Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
The advantage of daily login rewards is that it works as a "welcome back" mechanic
The disadvantage of it is that it promotes FOMO.
If we HAVE to have login rewards, what if the reward is a pre-selected temporary cosmetic that expires in 24 hrs?
It has minimal effect on gameplay, does not intrude on anyone's unique look, doesn't chew up inventory space, there is no urgency to acquire login reward items, isn't totally trash, encourages people to experiment with different looks.
This could work, it just sounds like a lot of work for the developers.
To me, the best "welcome back" mechanic is for the game as a whole to be as good as it can be. There shouldn't be a need for this kind of thing at all.
But please no random Armour skins etc!
People will just abuse this with scripts/macros.
Lifeskills can be linked to a form of login reward, but not random skins.
With player housing and farmland. Crops grow, and NPCs can continue to harvest while you pay them a salary etc while being offline.
I'd rather the developers give us a game that is worth logging in to every day, rather than them thinking that a cheap bribe of some new skin is keeping us in the game.
When he said: "If you log in for the whole month of December we might have a limited Christmas skin for you or something?", that seems very appropriate to me. Giving something that has only cosmetic value for consecutive login seems fine If that is what people are asking for.
I only really have a problem with login rewards if they give something that has in game value or shares the function of something that has in game value. I just don't want log in rewards hurting the economy. To me, everything should have value. Cosmetics don't really fall into this because they are cash shop items already.
I have been harsh on log in rewards in the past, because I don't want to see things that I could be buying and selling with in-currency, handed out for free. My main worry here is if they wanted to do something like login 20 days in the month of December for a mini yeti pet. Are they giving you some little reward every day? I just don't want it to see little health potions of buff potions handed out. They are taking jobs from alchemists.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
I couldn't have said it better myself. If you are having to resort to things like login rewards just to keep your players logging in regularly, then your game's foundation is flawed. [/quote]
Also, to those who are ok with cosmetic-only login rewards, yes that is less egregious than login rewards that give you gameplay benefits, but it is still a conditioning mechanic. The game is still conditioning you to log in and play everyday. And in fact, I would argue that cosmetics are more dangerous in this regard because of how important looks and perceived social status are in online games. Why do you think CoD had a mechanic where you can see other people unlocking their version of loot boxes?
It's a No for the most part of the community for what I see from this thread and from my experience. If AoC implements this, it's a big step on the wrong direction.
I want a good game to play, get my loot, get my gold, those are the only rewards I need.
I don't want a game becoming a chore and giving me free stuff for logging in, that's what desperate games do to keep you playing since they lack meaningful content.
And most importantly, I don't want Anyone feeling they should be buying multiple accounts to get more free stuff for logging in.
Big no
I still remember those daily/weekly quests in Rift to level reputation and it was the most boring thing in the world, and I still hate it.
Now, cosmetics I don't care much, but I do understand that for some people that is also growing and they might feel obligated to log in because of fear of being left out.
So... no, I'm against daily rewards for anything.
I'd rather have rewards tied to achievements, but that make sense, you know. Not things like "kill 1000 thousand lone wolves". More like explore the map, or kill all the rare enemies in certain areas, etc.
Things that are tied to your own personal agenda and your actions in game, not just opening the client.
I don't think of it as a cheap bribe, personally I could care less about cosmetics, but it's something games have been doing for years. Myself I would make it a annual gift for active accounts that have a year annivesary.
And I have all the faith in the world that they're making a quality game, too the likes many have never seen. So many people all they know is WoW, there was a ton a great MMO all with their own style before WoW came along, I feel they're bringing some old school back.
Ah yes, the good old "it's always been like this, therefore it's fine" argument. Sorry but I really hate that argument and very rarely find it relevant.
Not really sure what you're upset about, how is cosmetics going to hurt you or anything in the game if they give them? People really gonna be butt hurt if they don't get one? If anything it will show someone's longevity in AoC if they're wearing a month one item you can never get again, 10 years down the road.
If you want to show longevity, you would need a system that rewards players for total amount of subscribed time. This way, a player would only have an item that took 10 years worth of subscription time to acquire if they had been subscibed to the game for a total of 10 years.
Saying "it's always been like this" can be used to justify anything, even when the circumstances have changed so much that the entire reasoning behind a decision no longer applies. Keeping things the same for the sake of tradition is very silly to me.
As for the cosmetics in login rewards, remember that the entire reason login rewards exist in the first place is to condition a player to log into the game every day. This operant conditioning (which again, I feel has no place in any game, let alone an mmorpg) applies no matter what the reward is.
In my opinion, the reason some people like Santanico don't seem to grasp the concept of operant conditioning and so are happy to obliviously argue for it to be in games, simply means to me that those of us that do understand it need to fight even harder to keep it out of games.
I completely forgot this point. WE ARE PAYING THEM A SUB FEE. Once we pass that hurdle of spending money on the game. We really should not need further enticing to keep us in the game.
These fp2 tactics should not exist in a game with a sub fee. They almost had me there for a second when they was talking about limited skins for monthly login streaks. Thanks for setting me straight.
#thegameisthereaward
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Wait what? I must have missed the memo about login streaks.
Please don't do that Intrepid!
The day Snapchat started the "streaking" mechanic was the day people started taking photos of their feet just for the streak, and thus streaking lost all meaning.
I like this! ALL FACTS! 14 hours = 14 hours.
If a system were to be implemented for login rewards I would much rather it be based on playtime, rather than daily rewards, as you stated here. I would be quite upset if I were to miss a monthly bonus because of a storm knocking my net out etc. Of course, these bonuses shouldn't ever be something that is too substantial. Substantial is in the eye of the beholder..
I would feel forced to do something not gameplay related if there will be login rewards, and that would subjectively lower my immersion and general opinion about the game. I would feel discriminated before other players if I physically would not be able to meet login requirements, even though I perform better gameplay-wise.
I'm only stating my opinion about it like was asked, but apparently some people want to make it personal to me because they don't like my opinion, and say things like "I can't grasp a concept" there is no need for that, I have not attacked anyone here. That's all I'm going to say on this.
It Doesn't matter to me which way this goes, if I get something cool, if I don't no biggie.
These two words drastically alter the meaning of that sentince.
If I were to say you can't grasp the meaning of it, that would suggest you have attempted to, and have failed.
However, I said you don't grasp the meaning of it, which could mean that you have attempted to and failed, but could also mean you have not attempted to, and perhaps have not even come across the term before. I neither know nor care which of these it is, all I know is that you do not understand the term "operant conditioning".
If I said you can't grasp it, then you could take that as a personal insult if you like.
However, because I am somewhat careful with the language I use, and because I understand the meaning of words, I said you don't grasp it. As such, if you are taking it as an insult it is only because you failed to read it correctly.
EDIT: This was based on Steven saying the daily rewards could be cosmetics.
I would think it would be interesting to have it as a log-in achievement mechanic instead of reward. This could be a happy-medium that accomplishes the goals of both sides and it doesn't force anyone to regularly log in.
For example, the achievements could be to have a certain number if days or hours in a week, month, year, or lifetime. Upon reaching that achievement a player would unlock that collector's item. As achievements they would be accessible to all players without creating FOMO due to not being only temporarily available, while also being exclusive enough to still feel like collectors items.
Personally, I would prefer to earn my collectibles through achievements rather than just because I logged in, while also losing the chance to get them just because I didn't.
I thought about this as a replacement for log-in rewards many years ago, and while I think it would work in a f2p game, all it is doing in a subscription game is encouraging players to find a way to keep their character logged in even when they are not playing.
While some may be ok with this, I personally think any "reward" should be based on what you do in game, not just on the fact that you are in game.
Yes, Steven, we know login rewards are free and not pay to win, we don't want them in any way, love ya.
X hrs played (BDO)
Anniversary reward (L2)
Birthday reward (character)
I found that the calendar like reward approach for daily login`s for BDO meant that I often stayed logged in for no other reason than to collect the reward. There must be a better way.
Perhaps something along the lines of tokens issued for every x hrs played which could then be traded in for the tiered monthly reward and occasional selective cash shop trade capability.