As far as I can see, Paypal will incur all those fees on the seller (if FB sets up subscription for $7/month, I will be billed $7/month times conversion rate, then FB will pay 2.5% (I think) of $7 from that, plus cross-border fee (1% because I am "europe II" plus fixed cross-border fee (0.3 usd or 0.2 gbp), on top of any fees that would apply for domestic payments. That already almost 0.545$, just from paying in another currency from another country.
How exciting! The increased deck size is a very welcome addition.
Wonderful news! I’ve bought Exceptional Friendship out through next year in anticipation.
I have done research on Paypal for my day job, and there are complaints about their currency conversion rates/fees, but I’m sure you’ll look into that on your own.
I’ve done a (probably excessive) amount of thinking about having "story a month" be a storable resource, gained at the start of each month, spendable on any exceptional friendship story written so far. I think it’s a great idea, and that there are some cool things you could do with it. I know I won’t be missing any stories, but being able to tell my friends "oh my god, you have to play the story from August of last year, you’d love it" would definitely help me sell them on exceptional friendship. So in addition to that, I think the following could make that idea even better:
A) The "store" storylet where you spend "story a month" could use qualities to ensure that sequential monthly stories are played in order. You could even have a story require some progress quality (scholar of the correspondence, for example) and the player could simply return wait to buy it until they earn the quality. You’d just have to add in meta text something like [You must complete Weekend at Schlomo’s first] to let the player know which story (or stories) they have to play first.
B) Having a section of the forum accessible to Exceptional Friends where we can discuss the (obviously fate-locked) content of the stories, and give advice on which ones are "must play" for players who weren’t Exceptional Friends since the first month.
C) The store would also be nicely expandable, where you could add options to reminisce about a month’s story, pay Nex/months to replay a story, or pay Nex for a fate-locked continuation.
D) You could put part of the store in the House of Chimes and part of it outside (your lodgings?) to help players identify which stories can only be played while still an Exceptional Friend.
E) I would love the option to buy additional "story a month" credits (especially if they can be spent to replay finished stories) either with Nex or with cash.
Two totally unrelated questions to the above breakdown;
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what date/time will the transition happen? I’m trying to convince my friends to stock up via Nex, and that would help.
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Will the content be low-level, mid-level, high-level, level-free, or a mix? I suspect it’ll be a lot of level-free content to accommodate low level players without having everything be trivial to high level players, but I would find that a little disappointing. I’d much rather have it be high-level (making it something to aspire to for low level player), or have the player be able to chose their own difficulty/reward by making choices in the story (ideally signposted with something like [Pursuing the truth about Dr Schlomo is recommended for players with Watchful of 100 or more]).
I’m in the same position as Ginneon, and I completely agree with BlakeTheDrake and genesis about a "sour grapes" feeling. I know it’s completely illogical to feel that way about content that I probably wouldn’t miss if I didn’t know it existed. I know that it’s my personality flaw rather than Failbetter’s "fault", and that loads of other Kickstarters do the same. But it’s a feeling nevertheless, and makes me feel just a smidgen less welcome as a new player.
Also, as a fan of "games as art" (and I do think that FL’s writing is good enough to deserve that label), I love to imagine that, in the distant future, a FL server will still exist as some nearly-forgotten subroutine on the networked smartwatch of a grandson of a Failbetter employee, and one or two people discover it every year. Vanishing content makes that vision just a little less interesting.
Having said all that, at least this is better than "special deals" for new players that existing, loyal players can’t get. Don’t copy the banks!
I like the changes that are coming about!
re: the extra stories, maybe a way to maintain their month-by-month value and encourage maintaining an Exceptional Friend subscription would be to make them just…free for the month they appear, and then afterwards to charge a few points of Fate to catch up?
mostly, I just really don’t like the idea of all that story just…disappearing into the fogs after a month. I feel like it should have a higher value, you know?
edited by Marianne Anders on 4/23/2015
[li]I had a question regarding the subscription, and a comment…
[li]The question: Let’s say I subscribe as an exceptional friend for the month of May and beyond, but I (for whatever reason) cannot log into FL for the entire month of June, even though I have paid for the subscription. Will the June story still be available when I return in July or August?
[li]
[li]And now the comment: The writing of FL is so fantastic that it would be a shame and a travesty for the monthly content to disappear forever once that month has passed, especially for those who have yet to discover this gem of gems. It would essentially be going to waste to purposely withhold this content
[li]Therefore, I very strongly suggest that previous months’ stories be made available as fate locked content, for a price at LEAST as much as the cost of a monthly subscription, per story. There are times when I am unable to log in for one or several months at a time, and it is always heartbreaking to see that I have missed content during my absence that I cannot ever return to enjoy. If I had the chance, I would gladly pay a premium to be able to experience that content.
[li]
[li]I am definitely going to pay the monthly subscription fee to be an exceptional friend. I am merely concerned for those out there in the Wilderness who will be discovering Fallen London in the years to come.
[li]
[li]Cheers!
I would also add my voice to those pleading that new content isn’t gone forever at the end of the month. First of all, as others have said, when the writing is as good as it is in this game, to scrap so much of it in this way would be a heartbreaking waste.
But also, if the content is tied to a particular month, it would have to be standalone, because you couldn’t rely on all that month’s EFs having seen any of the previous EF content. Personally, I find continuing narratives - or at least overarching story arcs - to be more satisfying, both as a player/reader, and a writer. I would suggest that if you’re having to generate new content every month, removing the constraint that it all be entirely standalone - and allowing sequels and plot development - will make the writers’ jobs a lot easier as well.
For that reason, some of the suggestions above, such as the stories being presented in a ‘Month 1’, ‘Month 2’ sequence, or a menu to choose from (with ‘you need to have played "X story" first’ and potentially the option to buy a limited number of additional stories open to Exceptional Friends), sound very good to me, and I hope you’ll consider them.
Edited because punctuation: it matters.
edited by Lady Eris on 4/25/2015
I find the idea of ephemeral content fascinating. Like, that one year when there was sunlight at the end of FoTER. Yeah it had it’s problems (too short only 4 hours long, and completely unannounced), but it generated so much buzz that we are still talking about it two years later.
I think, done right, ephemeral content has a place and could provide an interesting diversity of player experience as time goes on. Progression goes from being linear one story to the next to branching paths, tales experienced by some on one day that are completely different from those who played the next and now the players get to tell each other stories of content come and past and how it affected them. It will really make the progression of real world time feel like in game time progression whereas the world right now is rather static and can feel paused when you aren’t around playing. I dunno, it could be nice.
Like, remember when weekly twitter access code content was a thing? It was a nice bonus bit of story that lasted a short amount of time and not everyone played it, but overall it added something to the play experience. And it wasn’t the end of the world if you missed it since it was just a nice bonus but nothing critical. This is just like that, except monthly and FBG gets paid for it via subscription. I’m totally imagining this as three of those short weekly twitter code stories (and nothing more) mashed into one larger story and released monthly.
The way I see it, this chimes format fixes the issues most had with the Sunlight. It’s well announced in advance, you will know when its going to appear and when its going away and can plan accoridingly. And it will appear for a whole month and allow you to complete it (once started) after that month is up allowing for plenty of time to get cracking at it. This could be very interesting indeed.
edited by NiteBrite on 4/25/2015
The reason this is different from Basking in Light is that this is fate locked. Although I am not a fan of no longer being able it’s sort of ok because it has been plenty discusses on forums and blogs and you can participate in that story development at least vicariously. In the case of fate-locked content nothing goes on thr wiki and all forum discussion is super cagey and laboured, at best - relying on coded phrases and PMs. This means that even if you are a Fate-paying user you are locked out of effective participation if you had real life interfere for a month.
As for weekly codes, that’s basically one of the reason I feel strongly about that issue. I wasn’t playing at the time and it’s very frustrating to come across content that I am barred from no matter how many hours and pounds I sink into the game. So from my (again very subjective) perspective, the comparison with weekly content is not at all favourable. At least the recent reappearance of De Gustibus suggests that older weekly content will eventually reappear…
[li]There could be a happy medium reached wherein some of the monthly content is time-dependent, and fits into a chronology. This gives that feeling of veterancy, or an "I was there!" boasting right.
[li]But to have ALL the monthly content locked away forever is nothing more than cutting off your nose to spite your face.
[li]There’s no doubt in my mind that there many people out there who have yet to discover Fallen London. And many of them would be more than willing to purchase as much back material as the developers allow.
[li]
[li]And I enthusiastically agree that many of these stories should be interconnected, and part of a longer story arc. Not all of them, but enough to be able to bring out a feeling of suspense, wondering what the next month has in store.
Honestly, with it being a monthly thing I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it worked like seasonal content (ie, repeats but different). Like if it branches enough, you would get repeatability straight away. Or carry over stuff from last year for a meta deja vu expereince. It’d probably make sense for FBG to repeat the stories like that too so that they aren’t reinventing the wheel every year.
I mentioned the weekly content codes because that’s how they were -supposed- to work. They were stated as intended to repeat over the course of a year. If you think about like FoTER or Sacksmas, you can play two or three of those and still have new content to deal with the next year. I have a strong feeling thats how this will work, and you won’t -truely- be locked out forever. Since this has a very strong vibe of weekly content codes but this time for fate.
(side note, it’d be hillarious if we had a Year of Revolution focused on each member of the Calendar Council. March’s story, lets go find out more about coffee ~for some reason~. Or February, time to visit the Forgotten Quarter. That’d be the best)
edited by NiteBrite on 4/25/2015
[quote=NiteBrite](side note, it’d be hillarious if we had a Year of Revolution focused on each member of the Calendar Council. March’s story, lets go find out more about coffee ~for some reason~. Or February, time to visit the Forgotten Quarter. That’d be the best)
[/quote]
Basing the monthly stories on the Calendar Council - that’s a really cool idea!
I am unbelievably excited for these monthly stories! I hope this new experiment works! :D
I play Fallen London constantly, so I’ll get a ton of value out of the deeper deck. I mean, I clearly thought it was enough value as-is because I’ve been constantly subscribing for a long time, so this is even more appealing.
I admit, I had a weird reaction initially to the idea of permanent potential loss of stories, even though… I am presently very unlikely to actually miss any of these stories. Would definitely feel bummed if a month comes along when I can’r afford the $7, but that wouldn’t be for a while. I do have to admit it might have put me off up front as a consideration for subscribing. Though I’m not sure that’s not exactly rational??? I don’t know. I mean, I was never bothered by the other retired stories. Maybe it’s different because it involves Fate, so these stories can’t be publicly recorded except for very partially in journals?
[quote=NiteBrite]Honestly, with it being a monthly thing I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it worked like seasonal content (ie, repeats but different). Like if it branches enough, you would get repeatability straight away. Or carry over stuff from last year for a meta deja vu expereince. It’d probably make sense for FBG to repeat the stories like that too so that they aren’t reinventing the wheel every year.
[/quote]
I’d love this. I also love the suggestion that certain stories might make a return and expand, or that they might build off each other. So exciting!
I don’t have the seniority of some of the posters here, but I must agree that the sour grapes reaction about disappearing content does exist, illogical as it may be.
I think making it work like seasonal content is a much better idea than creating entirely new stories each month, as this lets you refine the stories more/prevents you guys from running out of ideas and having to make a subpar story because the monthly deadline’s coming up.
Cyclical content does make sense, and I’m in favor of it, but I think it would contradict the ability to put off finishing a story indefinitely. Again, unless some "credit" is accrued. Like gaining the August "credit" each August, that lets you start (or restart) the August story.
[quote=Flyte][color=#C2B280]
If you begin the August story but don’t finish it, it will remain available to you. So you could potentially complete it in September (or October or November…). Parts of the story may occur in the House of Chimes, though, so you will usually need to be an Exceptional Friend at the time.[/color][/quote]
I think the 12 Days of Mr Sacks lets you put it off for a long time after starting it. It was definitely open indefinitely once started a few years back, but I haven’t tested this since Penestocks Wicket became a thing. I’d imagine it still works that way (can anyone confirm?), as seasonal content (with potential for fate aspects) that you can complete at any time once started (although the Wicket definitely closes after January). But the wicket is somewhat of a special case due to the Noman. Point is, cyclical content can and has definitely worked as described at one point and it wasn’t a contradiction at all really.
Why let you complete it later? Any repeating story with a progress quality (ex the 12 days) doesn’t get cleared until you complete the story line. If they didn’t let you finish it, then you would miss out the next time the event rolled around as you would already be partly progressed. This is admittedly less of an issue now that Time the Healer exists since in theory time could wipe all progress after X days if desired. But back when the Sacks content was complete at any time (which it still might be), it worked pretty well.
edited by NiteBrite on 4/26/2015
[quote=NiteBrite]
I think the 12 Days of Mr Sacks lets you put it off for a long time after starting it. It was definitely open indefinitely once started a few years back, but I haven’t tested this since Penestocks Wicket became a thing. I’d imagine it still works that way (can anyone confirm?)[/quote]
Yes, I can confirm this. I only started playing in January and knew I wouldn’t get enough Taste of Lacre for the fancier Penstock things, so I took my time about Mr Sacks. The Feast of the Rose was already under way when I finished the story, and at no point was I told that I had to finish until Day X. I probably could’ve discarded the Day 12 opp card indefinitely.
[color=#0066ff]We’ve taken all of this on board, and we’re considering making Exceptional Stories available after 3 months at a premium. So, if you miss out on a story it won’t disappear forever, but you will always get the best deal by being an Exceptional Friend.[/color]
I kinda feel like an automatic subscription (as opposed to one time opt-in purchase) should be done the same way it’s done in Kingdom of Loathing. Subscribers simply automatically get the content unlocker (item, starter quality, …) as soon as the content rolls out (in KoL, this means that you have to subscribe before the month starts; in FL, I could imagine that subscribing would instantly give the unlocking quality for the current story).
It’s basically next week! I can’t wait for the story to show up.