Does anyone else think its a bad move by motorsims to make the on-line
play of AMA a pay service, when almost every other game coming out the
on-line is free?
Billing won't commense until we exit the "free online beta" phase.
Put another way ... worry about what we charge when we start charging for
it. Then make a decision if what we're going to offer is worth what we're
going to charge.
-MSM
--
__________________________________________________________________________
Mark S. Miller "Be regular and orderly in your life,
Director of Design that you may be *** and original
Motorsport Simulations in your work."
[link lost in import]
>Does anyone else think its a bad move by motorsims to make the on-line
>play of AMA a pay service, when almost every other game coming out the
>on-line is free?
Yeah, I do. Even if the fee is really low it's still a PITA.
Especially for those of use who choose not to involve ourselves in the
sins of credit card companies.
Joe McGinn
==========================================
Staff Writer for the Sports *** Network
[link lost in import: /***.com/]
==========================================
As Mark just said, its free for now until it goes to a point where they feel
its stable enough, has enough features, etc that its worthy of having a
charge for.
Quoted text (13 lines)
> >Does anyone else think its a bad move by motorsims to make the on-line > >play of AMA a pay service, when almost every other game coming out the > >on-line is free? > Yeah, I do. Even if the fee is really low it's still a PITA. > Especially for those of use who choose not to involve ourselves in the > sins of credit card companies. > Joe McGinn > ========================================== > Staff Writer for the Sports *** Network > [link lost in import: /***.com/] > ==========================================TEN was a pay to play service because the service was awesome. You pay for
> As Mark just said, its free for now until it goes to a point where they feel
> its stable enough, has enough features, etc that its worthy of having a
> charge for.
I like the idea of having to pay for it, that way it's an effort to get
online and play, that will weed out the ones who aren't really in there
to race, but to mess up the place, they ought to have a free "demo"
arena though, that way you can see what it's all about, kinda like TEN
had for the last few months
Just look over at "The Zone", bunch of people just out to ruin games for
others, and if they get banned, they just sign up for yet another free
account......
--
Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy
"Team Mirage" http://www.teammirage.com/
"The Pits" http://www.theuspits.com/
I believe that if you buy the box version of it, you get one month free or
something of service. Not sure, but I would think they'd do something like
that, perhaps a week or so, of trial time for downloading the online
version.
True, but then again I think there are less people who will play online
racing "sims" than say WarCraft2, Quake2, AoE, etc. Look at VROC community.
There were some of those folks who just ruined the fun because but didn't
mean too, some have become good drivers, others were out to delibrately do
harm and you don't see much of that anymore.
accepted by the *** company. Let's see...
1) People on the system are willing to pay for quality racing, there is less
Kids, keyboard drivers, lamers, etc.. Those people are quickly eliminated,
since it's not their market
2) Everquest, Warbirds (some of the Motorsims employees were on the
development team for that game), Ultima Online, at least 20other games
download it you will have the possibility. You want to race after ? Pay for
it. I mean they have to get their money somewhere ?
pay alot of money for it, since there will be from what I see plenty of
different fee's, with rate plans according to the user.
I somehow fear that there won't be many people on the AMA Online system for
many reasons (N3, GPL, other bike sims, etc..), but it's a first step, and
it's pretty good imho.
--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
That's the best thing Goy IMHO. It eliminates possible lamers who actually
pay to lame people on the system. They will race for free and lame there.
Well somehow it's still not good, but better. I've just checked the Zone,
here is a list of games you actually pay to play :
Fighter Ace
***strike2
Tanarus
Asheron's Call
DragonRealms
GemStone III
Hercules & Xena
Bridge Club
Fantasy Baseball
There is a market for that. I think we just need to look at Nascar Racing 3
to see how sometimes free online racing is poor.
--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
> > they ought to have a free "demo"
> > arena though, that way you can see what it's all about, kinda like TEN
> > had for the last few months
What we call "Free Beta Test" (or whatever way its being worded this week)
is just that.
The problem with free demo arenas is that online players are so damned
cunning. Soon they'll be running ladders on our free demo servers. Also
people who are racing for free may tend to take their racing a lot less
seriously than someone who's paying to be there. For the real race ***s,
having a race ruined by some yahoo who decides to drive backwards for half a
lap because he's in last place.
So it's a matter of creating space for everyone. Plus giving real value for
your subscription dollar. All I can say beyond that is "stay tuned."
-MSM
--
__________________________________________________________________________
Mark S. Miller "Be regular and orderly in your life,
Director of Design that you may be *** and original
Motorsport Simulations in your work."
[link lost in import]
Hmmm, ever run an online GPL race? It's free and IMHO the competition is as
intense and serious as any NROS race. I think the sims level of realism sets
the online environment much more than the cost to play does (unless maybe if
there's a purse). GPL weeds out a lot of people who don't want to spend the
large amount of time it takes to learn how to control the car. Those who
regularly participate in the online GPL races tend to have a lot of
experience. So far what I've heard about AMA superbike is that the physics
engine is garbage from a realism standpoint. If that's true, the online crowd
will be unskilled and boring to race with. Yes, you get what you pay for but
in this case I think it's much more a function of time than money. Hope I'm
wrong about AMA superbike.
Rich
> TEN was a pay to play service because the service was awesome. You pay for
I wouldn't pay a penny for this sad excuse of a bike sim, much less
pay to play it online. Let's see what sales figures look like for
Motorsim's next title SCCA. I guarantee you sales will be extremely
low after seeing the little effort they put into their AMA product.
>Does anyone else think its a bad move by motorsims to make the on-line
>play of AMA a pay service, when almost every other game coming out the
>on-line is free?
>As Mark just said, its free for now until it goes to a point where they feel
>its stable enough, has enough features, etc that its worthy of having a
>charge for.
Oh I missed that, thanks for he correction!
Joe McGinn
==========================================
Staff Writer for the Sports *** Network
[link lost in import: /***.com/]
==========================================
I spent a lot of time online with GPL. I went by the name of "Jethro
Bodine." About half our private beta testers (the early people who suffer
the most with us) come from the VROC community.
While the competition can be intense, there are limitations to the free,
player-hosted setup. No guarantee of an available race you want to run in.
No guarantee that you'll have a prayer of winning ("Oh look ... Remco,
Wolfgang, and Allison are in the race ... OK, 4th is the best I can hope
for.") No guarantee that the race will be even of similar skill levels. No
guarantee of connection quality (we're spending big bucks on a wopping T3
pipe right to UUNet). No standardized scoring. And the diversity of the
kinds of races is dependant on the people who have time to set things up.
Don't get me wrong ... I had a BLAST racing on VROC ... and still pop in
from time to time for a cup of humility. But there are serious limitations
that can really only be solved with serious wrok and resources.
As for our game's simulation quality, I think for those who give it more
than 20 minutes they'll find it's a lot more realistic than they think at
first glance. It drives very different from all the other bike games I've
tried (and I've looked at just about all of 'em). And it does take getting
used to. But once you get the hang of how to set up for, and commit to, a
turn - and the Pro tricks you can use to get out of trouble - things start
feeling much more natural.
Also I'm betting a lot of people jump right on an RC45 and try to do
Brainerd in 1:37. Nuh uh. Start with a Supersport bike - they are much more
nimble, you can brake very deep into a turn. Learn the tracks by driving in
chase mode - then when you know your brake and exit points try the***pit
view.
Are there rough edges? Sure. Are we fixing stuff as fast as we can? You bet.
Will any customer have to pay for updates? Hell no. Will customers have to
wait months between updates? No way. Are we right here in the Lion's Den
answering questions and taking the heat? Yupper.
If you have doubts based on comments you've read here, just wait a week for
the online demo version. You'll get all the bikes (Supersport and Superbike)
plus one or two tracks to practice on. Then judge for yourself. It's *our*
mistake that we didn't get the demo out soon enough, OK?
-MSM
--
__________________________________________________________________________
Mark S. Miller "Be regular and orderly in your life,
Director of Design that you may be *** and original
Motorsport Simulations in your work."
[link lost in import]
How do the customers who dont have internet access get the free updates ?
Buy a mag ? thats not free.
So the only option left is for you to post the udates on CD or floppy disk
??
--
Ian Parker
UKGPL League
http://www.btinternet.com/~ukgpl/index.html [address restored]
--
> Are there rough edges? Sure. Are we fixing stuff as fast as we can? You
bet.
> Will any customer have to pay for updates? Hell no. Will customers have to
> wait months between updates? No way. Are we right here in the Lion's Den
> answering questions and taking the heat? Yupper.
> If you have doubts based on comments you've read here, just wait a week
for
> the online demo version. You'll get all the bikes (Supersport and
Superbike)
> plus one or two tracks to practice on. Then judge for yourself. It's *our*
> mistake that we didn't get the demo out soon enough, OK?
> -MSM
> --
> __________________________________________________________________________
> Mark S. Miller "Be regular and orderly in your life,
> Director of Design that you may be *** and original
> Motorsport Simulations in your work."
> [link lost in import]
How do people without internet access get updates/patches for any other
game?
Answer: the internet and/or in the case of some infrequent add-on packs
usually come with the patches up to the time the add-on pack was published.
I don't see many other companies throwing updates on cd or floppy disk for
internet-imparied people.
to
*our*
> > mistake that we didn't get the demo out soon enough, OK?
> > -MSM
> > --
__________________________________________________________________________
life,
> > Director of Design that you may be *** and original
> > Motorsport Simulations in your work."
> > [link lost in import]
