I had a pretty productive weekend, what with the release of Revel Immortal 0.16 (Alpha)
Which you can try right here, if you want (http://edigames.com/revelimmortal)
The goal of this update was to release the first five complete quests we've built for Revel in Garranshall; and to take care of some legacy issues before pressing on towards the Spring Update, which is slated to come out in May.
The plans for the update can be summarized as such:
- It will have two realms, Garranshall and Shadowlith
- It's the first time you'll be able to purchase Revel
- Purchasing will likely be done via PayPal, at least at first
- Each realm will have at least twenty five (25) quests at time of Release
- Garranshall has been the free/demo realm and will continue to be
- Shadowlith is the first realm you won't be able to travel to unless you own Revel
We're still working out what 'own' means, and here are our current thoughts
- It would be ideal for us to charge a one-time fee to purchase a licence for Revel
- At this early stage the price would be discounted (alpha/beta discount price)
- All purchases would be tied to your user account and non-transferable except perhaps item trades.
- A one-time buy would give you access to all free content (duh) and every realm that is added to the game thereafter.
- Additional optional items: (dyes, special vanity items, additional save slots (currently five), etc.) would be additional purchases; and would in no way affect playability or completability of the game.
- The price to purchase the game outright would increase over time, proportional to content added.
- That means, those who buy early get less up-front but theoretically more for their money.
A far less ideal way would be to have ala-carte purchasing
- The ability to purchase the game per-realm for much lower prices per-realm
- This would let the user decide to avoid an area that didn't seem appealing
- This would have a large (in my opinion) negative effect on the kinds of content we'd create
- It would hinder cross-region quests to avoid complexities of regions not being present (and thus cutting quests in the middle, or prompting (nagging..) to buy that region)
- From a purely financial standpoint, it would be 'good' it would scale revenue with content, and have a lower price point per piece.
What do folks think?
As a consumer, your "current thoughts" sound much more appealing than ala-carte purchasing. It's potentially less revenue from early adopters, but hopefully optional upgrades would be appealing enough to at least partially offset that.
I think in the long run you'll develop a better reputation and relationship with customers, hopefully keeping them as a loyal fan-base for future games or larger expansions (which you might charge for again) to Revel.