Saga Beta Starts
New at FileShack today is the Saga beta, allowing you to try out this new persistent-world real-time strategy game. Saga is free-to-play, with the developers looking to make money through 'booster packs' of troops and spells. More info on the game can be found at playsaga.com.
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Sturm08
replyI'm really interested in this business model. It's like you get a meaty demo and if you really dig it, throw the devs a little money.
It works really well in Korea but I'm not sure it's really taken off in the states yet. Anybody know of any that have succeeded here?-
There are a couple of games that do this. Dungeon Runner and Pox Nora come to mind immediately. Both are free to download and play with additional features costing money. I couldn't tell you how they are doing though.
Personally, I don't care for the model. If I like a game, I'd rather buy it than being nickled and dimed to death. Dungeon Runner doesn't seem soo bad in this sense. It's a straight $5/month, but Pox Nora uses a rune system where you buy rune packs and can additionaly subscribe ($5/month) for access to buy premium runes. Of coures, I also don't play MM games like WoW for this reason.
I understand they have a product to sell and they need to make money. I'm all for that, and I wish them the best of luck.
http://www.dungeonrunner.com/
http://www.poxnora.com/index.do
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Heard of those two and even tried Pox Nora (hated it), but I also didn't know how well they were doing. One thing I don't like about the idea of Saga (now that I think about it) is that those who spend the most money will (theoretically) win. It's like playing Magic: The Gathering as a kid. I got a booster pack from time to time and got slaughtered by the kids who spent gobs of money.
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I don't think I really like this setup.
For a game like this, the booster packs and such are going to have to contain units and spells that are better than the original fare, so to stay competitive you'll have to buy them. But not all of them will be useful, so you'll end up paying like $15 for one or two useful units/spells that you need to keep the edge.
I don't know, it just doesn't sound like a good idea.-
Saga, however, also has an in-game trading system so you can trade your own elite units for someone else's, if it'll help you create a more complete army. The team was pretty aware of the "I could just pay more and I'll be the best!"-type players, so they've done what they can to make sure those who don't buy booster packs can stay competitive. You could even have a regular unit that you've taken into a ton of battles, so they've got more experience, better equipment and weapons than the uber unit someone may have bought in a booster pack. In the end, though, it's going to be the best strategists that do well in Saga, not necessarily the ones who buy the most boosters.
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