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The Impending "Official" Launch of Sleuth
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Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

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.

Replies

sirgarr
sirgarr

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.

Panth
Panth

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..

LKO
LKO

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.

Seven
Seven

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.

Lina
Lina

Apr-16-2004 16:07

I think that paying players should get a higher amount, though it should be limited as well. Say x number of dollars a month= 7 mysteries a day, or something. Plus the bonus they may get with their agency.
And I don't mind if everything's reset.

One suggestion, is see if you can get paypal for donations or payments.. I don't have a credit card, so it really bites when that's the only payment option.

Or you could have it different levels.. x number of dollars for y number of mysteries per day for one month, and then z number of mysteries per day for a number of dollars per month.

It would really encourage people to pay, and the payment would help the server as well as help with the software, and that in the end, would help make sleuth better as it goes along.

Later on you may want to have banners for non-paying just along the top of the screen. (once it's a lot bigger). I know costs can be really high for the development of a game, including time.

Lina
Lina

Apr-16-2004 16:08

On top of that, the obsessive players are just going to complain if there isn't an option for more games. They're like that. You can do something for people's health, but they usually don't care anyways.

Kitten
Kitten

Apr-16-2004 16:30

In a way, it might even be fun to start again from scratch, but I would really hate to lose my identity and our wonderful agency! I would love it if there was a way to only reset all scores and skills, but at least to keep the character (and preferably the agency, but I see how that might be a problem).

Paying is tricky. I do not support the idea of more mysteries for money, because I believe high score lists should come from skill, not from how much money (or simply time) are able to invest in playing. A better idea might be to give paying customers access to better equipment etc, and give them control of the agencies.

Or maybe just give a free trial period and after that automatically charge everyone a small sum per month to play. Small enough not to be an obstacle. In know this might still discourage a lot of players. It seems there isn't a perfect solution for the problem.

Montague Summers
Montague Summers

Apr-16-2004 18:21

Yet another solution.. I've brainstormed through all this an thought about solutions used on other games, so here's another one
Make non-paying customers more susceptible to retirement/paying customers less suceptible to it, or have different consequences. it depends on if you want to keep the actual concept, but personnally I don't think it adds that much to the game. So here's a possibility(out of many I guess): retirement would reset the stats, money and equipment of the character, except maybe exp to keep the high scores of the characters, plus their name because most players, including me, are attached to their character names, and only paying customers would have access to the shady character(along with other extra features), so they would have a bif advantage over other players, while keeping the game on equal terms regarding case solving.

Lina
Lina

Apr-16-2004 19:15

Okay, Okay. I couldn't con Mr. Winter-summers to post it. So I will. Bleh. ;p
*complain, complain, whine*

Okay. Done :)
My idea was having certain activities only available to paying customers, and banners and (rare) popups to non-paying. Like say, the treasure hunts or say, some other activity in the future is only available to paying clientele. Then the limit on mysteries isn't being raised, and it's fairly fair, .. Or some of the best items only available to paying members.

Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

Apr-16-2004 19:38

It seems like denying non-paying players access to the shady character is even less fair than giving them less daily plays. Of course, it could prove to be pretty convincing enticement to pay... Hmm.

OK, how about rates. Assuming that there will be some kind of in-game advantage to becoming a paying subscriber (seems like an appropriate term), how much would be reasonable? I'm thinking $5 a month. Maybe with options to subscribe for more than one month at a discount rate.



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