 |
|
|
|
Friday, November 19, 2010 - 02:20 pm  Unlimited Free Membership Simcountry now allows free membership for an unlimited period. Players can decide to play for free or become full members. Free membership allows players to use nearly all functions in Simcountry but several limitations apply. Free members cannot receive Gold coin awards, new level awards or obtain gold coins in any other way. Free members are limited to game levels 1, 2 and 3. There are limitations in the use of space functions and the production of nuclear weapons. A detailed document, explaining Full and free memberships and the free membership limitations is available under the Memberships menu option on the home page. Free membership is now part of Simcountry
| |
| Friday, November 19, 2010 - 03:27 pm Ah. Great Question here Tom. If a promoting member's link directs a prospective new join to simcountry, but he/she clicks on the free membership instead of paid membership, will we be credited for that? How long will they be tracked so that we receive credit if they eventually join we will get a promotion credit? Also about some limitations. I have a problem with they are now, not sure how many others feel, but I will voice a few concerns nonetheless. War levels, I don't think it would be appropriate for free members to engage in war of any kind against paying members. I do not think they should be able to produce contracts for direct trade, nor join federations and provide air defense to paying members. Maybe their war accounts would be subject war declarations by only free members. I say this because I think their is a conflict of interest when we allow non playing players to offer material support to and against members that actually pay to play. And when we allow them to join federations and offer air support to paying members against other paying members. I have to work hard and earn my weapons and cash and find it disturbing that I could one day be shooting at a players air defense that is acquired for free. I also thought there was going to be a separate world for free players, which I think is more than appropriate given the concerns I have just brought to your attention. You could even remove some of the limitations if all free players were confined to their own space. Can you please clarify this situation a little more? Also I posted some thoughts about the affiliate program and lack of marketing materials, and hoped to get a response from you on that as well.
| |
| Friday, November 19, 2010 - 04:05 pm Promoting members receive $ 6 when a reffered member is paying for the first time. there is no time limitation. this remains the same. in the previous situation, players rarely started full membership. They tried out for some time and then decided. now, they will do the same and decide to go for full membership or purchase gold coins. in both cases, the promoting member will receive the payment. On the limitations: these are in general similar to the limitation of current new members only the free members have no way of winning gold coins. New players have never been a threat to full members and will not be able to do anything serious with their limited army. putting all new members on a single world would be nice for a start. after some time, many will become full members and we will not have a free members only world any more. In the mean time, no one will join the other worlds as all new players will go to the new world. there is no way of moving players between worlds. The change is mainly in not closing accounts after two weeks which we did before. Now they can stay but if they really like the game they will buy into it. if not, they will leave. some will continue to play the free version if they really unable or not willing to contribute.
| |
| Friday, November 19, 2010 - 05:30 pm Tom, I was wondering if you had an end date for the recent round of major changes. All I'm doing right now is waiting. There's no point in planning anything if everything can change in a major way tomorrow. I need at least a stable environment to work.
| |
| Friday, November 19, 2010 - 05:59 pm If a full member wanted to take advantage of the Free membership and they already had gold coins, would they lose the GC's they had...and / or would they be able to use them?
| |
| Friday, November 19, 2010 - 06:09 pm I believe the idea here is to have a new player not be locked out of their account or be ejected from the game entirely because they are unable or unwilling, for what ever reason, to become a full member. I believe the idea is to eventually bring them all into full membership, so I would absolutely not support a planet all to themselves where people play for free in near purfect comfort never enticed to expand their horizons with new game features or a situation that makes it very easy to live without them. I believe the cut off time was far too short. The thing that glues people into this community is the community itself and it literally took me months and months when I first arrived to realize that there was this kind of dialogue going on in SC. Players start out very islolated and that is a counter-incentive to paying the same amount(or more) for a game that obviously doesn't compete with the bang up graphics, audio etc of productions from larger game companies. Game players are becoming use to a price range any where from $0 per month for games like left for dead 2 or R.U.S.E. to $15 to $20 for many other games by professional game companies. GOOD JOB GM! (you da man!) Wanna keep us from bitching so much when you make changes? Announce them as 'New Feature Try Out Periods'. It tells the players "there well be tweeking, changes and possible removal of the entire upgrade, it may not be perminant- so don't panic." Whether upgrades are considered perminent additions or not in your mind isn't really important to us, what is important is how we, your players, perceive them.
| |
| Friday, November 19, 2010 - 06:19 pm lol I'm waiting too Scarlet... Lets see, I'm in the middle of waiting 45 days to put corps in player countries with my CEO. ...and because I just bought a country I'm waiting 'til Christmas to build my countries up, because if I level in the next month I won't get coins lol. So you aint the only one!(it's almost an inactivity incentive :/ ) ~BTW it's not unstable to have a bunch of new players in your face, joining your fed, buying your goods ;) this will ramp our membership up over time. Actually it's a bull's eye by the GM. Especially not allowing them into federations.(Kudos to Wendy) This means when I meet a non paying member that I would like to recruit into my fed I explain to him that it requires full membership but not to worry because we have folks in our fed that will help make sure he/she won't keep paying. SOLD! Brilliant... Score! Good job Wendy/Gamemaster 
| |
| Friday, November 19, 2010 - 06:42 pm Yeah I like that idea Solomon. And Tom to clarify, direct war isn't really my concern as much as a new non paying member having 5 or 6 countries and throwing up 40 or more wings per country and offering air defense to a real paying member. Those countries with added air defense can become a real problem, this can be exploited in many different scenarios and we should take precautions to avoid it. By keeping fed membership restricted to full members we would do away with the problem altogether.
| |
| Friday, November 19, 2010 - 07:07 pm What I like the most is the new button.
| |
| Friday, November 19, 2010 - 11:49 pm I'm glad to see this. I'll probably continue to pay simply because I don't mind "donating" the money for this game. But, it the price has definitely kept this game from growing in the recent years. Also, Wendy makes a good point, but I think some effort needs to be made to stop multis - period. Really, if you guys could significantly improve the UI, I wouldn't mind if you would host advertisements to make more money.
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 12:24 am I hope you guys did some really good advertising a week ago, to rip the full benefits of this change now. At the very least, start advertising now. I do like the new button though.
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 01:13 am yeah buttons are good, as for multies or multi players the game master should ban them for ever , jeez wendy better get HIS accounts in order haha
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 04:00 am chiwoo, something tells me you have some free time. lets see what I can conjure up.
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 05:55 am Wendy? Heck Elavia/Xaladin are the most sucessful ever. Even if both of them are really real, it's still a multi, off of the same IP. (no offense guys, you know I don't believe you're real lol) Hmm, so if I have 5 kids I can just sign each of them up and have 5 accounts because my 5 kids are real? They allow it for some, allow it for all. As long as they are not free accounts I say let them eat cake. I have multi-ed in the past for no other reason than easy worker availability. This time I chose not to because I want my achievements to be more meaningful. 'Cheating' ruins that for me. For the naive... most players do.
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 03:07 pm i think this change can have some real benefits. i welcome it and look forward to future tweekings of it. it should make a difference in the number of players in the game. good show GM
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 03:52 pm lol.... just saw the new button. it kinda sticks out
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 07:33 pm can commenting on the forums be for full member. Think of how many noobs will spam the forums with the same question every 10mins
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 08:20 pm yes, let's keep this a closed little club. lol
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 09:27 pm Are you kidding me? The forums need more activity. Not to mention the added knowledge base and community will help keep the new players around + encourage them to upgrade. I still think it's a bad idea that new players have to wait before viewing the forums. Maybe restrict posting for 2-3 days, but everyone with an account should be allowed to view.
| |
| Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 10:20 pm Soren--if you mean me, yes, i'm kidding. we need more input and participation.
| |
| Sunday, November 21, 2010 - 01:30 am lol. W@e don't need more newbie like Super asking to nuke forts do we ? cOmOn!! Imagine what I would do with that!
| |
| Sunday, November 21, 2010 - 01:47 am Wendy why u whining I'm giving u business lol My point is let them be able to view the forum, they can still read issues and everything just not comment. Theres always someone in the chatroom willing to help. My only issue is the forum would be being spammed daily with the same comments. Making it harder for us to address or find threads of real importance.
| |
| Sunday, November 21, 2010 - 02:23 am Joking yeah, whining? No. Not saying or being mean, I would bet a majority of the players that play would put you in the same category you are placing new players. This is a conversation board, not the 'joy luck' club. Everyone who plays has a right to use the board and speak. This is why we all get a turn at Jozi chats.
| |
| Sunday, November 21, 2010 - 08:29 pm Let them make comments. Let them come into chat.
| |
| Monday, November 22, 2010 - 02:50 am I agree WD, chat is the one way for new players to meet the veteran players and learn a thing or two
| |
| Thursday, January 20, 2011 - 04:42 pm I do wonder: How long does it take for an inactive free members country to be free? Cant find any information about that anywhere.
|
