Second-Tier?

Sylvance

Okay, so I haven't thrown up an idea in quite some time:

How about introducing a second tier of Iron Membership in Achaea at, say $34.99?  For people who really want to invest in the game and reap the rewards quicker?  Just as an illustrative example:

*5 Lessons per Day per Character when you login (Same)

*100 Bound Membership Credits per month 

* 5 Additional Bound Membership Credits per month which caps at 75 credits per month (rather than 50)

* 15% Bonus on all credit purchases (currently 10%)

* 5% cumulative XP Bonus every month which caps at [I want to say 50% but that actually sounds quite a lot] more than the current

If balance is needed, perhaps after hitting the current Elite Membership Cap, the increment slows down. So 5 credits per month up to 50, then an extra 2 credits per month up to 75.

I suspect this will be a love-it-or-hate-it idea!

Iocun

Please not. If you want more credits than the membership gives you, then buy credit packages. The XP bonus is already a bad thing and definitely shouldn't exist in an increased variant.

I believe there are already enough things that segregate the willing high spenders from those who aren't.

Arlanda

Extra 25 bound credits a month for such a huge difference in price.. No way. The math is all wrong

Sylvance

Arlanda said:

Extra 25 bound credits a month for such a huge difference in price.. No way. The math is all wrong

It's an illustrative example. Please do not focus on the numbers. Do you like the idea in principle?

Arlanda

I would only be attracted to such an idea if the credit-to-cost ratio is even better than the normal Iron Elite membership. 

Xith

Tempted to like this, but you'd need a different approach.

$25 to $35 is a 20% increase in cost.

- 10 lessons per day (100% increase) 7 lessons per day per character (20% increase)

- 100 bound per month (no increase)

- Up to 200 bound per month (25% increase to max)

- 10% on credit purchases, plus a giftbag for each 150 base credits purchased (bonus excluded from total) ? (no percent increase but a small perk)

- 25% xp bonus max (increasing this would be criminal, unfortunately)

So instead of 150 bound per month, you'd have 200 per month to be accustomed to, allowing purchase of a fire pendant on a whim, or such. More bound creds to spread over your alts for lessons and such. Though that's where the lesson side of it could get out of hand. Edit'd that to 7.

So all you really increase is the bound credits and lessons, plus a small perk on credit purchases. 25% more bound in comparison to 20% cost increase. Properly reflects the price increase being "worth it".

Now that my post is over, I'm actually pretty attracted to this idea. Membership levels are a sexy business model anyway.

+1

Sylvance

Yeah, I meant to suggest a Globe of Shifting Contents per month as an extra perk, but forgot to put that in.

Drauka

I think that would be a bit silly. Already getting a great deal and if we want more we can just buy credit packages right out.

Trevize

Honestly, this package is damn good as it is - compared to before the package. I'm happy with it.

Kyrra

I disagree for a lot if reasons but primarily because Iron Elite membership is solely for the IRE game you bought it for and doesn't cover all the games.

If you're paying two subscriptions every month ( let's say Achaea and Lusternia ) and they increase the cost of one game for extra perks.. It's just not going to be balanced.

Speaking as someone that does pour a lot of RL money into Achaea, I don't want this, even as an option. What's currently there is great as a consistent way to contribute to the running of the game and the rewards are fine as they are.

I have over 1000 lessons that I can't spend on anything, I am trans everything and it's going to keep accumulating. There's a natural speed to acquiring and achieving things in game, and jumping ahead for any reason ( impatience and wanting the easy route usually ) will eventually break something.

Please just no. Lesson sale packages happen frequently and are awesome when they do... and if you want extra bonus credits, consider buying the larger credit packages that have a higher return with the already great return percentage in place.

Nim

The price given disappointed me, since for the briefest of fleeting moments, I thought you wanted a lower tier membership plan, and I was like, that's probably a cool idea because $25/mo is more than even what most subscription games cost, and having something more in line with pay-to-play game costs could be cool.

Any time a friend of mine finds out about the Iron Elite membership thing, and I'm there to hear their reaction, it's always like, "a MUD wants to charge people that much a month?!" Usually with the subtext being that even the most expensive pay-to-play games don't usually cost as much.

Kyrra

I still subscribe to a few MMOs that I don't even really play anymore just because I might actually be in the mood to log in and do something.

Achaea is still cheaper compared to shelling out on Collector Edition expansions. Hell, Blizzard store rakes in a few million every year on top of WoW subscriptions. Just because people want some sparkly in game mount or super cute wind rider plushie.

Thinking about it, I had to be talked into my Iron Elite membership. I wasn't that interested in subscribing. But for the sheer amount of credits I buy on a regular basis, Iron Elite allows me to get the most out of my purchases and I tend to put the monthly credits toward customisations or artifying my alts. $24 a month is spread out over 5 characters.

It's not something I wouldn't have bothered with and if I just had Kyrra with no alts, probably would never have bothered at all. The monthly promotions are nicely spread out between credit and lesson packages, and as @Sena keeps mentioning, the initial lesson bonus for converting your first 1000 credits or whatever it is, goes a lot toward transing your first class skill.

I see a lot of impatience in people to "win the game" and a lot less desire to be involved in the game itself. It should be a healthy balance between the two.

Xith

Kyrra said:

I disagree for a lot if reasons but primarily because Iron Elite membership is solely for the IRE game you bought it for and doesn't cover all the games. If you're paying two subscriptions every month ( let's say Achaea and Lusternia ) and they increase the cost of one game for extra perks.. It's just not going to be balanced. Speaking as someone that does pour a lot of RL money into Achaea, I don't want this, even as an option. What's currently there is great as a consistent way to contribute to the running of the game and the rewards are fine as they are. I have over 1000 lessons that I can't spend on anything, I am trans everything and it's going to keep accumulating. There's a natural speed to acquiring and achieving things in game, and jumping ahead for any reason ( impatience and wanting the easy route usually ) will eventually break something. Please just no. Lesson sale packages happen frequently and are awesome when they do... and if you want extra bonus credits, consider buying the larger credit packages that have a higher return with the already great return percentage in place.

@Kyrra I don't understand what you're saying. This is a suggestion for an additional level option for the Membership, not increasing the price.

Nim said:

Any time a friend of mine finds out about the Iron Elite membership thing, and I'm there to hear their reaction, it's always like, "a MUD wants to charge people that much a month?!" Usually with the subtext being that even the most expensive pay-to-play games don't usually cost as much.

Achaea are teh numbah one.

But it's not "charging" people anything. You don't have to pay to play. It's just advisable unfortunately and IEM happens to be the most cost-effective way of doing it. Considering the amount of time spent on the game and the entertainment value compared with "other games", it's really pretty reasonable.

My Netflix membership is like $1 less, and that's just movies.

Nim

@Xith:

The time and entertainment value received during that time while playing Achaea can be very dependent on who you are and what you like to do, so as a general statement, that holds very little meaning. To someone who loves movies and hates text, they'd probably find it ludicrous that someone would pay more money for text stats than unlimited movies. Their opinion probably doesn't matter, because they probably wouldn't play Achaea to begin with, but I just wanted to say unlimited movies in italics like that.

Also, a lot of MMOs are pay-for-perks now. It still feels more expensive than the typical MMO subscription fee, whether the MMO in question is pay-to-play or pay-for-perks. This is totally a point I should've made in my earlier post, actually!

Kyrra

@Xith

Xith said:

Tempted to like this, but you'd need a different approach.

$25 to $35 is a 20% increase in cost.

Increasing the cost is.... increasing the cost. Paying more. Unless I was supposed to gloss over that fact?

Paying more for your subscription in exchange for even more perks, which, combined with the other IRE games whose Iron Elite memberships are separate to Achaea, can wind up extremely expensive for people that have to subscribe more than once.

On top of monthly promotions which are nicely spread out and generally really awesome.

I think what is offered currently is enough enhanced gameplay to reward consistent subscribers without making the game, for non-subscribers, feel like they are missing out on significant aspects which is being discussed in another thread.

I just think it would create an imbalance in both game play as well as generating income. How many people never bother with monthly promos because they get enough lessons and credits from their membership?

Anyways, I am at work and rambling.

Katzchen

@Kyrra pretty sure the suggestion was to have the Iron Elite, and then a second tier of it as an option. You could still pay your $25 and get the current package.

I might consider paying for this, once I reached the cap on the regular Iron Elite if it were worth it - IE Xith's numbers. The original post would definitely not be worth it. I'm not paying $10 a month for an extra 5 to 25 credits.

Xith

$24.99/m = 5 lessons/day, 150 bound, 10% on credit purchases, 25% xp bonus

$34.99/m = 7 lessons/day, 200 bound, 10% on credit purchases plus random perks, 25% xp bonus

EDIT for previous posts: the cost increase is 40%, +40% on lessons too. +33% on bounds.

With both being chooseable.

And because people have mentioned it places, I'll draft up a $14.99/m plan just for giggles. Though I hold to my Netflix comparison.

$14.99/m = 5 lessons/day, 100 bound, 5% on credit purchases, 20% xp bonus

40% decrease in price now

Reasoning: do away with increasing increments of bound creds altogether. 33% loss

keep 5 lessons 

only 5% credit bonus, because monthly spending isn't investment enough to make the benefit fair

15% xp bonus. reduction in line with cost

Sylvance

Yes, I've said it twice now, but the OP was an illustrative example. It's up to IRE what the numbers are, I'm just suggesting another price-point which is less cost-effective, but ultimately more rewarding than the first. Think of it as 'Collector's Edition'. If you really want to spend £100 for a £40 videogame because it has art cards in it that you'll look at once and then shelf, and a soundtrack that you'll rip then use as a coaster rather than just illegally downloading it like everyone else, then most companies will say 'Be my guest'.

Secondly, the clue's in the title, this is a second-tier not a replacement of the first.

+1 to pretty much every comment in this thread so far that hasn't bizzarely gotten stuck on one of those two points.

+2 to the idea of a lower second tier. Wish I'd thought of that!

Drauka

Can't really compare Netflix to IRE. Netflix has millions of customers, IRE has a few thousand across all games (sure only a minority pay enough to support the business).

Netflix can take a smaller percentage on profit from revenue due to having millions of subscribers, but IRE is not so lucky. IRE is a small business and every dollar counts, and I'm sure there are hard times we may never hear about as you don't pass that along to customers.

Xith

As a customer though, if I had to cancel one, I know which one it would be. $23.99 a month for two videos out at a time plus glitchy streaming video (might be my blu-ray player's fault). Yeah I can watch more as fast as I can mail them back, but I'm far too busy playing Achaea to pay attention to movies.

The bound credits I'm buying, on the other hand, hold value for me. I take advantage of special sales so that I'm now omnitrans with a slew of enjoyable artefacts, enough lessons to change class, enough room credits to double the size of my house, etc. And since I spend 5 hours or more per day on the game, that's like $0.17 per hour. I make that in a minute when at work, so fair trade.

Trevize

People keep comparing this to game/other subscriptions. Kinda different! You can stop this at any time and keep everything you gained. Try that with netflix or WoW.

Drauka

For everyone I know, they use online streaming. No one really gets physical media anymore

Personally I get value from my subscription that is equal or more to the price. No regrets with any IRE purchase and it has the most engaging experience with the staff in-game, the gap between players and staff is minimal (or feels that way). I mean the staff answer and participate on the forums, too! How awesome is that?!

Seftin

Sometimes they even troll us

Trevize

Daeir said:

Trevize said:

People keep comparing this to game/other subscriptions. Kinda different! You can stop this at any time and keep everything you gained. Try that with netflix or WoW.

It is a freemium style MMO, the same as every other MMO AeriaGames, gPotato, Nexon and a slew of other companies have released. The kicker there is that those companies usually offer conveniences/novelty items over actively restricting class functionality based on whether you want to pay or buy credits from someone who has.

It is different in some ways, but it is not that unique. Just wanted to get this out.

Oh, I know it's not completely unique. Just pointing out that it's not the same as those compared to in the thread.