Just make the whole thing free-to-play. Sub prices are too high for me to get involved in this nostalgia. It just doesn’t make sense to pay a subscription to an abandoned game from almost two decades ago. The subscription for Shadowlands only was $5 a month, which I believe is a more reasonable sub cost compared to $15 a month.
Not only this, but the server will be under populated if you require players to pay a sub. Most players own froob accounts for mules and buffs as well as their main paid account(s).
Also…
I think that the progression server should just end with Shadowlands content. Do not progress to Alien Invasion, Lost Eden, or Legacy of the Xan. Later expansions only power crept gear to a point that made existing content trivial in both rewards and gameplay. The over-powered gear and perks released in these expansions homogenized gear setups and lowered the range of player customization available rather than adding to it.
You said on your stream that you would be interested in player feedback regarding how long the servers should last and when expansions should be released. I would ask that you be very cautious before releasing AI/LE/LotX, and make sure to ask the players if they think adding the expansions would be good or bad for the game.
Consider that battlestations from LE drew players away from the pvp arenas. The alien gear from AI removed countless items from all level ranges from viability while putting everyone in the game on an endless viralbot grind. Perhaps it would be good to rethink these sweeping changes and reimplement them differently. Such as perk lines that determine the best weapons for a profession and pigeonhole players into a specific playstyle.
I’m fully of the opinion that it should either be free until SL is released (since it’s effectively the same as playing as a froob right now), or have a reduced ($5) sub fee until expansions are released.
A lot of players who aren’t currently active will be coming back to play on the fresh server, but I expect a lot of them will only sub for 1 month and leave if the sub costs 18 euros/month.
I disagree about the progression server ending on SL though. AI items were hard to farm, but I enjoyed AI city raids, and it added a lot of variety to viable builds (from perks and the items). Also, battlestations were actually fun. I agree with the point about too many overpowered items being added after LE though, and AI mishes / S10 weren’t that positive for the game imo.
I just hope the period of time between each expansion is long enough (6months + for SL, then a year for the others) that people have time to farm up gear for each expansion.
Requiring a subscription gets rid of multiboxing for the most part. It also gets rid of cred sellers with a little policing. A one year sub costs €109 which is €9ish/month. That is a fair price.
What they should do with the new server is release all expansions, over time, (or a select few) and have the server run for 1 year (or less) and have milestones for players to complete (not a requirement, but an incentive to join) for bragging rights and rewards (cosmetics? that they can use on the existing server). Back in the day people would brag about being the first to 200/220/AI 30 or killing a boss for the first time or getting an item for the first time.
So after the 1 year (or less) that the server runs for, they reset and start over again, thus continuing the cycle of being the first and receiving various rewards. Oh, and make AO as a whole F2P or dare I say make people pay for the expansions on the new server but that is the only cost to playing on it (granted when they release the expansion).
Imagine if they only released AO and AI on the new server for 3-6 months before reset, the twinking possibilities, what could be accomplished content wise etc. The possibilities are endless when you start mixing and matching (or at least new for a time).
A lot of older players are interested in the new server. They will also arrive and see the $15 subscription required. A number of them will then shrug and leave. They need either a special promotion price or a lower price in general. I’m happy to pay it myself, but it is kinda ridiculous for MMOs in the current market, for a game on maintenance or not.
Shadowlands killed a lot of the gear of old. Perennium-class weapons (I will always see the Agent sniper as an adult… toy) shattered pretty much every choice of weaponry for Agents, Soldiers and Fixers. Either you went Perennium… or you fell behind greatly on damage. Also it killed Rubi-ka as a social hangout between missions. Not to mention the character boosting when it came to leveling. If you didn’t pay for boosts, you still had a heck of an easier time leveling up from 1 to 200. It killed the challenge.
Anarchy Online likely has no more than a couple years left at most. I doubt it’ll see much past its 20th year. Two years of classical AO would be a good way of ending it for me. Especially given that most of us that actually played back then are not able to play much more than casually now. Times were simpler back then… today will be a lot harder to level to 200.
I have to agree sub fee’s are too expensive and yes I include those yearly packages you use to offer or might still do around it’s Birthdate.
I’m a little different as I’m a full time caregiver for a loved one so I don’t make any money in life and have very little to my name. But when I do want to play a MMORPG I like to follow one that offers content / updates all the time.
Sure everyone doing progression servers but you also have to look at the quality of them like World of Warcraft massive code base changes using the latest engine. Everquest 2 does more then just a few database changes but quite large overhauls. Not perfect but then again their company Daybreak is far from perfect these days… Sony let SOE die and well should Funcom be like that?
Then you got many old games that came out when AO did like Neocron that has been given to the community. It’s a community was first started to help the game. People donate to keep the servers alive and they have people who help fix but also add new content and changes to the game. They bring life to Neocron again.
I’m not asking for Funcom to go F2P on this in fact I want the item shops, etc removed. But I’m hoping you will offer a greater discount for AO and even the live server. Honestly your not offering new content anymore why not drop the prices? Look at games like Runescape Subscription model for a game always in active development.
Please Funcom show that your not the same company people are still worried you are and show us that you want to bring Anarchy Online back to the players not for profit and greed and a last ditch effort but you actually want to bring joy back to Funcom and their games. You guys can still do wonders.
Also please consider working with the community directly especially on Discord. There is a few database changes people mentioned that could bring life and death to Rubika and the fresh start. Don’t start a server and make a really big mistakes without first consulting the experts your players.
I think most multiboxers do so with paid accounts so i don’s see having the new server sub only having any effect on that regard.
It probably wont effect cred sellers that much either… only reduces chat spam a bit.
And about the sub price, like i said in another thread earlier, the 1 year sub is affordable BUT a new player is never going to sub for one year to check out a game. And I highly doubt that many returning AO veterans would be willing to fork out the cash for one years sub either when they already know how bad track record FC has in delivering things they announce.