Quote (sMACKTRiCKz @ 30 Jul 2011 21:25)

LOL if someone wanted to you could program a script to make 100s of accounts and just grief for you

Quote (prickster @ 30 Jul 2011 21:26)

they posted on reddit instead of the forums because everyone on the forum would just post, "can't wait for DotA2"

Quote (Pitbulul @ Jul 30 2011 03:29pm)

dont think any1 here would go that low as to grief on f2p acc

Quote (The_Darkness_II @ Jul 30 2011 12:06pm)

http://s1.bild.me/bilder/030611/7382605shot0049.jpg

easy

Quote (garbo @ Jul 30 2011 12:33pm)

Why the fuck not they don't even have rap according to rickster

Quote

Q. Will Free-to-Play mean my games will be ruined by griefers and trolls?

By requiring players to either play a significant number of games or make a purchase before becoming Verified, players will have made an investment into their account. If a person griefs, they will lose this investment. We will be increasing our efforts to stop griefing through our Report a Player system so Verified players can be confident the matches they play will be good ones. Basic accounts will not have access to the Report A Player function.

Quote (erndog87;14015791)

I read a really asinine post earlier and I wanted to refute a few things:

I work at Accenture (management/tech consulting) and I remember a case we took where the company brought us in to monetize their product (also a f2p game). Specific name and disclosures aside - I can tell you that for an MMORPG that needs to handle peak 18,000 players/server the cost to host is approximately $17,000 per month per server. It is not a 7 or 6 figure sum. Extrapolate that for HoN yourself. Moreover, if server costs were the most significant overhead expenditure then bringing in tens of thousands of new players through F2P won't alleviate the financial strain considering the conversion rate of paying players to (what we will affectionately call) freeloaders is very low. You might have 1 player buy goldcoins for every 15-20 players you bring in with a 'free game'.

And another infuriating post point made by morons that I keep frequenting upon is the argument that "the average $30 player has cost S2 more than $30 ..."

Absolutely false. You are ignoring the time value function of money (interest). Aggregate everyone together and S2 obviously reaped a massive capital inflow or float (you pay for the game before you play). If that cost doesn't cover anticipatory overhead then barring all excuses you have a shitty business model.

The argument that players "owe" S2 because their "server costs" exceed the $30 is laughable (and as I computed above, not true). When you bought HoN wasn't it implicitly understood that they would provide servers/content? Put in another way, if they had said, "Look here's this game you'll buy for $30, but we aren't guaranteeing any new content/servers for you to play on," would you still buy it? NO! There's no offline experience/lan so it would be worthless.

It's not the player's fault that S2 engaged in bad economics. Obviously players bought the game for $30 because they figured the dollar cost<utility (utility = the pleasure they derived from playing). If S2 was unable to service their end of the agreement, then who is to blame? Don't bring up the economics after the fact. Fuark their payroll - that's for profit (obviously).

It's like if I started a company that offered lawn service for a calendar year for an upfront $200. I can't stop 6 months in and say "hey, gas and upkeep on my mower exceeds the $200 you paid, and I also have to meet payroll for the workers who actually do the mowing - sorry, you have to pay extra for monthly gardening/trimming now. And I get to keep your $200." What the F is that? When you go to McDonalds do you ever worry that if you purchase from the $1 menu MickyD's might have trouble meeting their payroll? What if they show up at your door one day asking for more money considering all the burgers, fries and nuggets you consumed over a lifetime? This is not how the real world works. Renege, renege, renege is not a viable alternative.

The transaction was made upon an implicit promise which S2 is backing out of because they were too stupid to compute the financial costs. This is a very questionable practice in commerce because it allows people to mask the true cost to consumers. If S2 can't support HoN on a one-time $30, then they should have put the true price on the box instead of trying to entice players by getting their foot-in-the-door.

S2 has their head in the sand. Think about this reasonably for a moment - why did they not warn everyone of the changes they implemented today? If they wanted to maximize their upfront revenue they should have alerted us to the changes to spur more people to take advantage of the $10 deal (given the state of F2P many more would have paid for an account to secure legacy status).

And now they discontinue B2P (buy to play) in favor of their "HON store" without any recourse - why even sell $10 accounts a week before this change if you wanted to maximize reoccurring revenue? This clearly denotes that despite their present handwringing they still can't assemble a half decent business plan. Sinking ship.

TLDR: Don't F'ing argue finance with someone whose worked in the industry - this is a terribad business model.

Caveat Emptor.

Quote (prickster @ Jul 30 2011 08:46pm)

Quote (sMACKTRiCKz @ Jul 30 2011 12:50pm)

though you merely quoted someone, thats the most intelligent post you've ever made or probably ever will make

ty