Adventure pack "free access" events

[suszterpatt]

I can hear your alarm bells ringing already.


The latest episode of Extra Credits covers the topic of Microtransactions. As I was listening to the rules of making a good microtransaction system, I was happily noting that DDO follows each of them... until they got to the part about cordoning off non-paying customers from paying ones. Which is exactly what's happening with adventure packs.

Now, I realize that the packs are probably the single largest source of income for Turbine (in the sense of TP spent on them vs other stuff). Lord knows they're the only thing I spend my points on. But, as the video points out, a good MT system is one that lets players try things out for free, and choose whether to pay for more of the same.

So, I'd suggest that every now and again, a couple packs would open up to everyone for a few days, with the special catch that players who don't own a pack can't get favor from its quests (to avoid TP farming). I can't think of a way that this could hurt Turbine financially, but I'm willing to bet that it'd drive up the sale of TP/subscriptions as people decide they want to own the content they got to try.

[cedad]

It already exists.
It's the win a pass that happen from time to time on the DDO lotery.
AFAIK you can win 30 minutes pass for Delera, BC, Catacomb and Sharn Syndicate.
It gives the opportunity to offer for free access to someone.
It's directly pointed at the right audience : low level characters.

[puget]

I can hear your alarm bells ringing already.


The latest episode of Extra Credits covers the topic of Microtransactions. As I was listening to the rules of making a good microtransaction system, I was happily noting that DDO follows each of them... until they got to the part about cordoning off non-paying customers from paying ones. Which is exactly what's happening with adventure packs.

Now, I realize that the packs are probably the single largest source of income for Turbine (in the sense of TP spent on them vs other stuff). Lord knows they're the only thing I spend my points on. But, as the video points out, a good MT system is one that lets players try things out for free, and choose whether to pay for more of the same.

So, I'd suggest that every now and again, a couple packs would open up to everyone for a few days, with the special catch that players who don't own a pack can't get favor from its quests (to avoid TP farming). I can't think of a way that this could hurt Turbine financially, but I'm willing to bet that it'd drive up the sale of TP/subscriptions as people decide they want to own the content they got to try.

There is ALREADY a thread on the same basic topic just below this one a few threads. You should post in there instead of making the duplicate thread.

Here is the link so it is easy to find >>

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=329160

[donfilibuster]

Isn't the 'try it out' made from the f2p quests?
Granted you may have to run them 20-40 times each to get to lv 20 (more like 13) but still.

[Uska]

It already exists.
It's the win a pass that happen from time to time on the DDO lotery.
AFAIK you can win 30 minutes pass for Delera, BC, Catacomb and Sharn Syndicate.
It gives the opportunity to offer for free access to someone.
It's directly pointed at the right audience : low level characters.

I thought passes couldnt be used on yourself nor to give people access to content you dont have yourself.

[lhidda]

I can hear your alarm bells ringing already.


The latest episode of Extra Credits covers the topic of Microtransactions. As I was listening to the rules of making a good microtransaction system, I was happily noting that DDO follows each of them... until they got to the part about cordoning off non-paying customers from paying ones. Which is exactly what's happening with adventure packs.

Now, I realize that the packs are probably the single largest source of income for Turbine (in the sense of TP spent on them vs other stuff). Lord knows they're the only thing I spend my points on. But, as the video points out, a good MT system is one that lets players try things out for free, and choose whether to pay for more of the same.

So, I'd suggest that every now and again, a couple packs would open up to everyone for a few days, with the special catch that players who don't own a pack can't get favor from its quests (to avoid TP farming). I can't think of a way that this could hurt Turbine financially, but I'm willing to bet that it'd drive up the sale of TP/subscriptions as people decide they want to own the content they got to try.

The events will be useless for VIPs, and the majority of Premium players. Normal accounts have far enough contents to try out ddo. /not signed

[suszterpatt]

The events will be useless for VIPs, and the majority of Premium players.

I would argue that anything that can bring more players to premium packs benefits VIPs, on account of having more people to play said packs with.

Normal accounts have far enough contents to try out ddo. /not signed

This is about trying out specific bonus content before purchasing it, not just DDO in general. More to the point, it's about giving f2p/premium players the opportunity to make informed decisions as to which packs to buy. If people can be sure they're making good purchases, they're more likely to buy. Everybody benefits.

[Nerate_Mireth]

I would argue that anything that can bring more players to premium packs benefits VIPs, on account of having more people to play said packs with.

This is about trying out specific bonus content before purchasing it, not just DDO in general. More to the point, it's about giving f2p/premium players the opportunity to make informed decisions as to which packs to buy. If people can be sure they're making good purchases, they're more likely to buy. Everybody benefits.

This is the only, beating a dead-horse, arguement that F2P can come up with so that they get MORE MORE MORE for NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING. Either step up and pay for a sub or TP or shut the heck up!

I am sooooo tired of the GIMME MORE GIMME MORE attitude of the F2P people it's sickening. You're already getting a FREE game with FREE content and a way to get FREE Turbine Points (enough to buy all the packs with you just need to grind 400 favor or more on each server and buy content when a sale for it is going on). As a matter of fact I made a suggestion how to "appease" the f2p whiners who only want more for FREE and NOT want to PAY for it. Check out the thread that puget linked which is also: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=329160

Don't you people get it? Most VIPs have set groups they run with now and/or know who to run with and who not to that having MORE people who don't have a clue to sort through is more hassle than help. Come up with a new arguement to get more stuff handed to you for free.

/Not Signed

[MrLarone]

... a good MT system is one that lets players try things out for free, and choose whether to pay for more of the same.

you mean like providing a wealth of quests for free and then offering more of the same for money?

quest are the comodity, this is already happening.

if you want to try before you buy get a pass.

IF turbine were to offer free days then not only would i say you get no TP but also -10% xp and loot woudln't contain any items limited to the pack in question.

as a premium player there are possibly 2-3 packs i regret spending TP on. mainly cos they're not really played by the majority of players. that said they're still great and worth th TP imo.

[suszterpatt]

This is the only, beating a dead-horse, arguement that F2P can come up with so that they get MORE MORE MORE for NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING. Either step up and pay for a sub or TP or shut the heck up!

I am sooooo tired of the GIMME MORE GIMME MORE attitude of the F2P people it's sickening. You're already getting a FREE game with FREE content and a way to get FREE Turbine Points (enough to buy all the packs with you just need to grind 400 favor or more on each server and buy content when a sale for it is going on). As a matter of fact I made a suggestion how to "appease" the f2p whiners who only want more for FREE and NOT want to PAY for it. Check out the thread that puget linked which is also: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=329160

Don't you people get it? Most VIPs have set groups they run with now and/or know who to run with and who not to that having MORE idiots to sort through is more hassle than help. Come up with a new arguement to get more stuff handed to you for free.

/Not Signed

Whoa there buddy. You're completely missing the point here. This is not about circumventing paying for premium content. A couple days a year is hardly a significant amount of access time. Quite the opposite, it would encourage people to buy said content after the event, because they would know in advance that it's money well spent.

Did you watch the video in the OP?

[stoerm]

Guest passes through the lottery would have the same effect. Events giving free access to full packs over the course of many days is too much IMHO.

[Shinta_himuraX]

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=329160

i agree with your idea as it also reflects mine in the same sense, the link above is to my thread and it would be much appreciated if you could join your statements into there but all in all if im getting this /sign thing right then

/signed

[Nerate_Mireth]

Whoa there buddy. You're completely missing the point here. This is not about circumventing paying for premium content. A couple days a year is hardly a significant amount of access time. Quite the opposite, it would encourage people to buy said content after the event, because they would know in advance that it's money well spent.

Did you watch the video in the OP?

It's called GUEST PASSES. That's why Turbine put them into the game. And with MOST passes, especially in the lower end content, a competant group can run most, if not all the quests in that area before the pass expires. The solution I threw out in another thread was basically:

Self Use Passes. Limit 1 pass per account per pack per weekend. They would cost:
1 TP for 0-3 hours
2 TP for 3-6 hours

Turbine can't make things 0TP in the store. They tried it once and crashed the store.

As for buying after the event? Ok...all weekend I run the Inspired Quarter packs. Manage to loot the item I want and enough shards to do Dreaming Dark and upgrade the item. Why should I buy the pack now? And that, buddy, is what ALOT of people would do. Take advantage of the packs like that, NOT buy them, and Turbine just gave away stuff that VIPs are paying for.

In really simple terms....DDO is the product. VIP is the FULL version, F2P/Premium is the DEMO version. Want the full version...pay for it.

[thegrindre]

Well, first of all, the free to play option of any pack should net you nothing, period! No XP, no favor and empty treasure chests to boot.
Reason is because it's a free to try option.
In other words, Turbine shouldn't give anything away. The idea is to give the f2p players a try at a dry run through a particular adventure pack they might be interested in.
That's all it should ever be.
Now, to add more fuel to the fire here, a 24 hour twice a month option is a good idea, IMO. Such as on the 1st and the 15th of each momth.

What do you think about that? I know that if it were set up this way, I'd try them all then buy the ones I liked.
As it stands now, I'm a bit leery to buy anything and have only bought one so far in a month because it came so highly recommended. (Tangleroot Gorge. Although, Three Barrel Cove is another highly recommended adventure pack)

That's my two cents worth...

[Syllph]

It's called GUEST PASSES. That's why Turbine put them into the game. And with MOST passes, especially in the lower end content, a competant group can run most, if not all the quests in that area before the pass expires. The solution I threw out in another thread was basically:

Self Use Passes. Limit 1 pass per account per pack per weekend. They would cost:
1 TP for 0-3 hours
2 TP for 3-6 hours

Turbine can't make things 0TP in the store. They tried it once and crashed the store.

As for buying after the event? Ok...all weekend I run the Inspired Quarter packs. Manage to loot the item I want and enough shards to do Dreaming Dark and upgrade the item. Why should I buy the pack now? And that, buddy, is what ALOT of people would do. Take advantage of the packs like that, NOT buy them, and Turbine just gave away stuff that VIPs are paying for.

In really simple terms....DDO is the product. VIP is the FULL version, F2P/Premium is the DEMO version. Want the full version...pay for it.

Perfectly spoken.

[Musouka]

The funny thing: I know of a couple of people personally that have actually purchased nearly everything the game has to offer, without spending a dime. Their account still says free account.

What did they do? They farmed TP from favor rewards on every server, then held onto those TP for the days when stuff goes on sale in the DDO store. One guy it only took him a little over 1 year.

And now there are more people who are on free accounts that want MORE given to them?

[Grenada]

@ OP:
/not signed (and i'm f2p)
It's easy enough that, if i really wanted to, i could grind enough tp for the packs I want. Why would Turbine make it any easier?

...
As for buying after the event? Ok...all weekend I run the Inspired Quarter packs. Manage to loot the item I want and enough shards to do Dreaming Dark and upgrade the item. Why should I buy the pack now? And that, buddy, is what ALOT of people would do. Take advantage of the packs like that, NOT buy them, and Turbine just gave away stuff that VIPs are paying for.

^this is what I would do, all the time
Edited quote so you could see what i meant better

[puget]

@ OP:
/not signed (and i'm f2p)
It's easy enough that, if i really wanted to, i could grind enough tp for the packs I want. Why would Turbine make it any easier?




^this is what I would do, all the time

You make an excellent point on the griind for the pack. I never even thought of that aspect.

[Cabronsisimo]

Well, first of all, the free to play option of any pack should net you nothing, period! No XP, no favor and empty treasure chests to boot.
Reason is because it's a free to try option.
In other words, Turbine shouldn't give anything away. The idea is to give the f2p players a try at a dry run through a particular adventure pack they might be interested in.
That's all it should ever be.
Now, to add more fuel to the fire here, a 24 hour twice a month option is a good idea, IMO. Such as on the 1st and the 15th of each momth.

What do you think about that? I know that if it were set up this way, I'd try them all then buy the ones I liked.
As it stands now, I'm a bit leery to buy anything and have only bought one so far in a month because it came so highly recommended. (Tangleroot Gorge. Although, Three Barrel Cove is another highly recommended adventure pack)

That's my two cents worth...

Imagine the modified messages : "Quest advanced: You just lost 8,546 XP!"
And whn chests were opened, give those on free pass 50% chance on all rare loot, all grayed out, with a pop up "Look what you just missed!"

[lhidda]

In really simple terms....DDO is the product. VIP is the FULL version, F2P/Premium is the DEMO version. Want the full version...pay for it.

I would not consider premium accounts (having most content) to be demo version.