Developing should be free for servers that are staff-only

[salesman]

Originally Posted by Hiro

i hope you see that players don't care about the client and engine updates, they want content updates

and that the people upgrading are players...there's no way in hell Graal is getting its money from developers.

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by salesman

and that the people upgrading are players...there's no way in hell Graal is getting its money from developers.

exactly, i'm glad someone understands this who also develops (8

[WhiteDragon]

Originally Posted by salesman

and that the people upgrading are players...there's no way in hell Graal is getting its money from developers.

Well, ironically, we actually are paying them.

[salesman]

Originally Posted by WhiteDragon

Well, ironically, we actually are paying them.

There's no way Graal is getting the majority of its money from developers upgrading just to develop...most of its money has to be coming from players. Developers are really running short...something needs to be done to bring them back, and hopefully encourage new developers to join as well.

That is what this thread is about

I've been gathering some statistics on Era, and I've found that 1429 unique accounts have logged on in the last 7 days. 651 of those have more than 100 hours of playing time, and 505 of them were Graal# accounts. People are definitely paying to play.

If CJ isn't going to be developing anymore servers, and the task is indeed left to us, then why not give us easier ways to do so (such as not requiring us to upgrade just to work on UC servers)?

[LoneAngelIbesu]

Originally Posted by salesman

If CJ isn't going to be developing anymore servers, and the task is indeed left to us, then why not give us easier ways to do so (such as not requiring us to upgrade just to work on UC servers)?

Well, the way I see it is that prices didn't increase arbitrarily. If Stefan and Unixmad are just trying to make ends meet, they wouldn't hike up prices for no reason. I have faith that didn't do that. So, we have to assume that costs rose, and we have to assume that people upgrading their accounts to work on UC servers helps zero out the balance sheet (accounting terms, but you get the idea).

If people no longer have to upgrade their accounts, then that stream of revenue is going to have to come from somewhere else.. meaning basic account upgrade prices are going to increase, or servers are going to be more expensive to rent, or both.

For every yin, there is a yang. For ever dollar UC developers don't have to pay, regular players or server owners are going to have to pay an extra dollar.

Needless to say, there are 6 servers developers can work on, without having to upgrade... if they have Lifetime Classic, anyways. Valikorlia is always looking for LATs and GATs.

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by LoneAngelIbesu

Needless to say, there are 6 servers developers can work on, without having to upgrade... if they have Lifetime Classic, anyways. Valikorlia is always looking for LATs and GATs.

[cyan3]

Originally Posted by LoneAngelIbesu

Needless to say, there are 6 servers developers can work on, without having to upgrade... if they have Lifetime Classic, anyways. Valikorlia is always looking for LATs and GATs.

It is possible to work on 8 servers with lifetime classic if you count both Graal Kingdoms and Zone.

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by cyan3

It is possible to work on 8 servers with lifetime classic if you count both Graal Kingdoms and Zone.

[MysticX2X]

Originally Posted by LoneAngelIbesu

Well, the way I see it is that prices didn't increase arbitrarily. If Stefan and Unixmad are just trying to make ends meet, they wouldn't hike up prices for no reason. I have faith that didn't do that. So, we have to assume that costs rose, and we have to assume that people upgrading their accounts to work on UC servers helps zero out the balance sheet (accounting terms, but you get the idea).

If people no longer have to upgrade their accounts, then that stream of revenue is going to have to come from somewhere else.. meaning basic account upgrade prices are going to increase, or servers are going to be more expensive to rent, or both.

For every yin, there is a yang. For ever dollar UC developers don't have to pay, regular players or server owners are going to have to pay an extra dollar.

Needless to say, there are 6 servers developers can work on, without having to upgrade... if they have Lifetime Classic, anyways. Valikorlia is always looking for LATs and GATs.

I would want to assume they would make their money for uc worlds off how much people pay anyways. If they want to make ends meet somewhere, they could always hike up the price of a playerworld a bit and let the uc worlds be loginable for staff.

Also, I'm sure there are plenty of people whose interests lie in something different than the 6 classic servers you speak of.

[salesman]

I'm in no way qualified to be giving business advice, but it's a very basic business strategy to offer one thing for cheap (or free) to encourage spending on another product. At a grocery store, pasta goes on sale, so you buy more tomato sauce. When Sony released the PS3 they took a loss on every PS3 they sold, because they expected to make up for that loss when customers purchased games for their new system. If players know that their friends won't need to upgrade to help them create a playerworld, they will be more likely to invest in a server.

Free developing, or better developer packages, could act as a "foot-in-the-door" for customers, as well. Not only might more developers lead to another popular server, but I'm sure people who are actively developing will end up upgrading anyways if/when they find a server they like. Happy customers are more willing to spend their money again.

[LoneAngelIbesu]

Originally Posted by salesman

I'm in no way qualified to be giving business advice, but it's a very basic business strategy to offer one thing for cheap (or free) to encourage spending on another product. At a grocery store, pasta goes on sale, so you buy more tomato sauce. When Sony released the PS3 they took a loss on every PS3 they sold, because they expected to make up for that loss when customers purchased games for their new system. If players know that their friends won't need to upgrade to help them create a playerworld, they will be more likely to invest in a server.

Free developing, or better developer packages, could act as a "foot-in-the-door" for customers, as well. Not only might more developers lead to another popular server, but I'm sure people who are actively developing will end up upgrading anyways if/when they find a server they like. Happy customers are more willing to spend their money again.

GraalOnline is not Sony nor is it some supermarket chain. Based on Stefan's comments about just scraping by, I'm assuming it cannot sustain loses without shutting down.