devtrackers.gg
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Edited Section
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Concerning the monthly subscription and depending on the price (that might be changed later) $15 per month that's after finishing the four test phases(alpha/beta).
It is sad how the price looks so "cheap" while players from 3rd world countries won't be able to afford it.
Before getting into details, I would like to give a brief about gaming in Egypt. MMORPG games in particular:
MMORPG games are the most played genre and became mainstreaming long time ago in my region. Back then, whenever you enter an internet/cyber cafe in Egypt you would see 98~100% playing Silkroad (one of the greatest MMORPG games of all time) . Sadly, after the game is dead we couldn't find a 'proper' mmorpg game to unite all the players once again. It's been over 16 years, but there are players who still play it in private servers(not as much as before ofc) as they didn't find a good alternative. It didn't even start at Silkroad, there was Kal Online in 2002 and many more MMORPG games.
I can clearly see the potential of AoC and how it could be the next mainstream in Egypt/MENA region, except that there is a subscription service.
Example of MMORPG game that is so popular but failed in MENA region/3rd world countries : World of Warcraft ($15/month).
Examples of subscription services that didn't even launch in MENA region/3rd world countries cause they know players won't be able to subscribe due to difference in currencies: Xbox game pass, EA game pass.(Locking regions)
(( $15 = 245 EGP ))
You might think that the salaries are higher relative to yours (in digits) but the fact is the average salaries in Egypt is lower than the average salaries in USA (without even counting the differences between the two currencies).
The only subscription service that people from my region pays for it is streaming service like Netflix. Not individuals, forming group of 4 friends each one pays 50EGP in which the price is equal to 200EGP. So, they can watch movies/TV shows from different users.
The mentality of people here to stay updated and buy a new $40-50 game(637EGP-785EGP), they start saving up until they have the amount of money to purchase the game and pays it one shot, so they won't have to worry about saving another money. And most probably they will wait for discounts even if it is 5% it still matters.
Without announcing the prices of certain regions that will be segregated from other regions, I already know that the harmonized subscription prices will be high too.
Besides I'm against segregation by anyway, online games are meant to be able to play with players from around the globe not players from your region only.
But to be fair..
I'm not suggesting to remove the subscription system, its removal isn't a solution at all. As I also respect Steven's idea of avoiding the highest no. of bots in-game. However, I also would like to support the developers for their work whether by my subscription fees or by purchasing cosmetics/packs.
My suggestion is to reduce the subscription fees to $3(=47EGP which is affordable), while prices of any shop items remain the same. And still as there is payment people will avoid trying to bypass the system and use bots, and if so they will get caught and they aren't going to pay another $3 to start all over.
If that would affect badly on the studio, then we can have different prices relative to regions like how steam deals with Argentina with their Argentinian store (the price of any game is equal to 1/5 in Argentinian store). But many people took advantage of this by using VPN and creating Argentinian accounts. We can be able to have control of this by requiring a unique Egyptian/MENA phone number and local visa (like Vodafone Cash, Meza, etc..), players might try contact people to pay for them but they will face two problems first one to link their account with a local phone number, secondly the account must be verified as MENA player(chosen early in account registration). Nobody will try to risk all of that just for this reduction.
I've been a tester for many online games whether in its closed alpha phase or beta as I love contributing in such things but I felt so disheartened after I realized more than a year ago that I won't be able to become one as it costs $500(=7,830 EGP) for alpha one test.
This thread is to highlight that developers should take into consideration players from third world countries.
Edited Section
I need to rephrase all of this as I wasn't precise enough and I have to mention that segregation isn't going to affect on my region by anyway so it doesn't really matter that much to me. So kindly focus on the main problem!
There are no servers for my region, all the companies of popular online games used to invest more in EU/NA servers to be able to handle both players from EU/NA and MENA regions instead of having a MENA server, personally I like the idea and I'm not against it as it is cheaper for companies to do so.
Need a solution for players who have nothing else to do rather than playing on EU/NA servers without having to pay the original price(to have a reduced fees).
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Concerning the monthly subscription and depending on the price (
It is sad how the price looks so "cheap" while players from 3rd world countries won't be able to afford it.
Before getting into details, I would like to give a brief about gaming in Egypt. MMORPG games in particular:
MMORPG games are the most played genre and became mainstreaming long time ago in my region. Back then, whenever you enter an internet/cyber cafe in Egypt you would see 98~100% playing Silkroad (one of the greatest MMORPG games of all time) . Sadly, after the game is dead we couldn't find a 'proper' mmorpg game to unite all the players once again. It's been over 16 years, but there are players who still play it in private servers(not as much as before ofc) as they didn't find a good alternative. It didn't even start at Silkroad, there was Kal Online in 2002 and many more MMORPG games.
I can clearly see the potential of AoC and how it could be the next mainstream in Egypt/MENA region, except that there is a subscription service.
Example of MMORPG game that is so popular but failed in MENA region/3rd world countries : World of Warcraft ($15/month).
Examples of subscription services that didn't even launch in MENA region/3rd world countries cause they know players won't be able to subscribe due to difference in currencies: Xbox game pass, EA game pass.(Locking regions)
(( $15 = 245 EGP ))
You might think that the salaries are higher relative to yours (in digits) but the fact is the average salaries in Egypt is lower than the average salaries in USA (without even counting the differences between the two currencies).
The only subscription service that people from my region pays for it is streaming service like Netflix. Not individuals, forming group of 4 friends each one pays 50EGP in which the price is equal to 200EGP. So, they can watch movies/TV shows from different users.
The mentality of people here to stay updated and buy a new $40-50 game(637EGP-785EGP), they start saving up until they have the amount of money to purchase the game and pays it one shot, so they won't have to worry about saving another money. And most probably they will wait for discounts even if it is 5% it still matters.
Without announcing the prices of certain regions that will be segregated from other regions, I already know that the harmonized subscription prices will be high too.
Besides I'm against segregation by anyway, online games are meant to be able to play with players from around the globe not players from your region only.
But to be fair..
I'm not suggesting to remove the subscription system, its removal isn't a solution at all. As I also respect Steven's idea of avoiding the highest no. of bots in-game. However, I also would like to support the developers for their work whether by my subscription fees or by purchasing cosmetics/packs.
My suggestion is to reduce the subscription fees to $3(=47EGP which is affordable), while prices of any shop items remain the same. And still as there is payment people will avoid trying to bypass the system and use bots, and if so they will get caught and they aren't going to pay another $3 to start all over.
If that would affect badly on the studio, then we can have different prices relative to regions like how steam deals with Argentina with their Argentinian store (the price of any game is equal to 1/5 in Argentinian store). But many people took advantage of this by using VPN and creating Argentinian accounts. We can be able to have control of this by requiring a unique Egyptian/MENA phone number and local visa (like Vodafone Cash, Meza, etc..), players might try contact people to pay for them but they will face two problems first one to link their account with a local phone number, secondly the account must be verified as MENA player(chosen early in account registration). Nobody will try to risk all of that just for this reduction.
I've been a tester for many online games whether in its closed alpha phase or beta as I love contributing in such things but I felt so disheartened after I realized more than a year ago that I won't be able to become one as it costs $500(=7,830 EGP) for alpha one test.
This thread is to highlight that developers should take into consideration players from third world countries.