Nice to have you, Gamer Max.
I agree with you on perma-death making choices more meaningful due to consequences and that it's a positive development to see it more in future games.
However, let me mention a few aspects to add to your thoughts on this:
- With OPCs (offline player characters) being configurable, the 'punishment' for not playing the game is less extreme than in games where you'll just be inexistant as a character and therefore fall behind content altogether.
- I'm not sure if I'd call it a punishment because when you don't spend time on something it's the same in life whatever you look at.
- The likelihood of you getting bored of the game and the incentive to hop around might be lower than in other games, because the world actually changes all the time with many parameters that make it interesting to be involved.
- Additional content will be streamed in a natural way and you will not have to buy addons from a shop, saving money.
- Generally speaking, the cost for a spark of life is very low compared to other sub-games.
- There will probably also be a way to earn story points by contributing to the game while playing, which in greater number can be used to get a spark of life instead of spending money on it.
- The perma-death system ties in with the story and spirit walking as well as the astral plane will probably not stay the same throughout the 10 years of the game.
- The whole months of play time you don't get when not playing is the same for all the other games, but with CoE it is not as expensive.
- Free to play models end up messing with game balance in a very bad way, because money in those games usually turn into big advantages for those people.
- There is actually no getting a dice and rerolling, since skill ramps are kept by the soul for the next life and improving over several life times is the only way to reach very high proficiency with skills.
- Also note that in comparison to most other games, here it's not just about one character but about the legacy and how the characters evolve over the generations. Items and buildings can be passed on.
So concluding I'm interested in what business models you tend to like (although it will most likely not change for this game). What do you think is fair and feels good for players?
Kind regards,
MoonChaser.