F2P in Conquer Online Private Servers

[Spirited]

I think we can all agree that free-to-play (F2P) online game titles are usually pretty attractive but divisive. The money that pays for the server usually come from a very small portion of the playerbase, and that can cause some crazy side-effects such as hyperinflation, broken balance systems, low retention, etc. Looking at the current private server community for Conquer Online, it's clear that these problems are even more exaggerated. Servers allow players to spend less money for a huge amount of in-game currency, which in turn devalues the currency and increases the divide and quit rate between players. Servers die quickly, recycle quickly, and sell quickly in a loop. Recently, these servers and the rules on epvp around stores started to make me consider the overall morality of some of these predatory practices for cash whales that keep the servers afloat, and there has to be better ways, right?

I see games such as Guild Wars 2 do a good job with free-to-play, where their "whales" aren't spending thousands of dollars on a character. In Guild Wars 2, their shop is appealing to all players (more appealing to the average person who would otherwise be the free player in free-to-play games). For example, as a player not willing to spend $1000 on a game, there's no way I'd get into a game like Conquer Online or play any of the private servers; however, if a server were instead just selling cosmetics, utility items, effects, furniture, mount skins, toys, bonus stories, etc. in $5 - $10 chunks, I'd be totally down to invest a bit. On top of that, Guild Wars 2 has a currency sink where you can convert gold into their paid gems currency. This both allows free players to continue playing without paying and reduces inflation.

Another idea I had around hosting my own server at some point was paying for hosting using a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum (something I picked up from an Extra Credits video on blockchain). Back when it was cool to mine, I thought it'd be interesting if I allowed players to dedicate a percentage of their graphics card to cryptocurrency mining. Players would be rewarded the purchased currency in-game for the amount of hashes they computed, which in turn helps pay for the server (if the host accepts cryptocurrency payments) and doesn't contribute to hyperinflation. Generally, I don't think this is as sustainable today with how difficult it is to make graphics card based miners profitable, and how much the value of cryptocurrencies have fallen again. But if anyone has better knowledge around this than I do, I'd be interested to know what you think about the idea.

Overall, I'm really interested to know what people think about free-to-play in general. Selling CPs (Conquer's in-game currency) in an online store for powering up characters to max is not sustainable (and causes really bad gameplay experiences), and we know that from the constant failing and recycling of servers. If you want more on the topic, here're a few videos from Extra Credits on free-to-play (and a few other related topics). Again, I'd be very interested to know what people think about this, and what their ideas or experiences are around free-to-play. Cheers.

 Spoiler

Videos around free-to-play game theory:

• (Bit inaccurate, so take with a grain of salt)

Videos around in-game inflation and currency sinks:

Videos around player type balance:

[denominator]

Personally I will pay for Conquer official but not private servers. I actually don't play on peoples servers I'd rather a source so I can work on it, I might struggle but it's fun regardless

[cronoszeu]

I think your "free-to-play" is not quite related to this matter.

Did you found any server that has pay to play ? All are free to play.

Yes, you are right about some **** should not be sold but than every one makes his decisions on the server/s they run. Servers opened and closed all the time from day 1 of co p servers when you had to use postgresql as db with or without shops. In the end is also a huge difference to who run that server and if he does care about it regardless of what is offered for $.

And you are also right by selling some items can cause inflation and other problems.

In the end is all about if player want or no to pay for the item or service, no one really force them.

Also don`t forget most of players for classic servers are probably 30+ they don`t really have so much time like they used to have and if an option is there for them to get quicker in action they will use it.

In the end I don`t really understand why so much fuzz for some servers on this forums as the forum itself is not any more what it used to be.

[Spirited]

Originally Posted by cronoszeu

I think your "free-to-play" is not quite related to this matter.

Did you found any server that has pay to play ? All are free to play.

Yes, you are right about some **** should not be sold but than every one makes his decisions on the server/s they run. Servers opened and closed all the time from day 1 of co p servers when you had to use postgresql as db with or without shops. In the end is also a huge difference to who run that server and if he does care about it regardless of what is offered for $.

And you are also right by selling some items can cause inflation and other problems.

In the end is all about if player want or no to pay for the item or service, no one really force them.

Also don`t forget most of players for classic servers are probably 30+ they don`t really have so much time like they used to have and if an option is there for them to get quicker in action they will use it.

In the end I don`t really understand why so much fuzz for some servers on this forums as the forum itself is not any more what it used to be.

I don't think I ever used the word "forced".

[Asphy×ia]

Imo,

I generally believe the mind thrives to have something other people don't. That's why Fortnite (yuck) has capitalized like no other. They don't sell an advantage, they just offer you the opportunity to look different from others. Now, in the Conquer sense, especially with lower patch private servers.. there just aren't enough categories to offer unique cosmetics. Higher patches, sure. Garments, mount garments, mounts in general, item souls - they can all be used for cosmetic donations. The newer patches have a lot of features to offer and I can understand your argument in that regard. The older ones, however, seem to reside and offer dbs/mets/cps/vip because it's really the only thing they can. BUT, at the end of the day, I 100% agree with you. I will never dump $ into a private server - a few bucks, sure, but never a ton. And there is nothing more sigh worthy than jumping onto a server with one guy 25x ahead of everyone else.

I sincerely think that is why Chris had such success pre-Jewels with Apex. No true advantage - of course he did his share in client modification to be able to sell newer material on a 5065 but it was great. Your success depended on your dedication.

I wish there was a centralized hub of pservers that acted off of one client - maybe 6-8 subservers that could act on different rates/custom content. If they were marketed/managed correctly, I feel like you'd have no problem with donations. The higher patches with all the cosmetic feature donos could support the lower-drawing classic-type servers. And of course, it would tighten the small amount of players we have left. Maybe that would create some sort of a "safe-haven" for players who have gotten scammed with shops before.

You've got me in a Co mindset again lol

[Spirited]

Originally Posted by Asphy×ia

Imo,

I generally believe the mind thrives to have something other people don't. That's why Fortnite (yuck) has capitalized like no other. They don't sell an advantage, they just offer you the opportunity to look different from others. Now, in the Conquer sense, especially with lower patch private servers.. there just aren't enough categories to offer unique cosmetics. Higher patches, sure. Garments, mount garments, mounts in general, item souls - they can all be used for cosmetic donations. The newer patches have a lot of features to offer and I can understand your argument in that regard. The older ones, however, seem to reside and offer dbs/mets/cps/vip because it's really the only thing they can. BUT, at the end of the day, I 100% agree with you. I will never dump $ into a private server - a few bucks, sure, but never a ton. And there is nothing more sigh worthy than jumping onto a server with one guy 25x ahead of everyone else.

I sincerely think that is why Chris had such success pre-Jewels with Apex. No true advantage - of course he did his share in client modification to be able to sell newer material on a 5065 but it was great. Your success depended on your dedication.

I wish there was a centralized hub of pservers that acted off of one client - maybe 6-8 subservers that could act on different rates/custom content. If they were marketed/managed correctly, I feel like you'd have no problem with donations. The higher patches with all the cosmetic feature donos could support the lower-drawing classic-type servers. And of course, it would tighten the small amount of players we have left. Maybe that would create some sort of a "safe-haven" for players who have gotten scammed with shops before.

You've got me in a Co mindset again lol

You know, this is the type of discussion I really like to have with people here. The whole idea around a centralized hub has been on my mind as well for a really long time. Having like a launcher that gets fed by an open-source repository for server listings that the community can approve of and maintain. Allow players to discover new servers, see news, pin ones they like, downloading and updating clients automatically, rating servers, etc. I'd really like to see someone work on a project like that... maybe I'll start that next once I finish my migration tool for the Conquer Wiki. I think that'd be a super fun experiment, though. Maybe I'll work with a few servers and try that out.

[Asphy×ia]

Originally Posted by Spirited

You know, this is the type of discussion I really like to have with people here. The whole idea around a centralized hub has been on my mind as well for a really long time. Having like a launcher that gets fed by an open-source repository for server listings that the community can approve of and maintain. Allow players to discover new servers, see news, pin ones they like, downloading and updating clients automatically, rating servers, etc. I'd really like to see someone work on a project like that... maybe I'll start that next once I finish my migration tool for the Conquer Wiki. I think that'd be a super fun experiment, though. Maybe I'll work with a few servers and try that out.

Certainly.

And in that regard, it still allows people to run their own servers and create their own content, whilst being moderated and observed by community members to make sure servers aren't in for a quick buck. Definitely would be a neat idea but it would have to be kept up with.

You could go as far as allowing players to review servers, rate servers, pin preferred servers, server transfers (if owners allowed [@execution ], and other ideas you have already stated. Basically a Steam for conquer pservers.

May not make it too busy so people don't get lost - but would certainly be cool with all those capabilities.

If you ensue with this project, post about it - it would be interesting to keep up with.

[TierTwelve]

Of course we all have our personal preferences as a player, and most players who wouldn't sink in loads of cash to a game aren't going to agree with being able to pay your way to the top. It only makes sense. What it comes down to is the greediness of the server's provider. And when you, yourself are in that situation greed can be quite consuming. It's not often you see someone hosting a server because they truly love the game and want to keep the community alive.. sure a part of them probably feels that way, but it's more often they want some form of power and the potential for monetary profit usually comes with it. There's not too many games these days that offer a truly non-p2w experience, which is unfortunate.. but it's just how the flow of things seemed to develop. Ultimately it's a players choice of if they would like to play or not, I imagine these days one of the primary things you do when taking a look at a game/server is briefly take a look at the cash shop to help determine your decision. I myself sometimes will play a p2w game/server and invest a bit knowing I can get ahead, but my dedication to the game only ever seems temporary and I end up getting bored. Versus playing something where it's strictly based on your time and dedication to the game, which usually lasts a long time. If a game advertises good and gets a player base and they are p2w, props to them. They have succeeded in a scummy different form of success, which is what everything comes down to I guess. Some form of success.

My server could be/maybe is pay to win, but to actually have enough CP to be useful you would have to spend thousands.. and I would never expect anyone to do that. You can achieve the same thing with time and dedication to the server. I make more than enough to provide for my server, and store all extra money to put towards advertising and hiring developers more experienced than I am. Some servers seem disgusting based on what their shop looks like, but hey, if they have a player base then they are doing something right.

The idea of a hub sounds quite interesting, just the idea of being able to directly see other Conquer player's feedback on a server. There's nothing like wasting your time on xtremetop100 looking for servers to only download and find out they are complete trash with nobody online. (gotta love the *2+50 at the end of their players online code) If this was actually something someone would work on I would happily provide some services if necessary. I'm a graphic designer primarily.

Cheers,
Thanks for reading my irrelevant opinions.