http://www.topmudsites.com/vote-gemstone.html

first of the month

all the voting in the world isn't going to do anything if what comes with a basic subscription isn't reexamined. We've done our part and voted like you asked.

I guess I just don't see people flocking to Gemstone simply because the price drops or they add more character slots. Sure more people would try the game at $5 per month and some would stay, but do you honestly expect that you would see 3,200+ people on-line all the time to make up for the lost revenue they were getting at $40 per month for premium accounts (I assumed 400 premium accounts as a rough number for comparison)? And that's just to break even. Now consider existing staff and resources will be stretched even more to accommodate these additional players (with no net revenue gain at this point).

This just doesn't seem realistic for such a niche market these days.

Eliminating the premium account (by providing all the perks at basic pricing) will likely just produce less revenue for the company even if it draws in some new players.

I'm all for new and more players but I think we need to find a different route to get there.

-- Robert

I was responding to TRINITIS2's post who seems to be arguing for making all of the premium benefits available with the basic account fee. To be fair, they didn't suggest $5 per month account fees but it was my way of trying to make a slightly extreme example that making the game cheaper (offering more at the expense of current revenue) wouldn't necessarily achieve the desired outcome.

>> I understand that in GS, we get invested in our one character, but from a simple price point perspective, the basic account is severely lacking. You don't get full access to the game (zones you cannot access/enter/use), you don't get full benefits of the game (storage space, multiple characters) and to get access to events, you're expected to pay even more. Events happen in the other major MMORPGs for free, some of them almost monthly.

I don't want to play Gemstone with 3,200 other people on-line either! :-) At least not in its current state.

On the multiple characters per basic account (lets say 3) I wonder if that would really be enough to 'tip the scale' very much and on the other side, and if it wouldn't result in some lost premium accounts (due to downgrades). Do people really try the game, become enchanted with it, and then go "You know, if only I could have a couple more characters I would stay but since I can't...". And do people really use number of characters that come with the account as a consideration criteria to try the game out? Maybe a couple extra character slots would make a huge difference in the number of players that decide to try the game out and decided to stay.

As to why vote? Vote because you love the game and have seen new players come into the game as a result of Gemstone moving up on the page. That's why I do it.

-- Robert






You raise your heel high, bringing it down solidly on a severed troll leg's foot!
The severed troll leg howls in pain, clutching its toes!

I was not requesting we move the premie perks to basic accounts. I was simply making a point that most current generation MMO's don't have a tiered access to their game when it comes to content. Its one of the items on the list of reasons why my friends have not made the jump to try out GS. The first of that list being $15/mo for a single character.

I don't expect premie perks to be given to basic, but some love given to the basic sub at $15 / month would be nice. I'd rather see something like :

Basic - 10 characters
Premie - 20 characters + current premie perks
Plat - unchanged from current.

Keep all the costs the same.

That seems like a more reasonable account system too me. I'd also offer a 1 or 2 character account for like $5. This would catch those people who like GS, but are not interested in paying $15/mo for a MUD. They would not be paying normally anyways, so $5 is $5 more then they were handing over previously.

<Maybe a couple extra character slots would make a huge difference in the number of players that decide to try the game out and <decided to stay.


It could easily make a difference for new players, they would be able to try out a few character professions for 10 or 20 levels without having to throw away one they may want to go back to playing because the latest character isn't proving to be that fun and they had only one character slot to try characters out in. They decide while the game is kind of neat, they don't want to do all those hours leveling all over again to just get back to where they had been after a lot of work, and decide to spend the few hours they can play a few times a week somewhere they can keep a few characters they may want to try some more available to go back to.


Tanivar Somakre

"Healing, you want it, you shall have it."

The voting has been helping. We have been seeing genuinely new players starting up. Keeping us on the front page will continue to keep us seeing at least some new traffic.

~Wyrom, APM

Thats great news! I will endeavor to vote more often.

Chad, player of a few

After voting make sure to click the Gemstone link as well. I believe it helps the outbound number.

Chad, player of a few

I've got the link saved on my bookmarks bar under my gemstone folder. It takes about 2 seconds for me to load the page and click on the link so it's really not much effort to do this.

It's great if being on the first page is bringing in new players, but as someone said, those players may not necessarily stay very long. Would be nice if Simu made a few tweaks rather than just maintain the status quo.

<You cane type VOTE GS4 in game to grab the link. But we can put it on Facebook and Twitter again.

<~Wyrom, APM


Good to know. I don't use Facebook or Twitter being not prone to babbling personal info to the world. <chuckles>

Have to make this part of my log in process right before 'who full'. :)



Tanivar Somakre

"Healing, you want it, you shall have it."