days of the AOL portal). I played a number of different characters, but spent several years as an Empath. Being a non-combat character was rewarding, but also very challenging. In the end, I became frustrated with the lack of choices available, if I was to advance my character (level-wise). But I very much enjoyed the experience overall.

My question is, what non-combat (or minimal-combat) type opportunities will there be in HJ? For example, if my idea of a heroic character is that of the reclusive ascetic, what will my game-play options be? Will there be viable solo quests available for a master herbalist who disdains the use of weapons or combat magic? What about the ability to survive on the field of combat (healing wounded comrades, looting, etc) without being a combat specialist? It's not that I'm afraid of danger, I just like having the option to face it with something other then spells and swords.

Note: As a DR Empath player, one of the biggest griefs that some of my professional comrades had, was the frustration of how, as their non-Empath peers advanced, they were unable to accompany them onto the field of combat, and be effective field healers, unless a disproportionate effort was expended to keep them safe, or they went hunting below their level. In essence, the Empaths could not "keep up" with their peers in other guilds. In regards to that type of problem, I am very encouraged by what I have read about HJ's attempt to fix that type of problem, to allow players of differing abilities, and characters from a wide range of skill levels to participate in quests together. I look forward to seeing how this will be implemented.

We've heard bits and pieces about quests being able to pull variables from your own personal Journey, such as a nemesis that you may encounter repeatedly. What other things can you tell us about the Journey System?