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I'm not going to rehash all my arguments regarding clustering so don't switch off just yet.

But...

Turning it round to a marketing point of view I'd like to pose the question that, following clustering, what can GOA offer to new subscribers to the english version of the game to make it attractive to new players (not existing subscribers).

Under clustering the options will be:

French servers: two clustered, two not clustered ---> ability to play all three realms without cross-realming time penalty. Clustered RvR zones and shared classic, SI, TOA and catacombs zones. Plus, stand-alone servers that operate as now.
One account needed to play all realms and have clustered/non-clustered option.

German servers: five non-clustered servers ---> ability to play all three realms. No shared RvR zones but varied population sizes that allow a choice of realm, player-base size and all the other stuff on traditional servers.
One account needed to play all realms on non-clustered servers.

English servers: two clustered servers ----> ability to play one realm only.
Shared RvR zones, two copies of classic, toa, SI and catacombs zones.
Three accounts needed to play all three realms.

If you are skilled enough to converse in two of the three languages mentioned, and were coming to the game for the first time, which version would you choose?

If the only language of the above three that you could converse in is English would you really be interested in this product offer, and what would you want to receive in order to get the same value for your subscription?

Would you, for example, expect to see the fees for an english version account be cut by 66% to compensate for the differential levels of choice?

Perhaps GOA ought to ask themselves these same questions?

And remember, I'm posing these questions from the perspective of a new player coming to the game for the first time.

Well they would have to start advertising it first, at the moment the only selling point is word of mouth.

havent seen any catacombs (add on or full pack) in street shops so how can they expect people to notice it?

if they only spent a week on ads atleast...

Aye, what happened to requiels promise btw? the 'there will be adds in magazines, on telly and on the cinema' or what ever he said (that wasnt a quote btw..but I think he said something like that atleast)

/Ankh

In all honesty I think the average potential new player to goa daoc, would not be aware of most if not all of that information prior to purchase and would most likely not really appreciate what it means either.

I wasnt aware of the full server range and options prior to purchase, and it wouldnt have influenced my decision to buy had i been.

I think an interesting question is what effect the information mentioned would have on retention of new players that come to the game. ie once they are able to appreciate exactly what their options/limitations are.

The bigger leading question then of course is to consider exactly what proportion of future revenue goa envisage/ed coming from 'new players', and hence how much the possible negative effect of the above changes to new players influenced the decision. ie is the game at the stage where much more revenue is deemed to be likely to come from 'retired' players reactivating + retention of existing ones than that possibly lost to 'new players' who dont activate due to newly limited options.

Reza wrote:In all honesty I think the average potential new player to goa daoc, would not be aware of most if not all of that information prior to purchase and would most likely not really appreciate what it means either.

I wasnt aware of the full server range and options prior to purchase, and it wouldnt have influenced my decision to buy had i been.

I think an interesting question is what effect the information mentioned would have on retention of new players that come to the game. ie once they are able to appreciate exactly what their options/limitations are.

The bigger leading question then of course is to consider exactly what proportion of future revenue goa envisage/ed coming from 'new players', and hence how much the possible negative effect of the above changes to new players influenced the decision. ie is the game at the stage where much more revenue is deemed to be likely to come from 'retired' players reactivating + retention of existing ones than that possibly lost to 'new players' who dont activate due to newly limited options.

Good points Reza. I can't help but think that GOA have given up on recruiting new players in the UK because it has become one of the most invisible games on the UK High Street.

New players might also appreciate the limitations if they come via a recommendation from a friend. I was introduced to this game by a rl friend and it seems that new recruitment in the UK is only being done this way, because there's little evidence of other methods.

Recruitment by word of mouth is risky. It's perhaps no surprise when i say that at the moment the only recommendation I would give is to sign up to the Mythic version on the US servers. Not a smoking chance in hell that I'm gonna recommend the clustered option to new UK players, at least not at full price.

Briannon wrote: two clustered servers ----> ability to play one realm only.

.

anyone with half a brain would figure out its easy enough to create a char in another realm, all you have to do is create it now.

I think the biggest mistake mythic made, was not making the language of the game client side, these arguements would not be a problem as we could play on any server in English.

Games such as guildwars have managed this (although the style of the game (one server) kinda had to make it like that. I would not mind playing on a German server if I could do so with the English language.

Aye, but imo the germans/french/spaniards/italians should learn better english and we could stick to just english servers and less waiting time for new patches Tbh, if they had made swedish servers I would have refused to play there cos my main language sounds silly

/Ankh

I would play just to meet all the big breasted blondes!