devtrackers.gg
The cost of a subscription to play Ashes of Creation for one month's worth of time is planned to be $15 a month. Steven has said that he wants to put in all kinds of security measures to prevent RMTing and bots from polluting the competitive integrity of our MMOs. But, anyone who has had any actual contact with the competitive scene in MMORPGs knows just how prevalent RMT is, and the extent to which players will go to bypass security measures.
I'm a competitive person. When I participate in any kind of competitive sport it's expected that the organizer of an event will not only try to prevent cheating, but will more or less be successful in doing so. That is the standard on the competitive e-sports scene as well. But unfortunately, that's not the expectation for MMOs.
I'm glad that Steven is using a portion of our subscription fee to pay in-game GMs, honeypot schemes, etc. But I'm extremely doubtful that the kinds of people who participate in competitive MMORPGs won't find a way around it. I don't trust the integrity of the competitive scene in any MMO, and if you do boy do I have a bridge to sell you.
I value that competitive integrity. It is worth a price to me. It's not Intrepid's fault that cheaters exist. Because of all that, I am more than willing to pay a higher cost per month for additional security measures to try and keep the integrity of my server's competitive scene. I would be willing to pay an extra $10 per month to pay for additional in-game GMs, but what if they just made it an extra $5?
At $5 per month extra per player on a "competitive server", with 15,000 players starting out on the server, Intrepid would gain $75,000 extra per month, or $900,000 per year. That means they could afford to have 18 additional GMs on that server with a $50,000 salary that's work from home. 18 extra in-game GMs for a single server would provide additional security that I'm sure most competitive people will be satisfied with. The goal isn't to ensure there's no cheating possible, but to severely curb cheating. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good and all that.
You could have numerous competitive servers based off demand. And my suspicion is this kind of added security is very much in demand. But anyway, that's my pitch. Let me know your thoughts about the idea.
I'm a competitive person. When I participate in any kind of competitive sport it's expected that the organizer of an event will not only try to prevent cheating, but will more or less be successful in doing so. That is the standard on the competitive e-sports scene as well. But unfortunately, that's not the expectation for MMOs.
I'm glad that Steven is using a portion of our subscription fee to pay in-game GMs, honeypot schemes, etc. But I'm extremely doubtful that the kinds of people who participate in competitive MMORPGs won't find a way around it. I don't trust the integrity of the competitive scene in any MMO, and if you do boy do I have a bridge to sell you.
I value that competitive integrity. It is worth a price to me. It's not Intrepid's fault that cheaters exist. Because of all that, I am more than willing to pay a higher cost per month for additional security measures to try and keep the integrity of my server's competitive scene. I would be willing to pay an extra $10 per month to pay for additional in-game GMs, but what if they just made it an extra $5?
At $5 per month extra per player on a "competitive server", with 15,000 players starting out on the server, Intrepid would gain $75,000 extra per month, or $900,000 per year. That means they could afford to have 18 additional GMs on that server with a $50,000 salary that's work from home. 18 extra in-game GMs for a single server would provide additional security that I'm sure most competitive people will be satisfied with. The goal isn't to ensure there's no cheating possible, but to severely curb cheating. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good and all that.
You could have numerous competitive servers based off demand. And my suspicion is this kind of added security is very much in demand. But anyway, that's my pitch. Let me know your thoughts about the idea.