No more trial weeks

[MANDOBLE]

IMO, this free period is somewhat harming the game. And, while being a good marketing move, it opens the door to a wide range of "predators".

IMO, there are three ways to solve the problem:
1 - No more free trial weeks.
2 - Ilimited free time, but only as espectators. The player is limited to join flights.
3 - 2 free weeks, but the player's weapons do not harm at all. They can fire and hit, but no damage packets are processed from their planes and their plane icons are marked with an asterisk. Due they are unarmed, killing them is rewarded only with an assist. At least, they'll be useful recon pilots  .


IMO, points 2 and 3 give the player more than enough data to decide if he is interested in the game to subscribe (payment) or not.

In any case, dont give those players full control of the game features at ALL cost.

Uh! And I know there are "predators" paying for the game, but I want to believe they are an insignificant minority.

[Pepe]

Has bailado las letras...es petardos, no predators  

(Srry for spanish, dunno how to translate)

On the thread....whatever 2 or 3, I strongly support #1.

Cheers,

Pepe.

[Caligula the one and only]

Man, don`t ever think about starting a business.....

[MANDOBLE]

Pepe, I'm not referring to "petardos", you know very well I'm refering to real "predators" (foro del 101). I would be very happy if they were ony "petardos".

[TheWobble]

yea...I for one know many people who would pay the highest price on the fight sim market today for something they havent even been able to try yet...NOT

[straffo]

 

Originally posted by Pepe:
(Srry for spanish, dunno how to translate)

No need to translate event a losy spanish speaker like me can got it  
It's right they blow nicely in my gunsight (may my Hispano never fail and always be in the way ...)

[MANDOBLE]

TheWobble, I suggest you to read the entire message content, not only the topic. Alternatives 2 and 3 give the player enough feeling to determine if it is good enough to pay for it.

Straffo, in spanish there is a "said":
"A buen entendedor, pocas palabras bastan". The translation is something like:
"Few words are enough for those who can understand".

With the term "predators" I'm not talking about pilots with no experience, in fact, I'm not talking about what we can consider pilots.

[This message has been edited by MANDOBLE (edited 04-05-2001).]

[Antix]

I think identifying newbies with an asterisk would be an incredible mistake... Imagine the constant slaughtering of newbies simply because seasoned C-hog dweebs would wiggle in their seats laughing hysterically, assist or not.

Lets take a look at why Hitech probably never went this direction when he created the trial period with full kill privis:

Combat Flight Sim Junkies and Newbies alike want to see the plane go down in flames, thats the addicting part. There is certainly nothing addicting nor exciting about seeing "hit sprites" whilst the plane flys away unarmed while you're out there, now ammoless with 86 C-Hog dweebs chasing your asterisk-marked butt all over the sky! WOW WHAT A GREAT DEMO! I think not.

And what about the people who download, hop in, start their trial and didn't read the manual... "How come I can't shoot someone down?!?!?!" How many newbies would you like to explain it to repeatedly? "You're a trial dweeb, your shots don't hurt anyone, pay to play!"

It would all lead to many unanswered questions, and persecution.

you give a full demo, or none at all. And I don't think Hitech is going to remove it anytime soon, it helps him make money.

[Pepe]

Caligula the one an only,

This is not a starting business. This is an ONGOING one, with more than a year spawn....and this if we forget about AW, WB, CK and similar concepts. People coming here (at least a majority of them) know what they should expetc. Maybe not every single aspect, but definitely the fundamentals.

With regards to your advise, you better not start a business yourself, as well. There is lots of creativity involved in such a task, and your comment do not show a great deal of that.  

Wobble,

That is exactly what Mandoble proposes. Give them a "flavour" of what they can expect, but trying as well to relief the paying customers of the pain that sometimes the freebies are.

You know, let aside the hack issue (on this particular I honestly think Htc. KNOWS how to run their business. Period), what amount of noise these people make in the Arena, from time to time. I think that the whole point make sense. If you want to have a flavour of what this game is about, I think #3 is fair enough.

Maybe we should start asking if freebies are perceived like a problem, as they are today.

Cheers,

Pepe.

[Pepe]

Reading Antix's post, that would be a problem, yes. But, I'm just toying with the idea, that freebies could have a test AH program, where they are not able to really kill anyone, just have inflicted damage info on their screen, without actually damaging any con, and on the receiving side, act like drones in offline mode. Their flight model would be always perfect, but reflect damage graphically. And when ded, not return to tower, but spawn somewhere far (if you want to make it sophisticate, near where action might be). On kills awards, what Mandoble says, only assists. Basically you would have online drones. Not very challenging, but, as well that would refrain the average skilled Quakebirder from constantly kill the newbie.

Just my borrowed €.02

Pepe

[Duckwing6]

?? what's your gripe with folks that are o  a 2 week trial ?? Seems as if some of fear them ..

I think it's good if you have a good influx of fresh folks around the clock and all the proposed options wouldn't work for the Obvious flaw of:

Would you like to just sit and look someone else kill another plane while you can't ?
A Multiplayer on-line game can best be demonstarted by actually playing it.

And as for people abusing the 2 week trial system, that's HTCs decision and i guess they've long figured the pros outwights the cons by far.

DW6

[garrido]

Hola amigos (hola Man cibergay).
Vereis, muy a menudo entro en la Arena gratuita H2H, y simpre hay multitud de jugadores, no es esto suficiente para los que quieran saber aproximadamente como es el juego en la MA?
creo que si, que con esta opcion aumentandola a quizas 12 o 16 jugadores en H2H les podria dar una idea bastante buena del juego On-line.
Nadie se sentiria ofendido por ser solo espectador o estar marcado como "novato en pruebas" durante 2 semanas.
Y se evitaria los posible hacker's que, suponemos, utilizan las 2 semanas de prueba en la MA para hacer daño al resto de jugadores.
Si el que hackea el juego es alguien que paga su cuota solo se le pueden decir 2 cosas IMBECIL y MAL DEPORTISTA.
He dicho XD
Saludos

Supongo

P.D.: que una arena de 200 jugadores no tiene nada que ver con una de 16 es muy cierto, pero ojo, en la MA se suele combatir en furballs no mayores de 10 aviones, si, existen de mas, pero no es tan habitual.

[Pepe]

Translation

[Saintaw]

Limit them to fly the Zekke or the C202  

I personaly have no problems with "2 weekers". new friends & new targets always welcome here...


------------------
Saw
[MASS]
   
"I am distracted when I talk to my privates".
Wobble


[This message has been edited by Saintaw (edited 04-05-2001).]

[MANDOBLE]

Garrido post translation:

Basically, Garrido thinks that H2H alone, with 8-16 players limit, is more than enought for new players to have a clear picture of how is this sim.
In the other hand, he thinks that being an espectator or being marked (icon) as "trial pilot" for 2 weeks doesn't offend anybody. And that with any of these systems, offensive, gaming the game or hacker people using the 2 free weeks would be eradicated.


My answer to Garrido: H2H with 8-16 players is insufficient to show what MA or SEA are.

Lo que te dije antes, me parece insuficiente el H2H, o nada, o que entren a las arenas pero con "poderes" limitados.


Answer to Saintaw:
Agree, I have no problems at all with "legal" 2-weekers.
Giving them a C202 or a Zeke, you could be surprised of what some "versions" of these planes can do  

[This message has been edited by MANDOBLE (edited 04-05-2001).]