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Apr-15-2004 12:07

The time is approaching for an end to the Beta testing phase of Sleuth, and some kind of relaunch of the game. I plan on continuosly tweaking and adding to the game, but we've fixed most of the big bugs, and I think the game is pretty well balanced now.

I don't have a hard date for a launch, but I'm leaning towards early May. There are a few ways we can handle this, but I want to get input from some of you. I have two big questions:

1) Should we reset the character database and make everybody start from scratch, or not? There have been a lot of bugs and expoits that were open earlier in the game that no longer are. Also, I've recently made an adjustment to slow the rate at which high level characters acrue skill points. In the interest of fariness, it seems like we should reset the database, but please voice your opinions here.

2) How are we going to pay for better hosting? As you may have noticed, I've been periodically turning off new user registration, in an effort ot hold down traffic. I'm taking steps to move the game to a more professional hosting environment (it's already partially on a new server). This is going to be fairly expensive, so the game will need to bring in some money to pay for that. Any additional money would allow me to spend more time adding game content. I welcome any ideas for how to bring in revenue. Although the prefered method would obviously be to sell advertising space on Sleuth, I don't think that's realistic considering our traffic dynamics. That is, online advertising seems to work better for sites with a lot of unique daily visitors, each of whom only spends a few minutes on per session. Our traffic tends to be a smaller number of unique users who return often and play a lot each month.

Apr-17-2004 09:37

Actually, it would be pretty neat to have contests. You could give everyone who signs up the same skill set and the same experience at the beginning of the week, and at the end of the contest, return them to their old skill set and experience. By setting both skills and experience, it would be a lot of fun.

Personally, I'd like to re-do my character, now that I know more about the game. Could you give an option of re-spending the skill points if someone wants to simply "start over" ?

Apr-17-2004 10:31

Personally I'd be fine with you knocking down a lot of skills and choosing for me, or I could tell you which ones I picked up most recently. Don't know how many other people would share that sentiment.

HAHAHA on the plus side, Chicago Detective Agency could become Manhattan Detective Agency. Although actually I still like the name Chicago...

Apr-17-2004 10:31

Personally I'd be fine with you knocking down a lot of skills and choosing for me, or I could tell you which ones I picked up most recently. Don't know how many other people would share that sentiment.

HAHAHA on the plus side, Chicago Detective Agency could become Manhattan Detective Agency. Although actually I still like the name Chicago...

Apr-18-2004 11:37

I had to lay low for a while but I'm back now. I don't really want my character reset (surprise!)but if it's needed to restart the game, so be it.
:-D I would certainly want to be able to keep my identity at least.

I would rather suffer banners than pay but I suppose I could shell out a couple bucks for a registration fee.

Apr-18-2004 14:35

Unfortunately, I don't think advetisement is a realistic option. I'm going to try some kind of subscription deal.

I'm still open to not resetting the character database, if that's what most people prefer.

Apr-19-2004 03:38

i would really like to keep my character. offering paying players more mysteries and equipment sounds pretty fair to me.

Apr-19-2004 07:38

Donation > make every one pay

Apr-19-2004 09:14

Should you at least try it with donations for a while before moving to actual pay to play (even if only in part)?

I must be weird - I don't find starting over too hard a thought. The only thing I'd be upset to lose is my name. Maybe it's because I'm quite near the top in the game and starting to wonder if one day I'll run out of things to do. Be that as it may, I think starting over could be refreshing.

Apr-19-2004 12:26

Can you just reset the character database, but leave the login info the same? (So that we don't lose our characters)..

Apr-19-2004 13:00

I've talked to a couple of people recently who run online games. There are some that take in enough from donations to cover hosting, but in most cases, those "donations" are really very similar to premium subscriptions, in that the donators get some kind of in-game advantage or bonus content. A case like that is AdventureQuest, where people who donate are given the title of Guardian, and get a lot of extra stuff in the game and dedicated guardian only times on the server (which i find more annoying than most schemes).

Anyway, I think I'd rather just call a duck a duck and use the term "subscription", even if people aren't required to become subscribers in order to play.

Also, that way, people who pay can expect a certain level of service. For instance, if I accept donations, and then just decide that I can't be bothered to pay my hosting fees anymore, the donatotors are going to feel ripped off. However, as long as there are paid subscriptions active, I would be legally bound to keep the service up or provide refunds. Money always makes things more complicated.