Staunchest supporter turned most ardent critic of Allods online Keane sums up his anger in a recent blog entry: None of us can afford to pay $50-$75 per month to PvE at level 40. If that really is the amount that would be required to sustain a serious end game player then the whole apoplectic furore over the Allods cash shop is naive in the extreme. We have always known that serious players of a free to play game have to spend more than the $15 per month sub typical cost of subscription games. This has to be the case because most players don't pay a dime so serious end game players need to pay substantially more. In a much quoted Gamasutra feature Puzzle Pirates head man Daniel James revealed that the average revenue per paying user of the free to pay verion of Puzzle Pirates is just under $50 per month. How could people expect to pay less for a full featured free to play like Allods?
I bought a gaming mouse yesterday a Logitech G300, here my initial thoughts. What is a gaming mouse? There are a wide variety of devices available classified as gaming mice but a few features seem common: 1. Wired rather than wireless: Although some high end models are wireless wired connections are just better and faster than wireless so most gaming mice stick with wired. As a bonus wired mice don't need batteries so the mouse is lighter. 2. High response rate: 1 to 2ms response rate so the mouse immediately responds to input. 2. High DPI. Gaming mice invariable boast high DPI numbers from 2,000 DPI upwards. This makes the device very responsive to the smallest movements. 3. Adjustable DPI . High DPI improves responsiveness but reduces precision so gaming mice generally allow you to adjust the DPI down for precise work such as pulling off headshots in sniper mode. Generally the mouse allows dpi to be changed on the fly by pressing a button. 4. Extr
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It seems a surprisingly high figure at first but it is really only 3x the normal subscription price. Given that (far) less than a third of players pay anything at all it averages out at mush less than a normal sub per user.
I saw the references to the auction house in Gpotato's communication but I didn't really understand the significance until I read your comment Tesh. Like you I don't buy it though - if every high level player needs cash shop items to survive then the prices on the AH are likely to be astronomical.
Heartless you make a very good point. Daniel James says that only 5000 of their millions of registered players pay anything in any one month an d the average spend is $50. I assumed it was the same 5000 people every month but perhaps it isn't. Perhaps a much larger group of people make periodic payments of £50 or so every few months. Obviously if more people pay something then the average spend per paying user can be less to keep the game viable.
One interesting number to note it that he feels $3 per month per user (including paying and non paying) would be enough to make a flash game viable. Allods feels like a bigger more expensive game than Puzzle Pirates though and it needs its own servers etc - so perhaps that number needs to be higher for Allods.
so, SO wrong. I play DDO as a 'freemium' player - I paid about fifty bucks in the few few months to buy content, and after that I've maybe spent $5 per month tops. And its a great game with a hugely growing population and regular new content.
Allods looked like being the same, and then they released a cash shop which actively drives players away because of the business model they use.