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Seraphina · 10-06-2002, 12:57 PM

Interestingly I have noticed all the games seem very forthright about those details under info and many in their descriptions.

Excuse me? I play a P2P game. They make it obvious that it is a P2P game right up front by making it clear they offer a 30 day free trial. It was not two clicks to find out if The Eternal City was P2P. I went to info and to the game site and read considerable background information on classes etc. without finding out it was P2P.

I saw no indication at all at Achaea's site that they are P2P so now I am not sure if they are or not. Aha! *Third* visit to the site I finally found the $ information under "credits" which looked like where they would list the creators of the games to me.

"A 'credit' is an Achaean currency, which you may purchase on this page. Once your character has his or her credits, he or she may spend them on whatever is available to spend credits on, such as lessons for skills, artifacts, pets, houses, and so on." Beneath is a listing of various foods from a 20$ salad to offerings for close to 300$."

You mention that there are other significant facts about games and that is very true however that information seems very easy to find. I have to wonder why some P2P games keep this information buried in the web sites to the point where someone could actually create a character without realizing the game is P2P.

As a consumer when I am considering a product I want to know how much it costs up front. I do not want to waste time finding out about the product before knowing whether or not there is a charge for it. There may be people out there for whom it makes no difference if something is free, 10$ a month, or 100$ a month, but I would guess they are few and far between.

From the posts I have read I gather that the entrance to this site of P2P mud offerings is fairly new. It's good for the site as P2P's generally have larger player bases so generate more traffic per game. On the other hand, a large part of the draw to the players is an opportunity to see what else is out there. If there is no way to figure out which games are free and which charge it makes the site a lot less useful to me.

My experience of checking out other muds so far leaves me cold. I am not going to spend hours clicking on muds and searching their web pages to figure out if they are pay or free. It has left me suspicious of all the muds listed because some of the pay muds put the information in an obscure place or only divulge that there is a charge once you have decided to play.

It seems that prior to the entry of P2P muds the default was that the muds are free to play. Some of the P2P muds are being upfront either in the short description on the ratings page or in the features area of info. Others are leaving the information obscure. I just clicked on Shattered Kingdoms and don't see any reference to charging, but I am suspicious anyway because of the P2P sites that are not being upfront about charging. Is that fair to Shattered Kingdoms? Depends on if they too charge.

This is not fair to the free muds or to the players using the site as a reference. Another solution would be for the free muds to all change their descriptions to specify FREE. As free seems to have been the default it doesn't see right to me that the entry of P2P muds on the list should force everyone else to change their descriptions because of a few muds that prefer to leave that information obscure.

How popular do you think this site will remain if players have to wade through all kinds of information on mud sites to discover whether or not they have to pay?

Why would muds that charge be resistant to including that information in their description?

10-06-2002, 12:57 PM	#27
Seraphina Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 49	Interestingly I have noticed all the games seem very forthright about those details under info and many in their descriptions. Excuse me? I play a P2P game. They make it obvious that it is a P2P game right up front by making it clear they offer a 30 day free trial. It was not two clicks to find out if The Eternal City was P2P. I went to info and to the game site and read considerable background information on classes etc. without finding out it was P2P. I saw no indication at all at Achaea's site that they are P2P so now I am not sure if they are or not. Aha! Third visit to the site I finally found the $ information under "credits" which looked like where they would list the creators of the games to me. "A 'credit' is an Achaean currency, which you may purchase on this page. Once your character has his or her credits, he or she may spend them on whatever is available to spend credits on, such as lessons for skills, artifacts, pets, houses, and so on." Beneath is a listing of various foods from a 20$ salad to offerings for close to 300$." You mention that there are other significant facts about games and that is very true however that information seems very easy to find. I have to wonder why some P2P games keep this information buried in the web sites to the point where someone could actually create a character without realizing the game is P2P. As a consumer when I am considering a product I want to know how much it costs up front. I do not want to waste time finding out about the product before knowing whether or not there is a charge for it. There may be people out there for whom it makes no difference if something is free, 10$ a month, or 100$ a month, but I would guess they are few and far between. From the posts I have read I gather that the entrance to this site of P2P mud offerings is fairly new. It's good for the site as P2P's generally have larger player bases so generate more traffic per game. On the other hand, a large part of the draw to the players is an opportunity to see what else is out there. If there is no way to figure out which games are free and which charge it makes the site a lot less useful to me. My experience of checking out other muds so far leaves me cold. I am not going to spend hours clicking on muds and searching their web pages to figure out if they are pay or free. It has left me suspicious of all the muds listed because some of the pay muds put the information in an obscure place or only divulge that there is a charge once you have decided to play. It seems that prior to the entry of P2P muds the default was that the muds are free to play. Some of the P2P muds are being upfront either in the short description on the ratings page or in the features area of info. Others are leaving the information obscure. I just clicked on Shattered Kingdoms and don't see any reference to charging, but I am suspicious anyway because of the P2P sites that are not being upfront about charging. Is that fair to Shattered Kingdoms? Depends on if they too charge. This is not fair to the free muds or to the players using the site as a reference. Another solution would be for the free muds to all change their descriptions to specify FREE. As free seems to have been the default it doesn't see right to me that the entry of P2P muds on the list should force everyone else to change their descriptions because of a few muds that prefer to leave that information obscure. How popular do you think this site will remain if players have to wade through all kinds of information on mud sites to discover whether or not they have to pay? Why would muds that charge be resistant to including that information in their description?