New MMO subscription solution for ArchLord

[Arthur_Parker]

Linky

Codemasters Online Gaming to introduce new MMO subscription solution for ArchLord™
 
The Codemasters Software Company Limited
8/4/2006 11:11:05 AM
 
New multi-level ‘PlayPLUS’ system to combine game subscription and in-game items in one payment.


August 4 2006, Codemasters Online Gaming today announces ‘PlayPLUS’, a revolutionary subscription system for the hugely anticipated MMORPG ArchLord™. The PlayPLUS system will enable players to purchase packages that include both game time and in-game bonus credits. Credits will be redeemable against in-game items and benefits, such as experience bonuses, teleportation spells, health boosts and many other desirable enhancements.


Items obtained using the bonus credits are additional to the standard in-game currency system and are only used as a way of enhancing your character further. Regular in-game items, including weapons, armour, potions, and mounts, will still be freely available through the regular in-game currency system.


David Solari, Vice President & General Manager, Codemasters Online Gaming, commented: “We are very pleased to bring this exciting concept “PlayPLUS” to the MMO market. We believe the ability to utilise items will give players more freedom to develop their characters in the game world and will enhance their overall experience. Coupled with quality gameplay at a very competitive entry price we believe ArchLord is the MMO to get into this year.”


The all-new PlayPLUS system will be integrated into ArchLord in time for launch in Q3 this year. However, gamers participating in the forthcoming Beta test will be able to experience the system early. There are still places left in the BETA sign up now at the official ArchLord website www.archlordgame.com


Ed Relf, Director of Marketing at Codemasters Online Gaming, commented: “We are ecstatic to finally unveil the full details of the new payment system, which we will introduce with ArchLord. The PlayPLUS subscription system will allow players to join ArchLord at a great, value-packed price and we look forward to welcoming them in the coming weeks in the game’s BETA phase.”


For more information on the ArchLord PlayPLUS system please visit www.archlordgame.com/playplus.


Notes:


PlayPLUS will offer players 3 levels of subscription & credit allowance as illustrated within the 1-month table below. 3 and 6-month packages are also available. For additional details please visit www.archlordgame.com/playplus.


Packages:


Packages(1 month) | Price$ | Price€ | Price£ | Bonus Credits | Time

Squire | $9.99 | € 9.99 | £6.99 | 1,500 | 1 month

Knight | $19.99 | €19.99 | £13.49 | 3,400 | 1 month

Lord | $39.99 | €39.99 | £27.49 | 8,000 | 1 month



About ArchLord:


ArchLord is a fantasy themed MMORPG that holds a unique competitive premise for gamers: the opportunity to rise to become the game world’s supreme ruler. Throughout this epic quest-based role-playing title set in the game world’s Middle Ages, every month one player will gain control of the world and with it the opportunity to wreak havoc as they are crowned supreme ArchLord. Boasting eight playable classes to choose from including Human Archers, Knights and Mages, Orc Berserkers, Hunters, and Shaman or the ever so delectable Moon Elf Spiritualist & Elementalist, find out more by visiting the game’s official website online at www.archlordgame.com

£27.49 a month?  Heh no.

[Venkman]

Seems to be the trend. It doesn't take any particularly creativity to make a cash grab, and it's a good way to supplement any lack of innovation in the actual game experience itself.

[Yegolev]

Tying RMT to sub time is interesting, though.  There isn't a way to buy credits without buying time?*


* I did not bother to read the whole text.

[geldonyetich]

The only difference between plans of the same rank and duration is the bonus credit amount.  Those bonus credits are redeemable for certain items and benefits like teleports and experience earnings boosts.  It's too early for me to say if the impact on the balance is worse than your average expansion with must-have items.

Several levels of priority higher is getting this question answered:

Is ArchLord fun enough to play, deep enough to keep playing, and infused with enough purpose to make it worth hooking up a monthly transfusion from my wallet?

No clue, they haven't released much about ArchLord's core features besides players can earn leadership positions by grinding the most.  Yeah, like Lineage 2 and RF Online don't already do that.  Given that about 1% of the MMORPGs ever made can meet the criteria of the previous paragraph, there's a 99% chance ArchLord has failed to entertain me before I even started playing it.

[Telemediocrity]

Did they really just call their (I'm assuming elf female) classes "Ever so delectable"?

WTF?  Do they just know that their game is geared to the "mom's basement" demographic, and they're going to milk that for all it's worth?

Also, has anyone tried some form of this game to report if it's more than just another Diku?  Does quest-based gameplay mean "interesting quests" or "Hail, kill me 50 Snoogles for a reward"?

[caladein]

WTF?  Do they just know that their game is geared to the "mom's basement" demographic, and they're going to milk that for all it's worth?

Doesn't everyone?

[Hoax]

Don't look into the whole "delectable elf" thing, really just don't...

Also looks like Fileplanet members will get access to another beta for a terrible terrible game.  If I can be assed I'll think about trying it so we can all have a good laugh or something.

[Strazos]

Technically, I will have access to this beta....I'd be willing to lend the key to someone more eager to hurt themselves with this game

[Morfiend]

Awesome.

Character bonuses tied to real money in a heavy PVP game. What a great way to level the playing field

[sinij]

I for one, even if I can drop $500 on mmorpgs, will not participate in tiered pay scheme if it gives any in-game advantage. Play-field should be EVEN, basic of any good game.

[Reg]

It's guaranteed to suck. Has anyone ever trusted Codemasters with a game worth playing?

[Signe]

Codemasters bought The Realm.  That was a good move.  Codemasters sold The Realm.  That was a good move.

[Righ]

I for one, even if I can drop $500 on mmorpgs, will not participate in tiered pay scheme if it gives any in-game advantage. Play-field should be EVEN, basic of any good game.

You're okay with somebody having more time as an advantage in a PvP game, but not more money? That mostly says something about the demographic you fall into. Just saying.

[Viin]

I don't think money or time should be an advantage. You should be able to get all of the same things either way.

[Venkman]

Time is already an advantage, in any game with any form of competition.

However, I completely agree that money should not affects one standing in a stats-based game. But I also think this side of things (paying money to gain advantage in a diku-inspired game) is only going to benefit the short-term opportunists. Just avoid these games and go for the raft of ones that are both innovative and not this base.

[tkinnun0]

Before, your choices to improve your PVP were to play more or, well, that was the only choice.

Now you can play more or pay more. I thought the accepted wisdom was that having choices was good, but perhaps a "true PVPer" wants his experience directed and simple: play more play more play more play more play more play more play more...

[Righ]

Time is already an advantage, in any game with any form of competition.

You are implying that money is not. Wealthy countries tend to produce more successful athletes per capita than poorer ones, because of better training facilities, better healthcare and diet, and so on. Also, time is money, and whatnot. People who have to work two or three jobs to feed their families have less time than well-educated and affluent students who can goof off during parts of their lives and still maintain an easy comfortable existence.

[SpaceDrake]

I can probably get access to this and LOTRO if I ask nicely enough.

[hal]

I think we've really touched a nerve here. I don't know the answer, but I think the question speaks volumes about PVP and a level playing field. Just saying... You (the community's) response is worth noting. This really gets to the ebay for items, or soebay and the perception of fairness. But its never been fair has it? If you have a job vs being on the public dole, if you are raising a family vs living alone. Do you think this is a fair basis for an in game advantage?

[Venkman]

Time is already an advantage, in any game with any form of competition.

You are implying that money is not.

No, what I was saying was that those with more time and even slightly less skill can still largely trump those with asstons of skill but very little time to use it.

Money is an advantage in the real world. Archlord, as does any other legit-RMTing, brings in the money to complement the disadvantage time already created. I rather enjoyed this near socialist ideal that kept it from largely being an advantage in the games. I support capitalism and ain't moving out of the U.S. anytime soon, but I also liked the ability to escape from it in something more interactive than a book.

[geldonyetich]

The belief that RMT evens the playing ground with the full time workers crumbles under closer examination.  Off the top of my head:

People who play a game all day are just as capable of explotiing RMT to get ahead as people who do not.  Their income?  RMT sales (assuming they weren't already comfortably well off enough already... after all, they play the game all day instead of work).

People who play the game all day are probably even more likely to buy items than a working stiff, because they invest that much more of their interest in the game.  RMT actually further unbalances the playing field in that event.

See how many you can come up with.  :-D 

The initial thought, "I work all day, so I'll buy items so I can complete with people who play all day" is at fault to begin with.  In an open-ended game, even if everybody had equal amount of time to play per day, progress would vary depending on factors such as monster availability and how much time is spent socializing instead of grinding.  It seems that an even playing field cannot exist in a massively multiplayer persistant state environment.  Even if it did, there's no basis of fair competition here.  Might as well let go of the idea of even playing fields in MMORPGs, at least in a game where power advances on the character.  Guild Wars does a pretty good job of keeping things reasonably even, Elite Skills aside.

That said, I'm not sure how ArchLord is any worse than any other MMORPG, so I can't tell how much their credit system is going to fudge things.  I'm expecting Korean grind, which base everything on time investment.  Heck, even if there was such a thing as an even playing field in most MMORPGs, they're all so shallow that you don't need to know much more than to operate a hotkey bar.

[Arthur_Parker]

Before, your choices to improve your PVP were to play more or, well, that was the only choice.

Now you can play more or pay more. I thought the accepted wisdom was that having choices was good, but perhaps a "true PVPer" wants his experience directed and simple: play more play more play more play more play more play more play more...

You could always pay more to gain an advantage in a pvp game, you could buy items, game gold or even buy a max level account.  I have no objections to people exchanging RL money for time, although I think it can hurt the game (lineage 2). If buying items becomes almost required, the game attracts a lot of farmers. 

I object to this scheme and wouldn't consider playing because it's now in the companys interest to have a long cash grind to make players pay for the higher options.  I don't like grinds but can somewhat forgive a company for a PVE grind as it's common to believe they allow time for greater player interaction and help retention.  Milking players for higher rates just so you can make more money strikes me as wrong and I don't intend to reward that idea.

[Righ]

Yep. Don't get me wrong - I'm not in favor of this, nor would I pay for it. But I had to point out that there is no level playing field. Never has been, never will be. To claim that there is a level playing field without tiered payment schemes is to consume one's own BS.

[hal]

So whats left? Twitch? I'll go out on a limb and say counterstrike is fair. Ive never seen cs items for sale. Why? Because even with little skill 15 min will get you enough credit to begin to buy better weapons and armor. But the basis of the game is twitch. You have to aim well and quicker than the guy your aiming at. Why cant we do a rock, paper, scissors That relies less on twitch? Or a game with as many builds as titan quest where you might suprise your opponent with a build that wasn't prepaired for? Guild wars came close to this but the lack of one on one or the reliance of guild vs guild locks a lot of the more casual crowd out. You guys are much better at this than I. What is the PVP game in the sky that we will all love/hate (if you don't lose sometimes something is wrong).

[Telemediocrity]

Asheron's Call has had RMT since its inception (Accounts bought and sold for RL dollars), and it's never been an issue; primarily because the game was designed for it not to be.  If you bought an account (As I did, five years ago), you either sucked and everyone just ganked you and took your stuff, or you were decent and for everyone else's purposes it was the same as if the original player had owned it.

Critical differences:  Being able to make new uber characters with money, versus simply buying someone else's.  The latter is preferrable, since it means that money can't inflate the market, only make the ownership change hands.

Secondarily, you want a game where owning an uber character doesn't matter if you suck at the game; you then presumably want a game that it's hard to be really good at, in "twitch/strategic skills" terms as opposed to "character sheet" terms, so that there's a scarcity of top-tier PvP talent.

Oh, and to respond to hal: All good MMO PvP must be twitch-centric.  Without it, you devolve into all the behaviors that are gnashed about here on a regular basis.  However, you are somewhat wrong to equate "twitch" with "CounterStrike", as if CS' character progression system (such as it is) and its methods of determining who wins in combat (twitch skill and situational strategery) are interlinked.

Also, good PvP is not rock-paper-scissors.

Here's a video example of what I'm talking about.  The melee and the mage each have entirely different playstyles - and yet, they can wield the same armor and combat is never so simple as "the mage wins from range, the mage is dust if the melee closes in".  On any given day, either one could win, with player skill being the deciding factor.  More PvP games should be taking that as their model.

[hal]

OK. I appreciate your responce. Im 54 years old. Twitch isn't an option, and never was, I'm aware of who I am and what I'm capable of. PVP is a laudable goal because AI just isn't getting it as far as skilled opponents goes. I guess the answer is I should take up knitting? Or message boards where I tell the kiddies how great the game of Hunt The wumpas was back in the 70's?

[Telemediocrity]

Hey, I'm 20 and I've still played Hunt the Wumpus.  that was a cool game.

If you're into PvP, and twitch isn't an option, what I'd think is that you'd want PvP from a game more along the lines of Heroes of Might And Magic or Worms; something where you can have interesting, strategic combat without needing to be a wizard on the keys.

People have had a hard time translating games like that into a massively multiplayer format, though.  Hmm.

[Signe]

  HEY!

[hal]

I got the wompas. Well OK, on the second try. There were no pits on the version I played on DEC PDP 8. Well like I was saying, back in the 70's.

[Righ]

The best "PvP" game that I've played that favors cunning old farts is Magic: The Gathering Online. The playing field there involves RMT and time (learning) to some degree, but what really tips the scales is the ability and the patience to analyse many card interactions and devise good decks.

[hal]

I would aspire to being a cunning old fart. You could put that on my tomestone and I'd be happy, Well OK, happier. Well never mind. I'd be dead.

[Telemediocrity]

I'm seriously tempted to plagiarize Mencken's for my tombstone some day.  You can't improve on that.

[HaemishM]

Wow, in a PVP-heavy game where the top PVP players runs the server, you get bonus experience and items for paying more subscription money? Fuck, they just found a way to print money hats on a shitty, shit shit shit game.

[Alkiera]

I'm seriously tempted to plagiarize Mencken's for my tombstone some day.  You can't improve on that.

This guy?  The epitaph he wrote for himself, as a joke in a book, didn't actually make it to his tombstone.  It is amusing, tho.  "If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl."

--
Alkiera

[sinij]

You're okay with somebody having more time as an advantage in a PvP game, but not more money? That mostly says something about the demographic you fall into. Just saying.

Time is only initial advantage, all but first person will 'reach the top' some time after others. Now money is permanent advantage, no sane buisness will say no to more money, so its only question of time when they will tie every aspect of the game into getting more money out of the players.