Found this posted over at the K&G forums, originally taken from Allodsfan:
1) Level cap – 42.
2) New location for 40-42 levels.
3) Cursed items. Players will have chance to receive new type of items. Cursed items don’t give stat bonuses. Instead they make attributes lower. E.g. helm which added +100 to your Luck will give -100 when cursed. Cursed items may drop from heroic instances bosses. Also one of player’s items may become cursed after death. Any curse can be removed through special ritual.
4) Cash Shop consumables will now vanish after 7 days after you’ve bought them.
5) New boss in Demon City.
WHAT. THE. FUCK????
Small Level Cap increase: Cool
New Zone to level in: Cool
New boss: Cool
Cursed items that will probably need a CS item to remove: NOT. COOL.
CS consumables that disappear seven days after you purchase them: ABSOLUTELY. POSITIVELY. NOT. COOL.
Yeah, I am pretty much done. Astrum Nival just does not get it. Not in any way shape or form. I don’t blame this on gPotato, these decisions are coming straight from AN. Regardless, this is idiocy at its finest. A great game is now dead to myself and thousands of potential players. A sad thing really.
I had my doubts about the F2P model and, unfortunately, Astrum Nival has proven my initial foreboding correct.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Corpse Run 
Bah sucks dude but hey at least it ousted the F2P model for what it really is. I was a tad excited when I first saw Allods but just knew not to touch it after I saw that no premium membership (sub based) was being added. As you say its a real shame.
Anyway chin up and get stuck into AoC!
Wrong. This shows that this company doesn’t understand the model.
*sigh* another butting of heads is it?
The company does fully understand the model that is why they are adding things into the game to make and force people spend. They understand the model and they understand the competitive nature of gamers.
At the end of the day its my opinion. Opinions are like assholes. Everybody’s got one and everyone thinks everyone else’s stinks. You can’t just say ‘Wrong’ everytime someone has a different perspective or outlook to you.
I think they understand the model okay, put something in the CS that people want/need to buy fairly frequently. What I do not think they understand is the pricing. If you are going to require so many things to be purchased, then the prices have to be affordable. They are not in Allods. $15 a month for Perfume plus another $10-15 bucks more for everything else you need, is not affordable. And that is not even counting all the other sundries you may want to pick up.
That is where they are relying on player competitiveness taking over with a number of people spending more than they usually would. F2P players will disagree strongly with my opinion but more often than not they have some way of squeezing money out of you, or another player.
i prefer playing knowing its a relatively level playing field, specifically if it involves pvp
A level playing field is indeed absolutely essential for good PvP. (That’s why I don’t like big power differentials and open world gank cycles.) Allods doesn’t have that, so it’s always been odd to me that they feature PvP prominently.
A further thought on the business model, though: there are two distinct F2P models. One might be called the Item Shop model, and the other the Subscriptionless model. The former is the model Allods uses, and a strong case can be made that it’s all too easy to screw it up. It’s not inherently flawed, at least, no more than the sub model, but it is easy to slip into stupidity like Allods.
The Subscriptionless model is what Guild Wars uses. Perhaps it’s not F2P inasmuch as there is a box cost, but there is no subscription or recurring fee to play, and it could fall under the F2P tent, like DDO and W101.
We’re getting bogged down in the nomenclature, methinketh. I’ll readily agree that Item Shop games are more prone to abuse than Subscriptionless games. The logic still doesn’t track upstream that Item Shop games are always terrible, but I tend to agree with you guys more than it might seem. *shrug*
agreed, we got there in the end 😉
I just took isuue with the ‘Wrong’ you started this with, we have similar views and after seeing your explanation I am with you.
Yeah, that’s what I get for posting in a hurry the first time. Sorry about that. My fault. 😉
Damn! You two keep arguing! It looks nice to have so many comments! Makes it look like someone actually reads my blog! 🙂
Seriously, I am so disappointed in this whole debacle. I, like Pitrelli, had my doubts about the F2P model. After playing Allods, listening to gPotato and even talking to a couple of folks there, some of my doubts were alleviated a bit.
Then they systematically crushed every one of my hopes.
I am now back to an extremely cynical view of any F2P model. If another F2P game comes out that is as good as Allods I may give it a try but I will go in 100% prepared and expecting to find that I will not like the end result of their cash shop.
I think F2P does have a place in the market but only in respect to less competitive game play than that of Allods. A mixture of PvP and Cash shops just doesnt go in my opinion.
Taking Allods as an example not only did they have insane prices (and to an extent still do) they are stocking the wrong kind of items in the shop, add to this they have purposely made and are even changing game mechanics to force people to use it is the deal breaker.
So yeah I agree with Tesh that Allods is a bad example to give as your average f2p game but as seen by my attitude the average subscription player will more likely that not take it as read that all f2p games are as badly set up and the market as a whole suffers.
“A mixture of PvP and Cash shops just doesnt go in my opinion.”
Yes, a hundred times, yes. It’s not rocket science to see that… heck, it’s not even third grade math.
That said, Puzzle Pirates uses a modified Item Shop model, and PvP works fine there. Thing is, there are no levels, PvP is based 99% on player skill (some hand-to-hand weapons give an edge in personal combat), and there is a very strong anti-ganking mechanic. Most importantly, their Item Shop is 99% cosmetic. And yet, they still manage to make money.
That’s why I say Allods doesn’t understand the model; you *do not* piss off your customers if you want to earn money. You *do not* design around imbalances and monetize the equalizers. Yes, you *can* do that, and it might work for a while, but it’s monetizing player frustration, not player love, and that’s simply unsustainable.
Here’s a classic article from Daniel James of PP fame. His philosophy about the model is markedly different from most Item Shop games:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/9/29/
agree but who knows perhaps gpotato etc are better off with a smaller player base (less costs/bandwidth to pay for) paying more than a large playerbase paying less. In the end if they get into profit they will view it as Win Win.
Thanks for the link btw, I’ll check it out at home
True, their numbers may track differently. Without a peek at their financials, it’s all just guesswork on our part anyway. *shrug*
That does make one wonder, though; are smaller, more sustainable games better than swinging for the fences angling for WoW numbers? If they turn a profit, I’d argue yes; it’s not all about the big numbers, it’s about the ROI, and smaller games can often be better in that regard.
Yeah, I would argue that Lord of the Rings Online might just be the most successful MMO out there besides, maybe, WoW as far as return on investment is concerned. They have an extremely stable population of players and, though not a huge population, they just keep right on trucking.
I would also be willing to bet that Fallen Earth can be considered extremely profitable. There is a MMO that cost very little to make, comparatively, yet got good word of mouth and is doing extremely well.
On the other end of the spectrum are Warhammer Online and Age of Conan. Both cost a ton to make but probably have yet to return their investment. If Rise of the Godslayer can lure people back in and people can see that, in fact, it has improved, they may be able to turn a nice profit in the long haul. Warhammer I am not so sure about. It has not seemed to improve as drastically as AoC has and they still have a ways to go. It is certainly better than it was at launch but I think they are kind of lost about what to do with it. I hope it can survive.
Either way, it is quite obvious that the big budget games can turn a nice profit but there is considerably more risk in the endeavor and none, other than WoW, LotRO and a few others, have been able to take that gamble and win.
There’s a world of difference between want and need, though. Making that distinction is something they haven’t done well. And yes, the pricing is way out of whack. (And Pitrelli is right; they should have had a sub option, probably with different servers.)
Your allusion that the model itself is flawed because these guys really screwed it up is what I’m disputing. Yes, this is a massively idiotic move. I’m not defending these guys at all.
You simply can’t take their actions and say the business model is flawed; logic doesn’t track upstream that way.
I’m with you, this is a really dumb move, and I’ve lost most of my interest in the game. I also agree that they should have had a subscription option.
but I can say the business model is flawed if thats what I believe, its my opinion. I dislike the F2P model because I feel it is generally imbalanced and unfair. I will agree there are f2p games which use the model well and dont go out their way to rob players (in my opinion most of the well thought out and ‘fair’ ones have a premium sub option).
If its a competitive game I just dont think f2p will ever work to produce a level playing field.
At the end of the day I just feel really sorry for the people who invested time and effort into the game including promoting it to an extent throughout the internet.
I also tossed this one out a week or so ago. It was just looking like they were dead set on making it as harsh as possible to force players into the CS. Even PVP mechanics are looking like CS funded players are going to get several I-WIN buttons compared to those that do not purchase.
Uninstalled and haven’t looked back. Shame too, as it had such potential.
The irony here is that there’s some discussion going around about removing Fear of Death that I saw on another blog. I suppose this is how they’ll make up the cash flow – random cursed items when you die.
What a joke; I’m glad I never got around to playing this mess.
Yeah I was shocked when I saw that post yesterday on Allodsfan. Further proof that AN has no idea what they are doing, and that gPotato is now in the business of squeezing every last drop they can from the players while they can.
I got to 37 the other day and the game is a veritable ghost town at that lvl. Usually I’ve seen the same 15-20 League players in each zone as we all lvl up together but over the last few days I’ve noticed fewer and fewer runnign around. Such potential squandered on Allods, it’s really a very disheartening situation. Imagine what the game would/could have been like if it was released as a p2p sub based game. I think it would have given WoW a much better run for it’s money than any of the recent “WoW killers” (i.e. AoC, WAR, and AION).
Also I’ve been enjoying your posting’s about AoC, keep them coming. I really tried to love AoC at launch. I’m still interested in seeing how the game has changed and if it warrants another look.
Wow! This is such a blatant attempt at milking people for out of their hard earned cash.
Not making enough money with your game? I know! Let’s throw in cursed items which will (more than likely) require them to buy some sort of item to remove it!
Not making money fast enough? I know! Let’s make consumables decay after 7 days so they have to buy more!
Wow, really. What a bunch of money grubbing bastards… Free to play indeed.
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Allods died to me during the previous round of change announements where the reduction in perfume cost was countered by increased consumption needs.I couldn’t blame it on gpotato anymore, it was clear AN were money grabbing.
The consumables vanishing after 7 days is a true game over – if we’re paying real money for this crap you can’t just take it away.
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oh and check out keens rant over on his blog, its good for a laugh.
How old is he? He seems very niave and easily lead
‘It’s for this very reason that I have now sworn off any free to play game, regardless of how good the gameplay may be. I played Allods Online to the max level yet was blindsided (foolishly, I should never have let my guard down) by the free to play model and its impact on the design of the game. So, while a great game can be free to play, it will never remain a great game because of the inevitable self-defeating nature of the free to play model. I will never, ever, play a free to play game. I would sooner quit gaming altogether than ever play a free to play game.’
……………. *chuckle* how dramatic, you would think Allods had murdered his hamster
Keen is actually a pretty great guy. I have been in a couple of his guilds and I enjoyed my time in them. I do understand where he is coming from, Allods was so great and even though I knew not to trust the F2P model, I started to anyway. And then had the rug pulled out from under me. Oh well, fool me once….
haha he might be a great guy but I just cant take him seriously. Every new MMO he is like:-
‘ this game is amazing ‘, ‘ This game is so much better than *insert previous MMO he played here* ‘ ………….. then wait a few weeks and he will have a post up whining like a girl scout who had their cookie money stolen saying the game is rubbish and isnt worth the money, cheated him in some way.
Allods aint so bad because its f2p but I shudder to think about the amount of money wasted by people who do pay his opinion any notice.
Just an opinion
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