For Orchestra I’m working on a ton of content, and my goal is to keep the vast majority of it free, and in order to really do this successfully I can’t sell progress on it, so that’s out. I’m not a fan of leaving Nex refreshes as the only Nex action, though, since I don’t have co-writers and all of Orchestra requires my personal writing, a resource that is increasingly more available but still not infinite.
What I’m thinking of is this:
With the most recent update, it is possible to charge zero actions for something. I don’t want to do this often, because it stands a chance of eating up a ton of bandwidth and causing issues. Nex-based action refreshes work on the idea of people paying to support the servers then getting the ability to do more actions and consume more bandwidth.
What if, however, I made a premium content pack consisting of encounters with no gameplay value, but merely short blurbs of something going on-stumbling into a tea house in Tokyo or walking through a ruined museum in California? These wouldn’t cost actions, but they’d be optional encounters (toggled in settings) that allowed players to explore aimlessly with less of a focus on worrying about running out of actions or grinding, and more of finding stuff throughout the game. As they progress they gain options to explore these settings more thoroughly and have more stuff added.
This is part for Failbetter (since I would be setting the action costs to these to zero, which could wind up hurting them) and part for the community, but what are other peoples’ opinions on this?
What I’m talking about, however, is not flavor text, it’s a number of locations that would be available to explore for a more narrative-driven experience rather than a full-on game with guns and explosions and such.
Basically my question is this: Would it be a good idea to add no-pressure zones that are self-contained stories as expansions, in a manner that wildly contradicts the rest of the game (where almost everything is a roll).
I’m not sure that not charging actions would be the right thing in hindsight; I’d been thinking of it more as a donor bonus style thing but now I’ve come to realize that it’s really more of a full-on extension. edited by Kyle Willey on 1/10/2013
[quote=Kyle Willey]What I’m talking about, however, is not flavor text, it’s a number of locations that would be available to explore for a more narrative-driven experience rather than a full-on game with guns and explosions and such.
Basically my question is this: Would it be a good idea to add no-pressure zones that are self-contained stories as expansions, in a manner that wildly contradicts the rest of the game (where almost everything is a roll).
I’m not sure that not charging actions would be the right thing in hindsight; I’d been thinking of it more as a donor bonus style thing but now I’ve come to realize that it’s really more of a full-on extension.[/quote]
I’m not entirely sold on the idea of having Nex-locked zones that only contains fluff or flavour. While it may seem like a good way to keep your non-paying players from feeling that your game is pay-to-win, your paying players on the other hand will likely feel short-changed and disappointed; I know I will unless it was explicitly spelled out to me before the purchase, and if that were the case I most certainly wouldn’t spend any Nex to unlock it.
StoryNexus games are, essentially, single-player narrative-driven games on a multiplayer platform (i.e. the Internet). The actions of other players matter little, if at all, because each player is experiencing the game in his or her own time and way. As such, giving your Nex-paying players an actual mechanical bonus - in addition to more of the story - isn’t as bad a thing as it is in, say, an MMO or any other real multiplayer game. This most usually takes the form of a Nex-locked questline where, as you explore a new area, you get new gadgets, gizmos, treasures and options. As long as you don’t make it as blatant as a button which says “pay me Nex to get +6 Sword of Dragon Slaying”, it should work out well.
Whether to set the action cost to 0 depends on how you do this. If it is as a fully fledged area the player can visit (ala the House of Chimes in Fallen London), I think you should keep the action costs, and maybe even the grind. But a different kind of grind. You have to consider just what you’re offering the player. If he pays a fee, and unlocks an area he can blow through in a few minutes (due to no action cost), they’re likely to consider “I paid how much for content I blew through that fast?” If your writing is stellar, they might consider that worth the price of admission. But chances are, they’ll consider it too short, and if it offers an in-game advantage they may consider it only for the advantage it offers for the rest of the game.
That said, I did think of another thing. If it unlocked stuff alongside the main story, like having branches on existing storylets that the nex payment unlocked, or a single unlocked storylet that unlocked new branches as you advanced in the story, to help flesh out the world more? Then you could remove the action cost.
The main thing here is, you need to slow down the user. You need to force them to savor it, because honestly they won’t really do so otherwise.
So basically: Bad idea to make entirely exploration driven areas, if I’m going to do stuff like that it’d be better to make it something that requires player thought.
One thing I’m thinking of were I to do something like this would be to make a mystery that the players would have to solve, or something akin to that-there would be a hidden secret to uncover, one which potentially relied upon going between certain places (this would be a hidden change on the quality that allowed them to access this content). Would this be better?
I’m picturing stuff like Myst, Riven, Uru, or even, for the more modern audience, Dear Esther, though Dear Esther never really did it for me personally. Something that relies less on the character and more on the player.
I think your narrative plot should be earned with grind and exploration. If I want to pay money to just read, I’ll buy an ebook from Amazon.
[quote=Kyle Willey]Basically my question is this: Would it be a good idea to add no-pressure zones that are self-contained stories as expansions, in a manner that wildly contradicts the rest of the game (where almost everything is a roll).
I’m not sure that not charging actions would be the right thing in hindsight; I’d been thinking of it more as a donor bonus style thing but now I’ve come to realize that it’s really more of a full-on extension. edited by Kyle Willey on 1/10/2013[/quote]
My answer is still no; it’s not a good idea. There should be as much gameplay in the paid content as the free content that convinces them your pay content is worth it. And if you deprive a player from plot, explanation, and backstory, they’re missing out on your world. If they pay and don’t get to use all the cool skills and items they earned in the free section, it’s going to be a letdown.
Did you play MASS EFFECT? Do you think it would have been wise for the creators to not include the Codex with all the backstory that enriched the game and sell it as add-on content? If you read any mainstream game review sites or listen to podcasts, one of their main “this needs to never happen” mantras is “Don’t sell me content that should have been in the game in the first place.”
As long as you don’t make it as blatant as a button which says “pay me Nex to get +6 Sword of Dragon Slaying”, it should work out well.[/quote]
I’ve actually thought of doing this…I am planning a couple of very grindy areas that require some time and patience to get through. There would be an array of weapons in the weapon store all at increasing prices, then one nex-locked “Glittering Bejeweled Sword of Obvious Timesaving Uber Dominance” for a ridiculous amount of in-game gold, or a modest Nex donation. This would make the areas that take a while much easier…kind of like in the old days where you had to pay 50 cents a minute to call a hint line. It will be possible to get to every ending without paying, but there is a shortcut.
The structure of my game is slightly different than some: it’s not a vast rpg world you’re meant to live in like Fallen London; it’s a finite but repeatable race to set everything up to get to a finale that varies based on how you got there.
If you can find a game which charges you several dollars for content that does not include items, personal enhancements or a new range of levels to earn, then a pay-to-read content-only area might start to look like a good idea. The problem for me is that I know of no such game - with the exception of a handful of FPS games that offer packages that only include new areas. But there’s a caveat there: these are content-free games which exist only to provide a multiplayer competition. People buy the map packs for the sole purpose of playing with others who’ve bought them already. That’s not an appeal that you can use.
Narrowing the focus a little: HanonO’s concern would be mine as well. If I want to pay money to just read, I’ll buy an ebook from Amazon. If you’re charging me what I’d pay for a book while giving me less, that’s a difficult deal for me to swallow.
Personally, I’m a sucker for narrative. I’ve purchased FL stories because I was interested in purely the story; the goodies achieved at the end were a nice bonus for me, but they were just that: a bonus. But I’m also a hesitant purchaser. It’s a great idea to tempt me with bonus goodies. It’s value-added content. It encourages purchases and it improves your chances of impulse purchases.
There’s a danger in all threads like this that you’ll get a skewed sample. One of the main reasons people will have found this forum is because they enjoy playing Fallen London, so there’s going to be an intrinsic bias towards wanting things to be the same as Fallen London.
By proposing something different, you might have hit on a way to appeal to a new type of player… or equally well, you might not. So I’d definitely suggest you ask the question more widely than just here.
For what it’s worth, I quite like the idea. In fact, it’s not massively dissimilar to something I’m thinking of doing myself (although my version won’t charge Nex). It feels like an interesting way to vary the pace, and allow players the choice between pushing on, or taking their time.
And returning to Fallen London again, what did I really get out of going to Flute Street? OK, I’ve ended up with an item of unknown and mysterious purpose, but the real value (to me) was in exposing a bit of back-story - a story which is completely optional and unnecessary to progressing the main plot.
The thing with zero actions, though, seems a bit over-complicated to me. I think you’ll find it hard to explain to more casual players, and the committed players who will care about it will also be the kind who care about getting in-game rewards like character advancement and extra trinkets.
So… I wouldn’t bet the ranch on the idea, but I wouldn’t give up on it either.
So basically what I’m seeing is: Make the content and go ahead with it, but instead of removing gameplay keep it in?
Another question: What are peoples’ thoughts on ARG-style stuff? That is, something like “Open this safe” but the code is available in the lore or on an appropriately branded website explicitly for the purpose of representing an in-game company?
I wouldn’t mind it if pulled off well (Especially if the code is hidden in the lore). Making a whole other website just for ARG for this might not be such a good idea, especially if you don’t expect to make a ton of money off of it.
Coming into this late with one small comment: the only real reward for SN players is more content. The crunchy mechanical bits may appeal to the lizard brain’s instinct to collect, but we’ve had an extremely good response on ZS selling a content bloc which is effectively a short story chopped up into storylets.*
Except one part at the end. edited by levineg85 on 1/11/2013
I’m going to demo something similar to what I had in mind with the A Cat storyline; there will be a simple puzzle to find the required information (which, for this one, can involve just choosing every possible branch), though I"m contemplating having something more truly ARG.
As far as the ARG goes, I was probably going to post the answers in the form of documents either on my pre-existing website or on Orchestra’s Facebook page, as loredumps. Some would also be in the codex, if the details in question were appropriate.
In addition, the clues (for what I have in mind) would be scattered throughout the room, with several false positives. However, since the answer part involves opening a safe, whose code you have to input number by number, it would still require thought rather than random combos.