Archived Faction Pricing

[Zpade]

MassiveCraft has grown significantly ever since I left. Roleplay appears to be big now, new empires around, and much more. But I'm not posting this to list off the changes over the course of my eight month leave. This is, mainly, about what hasn't: the price of a faction.

Despite the growth of the "physical" realm(as in more continents and what not), and the expansion of the server itself, along with the many people that are now first joining, the price for a faction is still.. 200 silver. Factions have been at 200 silver for the past.. year now? And we only had, and correct me if I'm wrong, Ceardia and Deandroc. We as a server were smaller then. And now? 4+ continents and what appears to be crowded faction claims left and right.

There was a reason it was placed at 200, and now I feel that it must be raised again.

I myself will suggest 275, if anything, but that's just me.

And you?

 

[Mecharic]

How many people do have 4 alt accounts?

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I think Mecharic does...

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Technically only 3 now because I lost the password and email for one of them... but yeah... 4 accounts I use, including my primary... don't judge me!

 

[operationguard]

Factions when I joined the server were for the wealthy, and thats the way I like it

I think it should be 300S as not only does it take money out of the economy, making items more valuable, but also because I have noticed that factions owners are getting newer and newer to the server.

I remember the days where all the faction owners were almost "Famous" because of wealth

+1 300 Silver Support

 

[Overlordqwerty]

I am sorry, you are just repeating the same arguments without responding to me.
There is so much faction hopping going on at the moment. I described it for you above.
How is a faction that has been bought by one person and an alt a town? That is the situation now.
And then again, how long would you think it would take a person to collect the 500s plus paying the faction hoppers?
We considered the higher price to reduce small, quick dying factions that leave clutter all over the place.
We want to give factions more meaning. We want to make it a community thing again, not an egotrip like it is now often enough.

In my view, this would accomplish that in a better way than just making it more expensive.
As was said often enough, money seems to be no obstacle anymore.

Further, as I said, and you did not give me any counter argument, I do not believe there will be a significant market for faction hoppers because it is too expensive and too unpractical.
And declaring a tool which virtually every MMO uses to control guild and faction numbers useless is a little presumptuous, don't you think?

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I believe I have answered you and I don't appreciate you saying I have said something that I have not. If you are going to say I said something please quote me. Either way our argument will go no where at this rate so lets put it aside and go back to what this thread is actually about. If you want to make a suggestion about having more than one person to start a faction go make a new thread about it. If you really want I can respond to you point by point, but I don't think that's necessary, is it?

 

[Unluvable]

The major problem with the money sink argument is that the market is all about demand. If we dramatically increase the price, nobody will want to found a faction any more. If they still want a faction, they will try and look for a precreated one to buy. However, the owners will see this founding price rise dramatically, which in turn will cause the owners to hike up their asking price as well. The faction buyers will be discouraged, and the market will essentially stagnate. While in theory rising prices would create a better money sink, in reality, if done incorrectly, it would effectively remove a money sink.

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Well, no. The market isn't just about demand. The market is a phenomenon that is influenced by many things, including supply, demand (of which there is elastic and inelastic types), inflation, game policies (i.e. premium benefits), and expectation. You argue that if the prices of founding a faction were raised too high, the market would stagnate... that's quite a claim to make, and isn't that essentially our problem now? Massive amounts of silver rotting in the pockets of premium players?

I disagree with your prediction, however. Yes, faction owners will increase their prices of their pre-owned factions in response to the raised faction prices. That is what we want. However, the market would not stagnate from the faction price increase alone because people will always seek to create factions; they're that important. They're an inelastic demand, and an integral aspect of MassiveCraft's gameplay. People WILL find a way to scratch up and grind that 1000s if they really want to, and it should be challenge. Owning a faction has many perks that people simply take for granted, and if left factionless, people will understand how crippling it can be to not be in a faction.

Moreover, people change factions, found new ones, and sell old ones like they change their damned underwear. Creating a faction should entail great responsibility and be considered seriously in the decision of its founding. People need to change the model of what they perceive a faction to be: a faction isn't just some excuse for someone to recruits dozens of people, claim tons of god-protected chunks, then kick everyone out, having an invincible ghost town with untouchable land/resources. It's meant to be a political entity comprised of multiple individuals led by a leader that work together is some way and order to achieve a goal. The very presence of a single faction influences, at least in some small way, in how all other factions behave.

 

[Unluvable]

Would raising the founding price actually solve the problem though? There is already a high concentration of factions, this would not reduce that number, and often people will buy a faction from another rather than actually paying the two hundred to found one. When buying off another, the prices are very rarely over 200s, unless there is an adequate faction base accompaniment.

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It would certainly prevent the problem from getting worse. The money sink argument is just one benefit of many that comes from increasing the faction price. Other benefits include making factions more valuable (which, looking at the original price of factions a year or so ago, is what was intended). Moreover, there would be less factions, which, I hope, would lead to more people banding together and cooperating to make higher quality, more serious, factions. I'm sure there are more benefits that I am missing.

 

[Arvallon]

I think Mecharic does...

Anyway the thing about making factions need more than one member to start them just seems pointless to me and its just a way for faction hoppers to make money and does not make sense. If 100 people band together and start a town, then 99 leave, its not really a town anymore.

Also, what about people who want a small faction of say, 3 people, what do they do? I think its just limits what people can do with factions. And you need to remember even if it is not that long to code it is still coding required where a cost increase is just a setting.

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Do those people realy need a faction if it is just three people? I definatly do not. I know you may want it just for the sake of protecting your small village, but we do have rules to protect the factionless people.

A faction shouldn't be about just three people. I mean; are those three people litteraly a faction? They sure don't sound like one. A faction should consist of many people banding together. Factions should give the impression of kingdoms, empires and alliances. Do three people realy fit the disciption of any of those things?

It would be in my opinion that a faction is ment to give a large group of players, -who like to play together in the same group- the ability to add structure, management and leadership to that group. Allowing it to build a town, village or even a city with provided protection the more members they have. And that is one of the main reasons why tiny factions are not needed. (other reasons where in a previous post)

 

[Overlordqwerty]

Do those people realy need a faction if it is just three people? I definatly do not. I know you may want it just for the sake of protecting your small village, but we do have rules to protect the factionless people.

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Three people who want to build a town do need a faction. To mark their boarders, protect their builds and protect them from raids. A wilderness player cannot hide inside during a raid. And the rules do not "protect" wilderness players, they punish those who grief them. Only game mechanics can provide 24 hour real time protection.

 

[Dragon431]

Honestly, It will help. As wanting my own faction for a while and though wanting it cheaper, i believe it should be increase over 300+. not only will it help increase the economy but it will also strive players to be apart of a faction more than make one themselves, and people will want to join more often, making some factions stronger and conflicts more interesting. this will also allow great cities to be built. Like i said, it should be over 300 maybe even 400.


SUPPORTED 100%

 

[Overlordqwerty]

-sees support for raising faction cost-
-begins investing in factions-

 

[Zpade]

Jomdorr made this post a day ago and got dislikes... Now you made this post and people agree? Whats wrong?

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Haven't been too active lately, so... yeah late reply FTW xD

Well, when I made this post, I did so with a real concern of sorts to the community. I believe it might have also been late for me, so I did not snoop around the forums much to eventually find this post you speak of. A little too lazy to look for it now, but I might have an idea as to why he may have received dislikes.

Perhaps he merely suggested it but did not present his case. Or he didn't take the time to articulate the idea further.

Whatever the case may be, my case in point is that I wrote with intention of persuasion, to make others understand my viewpoint.