Pricing policies

From The Ghost of Windsor
Jump to navigation Jump to search

I know what you're thinking: talking about pricing schemes, this early on? Shouldn't you have an actual game before we talk about this?

The reason I want to address this stuff, this early on is because I want my position to be on record, as early as possible.

Monthly fee

There will probably be a monthly fee to play, probably in the neighborhood of a few dollars. This will help cover the hosting and development costs, but it will also give us the ability to have more control over the playerbase. After all, this is an MMORPG, with a strong emphasis on Role-playing. There needs to be a way have control over who can play. If account creation is free and unlimited, controlling trolls/cheaters will be nearly impossible.

Microtransactions, in-game purchases and other nonsense

This probably goes without saying, but for the record: There will never be microtransactions of any kind - ever! We will never ever sell skills, in-game items/money/progress of any kind for any amount of money ever. Microtransactions are the scourge of gaming.

There might also be a free trial option. It will be severely limited, just to test-drive it, and in no way a viable long term option.

In summary:

  • Small monthly fee - almost certainly.
  • Token items for donations1 - possibly.
  • Free trial account - probably not, but maybe.
  • Initial game client purchase - almost certainly not.
  • Pay-to-win,pay-for-gold/items/skills schemes - never ever ever.

1 Token item for donations is a special item that you can only get by donating. This item will have no actual in-game value, and will provide no advantage to the player. It will be non transferable so no way to sell it for in-game currency either. Note that this is different even from the now common "pay-for-cosmetic-only-items" schemes either as this will be a very limited type of items, such as a sash or some house item, or something of this sort just to be able to proudly display saying "I support the project". There will be no skins/colors/special designs/whatever for sale for IRL money, cosmetic or otherwise.