Very Disappointed With This Content Update

[CanonicalKoi]

Without rehashing everything that's been said about vanities vs necessities (i.e. maps and such), look at it this way. Here's Holo-ween and it'll cost you 10 plat to join in. Since it's the plat purchase that you make that counts (it isn't as if STS gets money *again* when you use your plat, just when you buy it the first time), let's say that people dash out and buy plat at the smallest increment--30 plat for $5.00. Ignoring the fact that STS doesn't see $5.00 worth of profit (Google/PayPal/whateverthethirdoneis takes a cut for the transaction), if 10,000 people rushed to do this, STS would stand to make $50,000. That's the credit side. Now the debit side: take out for taxes, building rent and/or maintenance, salaries, hardware replacement/addition/upgrades, software replacement/addition/upgrades, employee health care plans (one would hope), utilities, and the list goes on for quite a long way from there. There are larger companies that'll spend $50,000 in the course of a year for paper-towels and TP for the company bathrooms. $50K is not much to a technology-driven company. Honestly, it's not. According to the all-knowing Innerwebs, the average, median salary for a game designer is 73K. Giving the guys at STS a biggish pay-cut to 60K and saying there's, oh say, 5 of them, salaries alone would account for 300,000 a year. That 50K looks kind of small in comparison. And that magic big-num is assuming that there's even 10k people playing it right now and that they all bought plat.

If STS is like most tech companies, they'll see a small, relatively steady trickle of income 75-85% of the time and a boost to that income when something releases. Those "injections of revenue" (Gah! I hate suit-speak!) have to pay for the costs that continue to accrue even when you're not releasing anything and only getting the small trickle. Salaries don't magically get suspended when income isn't being generated (well, they do, but those are called lay-offs. :/ ). Rent, maintenance and utilities still have to be paid. The federal government does tend to want their cut when they want it, as do city/county and state governments--they all have their hand in the till, too.

As sad as I am that people have to pay plat for things like Holo-ween (or Halloween in PL), I do try to remember that STS is a company with bills to pay and a payroll to meet. The line gets blurred a little for us all, I think, because there's much more of a "human face" to STS. The Devs are communicative, so we see them as people and not just a bunch of company drones.

[Sporkeh]

The bottom line is this.

To get the best out of any game, be it console, computer, tablet, phone, ipod or browser you will be charged a price the creators believe is fair and will allow them to provide better future services.

Now if you want to compare monthly to ftp chargers it is a no contest. You can play a game and pay monthly where it is up to you to determine how much play time is worth X amount you pay a month. Or, like here, it is up to your opinion on how much you intend to grind or farm, and if X item is worth X currency for you to make it more enjoyable.

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I think it was a solid update overall with minimal bugs. Something for everybody, and just think how much easier vanity runs will be

[SuperNas]

Its the same people arguing every day

[Growwle]

Without rehashing everything that's been said about vanities vs necessities (i.e. maps and such), look at it this way. Here's Holo-ween and it'll cost you 10 plat to join in. Since it's the plat purchase that you make that counts (it isn't as if STS gets money *again* when you use your plat, just when you buy it the first time), let's say that people dash out and buy plat at the smallest increment--30 plat for $5.00. Ignoring the fact that STS doesn't see $5.00 worth of profit (Google/PayPal/whateverthethirdoneis takes a cut for the transaction), if 10,000 people rushed to do this, STS would stand to make $50,000. That's the credit side. Now the debit side: take out for taxes, building rent and/or maintenance, salaries, hardware replacement/addition/upgrades, software replacement/addition/upgrades, employee health care plans (one would hope), utilities, and the list goes on for quite a long way from there. There are larger companies that'll spend $50,000 in the course of a year for paper-towels and TP for the company bathrooms. $50K is not much to a technology-driven company. Honestly, it's not. According to the all-knowing Innerwebs, the average, median salary for a game designer is 73K. Giving the guys at STS a biggish pay-cut to 60K and saying there's, oh say, 5 of them, salaries alone would account for 300,000 a year. That 50K looks kind of small in comparison. And that magic big-num is assuming that there's even 10k people playing it right now and that they all bought plat.

If STS is like most tech companies, they'll see a small, relatively steady trickle of income 75-85% of the time and a boost to that income when something releases. Those "injections of revenue" (Gah! I hate suit-speak!) have to pay for the costs that continue to accrue even when you're not releasing anything and only getting the small trickle. Salaries don't magically get suspended when income isn't being generated (well, they do, but those are called lay-offs. :/ ). Rent, maintenance and utilities still have to be paid. The federal government does tend to want their cut when they want it, as do city/county and state governments--they all have their hand in the till, too.

As sad as I am that people have to pay plat for things like Holo-ween (or Halloween in PL), I do try to remember that STS is a company with bills to pay and a payroll to meet. The line gets blurred a little for us all, I think, because there's much more of a "human face" to STS. The Devs are communicative, so we see them as people and not just a bunch of company drones.

Koi, STS could make enough money with a subscription service, it is just that it is more profitable to go FTP because you get a much larger player base, which equals word-of-mouth advertising as well as a majority of players who would end up spending more in one month than an average subscription fee. People feel like ftp games are cheaper, because they can choose the amount and what time they pay. If these people went back and looked at all their receipts for the month, they would probably find that it is more than the monthly fee for a competing game, like, say, Order and Chaos online. Again, in FTP it is your choice to pay or not, although generally the game experience is better if you pay. Anyway, STS does need to make money to stay afloat and I doubt they are a volunteer charity, so I am sure their employees expect to be paid for their time, regardless of how much they like their jobs.

[Ghastly]

What's all the fuss about. Wait there's an update? Lol sorry haven't been on for the week. And so much can happen in one. Guys, my entire game has been platinum free. Haven't done tap joy yet, and frankly I probably won't. But I still like this game. My bear still has the same face from the beginning. They don't make you buy elixers to get to 36 or 61 they don't make you do anything. It's all an options. Just look at the bright side. I'm too lazy too think of one, so you do it.

[Snakespeare]

If you're calling my "argument" pitiful, you clearly didn't understand the point I was making (the longer post where I quoted Acyer). Go back and read it again

The point you are making is... you want the game to stop being freemium. You want them to change it to a subscription.

I disagree. I wouldn't buy a subscription.

Also, you're just having sticker shock because you wanted a pet and the only one costs a lot of plat. Oh well, if you want it, you have to pay for it.

[WhoIsThis]

Its the same people arguing every day

I get h feeling that every time new content is released, we are gonna have at least one of these threads.

Sigh. Again, this is non-essential - if you don't like the price, you aren't under any obligation to buy and in the case of a vanity, won't be at a disadvantage.

[Rodvik]

This thread is getting hostile... =( Make Love, Not War! One Love!

[Kahlua]

The point you are making is... you want the game to stop being freemium. You want them to change it to a subscription.

I disagree. I wouldn't buy a subscription.

Also, you're just having sticker shock because you wanted a pet and the only one costs a lot of plat. Oh well, if you want it, you have to pay for it.

I have 2,000 platinum. I can afford a pet, thank you. Show me where I said I wanted a pet? Show me one time. I wanted a pet rock as a joke in the pet thread. I can get one for free outside.
And that is NOT the point I was making.
My point was that if I can pay $6 a month for something 10 times larger with 100 times more content, why should I have the option to pay MORE than that for LESS? You don't have to pay for that runescape membership. But is the game better with it? Yep. You don't have to pay for elixirs, better armor, better weapons, or to do events that require plat? Does it make the game better? Yep.

My point, if you read correctly, was that if they made things cheaper, more people would want to buy them. Affordable = Attractive. Not everyone can dish out 30 plat per armor piece. A lot more people can spend 10 though, even 15 per piece.


Honestly, it's simple reading comprehension -.-

[Snakespeare]

I read very well. Your point keeps changing. You even disagree with yourself.

No, more people play this way. Fewer people will play if they change it to your way.

[Samhayne]

Guys, you each have valid points, you're just saying it in an argumentative way. Please leave such out in the future. If you have additional questions or concerns, please PM me. Thanks!

Thread closed.