Dipped my toes back in to the water last night - what's needed to keep me
I'll try and keep this concise because no one likes reading pages of stuff ;)
I played AO (beta to 4 or 5 years), AOC (beta to 4 years), TSW (Beta to a year). I check back in to each game every so often just to see what's happening. I'll mainly touch on what AOC needs to do to retain me but the other two games will come in to play. For any FC people reading this, I promise I will not rant about what funding goes where. I don't know your inner workings other than observational. Stick with me, folks. :)
I logged in last night and played around with the achievement stuff - pretty standard, good addition. I offhandedly quipped in global it's been a while and the game is still pretty. A few people said welcome back and yes it is still a pretty game, one person messaged me and we talked a while - went out, had some fun, etc.
It got me thinking deeper about what AOC/FC would have to do to keep me as a player - both as a F2P and/or a paid sub. Again, I can not attribute costs to any of this, simply things I feel are worth while investing in that would attract me back to AOC/FC games.
First and foremost: I suggested this before AOC went live. I suggested it again before TSW went live. All-In-One sub. I have a soft spot for AO, I love AOC's combat system/heal system/graphics/fatalities. I have a passing interest in TSW, fun enough. However - I wouldn't pay to subscribe to any one of them as they currently stand. I would, however, be VERY interested in an all access pass like Daybreak (former SOE) has for their games. About 10$ a month when you do a year and you get full access to all games (minus expansion) - I have subscribed to their all access for 2 years to play EQ and Planetside2 with the option of trying their other games out. It mystifies me why this hasn't been done - only thing I can think of is something to do with AOC's IP. If that's the case start negotiating with them NOW and make it happen. Other than that there's simply no reason to not have this in place. I would subscribe immediately - I'd be happy to have you monitor my account for sign up as proof. :)
Next: To retain me in AOC, even as f2P:
- Give me access to Khitai - which I purchased. I understand that's the meat of your content so a compromise - As F2P, since I bought it, I can access Khitai and all it's goodies - but not hard modes. This is the primary reason I don't play as F2P. I feel that I purchased that expansion in good faith and should have access to what I purchased. Without access I start having the thought process of: Why should I purchase anything when you may take access away? I have access to Turan because I bought it. It's inconsistent.
-Open up T2 (Black Wing Citadel, all 3 wings) to F2P players. As someone that's played for years I am overall fairly well geared. With my purchased Khitai and T2 off limits I have very little to do when I check back in, so I leave. Your goal is to retain players under F2P and entice them to subscribe - currently F2P does not do this for me. It will be up to the community to help newer and returning players along and get them interested in the harder (paid) raids.
Side effect of giving these two things to F2P players like myself: Raids fill up faster, population looks and perhaps is healthier, F2P players likely to stay longer - all results in potential sales and subscriptions. Add that to the all in one model subscription you may pull players over from, or to, the other games. Key point is: You keep those players within your own ecosystem. Doesn't matter which they are playing or spending on as long as they are doing it with your games. FC is in an almost unique position with MMOs set in the past, current and future.
- Access to all characters created before I went F2P. This is taken directly from EQ. As a brand new account I would be able to make 4 characters there (I think it is), as a former pay now silver I have access to all 11 characters I had made. This isn't near as high on the list as the others but more of a nice to have/would give me that much more reason to stick around.
- Overall the other restrictions on F2P don't bother me, however, consider upping the gold restriction to somewhere in the 20g limit. Check trader/marketplace - hard to purchase some things with such a small limit - higher gold limit would be good for the economy and the f2p player.
To keep me interested as a subscriber:
- Above mentioned all in one access would likely be enough.
- Things I actually want to purchase with my FC points. I think many of the prices are too high for what they are. I have zero interest in purchasing power - I enjoy earning my gear (not a knock on people that do buy gear, do your own thing :) ). I think the bread and butter is in cosmetics/effects/pets. Plow heavy in to this - consider selling things that will let you reskin items. From simple colour changes to unique looks to different guild city looks (by building/section/etc). If it could affect pvp (oh I see he has X item, skin may cover that up), find a way to disable it for pvp OR pvp players will just have to deal with it. They can reskin their items too!
- A reason to subscribe, even for a month, occasionally. EQ is very good at this. Whether it's a special give away during a month or a perk you can only get as a subscriber, but retain when you go back to F2P. For example: I can do one month in EQ and get some AA's free. Go back to F2P, level up, sub a month, get more AA's. This eventually cuts off or I need expansions to keep it going, but at least they occasionally get that revenue boost from my other accounts.
- Show a better return on investment. If I am subscribing, buying expansions, buying marketplace items I want to see more development. More items to buy (variety) in the marketplace. Bug fixes. Content. Pick up the pace, allocate more resources, show me you still care.
- Long shot 1: Add more fatalities. This was and is a huge and largely unique part of AOC but nothing really gets added. I understand it's time consuming and likely expensive but try. Maybe every 6 months a group specific one gets added - IE: all casters get X fatality, all tanks get X fatality and all DPS get X fatality. Every year, maybe for anniversary, all classes get a unique one. Heck, I may get angry mobbed for this, but SELL me fatalities in your store - but account wide for appropriate group.
- Long shot 2: Housing or better guild city decorating. I think this could be a bread and butter of your market as well as what I said above. Development cost would be higher but I think the return would be very good based on what I see in other games.
Easy: Send an email out to account/former account holders letting them know any of these things have been done - in particular loosening up the F2P model.
I'm not going to say too much on marketing, certainly won't call for people's heads there, but something is amiss for all your games. Social media does not require a lot of funding - one person can do a lot with them. Consider running contests (again). Best screen shot, best video, retweet to get an in game something or other. Those avenues, by and large, are free to use - work the system. Get people talking about your games. Just a quick glance: the main funcom twitter sends out about 1 thing a month. AOC is about 3 or 4 a month. AO about once every few months (still gets more retweets and favourites than AOC). TSW tweets about 6 or 7 times a month and the tweets/retweets reflect that. Be active in the community and the community will respond.
I love Funcom's innovations in games - the may be the best out there at it. But they are brutally bad at actually running them and that is a real shame - but fixable. :)
Not saying AOC will ever return to it's former glory but there is a LOT more you could be doing, some for what I would think is a relatively minor cost, to keep it more stable and build from there.
I'll stop here, I see people in the back nodding off...
Thanks for reading,
-Boom
