Monetization Scheme: Pay2Kill (a modest proposal)

[JinxDevona]

I think if you have a scent (not tress) you should be able to kill someone for free. I think killing others could require a payment, but it feels like it won't work. Other ideas to lower griefing would be A) not being able to kill without a scent, just kos B) no scents should be left in self defense (if someone comes and attacks me, I should leave no scents to attack back and/or kill my attacker)

[Dallane]

Hehe @Dallane is scared that means idea is not bad

How is that related and how did you come up with the idea that i'm scared of a terrible idea? Please stop attempting to troll in ideas

[Hans_Lemurson]

Wow, that's a goodly number of replies! I best get started answering these. I would have replied earlier to people's comments on my most modest of proposals, but circumstances detained me. I am glad that it was worth talking about though! (Although some would disagree)
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Me and others have tried to explain about this problem many times. They simply don't care about the future of the game and that's all. Nice wall of text, but it will be useless. They'll tell you to find another game and such things.

Oh, I know. But when I thought of this idea I thought it was far too funny to NOT share!

here we go again with the "problem". get a clue guys. Could a mod lock this thread?

Hehe.

I like the cut of your jib, mr. Swift.

Beside being a bit too much (and not the point of this thread - farming doesn't drive players away, after all) unless they change how farming works, it would be a bit useless. You get the seeds from crops, after all, so they would be sold by the players themselves in a short timeframe.

Indeed, the motivation for this proposal was to tax the activities which damage the player-base. As you said, farming doesn't and crime does.

There are more peaceful players than violent types, so if revenue is the reason there are better avenues to pursue. I personally think preventing someone from killing another player defeats the freedoms players have in game. What if someone is just being a huge ***** and continuously griefing you/your claim? Better suck it up and keep rebuilding what he destroys since you need to pay to even attempt to kill him.

People being murdered isn't what was driving people away, having everything they owned destroyed on top of also being murdered, coupled with slow dev time and updates, did.

You are right on both accounts. Your second point that it is more than simple murder which causes grief and drives people away is what prompted me to add the addendum to the end of my first post. A more complete proposal would involve a tax of sorts on all forms of crime or destructive activities.

As for your first point about the relative populations, you are right again. The violent population is likely far too low to be depended on for providing the bulk of income for the game. However, I still think that the destructive effects of their actions should be offset somehow in order to keep a viable player-base.

OP: before making suggestions like this, you really should study up on who you're making the suggestions to and some of the game design philosophies they're working with. You're suggestion will never get implemented for a couple of reasons:

1) It creates a "pay to win" scenario in a highly competitive game. In case you haven't noticed, these guys aren't looking to scam the public for their cash, but create a solid, lasting game.

2) It's mostly pointless. You'll still get murdered as everybody in the game will have this skill that wants, anyway, and they'll have it even earlier. Cain & Abel has seen more than a few nerfs over the course of development to make it harder to get. This just reverses the development decisions already made and provides the skill almost from day 1. (Maybe this is what you are actually wanting?)

0). I am well aware of the design philosophies of the developers and the tastes of the most active members. Nonetheless, I felt that this idea was worth discussing, and most importantly, funny. Can you honestly contemplate the logical conclusion of this business model without starting to giggle?
I can't.

1). This is a danger, I will admit. Players with more money (or at least a greater willingness to spend) will be able to do much more killing than those without the ability or inclination to part with their cash to accomplish something in a game. However, I will disagree on two points that this will be as severe a problem as you indicate.
-This is less problematic than if both "Weapon" and "Protection" were sold. THAT would then result in an arms-race, whereby the only players who could play competitively would be those who purchased the most "Stuff". The biggest problems arise when protection is sold; then paying money makes your character STRONGER. However, buying a Murder-Blade doesn't actually make your player much stronger game-wise than they would be without it, since there's not much more that you gain from killing somebody than you would from simply knocking them out and looting their corpse. A Murder-Blade only harms others, it doesn't enhance your own powers (except of course giving you the power to kill and the corresponding deterrent effect).
-Those who "Win" the competition in this game currently are those with the most free time to spend playing it (and also obviously who aren't completely imcompetent). This would change the equation to "Free time + Free money" if you wish to actually destroy your competition, which you will need to be able to do to become anything resembling a dominant faction. Money will now become an ingredient for true dominance, but if you have enough spare time to actually win the dominance game, it's likely you also have a bit of spare cash as well. Also, the amounts of money involved would be far from impoverishing. The deciding monetary factor will not be the quantity of money a player has available, but rather their willingness to pay. Also, how different is this from the current ability to buy in-game Silver?

(Sorry for the "Wall of Text" in responding to point #1)

2). As Mereni said shortly after your post, my intention was that buying a "Murder-Blade" would be an additional requirement to Cain & Abel, and not to replace it entirely. You are right that it would be ridiculous to have murdering available to freshly-minted characters from day 1.

I thought the idea wasn't to replace cain and abel, but to add an additional requirement, also needing a consumable murder blade to kill with?

If this could have it's own equipment slot instead of being in the inventory, it might be a good idea. It's certainly an amusing one. Someone who needs a criminal killed could still do it since one blade wouldn't cost much, but someone who habitually kills as a raider would be paying a bit more.

That's my point exactly. The cost will be fairly low for those who simply need to use them in self-defense. But those who do habitually engage in destructive acts will find it necessary to donate more cash to Jorb&Loftar to pay for the ongoing maintenance and development of the game they love so much they are killing to kill for.

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Well, that triple-layered wall of text should keep the forum-raiders at bay...

Edit: fixed broken quote that made it look like magicManICT said what Mereni did

[MagicManICT]

Don't apologies for it. It's a good read, and was pretty much what I was thinking when I made that point. I think anyone who is relatively sane and isn't impulsive would be abhorred by that. A developer that creates a situation like that really isn't thinking of their customers first.

To note: purchasing silver is an option. Nobody has to do this as there are plenty of ways of making a lot of silver in game if one so desires to work at it. However, if one would want to wage a war for some reason, they'd have to spend money. I had missed that and so it really just makes it a single point.

[Hans_Lemurson]

Hmm...that is a good point about silver not being a required purchase, whereas this would be. And there is a massive gulf between "free" and "inexpensive".

I had contemplated having murder-blades be bought with Silver, but thought that that would favor the strong too much. Then again, maybe it wouldn't, not any more that the game already does, anyway. It would still have the effect of people "thinking twice" before killing, and choosing only to do this against high-value targets, and may even encourage the purchase of Silver (though I have my doubts, since it can be obtained in-game by cotton-farming operations and the like).

Hmm...I also need to fix a broken quote in my reply-post.

[Mereni]

Hmm...

150 silver - $4.99

Murder Blade - $1.00

Murder Blade sold in player stall - 150 silver earned in game...

[CharlesM]

Hmm...

150 silver - $4.99

Murder Blade - $1.00

Murder Blade sold in player stall - 150 silver earned in game...

That would be very easy for anyone to obtain so I don't think it would cause skewed powers.

[Hans_Lemurson]

Wait, buying silver is THAT expensive? O.o

*Goes off to check prices*

[CharlesM]

Wait, buying silver is THAT expensive? O.o

*Goes off to check prices*

Yeah it makes a lot more sense to get silver through trade rather than purchasing it.

[rustles]

Lol this idea...

I'm sure a lot of people only took the time to even consider this game because of the freedom to do what ever you want, like in real life. You can steal, kill, do anything really.

The permadeath is what caught my attention. If I had taken the time to download and learn this game, only to find out that I need to pay money to be able to do things, I would just delete the folder. I wouldn't even bother closing the game.

There was actually some game I downloaded a few months ago that advertised the same thing. It turned out you needed a premium account or something to commit crimes, and I did just that. Deleted that folder.

I know a handful of people who tried this game just for the sake of trolling(stealing, killing, destroying things, etc)

And quit once they found out they need to have thousands of skill points just for the ability to do these things. Now imagine what people will think when you have to also pay real life money to do these things. What a way to drive people away from the game, seeing that this game is advertised as a "permadeath crafting sandbox mmorpg".

After how badly the devs strewed up and imbalanced the entire game and gave a large group of criminals unreachable powers, implementing this idea will be the final blow to this game.