You seem like a genuinely new player and thank you so so much for playing this game!

I’m going to give you the full run-down about this game, warts and all, so you can make the best decision that fits you.

::long sigh:: First, there really isn’t a better way to break this to you but that $14.95 is really the absolute best deal and I don’t believe that will ever change.(but who knows?)

I know it doesn’t make a lick of sense in the modern age especially for a F2P game but you have to realize this game is OLD like older than me and maybe you (like in RL not characters). Back in the day when MMOs were new 14.95 was standard.

In fact, it was much much more expensive during the bad ole’ days of AoL and prodigy, companies you may not have heard of. Back then it was by the hour or even minute and charges could creep into the thousands per month.

Speaking of thousands. Let me get into the um, “full costs” to enjoy the game:

So I believe in 2019 or whenever there were a pair of in-game boots (the stuff your character wears in the feet slot) that sold for nearly $25,000 US dollars. Yeah... you read that right. That’s an extreme but I think it illistrates the point.

That isn’t to say you can finish the game, that is get to level 100, just by paying $14.95 a month. In fact, it’s very easy to get to level 100 just by picking stuff up off the ground. It’s been done many times in this way.

However, far post-cap ,that is way after level 100 is reached, (you can gain exp to fill out your other skills and now the brand new Ascension skills) new so-called “post-cap” hunting grounds may alter a character’s need for gear. But nobody knows except possibly the GMs since these hunting grounds have not yet been designed.

So now for some good news.

The stuff I’m about to tell you is taboo officially but is widely practiced especially by veterans of the game. There exists a way to play the game for free. Basically, it involves the selling of in-game items for RL dollars (Simutronics officially condones it but it’s been practiced regularly since the game began). It’s in reality a healthy part of the game’s ecosystem and the game will suffer for it if it ever went away.

Anyhow, if and when you become more established you could easily sell the in-game currency to play the game for zero bucks. There is a website which I’m forbidden to mention here that would facilitate easy FL sales. I warn you although you could easily discern said website through a google search it is not as ‘prim and proper’ as the officials here and you may be offended in RL so proceed there at your own peril.

Alternatively, sales of all kinds can be done through Lich which is officially accepted sorta. Look up Lich on GSWIKI.

If you wish to continue to play the game as F2P you could get away with a few F2P items like a treasure token (which would solve your skinning issue) and exp token. I calculated this setup to about 5 or 6 bucks a month but be warned forst that takes $100 up-front cost for the SIMUCOINs and it still would pale to the benefits you get for subbing. You WILL notice the difference especially when you party up with subbers.

OK, that is the basics of the monetary costs of the game. The RP and even some festivals once in a while are all free. And in reality all you need is that EXP simucoin pass to progress toward cap. It’s a great game and remember to ask for help in-game. See you there!

Simutronics management *does not* care or will ever care about F2P. It's a dead subscription model for them and none of the other GMs will take on the F2P mantle because their pay is tied to development that generates $$.

Wyrom technically is the F2P developer. But the changes that need to be made to F2P is based on pricing and accessibility. Wyrom says he has no control over these factors but I don't think he's entirely telling the truth. He's done sales with like 80% off on items and he's altered Simucoin products before on the fly. It's just for some reason he thinks there's no profit to be made with a an actual F2P model.

It's one of the problems with having one monolithic PM who has a complete control over everything policy in terms of the game's business model. It leads to tunnel vision and eventually lost opportunities.

KRAKII

It's been mentioned ad nauseum on these boards, discord (would be nice if there was an F2P channel on there), and elsewhere.

But off the top of my head:

-Spells not working properly even with pass or is completely not practical.

-Spells that just don't have a pass to begin with like enchanting or ensorcelling.

-Crafting has no pass and is completely blocked.

-Warrior guild and other guilds have no pass and is completely blocked. This is like half the class for warriors and their functionality.

-Almost all the festivals block F2P from spinners or other activities, they basically see us as "non-players" or tourists although I probably pay $40+ month actual cash (not silver derived) into the game.

-The F2P piecemeal purchasing mechanism is clunky as heck, it takes me 10 minutes just to setup my F2P tokens for the day. Just add a bundled F2P package make it so much easier.

And if you were wondering KRAKKI why I pay so much, it's mainly because I really don't like recurring billing, in fact a lot of companies depend on recurring billing to kinda hoodwink people out of money (aka stopped playing but it's still charging in the background forgotten). Further, my play times are erratic and sometimes I just want to GemStone for 30 hours straight and then go on a month long hiatus. Furthermore, I'm 21, all I've ever known is microtrans mostly on my mobile games. Paying a sub for a game is like WoW back in 2005 smh.

Well what I really want if I was Simutronics CEO or whatever is a day pass. One day. All access. No nickel and diming. No cutting it up until it's unrecognizable. Just an all-access one day pass.

>> And if you were Simutronics CEO or whatever, what would you charge for this day pass (24 real world clock hours of subscription-level gaming for F2P):

$4.95

-- Robert

>> A mongrel kobold points at you and yells, "Mine! Chasin!"

>>And if you were Simutronics CEO or whatever, what would you charge for this day pass (24 real world clock hours of subscription-level gaming for F2P):

>>1) $2.50
2) $1.25
3) $0.75

>>I could see these three bundles being offered and even designed to permit usage being mixed. Option Three could be just for gaming in general, but retain all non-merchant and exclusionary spell access. Option Two could be gaming in general and lift non-merchant, but retain exclusionary spell access. Option One would be everything, including exclusionary spell access.


Pretty draconian. But yes, let's get this show started!

Also, Doug, you need to step outside of your 20+ years playing the game and see it from a new player's perspective. You are assuming immediate exploitation ," ohhhh gawd how is XYZ super merchant gonna exploit this.. grumble grumble." And rather just look at it from, "oh look this is GemStone IV, neat, let me give it a try!"

From that perspective, charging 2.50 a 24 hour period is insane but possible since it'll deter most enchanter/ensorcell/weighter potential exploiters. They'll just sub up 14.95, as it makes zero business sense from that super merchant point of view.

<You are assuming immediate exploitation>

In Doug's defense, players have proven time and again over the history of both GS and online gaming in general that if they can exploit something, they will. Whether it's to make their characters more powerful, for monetary gain, or just cause they can get away with it... that minority is why we can't have certain things.

Starchitin, the OG

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.

Given what I've read about the group-spell hassles, and what I know about lockers, I would never be inclined to use a F2P account as either a spell-bot nor a mule.
If sixteen bucks gets you a month of Lumnis for one character, that's about a third of a Premium subscription right there... which comes with FIFTEEN characters, bigger lockers on ALL of them in ALL the towns, and (by definition) no limitations on the spells.
Then, as you say, there's the hassle of having to first get the SC, then buy the items, then deliver the items, then actually USE the items. All of these things have one thing in common, and that is "use up my time."

I never took any advanced mathematics classes, but I can sniff out cost/benefit analyses and "reduced time suck" with the best of 'em.

.

.

And I pretty much agree with your analysis that they aren't really bending over to make changes.
Why should they? These (particular) micro-transactions are NOT a huge money-factory for them; those are the event tickets, like DuskRuin.
The F2P up-sells are basically them throwing a bone to those accounts, on the premise that getting some money from them is better than nothing at all.

>>yeah or I mean the absolute least they can do is bundle these sc tokens together, same price

I'm pretty sure this could at least be considered - but I don't know what it consists of. So, what's the price for 'everything' as you consider it?

And yeah, I'm also pretty sure the 'scroll' stuff will get tended to. Might take a decade or so, but convenience isn't the sole province of subscription accounts - just terribly heavily weighted that way.

Doug

I think he means going back to the 30 day free trial.