Forums » Suggestions

Do a Humble Bundle with 1 year subscription

Oct 17, 2012 Savet link
I know it has been suggested before, but there are several good reasons to do it:

1. increased population for testing/feedback.
2. we can deduce GS's primary income stream is not subscriptons, so a surge in player base will help demonstrate the scalability.
3. Existing players have more interraction.
4. I like lists.
Oct 17, 2012 bunghole link
Don't you mean "smug and cynical moneygrab bundle"?
Oct 17, 2012 Kierky link
Also how do we stop this being abused?
Oct 17, 2012 Pizzasgood link
Abused how? As long as they restrict it to one year per account, you wouldn't be able to use it to stock up on years by making multiple purchases. The only thing I'd worry about is somebody using it to buy a whole mess of cheap 1-year bot accounts. Imagine 20 new famy bots, coming to a station near you! But if people did do anything really annoying, like make three dozen 1-year alt accounts so they can /vote mute at will, we could just complain to the devs. I'd wager that the potential gains would offset the minor risk of the devs having to spend an hour or two dealing with some idiot who pushed his luck a bit too far.

All that said, I don't think now is quite the correct time to do this (nor other marketing ploys). Wait a month or two until the devs have made good on their promises about returning to gameplay. When the game is at the point again where progress is visibly and reliably happening, then it would be a good time to generate an influx of new people - more likely to hook 'em.

Of course, that mostly goes without saying for this specific suggestion, since they'd have to wait for the next bundle anyway. I mainly mention it for the sake of other marketing opportunities, and also on the off chance that the devs pull a trident with the engine updates. Sometimes I wonder whether Wisconsin uses the Gregorian calendar like the rest of us. :P
Oct 17, 2012 SkinWalker link
How does a humble bundle work?
Oct 17, 2012 TheRedSpy link
<tsreknor> maybe i should just buy 20 accounts
<tsreknor> it might be worth 20 accounts to be able to mute anyone


Nuff said.
Oct 17, 2012 Kierky link
The only thing I'd worry about is somebody using it to buy a whole mess of cheap 1-year bot accounts.
Heh yeah that's what I meant by abuse. It will just make people more inclined to use bots.
Oct 17, 2012 Savet link
There are add-on games that you get when you reach a certain threshold in contribution.

Example, pay more than X and get these games too....

Perhaps it could be included in that fashion.

Additionally, the main limitation to running multiple bot accounts is not the monetary outlay, it's having to have multiple instances of VO running. Granted, you can do this in VMs but it's still additional overhead that most aren't going to want to deal with.

Also, one bot can kind of slide by....but to go overboard would earn the ire of the devs, so nobody in their right mind would do this.

The real downside would be existing members using this to get cheaper gameplay, so to that I suggest making it apply to new account creation only.
Oct 18, 2012 abortretryfail link
I'm opposed to this idea but not for the reasons anyone has stated here.

The HIB games are supposed to be buy-it-and-keep-it DRM-free cross platform titles. VO is a subscription model and doesn't really fit that bill.