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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-15-2004 22:00

maybe donations?
plz dont retire evry1 i really like my detective and my agency, i dont care if some1 is stronger cause they started b4 me...

Apr-16-2004 06:13

Well personnaly I wouldn't mind if you resetted the characters, maybe it would make the game more fair to new players.. older players would still benefit from their experience in solving cases, so they would still progress quicker. As for money.. well I know that I couldn't afford to pay for an internet game right now, I know some games offer special bonus to paying customers, but I'm not sure about what you could offer.. Another solution would be to put adds in the sections like the high scores, the boards or the front page only. I wouldn't mind clicking on a few adds from time to time to help this game, but try to find adds which may interest the players, i.e online games but also online bookstores with detective novels maybe?

Apr-16-2004 07:39

I would like it if the characters were reset. I did not realize that you could not have a strictly "smart" character the way that you can have a strictly "charming" or strictly "tough" one.

Apr-16-2004 08:01

same opinion as montague summers

Apr-16-2004 08:32

If we do reset the characters, I would probably add a Beta Hall of Fame to the High Scores section, that would immortalize the overall high scores and agency high scores, as they stand, at the end of Beta.

As far as charging, what would you all think of allowing paying customers to play more mysteries a day? The one thing unfair about that would be that the paying customers would probably dominate the high score lists.

Apr-16-2004 11:30

Maybe giving paying customers access to more equipment, or to purchase skills points using real money? That way they would have a slight advantage(being able to play more difficult cases if they have better skills or unique equipment) but overall it would still be more balanced. Or how about only allowing paying customers to start agencies(i.e. restricting the director title to paying customers, but allowing others to join under lower ranks)? Okay, I hate myself for making that suggestion, because I really like our agency and I would start it back after the reset, but that would be another way. Directors could also have added bonuses in the agency... I'll think about other suggestions.

Apr-16-2004 12:20

Yeah Beta Hall of Fame.

Long live Chicago Detective Agency!!

Restarting is probably healthiest for me personally because then I would obsess about this game less... To be honest because I follow a routine now to try and solve cases it wouldn't be too exciting to come back, I'm not sure if I would pay. But probably a lot of newbies would sign up still.

Apr-16-2004 13:10

Perhaps you should limit the amount of mysteries someone can play a day based upon the amount that they pay? So we'd all get 4 for free, and for each $x per month extra, you get an extra game up to 10 mysteries a day..

Apr-16-2004 14:05

In some ways I agree that we should all start from the beginning but in other ways I'd be really sad to see my hard-earned character disappear (yes, that is really sad). It definitely wouldn't be fair on new players to have so many people (Sirgarr included) so far ahead, but I feel I've put so much into this.

Paying is another tricky thing - I like the 4 mysteries a day limit beause it keeps it the right side of healthy rather than obsessive. Personally I'd be prepared to pay a small amount given that, as with all games, I'd move on after a while, but I wouldn't want anyone getting extra cases in a day just because they'd paid more than me. I like my agency and I'm paranoid enough to think maybe they wouldn't reinvite me to reform. I also want our agency to last long enough to kick the arse of the Chicago lot!

Sorry, this isn't terribly constructive but I'm selfish for my character and me but agree that we should probably start again.

Apr-16-2004 14:31

O.k., O.k. I guess it wouldn't be such a bad idea to reset everybody, but everyone in my detective agency has been so cool, so it's going to suck to loose that. can we maybe retain our agencies but have our characters and agency scores reset?

also, have you considered donations? i know that isn't a very reliable source of income, but it's income. i don't think getting more games for more money would draw very many people in. i think it would discourage new players. besides, 4 a day is a healthy amount.