35 replies to this topic

[Pandilex]

I was thinking about this earlier. It's just something I was thinking about in the future, maybe with Nightmist 2.



The system would work like this. For paying X amount, your account would be upgraded to a premium account.



Some of the possible benefits. Please mention the ones you particularly agree/disagree with below:



Neutral Benefits



- Different coloured name in game to show your premium status.



- Clan chairpersons with premium accounts would get additional options for their clan. All vaults would store an 20% more items, and facility rooms (such as the sex change shop) would cost 10% less to use. All clan rooms would be 5% cheaper. New rooms for premium members may become available.



- Premium accounts get one custom picture for one of their characters.



- Account vault size is increased by 20%.



- Priority help from staff





Other Benefits



- High level challenging areas just for premium players. For each premium account in a party, one non-premium player may come along. (ie. if player A is premium, and logs his entire account on, player B may take 1 character into the premium area). Obviously if you disband the party you will be teleported out if you're not a premium player.



- New items/armour/weapons. These weapons would still be fairly balanced but with new abilities.



- New spells/abilities. Not necessarily more powerful directly, but more versatile - such as extra buffs.

[Lappa]

i like the idea, it would give some opportunity into higher things, and i think it would bring the game to a new level. it could also make things more 1-5 alts instead of mass alting places, that if the area is made with alt caps, say "only 5 characters can cross into 'so n so'" from each acct. i think that would be cool to see.

the thing with new spells or abilities would also be fun as it would make some characters more unique.

[Rappy_Ninja]

the real question is how much would it cost though ?

[Pandilex]

No idea. If I had to produce a figure I would say maybe around $30-40 / year? That's about $3/month, which is about 10 cents a day I believe.

[combusta]

im not liking the priority help from staff, and none of the "Other Benefits"

[Gaddy]

(Suppose to have quoted combusta)

I agree here, especially with priority help.
I think it would be very unfair for people to be considered more important to all staff members simply because they paid cash. Perhaps with certain things that JLH or Pandilex have to deal with (ie- account theft)--but that would be because they paid for the account that was stolen.

[AnEskimo]

ez money 4 nm staff

[Wolfgang]

ez money 4 nm staff

Staff don't get payed.


Strongly against this. If you want to give someone nifty colors for donating or whatever, thats cool with me.

But priority staff assistance doesn't seem like too great of an idea to me. I understand, you're getting more for your overall commitment to the game, and to your characters, and to your clan and all, but still.

No.

I'm sorry that I don't have any money that I can afford to dish out towards nightmist. After all my bills are payed for the month, I have $50 (not including money for the train, bus, or gas), if I'm lucky. And I don't see why someone should get special treatment priority treatment from staff members just because they can afford to drop a few bucks where others can't.

Edited by Wolfgang, 03 May 2006 - 05:53 AM.

[Aidon]

The same reason you get better service at a restraunt if you tip good?

[Äññöÿäñcë]

I like it.

[«™®?¨CHaÏNY¨?™»]

The same reason you get better service at a restraunt if you tip good?

You only tip AFTER a meal as far as I know so how would they know you are a big tipper and not spit in your soup?

As far as premium accounts go; I like the idea but it will ultimately end up as it is on NM atm. Every Tom turnip and Harry sits at sgh with a custom pic and they are nothing special anymore. The extra vault space to me is appealing as would be a custom named weapon or other item which would be a regular weapon with a unique name(that may be too much to ask as staff would need to add a /library for every newly named item)

[Urgency]

im not liking the priority help from staff, and none of the "Other Benefits"

exactly everything else i like but i think the priority help is dragging it to far its pretty much saying to ppl like me that barely get by month to month that your not rich so your not important enough for us to worry about that much

[Pandilex]

This is very interesting, the last point I expected to be argued was the priority treatment system. In fact, this system probably the most common for premium memberships, donating etc.



The end result of this effect isn't as bad as you make out. As it stands right now, JLH fixes all the problems every day after work. Premium support would simply put yours first. Some problems may take a long time to fix, so yours would be first and you wouldn't have to wait for the others. However, in the end, they'd all be solved, so it's not like other people are being cast aside, it's just skipping the queue (maybe shaving an hour off or two)



I seriously doubt 99% of you have any problems that warrant e-mailing JLH, so it's not like hundreds of e-mails are piling up every day.



I wouldn't take this as such a big thing. In fact, I'm struggling to think of how to implement this priority system because most problems are fixed in 5 minutes, and aren't even that many of them.

[deadman]

I agree with it besides the whole priority thing, clan rooms being cheaper/special ones for premium members, and the new abilities for weapons. Everyone should have an equal chance to do things, not some people being able to have more and get things cheaper then others because of them being more of a special status. Keep things equal for everyone that way they all get a chance.

[Snoopy]

This would be a cool adition, just make sure that if you change the colour of a players base text make sure in that crits profile it is 100% clear they are a paying prem member.
not to be a sceptic or anything but it may be easy to convince numptys your staff heh - Another benifit could be a Nm email addy /eyes

[Raylen]

Interesting...

I don't really think I'm too bothered one way or another. I don't see the priority help system as being an issue. The area/items thing would need careful thinking through though.

Say Jared pays, and I don't...would we still be able to share an account?

Suppose Lew pays, and takes me into a premium area...and I get the drop of Premium Sword of Money Power...can I use that sword?

Either way, I wouldn't pay, on principle, because I'm tight, and I like to do things the hard way lol.


Edit: 9|5|8 on the votes, pretty conclusive

Also though, all my overpowered items I suggest on here would probably work well as premium items.

Edited by Raylen, 03 May 2006 - 11:16 AM.

[JadedSoul]

I like the idea of a premium account system. There are a few other games that Jim and I play, and the cost that Pandilex is suggesting is about right. Anywhere from $3-$5 a month gets you some added benefits, but it doesn't overpower you from non premium members, it just gives you that little extra that makes gameplay more fun.

I totally understand the being broke issue, but think about it this way, most people can scrape together in left over change the amount that Pandilex is suggesting. Premium accounts are being suggested as an option, not as a must have. You will have a choice, so I agree with all of Pandilex's suggestions.

As for the priority help, Pandilex is correct in that all issues are resolved as quickly as possible, so noone really loses out. The current staff that we have are all very helpful and answer all serious requests for help as soon as possible.

[Boys Night Out]

This is very interesting, the last point I expected to be argued was the priority treatment system. In fact, this system probably the most common for premium memberships, donating etc.



The end result of this effect isn't as bad as you make out. As it stands right now, JLH fixes all the problems every day after work. Premium support would simply put yours first. Some problems may take a long time to fix, so yours would be first and you wouldn't have to wait for the others. However, in the end, they'd all be solved, so it's not like other people are being cast aside, it's just skipping the queue (maybe shaving an hour off or two)



I seriously doubt 99% of you have any problems that warrant e-mailing JLH, so it's not like hundreds of e-mails are piling up every day.



I wouldn't take this as such a big thing. In fact, I'm struggling to think of how to implement this priority system because most problems are fixed in 5 minutes, and aren't even that many of them.

IT'S KINDA LIKE A FAST PASS AT DISNEY LAND!!

[Kakarott]

i dont know what you all are blabbering about but the Premieum Acct System Sounds like a pretty god dam* good thing to me so.. ill SUPPORT IT..btw simon good work again


quoting on Doom.. if they want specail non already made items like take for e.g. Halberd.. they can make it like a Broken Halberd or Bloody Halberd for a mere id say $3.50 more...


off qoute... but wouldnt this Pay to have premium acct system have to have PayPal like the Donations...? or would you pay one flat rate a year ...??? or one flat rate for ever...?

Edited by Kakarott, 03 May 2006 - 03:11 PM.

[joanna]

sounds good, but id say 300% rather than 20% acc vaults (so ya can have 200 items, lot more useful )

[Raylen]

its abit hard to make items that aren't already ingame

Click >>

[<3!]

- Priority help from staff

^ Stupid.

[Jigsaw]

I suggested this to JLH about a year ago and he said it was unfair.

Also

- Premium accounts get one custom picture for one of their characters.

For NM2 basically a custom pic then? 1 alt game silly.

[alone]

I don't agree with it for the current version, a lot of things are already messed up, mixing certain aspects up even more could make it even worse.

However, for DS, I can see it may work - If implimented from the start of pay to play.
During free beta, players could all possibly sample the pleasures of the Premium Account, but with notes over which parts are special. Then when it's reset, bingo, impliment it then. Or is that sly? -Grins-

The different bonus' of the Premium account aren't really an issue for me, though half of them are NM1 based bonus'..

[Wolfgang]

The same reason you get better service at a restraunt if you tip good?

Thats a totally different issue. You tip if you get good service, not in order to get better service.

[Crane]

I don't believe in priority support being given to players who pay more, or new areas and powerful items, as I sense a rich/poor divide may occur. Some players may really love the game and are devoted to it, but only able to afford a standard account.

Alternative items for the premium accounts I would support, but nothing more powerful.

Clan extras may be a good idea, as is a different coloured name, as long as it isn't confused with staff crits.

Clanhouse advantages tend to benefit many people, not just the chairperson, and the benefits aren't really overpowering. Whether the account is standard or premium, I feel there should be no advantages over gameplay.

[Venture]

I agree with Gareth, alternative items only not more powerful ones.

And whats the big deal with the priority thing? Theres enough staff to deal with everyone now anyway and you'd probably only have to wait a little while longer if that.

[Pureza]

I rather like this idea. The priority treatment from staff isn't gonna make much of a difference, due to the fact that as Pandilex has already mentioned, most problems are fixed in short order. I can vouch for this, as i'm sure many others can as well. As for the rest of the benefits, they'd be a great addition to the game. And as for being broke, and not being able to afford the 40-50 dollars a year, I can scrape up my spare change at the end of every day to pay that. It's not a large sum of money. Consider this, at this point in time, Custom Pics are given for a 50 dollar donation, Custom weapon names are considerably more, 2-3 times a custom pic if i remember correctly. With the addition of the premium account system, more people would be able to afford the custom pics and weapons.

[Trevayne]

Premium accounts are used in many online games as a way to generate additional income. I see no reason that it should not be put in place for NM2... it's about time that JLH started to see a tiny bit of the cash that he's put out in keeping all of us entertained for many, many years.