Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Sleuth Talk

May-6-2007 17:10

When you suscribe, you can save money and start an agency... You can get the gear you want, the equipment you want, even the players you want to make it your own. If your suscribtion runs out, you can still stay there and use your equipment, your message board, and most of the perks of being in an agency.

If you save money and buy some tough gear, it's nice, it fits your detective just right. It's nice that you have invested in something good. Now if your suscribtion runs out, you still have the gear... No one comes over to you and says, sorry buddy but even though you paid for that, you can't use it anymore...

Well, I got the shock of a lifetime today. My suscribtion ran out today and I logged in as usual to go and see my message board in my appartment to see that I'm not allowed to go in as i'm not subed anymore...Now i've invested over a million dollars in my place to make it my own, unique style. It fits my detective to a tee. To make it worst, I have numerous items stored in my appartment worth a lot of money. The issue is not the resubing, as I'm planning to resub shortly but I feel that I was robbed here. I could have understood having my case file blocked like an agency but no access???

I can't help to feel like this is a double standard. It's ok if you do that with an agency but not with an appartment...I already have my answer from the Admin but frankly, i'm really disapointed in his response... I guess i could'nt keep this inside and needed to put it out there to see what the community thought.

Thanks for listening,

Raven.

May-7-2007 11:35

I can still kick ass with a stick.

May-7-2007 12:28

Perhaps an email the week before the subscription runs out?

Something along the lines of:

"Please be aware your subscription is about to expire. You will loose all access to premimum content such as Traveling, Case Files, Apartments and the many other enchancements that subscribing brings you.

We hope you renew soon."

May-7-2007 12:32

My two cents:

There are a lot of free games out there with just us much if not more to offer than Sleuth.

There are a lot of games out there that are free that are as good as, or better than Sleuth AND have premium content that you can subscribe and/or pay a donation for that is not taken away from you -because you paid for it.

I think this encourages me not to resub rather than to continue subbing. In fact, due to the repetiveness and things like this, I will not be resubbing and will not be recommend anyone else too.
I've spent more than 7 years in the service industry and was always told, "It's the customers that pay your wages."

In saying all that, yes the subs are reasonable but once you have subbed as long as someone as Dark Raven, you deserve some credit and recognition.

I think it stinks quite frankly.

May-7-2007 13:29

Ran you do get an e-mail before your sub runs out. I get one every time my subscription is up for renewal.

May-7-2007 15:46

Ran,

Ms Helen Corning is right, you get an email the day before your subscription lapses. I suppose it makes sense to warn a little earlier than that so people can plan ahead. We try not to bug people by email too much, so we're kind of conservative in terms how/when we notify by email.


LCR,

We try to be as accommodating to unsubscribed people as possible, because we want a lot of people to enjoy the game. We essentially make no wages from Sleuth right now. It's really just covering its own expenses.

It does make me sad that we put in all of this work and emotion into this game, yet some people who play the game insult us and the product and our efforts to at least ensure that Sleuth can remain a viable project. I really hate fighting with people that I care about like this.

Our primary responsibility lies with our paying subscribers. We agree to offer them good service and a fun experience through the length of their subscription. If we could afford to be more generous to unsubscribed players, we would.

May-7-2007 17:41

^ well that sucks! Not What Ben has said, but that he had to say it, and feel it.

All the good, truly rewarding, joyful things [and they are too numerous to mention] that Sleuth has given me will *always* outweigh the minor petty things that annoy me.

I would hope I'm not in the minority.

May-7-2007 17:46

You're not SS. :)

Honestly, I've been part of this community (an overly active part, some would say lol) for a year now. I've seen many people come and go over that time, heard stories about the "old days" and how things used to be, how they've changed, and what's better and worse about it.

Ben, Sunny, and therefore the game, have had to change and adapt to getting a lot bigger, better and with more active players. We can't expect the place to always stay the same, nor should it have to. In the year that I've been here, I've seen two new cities, villain hunts, been part of the first player organized expansion, and really immersed myself in the community and enjoyed every second of it. All great changes, if you ask me.

Being that I'm friends with a lot of the older players here, I have a somewhat better understanding than some newer people about how they feel about the changes. But I think coming back to a game that you don't really play and directly attacking Ben for his decisions regarding the game that wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for him is in really poor taste and I think its obvious he was hurt by it for him to post like he did.

I just want to publicly say that I would go along with any decisions Ben and or Sunny had to make to keep this great game going. I'm not going anywhere til they boot me out on my whiny ass :)

May-7-2007 17:52

I like the fact that subscribers get the perks. And I dont think you were robbed Dark Raven. I hope when you re-sub all your things you put in your apartment are still there. If they werent.. THEN I might say you were robbed.

The subscription price if very very reasonable and I look at it like my tiny little investment into keeping this great game going and hopefully getting some upgrades and expansions that I can use my wasted skill points on!
:-)

NOT COMPLAINING, just hoping.....

May-7-2007 18:16

ooh good thinkin' roamie

P.S. I'd like a pony please :)

May-7-2007 18:33

While I appreciate the supportive words, I really wasn't fishing for sympathy. I was just trying to be clear about where we are currently at with Sleuth.

We really like doing this, and most of our interactions with Sleuth players have been really positive experiences.

We believe that Sleuth has a bright commercial future ahead of it and we partly view the work we put into it as an investment in that future.

That said, we personally fund Sleuth and do not have deep enough pockets to run things at a financial loss. Therefore, Sleuth needs to pay its own costs, and nearly all of Sleuth's revenue comes from subscription fees.

I'm sure everybody has their own ideas about what the right way to Sleuth is, and many of those suggestions have been useful in the past, but what we are trying to accomplish is actually a very difficult thing to do. For all of the press that casual games and web gaming has gotten recently, the number of commercially successful browser games is shockingly short and the number of large companies that have lost money in this sector is quite long.