Other players opinions on this..

These developers are working very hard, that much is obvious.

I am curious what other players would think about subscription services to support the devs. My thinking is presently along these lines...


Free play remains intact. 2 Character slots, 2 tabs in stash. Microtrans items would be available with the purchase of coins.
As an example of subscription services...
$1 per Month, or $7 per year.
20 Coins per month, and a bonus 60 coins, and 10 scrolls when paying for the year. I don't see this pay to win.
Subscribers get 2 more character slots than are offered now, as well as the current number of tabs.

Also, subscribers would be free of any ads or other monetization that might occur.
Thus it isn't pay to win, but it is an incentive. A bit of convenience that feeds the devs and pays for progress.
Here is why I wonder about this.

1 million people subscribe in a year. That is 7-12 Million dollars to feed the devs, and a healthy budget for creating expansions, sequels and other titles. Plus, that's super cheap and these guys deserve the compensation.Given the wretched, and greedy, practices of other developers, these guys with good practices, deserve our money.

Lastly, giving these guys a small advertising budget so they can attract more people to POE would in turn increase their budget.

So what does everyone else think about subscription services that aren't pay to win?

To me just the word 'subscription' feels wrong.
Free to play is free to play and that is it.

I would suggest a sort of a combined donations.
When the sum of all your donations will reach a certain level ($25? $50?) you would receive an extra incentive - for example a chest with random (or not random) item like feathered hat, smelly mokhasines or one-finger-glove.

For a start, Chris has made it very clear he likes the idea of a very high character count per account; 24 was almost arbitrary simply because 'there had to be a limit.'

Secondly, I'd be more likely to pay a subscription for Guild Wars 2 than this game, even though I've clearly committed in a way that would be several years' worth of subscription to PoE were it to have such.

Lastly...well, there has been a fair surge of anxiety on this matter around here, and naturally it's far from unjustified, but for the most part, I think leaving it up to GGG to decide and implement their plans to be financially viable is best. After all, they've got a lot more to lose than us if PoE does not manage to stay afloat.

Of course this is not my suggestion that we do not support them, only that we should wait to see what they're cooking before we decide who's going to try it and what it'll be worth. I believe what we have experienced so far was almost an over-enthusiastic young chef's delivery of alllllll his favourite dishes...but as we were enjoying them, he was back in the kitchen, watching and taking notes. Modifying the recipes. Figuring out which dishes people really liked, which ones needed work.

...To possibly take this metaphor way too far, the restaurant isn't even open yet. I know as regular diners we can forget that...but it isn't.

I like the idea of a running tally on combined purchases. It's all psychological, but if a person had spent $23 and was going to get some gift when they hit $25, I imagine they'd be more likely to go ahead and part with that extra $2.00 sooner rather than later.

It's a clever idea, but would it be for 'spending' store credit or 'purchasing' it?

We need to discard the word 'donation' for this conversation to continue, by the way.

The problem with this is the risk of people getting upset because they're buying coins constantly and there's no new cash shop content that pleases them.

Just keep it simple, if I like something in the cash shop and really want it, I will buy coins and purchase it, otherwise my money stays in my wallet. It will be up to GGG to provide content that people will want to have.

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xxnoob wrote:

The problem with this is the risk of people getting upset because they're buying coins constantly and there's no new cash shop content that pleases them.

Just keep it simple, if I like something in the cash shop and really want it, I will buy coins and purchase it, otherwise my money stays in my wallet. It will be up to GGG to provide content that people will want to have.

I think you've just stated what GGG can and should expect to be the Average PoE Player's Stance. +1.

PWI makes money the same way, and it turns into either pay to win, or "Why would I spend real world money for items that don't help me win." The alternatives are donations and advertising.

Not to be a prat, but I somehow feel that once the game is fully launched and moving most folks will play the hell of it, and never drop a single penny the way of the developers. Thus, resources are used and not replenished.

What I was proposing is a VERY cheap way of helping the company earn dividends(58 cents to $1US a month, for much in return) while maintaining free play, thus my specific proposal of just amping the convenience items/features. Thus it's not just items and coins, those are bonus on top of extra slots and stash areas. Plus, given the random nature of item drops, there would be a massive incentive to just be able to get the item you wanted, with the sockets and connections without hunting so much. Again, these are items a free player can find, but this wayyyy more convenient.

Here's why I am about this.
The world runs on money. The developers get paid with money. Their kids eat with money. Now some other companies are making BILLIONS of dollars by screwing gamers and slowly eroding the gaming scene overall.

Instead of letting the dev worry about it, I just want a dialogue about ways of getting the best of both, so that we still get free play, and GGG will always be around as an affront to the rest of the industry.
I don't want another decade of Blizzard type company mentalities dominating the gaming world. It's one of the reasons gaming is in decline overall.