Booster price decided

[_______________Zepto]

I will not argue back and forth. I understand your view. That is fine. I do not want to buy a full system when all I need is a bit more ram. I will wait until it is offered sepertely or bundled with shadowlands. I will not waste my money on items that I do not need.

[________________Crin]

The booster pack might only be availble to users with an existing subscription. You know, like an expansion would do. The only difference is that they are including the latest version of the game too on the CD. They'd do that for two reasons.

• No reason not to. If the extra space on the CD would hold the game then why not let the users have a more up to date hardcopy
• The game requires so much patching to the files to implement the booster that they are better off just overwritting them all.

I haven't looked all over the board, but is there any official word that a new user would be able to only buy the booster to play the game. They might still have to buy the regular game to play, but if they get the booster at the same time, they won't have to patch the game from the internet as much to bring it up to date. (Especially if they get their hands on one of the original release boxes) All the latest files would be on the booster CD.

[___________Zeroisgod]

I would honestly like to buy the booster, but i will not, and let me explain why.


A game such as anarchy online, alongside the rest of the mmporg communites that are surfacing are somewhat like virtual civilizations. With Each civilization, there must be a government to control.

In this case, the government is funcom.

Funcom, like some governments in reality push off to their population that they infact have a commanding say so in what happens in the government, when in fact the people control nothing.

Funcom will do as they will and will tell you to piss off if you don't like it.

Now, in the real world there isn't alot you can do about this, considering the power and money that individuals of that stature can have.

But in the virtual world, thus funcom's world, you can definitely make a difference.

The way to hurt funcom in short, is to not buy the expansion.

See, there's production costs, programming costs, and a slew of other costs that funcom has to take into perspective in making this booster pack.

If they cannot meet their quota, they will be forced to look for alternatives.

This can happen in a virtual world because there are not as many consumers as there are in the real world, thus a smaller amount will have a much more dramatic influence.

If even 20% of the current consumers refuse to buy the game, even with a 5% possible increase of new customers, it still will not fill their quota.

I end this with saying to funcom:

Basic economic practices show that if you treat the consumers of your product like trash, the the consumers will throw your product in the trash and find an alternative.


Just something you might want to think about for future reference, especially with swg around the corner.

[____________andertec]

Originally posted by Zeroisgod
I end this with saying to funcom:

Basic economic practices show that if you treat the consumers of your product like trash, the the consumers will throw your product in the trash and find an alternative.

Check my sig :P

I am cutting my funding for next billing cycle.

And choosing an alternative.

[________________Crin]

To Zeroisgod

First off, I am responding so much in this thread because I'm enjoying it. I'm not the first to say that the best thing about AO is messing around on the boards.

Second, what kind of drug are you on? Normally I try to come up with some constructive criticism but that sounds like you just made the whole thing up for fun. Well I'll comment on the one semi-concrete statement you made.

If even 20% of the current consumers refuse to buy the game, even with a 5% possible increase of new customers, it still will not fill their quota.

Hate to ruin your fun, but the INCREASE of 5% to the monthly revenue stream from the new subscription fees plus 80% (+5% new customers) of existing customers buying the booster sounds like a winner to me. Especially if they do that with the increased competition from SWG.

Now tell me the truth. You were just kidding. Right?

[___________Zeroisgod]

what i'm saying is if 20% do not buy the booster, and 5% new customers buy the game and booster. I'm basing it on the assumption that the 20% will not play the game any longer.

I assume that because everyone clearly knows that if they don't buy the booster they're not going to be able to play the game in the future.


Why do i say that?

Funcom, or lack of fun com, has enough trouble pushing out patches as it is, you honestly can tell me they'll be able to push out seperate patches for booster users and non booster users?

Nada. sorry to burst your bubble.

So you lose 20% initial game consumers, but gain 5% and u say its good? Your taking a 15% drop. And thats on booster factor alone, i've talked to at least 100 people in game that are switching to swg as soon as its released. Add that percentage drop in and figure things out.

Funcom needs not be pissing off their current customers, they need to please their customers while trying to attract new one's.

[___________Yorkforce]

The thing that amuses me is that Funcom think this product is going to compete with SWG , thats its whole purpose.

They have prolly been sat in their meeting room saying *how can we make more money and get more new customers?* heh .. At least im positive of one thing now.

The Funcom marketing department aren't gamers, and they never have been nor intend to be. They just are not behaving like gamers , they are behaving like bloated , mis informed , greedy individuals who are trying to play a big fish in an ocean of sharks.

The main population of gamers out there will be going to SWG, word of mouth , especially within the gaming circles , is the most powerful marketing tool available, and noone has stopped talking about SWG since we heard about it.

I wonder how many of the marketing dept have actually played AO.
I wonder how many Funcom employees have actually interacted with thier existing customers.

That Funcom coffin nail is really getting a whack by the Funcom hammer isnt it.

[Isgrimnur]

I don't live in North America or Europe. NO patch is ever going to be too big for me to download. IF the game gets that big, 99% of people couldnt play it due to lack of HD space.

Cz/Cosmik I would like you to suggest to those in charge, that existing customers, like me are given the option to login in, buy a CD key and get a email with a link of where to download the booster only.

There are many players from Asia/Oceania that play and getting a booster CD mailed out can/will take more than a week after it hits live.

I would suggest the same thing for the expansion. Let us buy a key/download site from the AO store.

Thanks.

[________________Crin]

Ahh, I see a new factoid. 20% will quit AO. Well now that changes everything. No really. That would be bad for Funcom. Once again you are just making those numbers up, but that is not the point.

If 20% of the people quit, it will not be over paying $20 for a booster pack. It would be because AO isn't any fun. Personally, I'm on the fence about AO. I would outright quite right now if I thought there was something better out there. In my opinion, there isn't. Not to say everything else is worse, I think they are all about the same.

SWG could be good or it might not. I will most likely pick it up and give it a try. However, if they have a horrible launch, or AO actually gets good I'll be back. The simple fact is that in 6 months I'll be playing whichever game I think is the best. The $20 cost of a booster pack won't make much of a difference.

From Funcom's point of view it makes good sense to have a new product sitting on the shelves and reviewed in game magazines to compete with SWG. AO could actually steal quite a few customers from SWG. The marketing hype over SWG will get more people thinking about MMORPGs and when they compare price, AO will win. Throw in a few favorable reviews about AO+booster and it could happen.

I'm not saying that this is what will happen, but Funcom has to give it a shot. To simply offer up new patches with content from now until SWG would not give them the exposure they need.

[_______________ccl28]

1) How can they fit the full client on the cd if the booster pack is "too big to download"?

2) So new comers to the game get the one-up on the veterns. They pay $20 for the game and booster pack, while those of you funding FC have to pay seperately. This is almost as good as the pioneer backpack.

:-)

hehe... good stuff

[______________Aceron]

My Question is this, Funcom states with the client included with the booster you can create a second account or give to a friend.

So now does "x" friend or second account have to purchase another booster plus "free" client to get the land control features ?

Kinda creates a pyramid of sorts??

[GameTek]

Originally posted by Luxxan
I'm a little baffled on this booster thing too. I understand paying $20 for the Booster Pack, which also includes the original game media. The part that confuses me is what we do with this new CD key. Is this a key which activates the Booster pack or is it a new Client key? Or is it both? If we use it to activate a new account, will that new account automatically have access to the Booster pack?

I agree. I have 2 accounts as well. I don't want to HAVE to spend $40 dollars. That makes no sense. I would think that $10 might be resonable but even that just doesn't seem right. I understand FC is trying to Generate Revenu but it is hard on some of us consumers already. We always feel that this game is still somewhat incomplete and now you want to introduce the new CONTENT that was supposed to be already included. I think it should be rethought out as far as the Price is concerned! Just my 1.5 cents worth

[___________Whaddevah]

WHat about our old characters and account? What if we don't want to have 2 accounts, but spent so much time and put so much effort into what we have now, that we have to have a separate account for this expansion (oops, booster) pack. Can the booster just be tied in somehow with our existing account? Ah, the hell with it. SWG here I come!

[Dharien]

There needs to be an option for people who don't want another copy of the game.

I don't know the situation abroad but broadband services are extremely common in the U.S. now. So much so it is something of a rarity to actually come across a dial-up gamer.

So, $20 for something that isn't, paraphrasing them.. too small to be, an expansion? Sorry, no dice... we've already 3-4 installs floating around on our LAN and the CD from PCGamer that I bought just so I would have a hardcopy.

A $10 downloadable, maybe if this new client won't turn my computer into a taffy factory after a couple hours or so of use.

Sorry but you can't compare this to an EQ expansion. Although I despise Verant their expansions, to date, have been enormous and well worth the ~$30. Hate to admit it, but there is more game fiction or lore if you will in one town in EQ than there is in the whole game of AO.

CD-Keys are useless for this game because of the rather loose licensing.. just don't need another copy of the game.

I think they've used pretty poor judgement with the pricing and availability.

[___________Zeroisgod]

Its not that we feel that the game is incomplete. It IS INCOMPLETE.


May i note, that if any person was to actually look at this from a lawful perspective.

Funcom is committing a fraudulant act to its current customer base.

How is it fraudulant?

Easy, they promised and damn near guarantee'd that certain feature would be included in the original game, if not by release, by patch.

In now charging for something that should have initially been included in the original game, they are thus committing fraud. For they have made their consumer base falsly believe that they would be given these feature by buying and subscribing to the Anarchy online service with no extra need to purchase, aside from the monthly fee.



Its not about the damn money for the last time, 20 bucks, big deal. What its about is another pushy company trying to one over the consumers.

This happens all the damn time, and i'm sick of it...and if you people are willing to pay for content that should have been included in the first place then you are no better then they are, and u honestly do not understand the concept of equal rights.

[Intenseheat]

They're not commiting fraud. Dishonesty? Maybe. Fraud is saying you're something you're not. False advertising is a crime, but they aren't. They are including the feature. They never said anything about whether or not you'd have to pay.

Your definition of fraud would allow this:

I see a commercial on TV. Drink/Food <x> is said to contain, say "My daily requirement of vitamin C" However, on the nutrition facts, it only has 65%. One could claim false advertising (not fraud, mind you), however they (the big, mean company) could simply claim "Everyone's needs for vitamin C are different. This has been shown in dozens of studies." Your case is caput.

And thus, the entire basis of your post is dishevelled.

[___________Zeroisgod]

fraud

A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.

So your saying what funcom is doing does not fall under that?

Your saying funcom is not decieving their consumer base by saying this games going to have all these great features when its out or eventually we'll patch it, all ya gotta do is join, and then do this?

I'm not a lawyer, but i have friends who are, and if i am mistaken then i am sorry, but i seriously doubt i am. I will check with them to make sure though.

[Intenseheat]

I'd just like to make a little addendum...

Originally posted by Zeroisgod
If even 20% of the current consumers refuse to buy the game, even with a 5% possible increase of new customers, it still will not fill their quota.

WRONG.
For a product like this, there is no "quota." Anything over, say, 1000 copies sold is sweet, delicious profit. With 20,000+ customers, they'll sell at least 1000 copies. For the original release, there is a quota, since they spent something like 7 years and 11 million kroners (I wanna say 6 million dollars? correct me if I'm wrong.) in the development. They spent 3 months and maybe, MAYBE, an additional $10,000 for this. For AO, they had to hire all dem people to write all dat code. For the booster, those people were already sitting around, already on the payroll. Maybe stick in 200 or so hours of overtime to get that out. I doubt the booster would require more than 200 hours of overtime (think about it... artists, modellers, etc., are all on-staff and working on something anyway). So anyhoo... another person that is, unfortunately, quite specious.

P.S. oh dangit I was typing this while zero made that post.

Your definition of fraud is correct. However, the definition of the word is different from the legal definition, as well as giving sufficient proof of the crime, and one must also weigh the time, energy, and money put into waging a legal battle against any company over something like this.

They are not commiting fraud. The statement was tentative anyway. They are a company and own the copyright to their product, thus anything they wish to say about it they can do so, as long as they retract/recant the statement to fit the current situation. They obviously have done that now. If they wanted to say "We are gonna make AO free forever in about 3 months," and then 3 months later they do nothing... hey, they can do what they want. It's their product. Now then, if someone ELSE was to come along and say that he was going to make AO free forever in 3 months... well then you could sue for fraud. He both does not own the copyright and was making a false statement. Though the most you could win in a battle like that would be $100, if the judge didn't throw it out of court anyway.

P.P.S. It seems as though you wish to take legal action for simply getting screwed. Here's a tip: When you buy something, don't buy what might be coming. Buy what's already there.

[___________Zeroisgod]

god, now i know why people on here don't do examples anymore.


Look at it from a business perspetive.


You go and promise your customers that there's going to be a game and its going to have all these cool features if not by release, then by patch.

So consumers say, okay, sounds pretty cool.

The consumers wait....and wait....and wait....

There's some patches which improve it somewhat.

Then you go and say there's going to be an expansion, with a nice chunk of the expansion being initial content that was suppost to be included in the original game.

So now you have some pretty pist customers, but most of them are saying "alright, i guess i can deal with it, i mean, there are other NEW features that they're going to add."

So all is well again.

Now since you can't release the expansion on time, you decide to take a small portion (which was suppost to be in the original btw) and decide to push it off as a booster that it too big to download.

And to make it worse you charge 20 bucks, which was the cost of the special edition.

Leads you to where we are now, a bunch of people p'd off that the company which promised certain things to them from the beginning is now shafting them to try to get a better consumer base.

Now, as a business man, you'd want your product to strive, but not at the cost that it would damage the product as well and people would lose interest in it.

A company does not get a good reputation by lying to their customers.

If i'm paying 20 bucks for the expansion, they either better cut some deal with the current base, or sell the expansion for 20 bucks less.

From the way things are looking ,if the booster is worth 20, then wth they going to sell the expansion for? 2 grand?

[Intenseheat]

It's their business decision to make. I'd just like to make sure you understand that there is no fraud being committed here. And there are many people that will buy the booster, they are just not being vocal because, hey, they're happy, so why should they say something.

I likewise agree it's stupid to package the booster with the main client, but if you see someone with a shotgun aimed at his foot and say "Hey man, don't do that, or it'll hurt real bad," and he says "I have a toenail infection (lacking sales) I need to get rid of," and fires the gun... well, you tried, that's all we can ask.