Life is Feudal Official Forum

[Elindor]

So, between the explanations at the announcement of YO and some other dialogue I've seen with Bobik, it appears that LiF is running into some financial question marks - which is *VERY* unfortunate because LiF is shaping up to be a great game with some really awesome features, and I sincerely hope that Bobik and the crew are able to get this thing across the finish line and have it take off.

-----------

That is why I thought I'd share a couple suggestions - not from a "Oh I know all the answers" perspective, but from a "hey I've managed a gaming group since 2003 and talked to a lot of gamers over the years and have some ideas that potentially could help this wonderful game".

----------

1) Pricing

I am going to discuss pricing in terms of USD since that is what I know better so just bear with me. So Pre Alpha is set at a $70 donation that is hard to find and price and obscurity of the payment option has definitely limited the number of people who commit to that. I understand that may be no accident since I am aware the servers may not be ready to handle much more anyhow....but it is important to note for instance that Gloria Victis has a $10 USD donation with a very visible and clear "DONATE NOW AND PLAY" button. Again, this may not be what you're going for and $10 USD is rather low, but if you wanted to increase donators now and in the future, I would look at...

- Lowering the cost of entry to something more palpable to people who don't know what they might be getting into, something more like $20-30 USD. Obviously that is a lot less than $70 USD, BUT I can almost assure you that for every person who donates $70 USD right now there are 5+ people who would donate if it was less.

2) Lif:YO

I am not entirely sure how this will play out on any given server so please correct me if I am wrong, but I know that Lif:MMORPG will NOT have mobs, it will be PVP only and some hunting of elusive wildlife. I don't necessarily agree with that approach 100% but that's fine...what CONCERNS me is that in a NON-MASSIVE environment like YO (on average I imagine most servers will not be full even), you may NEED some PVE (marauding bandits, enemy camps that come attack, etc) to keep things interesting...just my two cents. Do we envision the YO servers playing out kinda like Persistent World Mod for Warband? Just curious how we see these playing out and what the lure is for people to get it. A lot of people that might be interested in this sort of thing (since it won't be massively multi) will actually be interested in CO-OP survival/building against mobs with a couple friends, like a Minecraft server or such.

On that note - the current estimate of pricing for YO I think Bobik said would be 20-30 EU which in my opinion again is too much...that is $27-40 USD roughly. My concern is that people have a threshold for "yeah sure I'll try that" and if the price is over that then a LOT of people won't grab it - and 20 people buying a game for $20 USD is better than 5 people buying it for $40 USD

3 - Bundle Option?

Perhaps there could be a package purchase available when YO comes out that gets you into YO *AND* the alpha/beta stages of LiF:MMORPG that could be a slightly discounted bundle. Just a thought.

----------------

Again, not saying I have the answers, I just have seen over 10 years or so leading a gaming group and talking to gamers what the thresholds are for "yeah I'll check that out" or "nah I'll wait and see what happens".

And I want "what happens" to be LiF coming out and thriving.

[Reese]

Was thinking this very thing a few weeks ago. I gave in to the fact that I'm supporting a game that I desperately want to play and see succeed. I agree, there would probably be more donors if the price was slightly lower and maybe a USD price listed too. Americans can be (don't hate, you know its true) snobbish about foreign pricing. We are used to most things being in USD.

$20 to $30 is about the highest I've seen most "Early access" going for. That price range is comfortable for most gamers. The $70 i donated is my power bill. Had to think twice.

My 2 cents.

[Lord_Sitruc]

I wwant this game to be awesome and I agree that 70$ is alot to convince peole to buy into as I can get my friends to throw money at rediculous games when its only 10$ a game. I understan the guys probably only want a few people in game right now but if when it gets stable enough to stay up for a few days straight if the drop the price significantly I bet they would get a flood of people

[Bobik]

We are not selling our game now. At all. Game is not ready for "selling" even for Alpha stage of readiness. That is why we have a high donation level - to be sure that those who are in - actually UNDERSTAND where they are and not just been commonly tricked by "Buy now FAST!" button after observing few screenshots and a promo video.

We do understand and hear what are you talking about, but we are currently not selling and can not sell our game, because it is not ready. That's it. LiF:YO will be more ready, but the same principles will persists. The higher price - the more consideration it should be on a players' side, the less chance that they will feel "tricked" into buying that game.
Also we're currently consider provide some kind of refund to LiF:YO buyers with LiF:MMO premium currency, that should attract them to MMO version and it will be more honest IMHO.

As about COOP in LiF:YO. Of course it is all nice to have, but unrealistic in our current state. Also, how much of PvE COOP does Rust have? That does not prevented them to sell 1+ million of copies (http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/10/ ... -1-million)

[Grimfest]

We are not selling our game now. At all. Game is not ready for "selling" even for Alpha stage of readiness. That is why we have a high donation level - to be sure that those who are in - actually UNDERSTAND where they are and not just been commonly tricked by "Buy now FAST!" button after observing few screenshots and a promo video.

We do understand and hear what are you talking about, but we are currently not selling and can not sell our game, because it is not ready. That's it. LiF:YO will be more ready, but the same principles will persists. The higher price - the more consideration it should be on a players' side, the less chance that they will feel "tricked" into buying that game.
Also we're currently consider provide some kind of refund to LiF:YO buyers with LiF:MMO premium currency, that should attract them to MMO version and it will be more honest IMHO.

As about COOP in LiF:YO. Of course it is all nice to have, but unrealistic in our current state. Also, how much of PvE COOP does Rust have? That does not prevented them to sell 1+ million of copies (http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/10/ ... -1-million)

Again, Bobik like a boss coming on here to address concerns. Again I personally thank you, Bobik, for your forum presence.

This post was well thought out and very accurate, but as bobik stated, there is a reason for his madness. And yes I will confirm, $70 for a game at any stage of development is insane.

Very few in their right mind would pay that much to be frustrated with a pre-alpha game, But it is obvious that the game has enough resources to push the completion of LiF:YO or Bobik would of already considered some of these options listed by the OP.

As I have already addressed my disappointment and how I felt deceived by my purchase of Gloria Victis, like Bobik has mentioned in this quote, I watched a few promo vids, read the features on the website, looked at a few pictures and said, shit its only 10 bucks this game looks good for that much and bought it. It is the biggest, hottest, pile of dog @#$% Ive spent $10 on in my Life, and I feel that way because I was "tricked" by some fancy promo vid pretty much. If it was $70 I would of thought more carefully about my purchase, Confirming Bobiks theory.

So ya, Bobik knows the state of his game, and I respect that, so, for those of us that don't want the frustration that come along with the development process, we will patiently wait for the "more" stable version and by that time, I know Bobik will have that BRIGHT FLASHY "BUY NOW" button.

[Elindor]

Sound reasoning.

Thanks for the honest responses all around - again, I just thought I'd bring some things up cause I want to see this game succeed.

No reason to get angry in responses...an all-to-common forum phenomenon.

That being said, I second the appreciation of Bobik's presence on the forums...