Classic Account Sale? Ideas
 

They should make a christmas Sale for classic accounts
from monday December 21st 2011
To saturday december 26th 2011
For Like
29.00 euros
Witch would be
40.50$ in canadian :D

Anybody agree?
Stephan Do it For graal Please :)

No

Classic accounts are a step backward.

PC Graal needs to drop the tiered (Trial-Classic-Gold) system it currently uses and remove observer mode then sell the following one-time "upgrades" instead:

$10-$15 - Developer License (Allows you to use RC/be Staff on all servers)
$5 - Player Customization (Lets you change Community Name, and Heads)

Classic accounts would be phased out and be given Player Customization, active classic accounts (ones that logged on in the last 2 years) would be given the developer license.

There would be no more trial status either.

I don't like limiting heads, but it's better than observer mode. I doubt PC Graal could make much money with one-time upgrades as Jer proposed. I think Era's gelat shop, however, could work as a model for other servers. They've made a sizable amount through gelat sales with that shop (unixmad yelled at me last time I dropped numbers, though). It doesn't require you to purchase items to play the server, like on Zone, but it still generates revenue.

I don't believe Classic accounts are a step forward either, but I thought it was a more viable format pre-V5 compared to post V5, only until the influx of iPhone refugees causing a surge of account purchases despite the subscription being a limited time for a ridiculously high price.
Ofcourse none of us have the full data in order to make conclusions but I would speculate that older players being allowed to keep LifeTime Classic subscription is what kept Graal PC ticking throughout this period.

People should have to pay for the privilege of making the game?
I'm sure it would make money as there would be people who pay it anyway, but this would be counter productive in the long run, especially considering the current lack of developers who are capable of improving the game.
That said a one time smaller payment would be much more inciting than the current system.

I expect this will be the case no matter what, but I personally frown on the idea of purchasing basic character customisation being mandatory, as this is one of the things which makes Graal what it is. The same goes for the ability to upload your own graphics, putting a price tag on this is detracting one of the elements that Graal actually does offer better than most other games, it's something which should be embraced.

My 2 cents would be that it seems over the years Graal's management have been more focussed on finding ways to restrict players, to make them reluctantly pay money. Ideally the focus would be on improving the game and offering a good deal on real incentives which most would find worth paying for. Though ofcourse this would require a lot of effort when PC Graal is simply not a priority.

Technically if you own a LIFETIME Classic account they can't ever remove it from you. In there TOS it states it would last forever, so removing it is breaking the TOS and you could sue them. I don't have a classic account, just sayin' :asleep:

:DDDD classic will stay, and they will make some new fancy way to charge the players more money, soo glad im classic DONT FEED THE COKE MACHINE

All this gold crap should be completely removed and replaced with a new system.
Guest Accounts

• Head, Body, Shield and Swords are allowed to be changed.
• Observer mode completely removed.
• Can send unlimited PM's.
• Doesn't have access to Gold servers.

Subscribed Accounts

• Changeable community name.
• Given access to work on any server.
• Unlimited subscription time; obviously the cost would be higher.
• Access to global outfit changeable via the start button.
• Given a one time only account that the player can choose.

Need more clarification to make a distinctive difference between subscribing and just being a free player.

Also I'm going to point out what someone already stated about from something I noticed in your list.

with

While I do like the fact that the free players would get rather nice privileges versus the current system at hand, I feel there needs to be heavy refinement on this, though you have a very good base to where we could potentially begin upon.

Somebody needs to sit down and think long and hard about this. The current system is wacko and needs some tweaking. I've never seen a subscription system to retarded in my life.

You forgot smack the living hell out of Stefan and or Unixmad (I guess Darlene too once or twice for good measure.)

free to play, free to develop

buy minor stuff from cash shops like extra character slots (zodiac), whatever it is you do on era, special graphics of npcs (classic, or just about every server), etc

buying a server still costs but should be reduced

overall it's still sad that with this model the players would be creating all the content to generate revenue for CJ. i still wouldnt mind seeing an exclusive high-quality gold server developed by stefan w/ paid staff like elk and dusty but that won't happen

It'll be a cold day in hell before that happens.

But we all know she secretly likes it.
And to what crono said, that would be ideal and would boost the **** out of the player count for Graal, but that means Stefan and Unixmad will lose money. oh no...

We would of never figured that out on our own if Fulgore and Emera didn't point out the obvious!

We wouldn't have to if Unixmad and Stefan actually had some common sense.

Unix should appoint fowlplay head of sales :)

So far I think his ideas the best, why should iPhone players only have to do a one time payment leaving pc graal behind to keep on dishing out the dollars when they're making enough money from iGraal as it is...

http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/2/jack_lol.gif

lol like posting ideas has ever led to something here

Well said.

The problem is not a lack of ideas, pretty much everyone has a reasonable idea as to what needs to be done, the same applies for Stefan and Unixmad.

PC Graal is for the most part an environment which is out of their hands, there may be a PWA Team which is ultimately overseen by Stefan, but the fact is every server on the PlayerWorlds Tab among others have been created, developed and staffed by players for a long time now.

Without pointing the finger, there are many flaws small and large across PC Graal when it comes to things like scripting and systems, server economies, organisation, newbie friendliness, in-game character building, staff conduct, availability of talented developers etc.

iPhone Graal may be far from perfect, but it is an environment Graal's management have much more direct control over.
Therefore why would they want to risk iPhone players migrating from the environment they control, to an environment they have little control over?
They wouldn't want players to choose PC Graal over iPhone/Facebook/Android or whatever, spend money, and then suffer from some terrible or unfair experience through acts such as corruption or incompetence which was out of their hands, or there be some change by staff which ruins the gelat shop etc.

Therefore I believe it's highly unrealistic to expect that all the necessary changes will happen over night, Graal on other platforms will most likely remain a priority leaving PC Graal to feed on the scraps, while all the ambitious plans for PC Graal are pushed back further and further.

So, like 3K Gelats?

Hey galdor :D <3 seen my new painting im working on?

This is a catch 22 though. I've been wanting to make a good quality PC Graal server for a while now, but I'm not going to invest hundreds of hours of development time into something that is only going to draw ~60 players at peak just because PC Graal is a mismanaged and neglected platform.

GK has so much potential, it could be pulling hundreds of players, and it has been left unfinished and neglected for almost a ****ing decade(!!!) now.

Well, sometimes the obvious is left unsaid, then there are times when people have their heads so high in the clouds that the obvious at their feet is just under their noses :)

Other then that, tone down the sarcasm because it wasn't cute.

I would say it's more of a vicious cycle, Graal's management see PC Graal as too chaotic to invest a lot of time and effort towards, while most knowledgeable developers see PC Graal as too neglected and mismanaged to voluntarily commit hundreds/thousands of work towards bringing positive changes to the game.
Meanwhile the staffing of the game gradually becomes more chaotic, and while PC Graal is performing slightly better now due to the influx of iPhone players, there's still the same feeling of stagnation.

I think this falls under the category "Graal isn't dieing, it's evolving" as Tig would put it, which for me is wrong on many levels, but then who can blame someone for not working against the flow?