I'd like to see Hector turned into a version of test that has limited up time, but is free to play. Remove the free RRs from it, but keep all the other testing bonuses. Make sure everyone who creates a toon on Hector knows that there may be server wipes, and the up time will ONLY be when Mythic needs some new patch tested.

I for one do not have time to play an MMO regularly, I do however enjoy DAoC and would love to play occasionally and especially help with testing new patches. However paying fifteen dollars a month for a ten year old game that hasn't seen a content update in something like 4 years, seems foolish.

I could easily see mythic doing a Hector mailing list similar to the Wrath of Heroes mailing list that tells us when we can log in. Those of us who enjoy daoc, but not so much that we are willing to pay for it, can help test new patches well enjoying our old past time. Mythic gets better QA for their live customers, and generates good will with the old user base. If Mythic ever puts something like Origins on the table, or upgrades DAoC graphics, or one of the thousand things that could draw these old players back, they'd have a direct line to their attention. They'd simply put the changes on Hector first, these old players would play it, and maybe like it so much they'd subscribe.

Seems like it would be win-win for Mythic and the playerbase. Other than the possibility that it'd be so popular they'd have to increase Pendragon/Hector bandwidth during test times, I don't see any down side for them.

What do the rest of you think of this?

-MacAran

Why do people keep bringing up f2p??? It is NEVER gonna happen...NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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Hate f2p, it just destroyed EQ2 and it will destroy what's left of this game. If you can't afford 15 bucks a month then you don't need to be playing video games at all, go get a second job.

 

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Please not another F2P thread.

Everything has already been said, hashed out, argued, discussed. . . just read the threads and let it die.


Other F2P threads:

Nov 06 2011 F2P closure, launches and more - not a path that DAoC will be taking

Jul 25 2011 Topic: What would make u return?? mostly it is the last page of this link that is the discussion about F2P

Jul 10 2011 Topic: *Article* GA, AOC, and other MMO's go F2P - Record Profits!!!

Jun 30 2011 Topic: Make it free

Jan 04 2011 Topic: Some Type of Free to Play?

Oct 8 2010 Topic: F2P model success

Jun 05 2010 Topic: Should DAoC become free to play?

Feb 25 2010 Topic: Mythic - Watch and Learn

Mar 20 2009 Topic: We need a Mythic run F2P server

 

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are you guys serious?

read the original post.

This is not the same as all the other threads about making DAOC an entirely F2P game. How on earth can you possibly compare the two in terms of how much impact it will have on the game.

all I can say is

F@(&#

what kind of stupidity is this to group this thread together with all of the other F2P threads.

As for the OP, the idea is fine, but from EA/Mythic/Bioware point of view they're not gonna care. The time they spend doing such a thing isn't going to improve the game enough. Maybe if the patches were big and frequent enough then the idea could work, but again it won't really matter to them.

 

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Thanks for pointing that out Doorknob; I must admit I did laugh out loud when reading their posts though, so it wasn't a total loss.

I guess I agree with you that it wouldn't really work WELL without a more intensive patch schedule, but I think even if it was only open for a week or two every quarter it would AT LEAST improve their QA a tad for very little effort on their part.

maybe they can actually earn some new subs like this in the same way that the free trial does. Ok so people like you might never actually resub, but if word got around they could get quite a few old players testing out a patch and they just might be tempted enough to play the patch when it goes live.

 

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I suspect that Mythic/etc would be somewhat concerned with how much giving players essentially a free game with almost instant full access to the RvR side of the game might hurt live servers.

 

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While it is a twist on some of the old F2P, the OPs suggestion is a type of F2P and many of the old arguments do apply. If you look through the old F2P threads almost every type of F2P that is possible has been suggested and can be found in old threads. While I am not sure if Pendragon/Hector F2P is on one of the listed threads, I do recall a past thread where F2P Hector was suggested and discussed.





I think that there are many variations on F2P that Mythic should consider, so I am not totally against F2P.


Mythic has NEVER really cared much about testers. Sorry but they never really have. Yes, yes from time to time there have been testers who have found things, reported them and Mythic has fixed the reported bug. I have found things and had Mythic discuss things with me and fix the bugs. On a rare occasion strange things have happened.


But, in general, Mythic has never given much concern to testers. Some may want to take a different view on things but they look through rose colored glasses and forget the reality of Pendragon. It has always been a common thing for almost every bug that ever went live (and some horrendous bugs have gone live) to have been found and reported on Pendragon first, yet the bug went live anyway. Also, most testers were never really given the abilities necessary to easily test things on Pendragon/Hector.


If a game company wants testers to test things the game company should not make it difficult for testers to get to the point where they actually test. Mythic has always set up Pendragon/Hector so that it is difficult for testers to get to the actual point of testing (gearing up, getting to the correct level, getting to the correct location and then finally running a test). This is because, with rare exceptions, they do not really care about the testers testing.


Pendragon and Hector are hype servers. They are for generating hype and word of mouth excitement about new stuff Mythic/Bioware is coming up with for the game. The test servers have never really been about players testing (except in rare and very isolated instances).


Then there are the resources for Mythic to deal with Hector and the players, modify Hector and add tools that make it relatively easy for players to start from scratch and get ready to test at whatever level of testing needs to be done, etc. . . Mythic/Bioware seemed to have a difficult time dealing with the Pendragon ring (and distributing the ring should have been very easy). The OP said there was no real downside, well this is actually the big down side, 'resources'.


Then there is the challenge concerning people (basically noobs) who do not have real accounts, who do not play the real game and who know very little about the game of today, giving their advice to Mythic/Bioware concerning how new code will change game play. I can see how the advice of an experienced player could be of value but a developer being tasked with sifting through numerous strange evaluations from the inexperienced. . . .


Then there is the challenge of Hector being popular . . . or not popular. If it is not attractive to log into then it is a flop and a waste of Mythic’s/Bioware’s time but if it is popular then it risks taking actual subs away from the game, granted probably not many subs away from the game but still. Popular is not really great and unpopular means it was a waste of resources, resources that could have been devoted elsewhere on problems that really need the limited resources.

 

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why group it with the other threads... well because... in some of those other threads...





the idea of having just test server F2P was already discussed...

as semi pointed out.. its a horse that died so long ago and has been beaten so much and so often that its just a pile of dust on blood stained ground.

 

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