Betterblog

Theosophistry
Best name ever for it.

AWESOME. Is Dr Annie Besant going to be affiliated with the cult of theosophistry?

Ok I'm trying to be understanding here because I really like this game, but frankly I'm having a bit of trouble with the math. This has bothered me for a while, but I haven't gone to the trouble of complaining because the free play was sufficient, but now I'm a little frustrated.

I'm going to use WoW as an example, given that it's by far the industry leader in terms of subscription-based games. Their subscription fee is 13 USD per month, as compared to 8 for this game. In exchange for that amount, you get an near-infinite amount of play. Scheduled downtime takes about 2-4 hours a week, and apart from that it's 24/7 availability. Comparitively, you allow paying customers 100 actions a day. Given that each action takes at most 30 seconds, that's no more than 50 minutes a day, or 5-6 hours a week. Keep that in mind, as we go on.

Now, the core of that game involves content additions at regular intervals. They include interlocking quests (with more text than yours), new landscapes fully developed and explorable in 3D, new enemies (though to be fair often these are pallet-swaps), and new items fully modeled in 3D with accompanying 2D inventory emblems, adjusted to balance with the rest of the game and highly detailed in terms of stats. By comparison, your game offers content additions which include principally non-interlocking quests with small text blurbs, items rendered only in 2D, and occasionally new environments which amount to small paintings. You also have significantly less server load per customer, unless I miss my guess, given the relatively small data transfer requirements.

It is therefore my guess, and again correct me if I'm missing something on this, that their expenses are probably upwards of 10x yours. Their subscription fee, on the other hand, is not even double.

So, to conclude, we have one game which is insanely massive with content updates which are correspondingly significant, and allows constant or near-constant play, and another which is fairly minimalist both in scope and in update size, and allows no more than 6 hours a week of play. The price of the latter is over 50% of the former. How do you justify that?

Don't get me wrong, I love this game, and I've recommended it to numerous people - great writing, great atmosphere, an intriguing en medias res form of exposition - but surely the difference in operating cost and (perhaps more importantly) product delivery has to make the price point seem a bit off to you?

By lowering the cap to 50 for "casual" players you give a huge advantage to those who pay. All so I'm quite put off by the fact that you called us "causal" players casual... If I don't want to pay 2 dollars a week, thats 112 a year, how dose that make me causal maybe I'm just economical or poor or maybe I just don't want to spend money for a digital product that I will never be able to touch, but its okay because you probably don't value my opinion because I'm a casual player....

I have the feeling that turning down the amount of free player actions may loose you more players than you will gain in paying players...
Seriously the system is fine as it is, why change it?

What about Ambition: Light Fingers?  Will the Orphanage be in this content update?  

woah, tricky capcha. anyhoo this sounds great. I want to support you guys but 5 dollars 20 actions is too rich for my blood. this is, what, 8 dollars ..eh... MATH PAIN three hundred actions?? sign me up

Well, I'll be the grumpy one and say this sucks. I'm all for premium content and storylets being only available for Fate, but halving our actions unless we dish money? That's low.

BTW, among all this new content planned, can we get the opt-out for second chance cards that has been 'planned' for over a year now?

Be ready for ragequits. People love this game, and when I first began playing I was addicted because you can have the window opened in the taskbar in a separate instance and check for a while. I'd check every hour or so. Now... I dunno, it definitely makes the second candle seem more "worth" it. I only bought it because I can't play in small intervals as efficiently anymore, I very much appreciate your game, and the +10 actions was nice. I'm all for more actions now, but I'm towards the end of the game. Maxing stats etc. I wonder if you have created so much content for me to justify another purchase. I'm sure you have. :}

Palliata: I hate the phrase, but "apples and oranges". Browser-based games do things that 3D games don't. Just as well, WoW is the brightest example. Think of how many MMOs are just stagnating or simply not as big. People play 3D games for much different reasons than browser-based. They're a completely different style of play!

Hello all

@Palliata: thanks for a long and thoughtful comment. The missing details from the numbers are (a) WoW has millions of players where we have tens of thousands; (b) more importantly, everyone in WoW pays, where only a minority of EBZ players pay. We're looking to increase that from 'a very small minority' to 'a minority'.

But beyond that - EBZ offers something unique. We have around double the words in the game that there are in the whole Mass Effect script. The writing team is more than half the company. We can't compete on technology, and for people who want to spend thirty hours a week in a 3D environment, WoW will always be a better choice. For people who want something a little bit different, we'll be here.

@davidcl: We've got Ambition updates planned in the next couple of months. We want to get all the level caps raised first.

@atrus: The second chance option is still planned, but our list of development tasks is long and we need to do some rebalancing to make it work.

About taking actions away from players: we did the homework and found we just can't afford to give away 70 actions a day! Interaction with content is our stock-in-trade. It costs money to create content, it costs money to run the servers, and the way I'd suggest you look at it is this: you got *all this great free stuff for a year*, and now you're getting a smaller quantity of great free stuff. Unless you want to support the game, in which case you'll get more equally great stuff.

Luckily I'm at a point where I don't need the 70/80 actions to go through new content (though they certainly helped with saving up for expensive purchases lately). I'm not sure how I'd feel about the cap changes if I had just started. A game that gave me the feeling I had to pay for to ever catch up with the content I would be more likely to give up than support, but I'm sure you'll be having an eye on things.
I hope this will work well for the company, because I'd love to see the game continue.

I'm really looking forward to new content for the Shadowy branch.

I can get behind the increased bonuses for the paying players, but why gimp the F2P players? Ever since I was introduced to this game, I've been playing it near-religiously, using my MAX allotment of turns each day, and still wanting more.

I've managed to pull in 17 of my friends (IRL ones), who, in turn have intro'd MORE of their friends to the game. And yes, some of them have PAID. More than a few, I'd say.

But what of those whose circumstances don't allow for online transactions, as some have already commented on the blog? (Like myself, for example. I do have a debit card, but its usage is heavily regulated.)

You are wasting a substantial amount of sheer potential - 50 turns/day as compared to the present 80turns/day is far, FAR too limiting.  

Compare your game to say, Kingdom of Loathing (KOL), what are the differences? Do you think that given the scope of the adventures at any given level, has enough depth to sustain the interests of F2P players if they have to "grind" an area for day after day because they were held back by the daily limitations? Please consider it carefully.

On that note, I find myself agreeing with Scott Stoddard's comment - paying money does not a hardcore gamer make.

"Casuals"... really?

@Palliata: I think your math's a bit off. As I understand it, the action refresh mechanic will still be intact for Exceptional Friends.

So, a day's play will consist of:

- Showing up, burning through 20 actions. Going by your 30 seconds/action guesstimate that's 10 minutes.
- Optionally, tweeting to get a 20 action refresh at some point in the day - it doesn't particularly matter when so let's factor it in right at the start. That's 10 or so minutes to tweet and burn through those actions.

Your remaining 60 actions still have to recharge before you can use them, and that takes 6 minutes per action. So 6 x 60 = 360 minutes = 6 hours. 6 hours and 20 minutes a day comes to 44 hours and 20 minutes per week.

That said, it's true that you're not playing continuously whilst your actions refresh, so maybe your estimate is better. Either way, I'm not sure the WoW comparison necessarily works - aside from the games having completely different interfaces, as you point out, WoW is designed to be played continuously in long sessions whilst EBZ is optimised for intermittent play spread throughout the day. And I'm willing to bet that Blizzard enjoy economies of scale which FBG can only dream of. FBG may have less server load per customer, but they may well have less server capacity per customer on top of that.

you're going to lose just as many players as you keep. already actions were used up insanely fast, now it will hardly be any playing time per day.

If I had a lot of disposable income I would probably give it all to ebz. As it is, I budget buying fate because the candle makes it easier for me to check in infrequently and a lot of the Fate-bought content is really rewarding. But most of all 'cause you guys have servers to run and I want to see this game through to the end.

What I'm saying is, bring on the changes. I hope this nets you many more paying customers. Since it's not a competitive game (bar those bouts of Knife and Candle) I don't think shortening the actions hurts anything but feelings.

However, the real reason I wanted to comment: MAHOGANY HALL. I am so, so excited. And further Parabola-related content! Every time I think I'm going to end up bored you do something magical. Anachronistic props to you, my friends.

Sounds good. Combining the extra actions with the second candle is needed, as even 70 actions can be tricky to do on a busy day, so that'll be good. It'll be a shame to drop to 50 actions the rest of the time, but given that'll be the months when I'm busy working/studying, I might miss actions anyway - buying actions will happen during slow patches.
I'm glad that Exceptional friendship will go through the existing Fate system, so I can deal with the money up front and then spend in whatever seems important at the time.
Mahogany Hall sounds interesting; I'd been wondering about the Box - and who can go past something called the secret of the Kashmiri Princess?
The increase in Menace levels may have some strange effects though. That will be an additional 21 change points, from the base 18! And for Wounds, it's 27 due to Horsehead amulets. You're halving the threat of Menace - and remember there are cards that can *clear* a Menace completely. You may find you've excessively nurfed them: Nightmares has lacked bite for some time.
All in all, looking forward to this though!

I am both excited and a little saddened by this turn of events.  Allow me to explain:

I really would not mind paying the extra money to be an exceptional member.  It's not a lot, and Fallen London is really the most fun I've had in a text-based game in a really long time.  HOWEVER:

1)  I have exactly 0 friends on my social networks who play this game or are interested in it.  My mother always worries about me when I echo onto my facebook and calls me to make sure I'm not depressed because I'm posting "weird things."  I really, really, REALLY think a FORUM would go a long way to creating a sense of community, where people can exchange ideas or even just droll banter. I know it has already been suggested to be able to add friends through the game as opposed to just through your facebook, but that seems like a long time coming.  However, just a forum wouldn't take so long to set up, and I'm sure there are plenty of volunteers willing to have the power of moderation in their hands.  It would be a good first step to the process of being able to add friends in-game.  Being as I don't have any friend willing to play this game, I am locked out of a lot of social aspects that, I believe, include storylines that I can't access.  So although I am willing to pay for a subscription, and I may, I am still completely unable to access some content, most obviously social gatherings from my lodgings.

2)  This is a suggestion:  since Fallen London does work primarily on text, why not offer a competition for people to write a new story line in exchange for an Exceptional Subscription of a few months?  Certainly everyone who plays has some sort of roleplaying background and would love any way to add their own spin.  And again, it would increase the sense of community.

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed, too.
I had a second candle for over four months on my primary account. I let it lapse last week because there isn't enough content left to warrant needing it, and I was frustrated by the outages that made me miss part of my actions over the course of several days. I was annoyed that the "free week" as a makeup started two days after my lapse; I was a "paying" player during the outage, but this wasn't part of the makeup.

I've bought fate - twice in the biggest chunk - to access new content AND to support the game, which I love. I have two secondary accounts (which are nearing their caps) but because of outages, again, I've gotten lax about them. The refresh rate makes it truly difficult to finish without the second candle.

Would I buy *another* $50 of fate for them? Probably not, because the content-based fate charges eat it up far too quickly. Premium membership would last two months at my current fate quota on those, and THAT is if I decline to play fate stories.

If I pay for premium membership, then have to pay to open content, and THEN cannot use it in a timely fashion due to outages...I can't justify it.

I think either the price of becoming an Exceptional Friend needs to include some storyline fate perks, or come down in price. I'm not sure why, but it does feel like I'm either paying too much for the extra actions, or shouldn't be paying for minor storylines (I'm thinking things like the Plant.)

I'm lukewarm on this one. I know that you deserve to make money off of your business and product, but reducing content available and limiting growth to casual/mostly free players never seems like a good idea, because you lose players who might be willing to pay a little here and there over time.

WoW might not be the best example; there are several other MMOs that follow a Free-to-Play model that sustain themselves using cash shop.  Vindictus, run by Nexon, is a relatively small but actively updating 3d-dungeon MMO that has provides limited access to dungeons via tokens-- but the actual amount of free gameplay is much higher than you'd get from Echo Bazaar per week. You can pay for more tokens, allowing you more gameplay, and you can pay for an item that increases the number of drops you get-- and it's $2 per month. A really cheap 'subscription' option means more people are willing to get it. Additionally, there are a lot of purely cosmetic items that players are willing to shell out a lot of money for.

I feel like it might be better for EB to allow players to pay for additional 'limited' cameos, expiring items that increase the number of rewards you get by 10% (110 Rostygold instead of 100), special accomplishments, additional characters under the same account, colored names, etc-- stuff that won't increase your server load significantly, but serve to make players feel their characters are more unique.

Stuff like that is exciting to pay for.

Okay, I have to say that I'm a little miffed by the implication that by not buying fate I in no way support the game, after all, the game is ad based. Also, when users echo sayings, we are supporting the game. Maybe not directly by throwing down money, but by alerting facebook friends to the existence of the game thus increasing awareness and bringing more people in to see the ads which in turn does support the game.  

I'm all for the creative team making a living--trust me--but there are a lot of browser based games out there, most of which offer more play time per day than EBZ (most Zynga games, for example). Now, I do think EBZ is one of the best out there, and I love the storyline and dark atmosphere, but if you're looking at the majority of your players as a bunch of freeloaders, then maybe you need to examine your business plan.

@Kat Edge: For what it's worth, there's an unofficial forum at fallenlondon.org.uk - a fair number of people there have posted their Twitter IDs and said "I'm pretty much up for any in-game invites you send my way", so it's a good place to find people to do social actions with.

As far as I have personally been able to ascertain, there aren't any full-blown storylines which absolutely require you to have friends. Then again it's not impossible that such things will occur in the future.

I think it's a wonderful idea. I figure it's well worth it for a game which is plot-driven (unlike WOW, really) and has all that deep, rich content. I figure I'll be paying less than I would be for any other game I'm playing, in terms of experience and brain-stimulation.

So I'll certainly sign up ASAP.

At the same time, do consider making the 'casual' level 50 actions + 10 for echoing. Remember, we who pay will also be getting lots of extra content. Also, I like the ideas for artifacts and functions that can either a) be used to full potential only by paying customers, and b) be given to casual and paying customers as they level up. Some of these are already available.

I think this is a great compromise- it still gives me enough actions to go through the card deck a few times, advance some storylets, and the like, if I don't decide to pay. And the cost isn't much!

I understand the disgruntlement at "casual" player interactions getting gimped. And I too resent that label... call them "free players" or something. That's accurate and not so loaded with implications among gamers. You guys deal in words, don't you realize the weight of that word to people who play a lot of games, and the sting it has for fans of a game? You may think the game is casual but aren't you TRYING to be evocative with all those atmospheric storylets? "Casual" has an implication of "meh" to it, something a person could take or leave. The play style is designed to be casually accessible and that is most excellent, but plenty of us don't feel "meh" about it at all. I totally love my character, and he gets into my imagination when I'm not playing the game, too. This game isn't Farmville, after all. People get attached. (Maybe people get attached to Farmville too, but you see what I mean.)

Also, there is really no way to compare this to WoW. WoW and this are barely alike. Quest text in WoW has nothing on the writing in this game. And pre-rendered 3D environments have nothing on the images my imagination tosses up from the storylets (admittedly that could depend on the player). Also, when EB has 10 million plus paying subscribers, they could probably sell fate for cheaper. As it is, this game is a luxury that we can all access most of for free.

I'm annoyed right now that I get less interactions than before, but I'm not paying for anything, so I can't claim I'm entitled to anything. And when I finally can pay, I'm gonna feel like I'm getting a real bonus for doing so.

COMPLETELY unrelated: I would like to thank the devs for including grindable stuff like robbing drunks and pickpocketing that has variable rewards. I adore not knowing quite what I'm going to get. I am going to be very sad when I lose access to Assist the Fisher Kings, that one in particular amuses me to no end.

You'd expect a lot of negative feedback with such a decision, of course, and here I am, howling with the wolves.
Let me see if I understood properly the bare facts: you've got dedicated fans, a rather delicious base to gnaw upon and not quite the booming success one could hope for on the social networks.
So the only option you have to keep it going is to charge your fans as much as you can. Now, I quite understand the point, but I daresay you're doing it bad. Bring your market experts and your producers and I'll heartily give them the full spanking they deserve.
You could gate content, incentive daring lines, cross storylines, incentive notifications, introduce new paying features like bosses, enemies, a common ground, whatever. You could sell packs, introduce surprises. You could think. You could even *sell* your game in one huge batch, the full extend of it. What about exceptional friends having paid for the full span of it, never needing to buy Fate to unlock any content whatsoever?
But what have you just done instead? You've told us occasional payers (I did pay) and free players "this game is no longer free, it is a subscription game. Yet, you can play a lame and degraded demo version of what you had if you want, please help yourself." And there, we players take a look at other subscription games: at Wizard101, at WoW and of course, come to the same conclusion "I'm out".
Well, that was really delicious and I'm happy of the small contribution I've made when I bought Fate but I'm out.
Please spank your stupid producers for me. Taking *away* things from players? Are you guys mad?

Everyone's got to run a business and as Echo Bazaar is bar none the best game I have played this year I have no problem in supporting a growing, creative and unique developer.

I have bought Fate several times, once to gain second candle and othertimes to access Fate-locked actions. The free - FREE let us not forget - content is exceptional and I feel that by buying Fate I am not only paying for the additional content but for that which I have already enjoyed.

Perhaps you might consider a reduced-cost year long Exceptional Friends option?

Alas, woe, hand-wringing, sackcloth and ashes! Or not. I don't actually mind the idea of paying to support the game with money, I just don't actually have any. But, well, 'give me that for free because I can't afford it' has never been a successful economic system anywhere. I bought Fate when it was on sale, and don't regret it.

Here is one important question, though, about content just for 'Exceptional Friends'. Because I'm happy to treat myself to a month's subscription now and again, but if I do that, and am in the middle of a storyline when the month runs out, do I lose access to it until the next time student loans come in and I can swing a few more quid? Because that would make me sad, and I'm generally less likely to spend the money on something I won't be able to see through to the end. And I expect I'm not the only one who is likely to be 'casually Exceptional,' rather than Exceptional all the time.

I also really like Kat Edge's suggestion of content-writing contests for paid time.

Of course, if you LET ME GO BACK TO THE UNIVERSITY AND STUDY THE CORRESPONDENCE SOME MORE, God only knows how much money you'd get out of me. I'm holding off on deciding whether to get exiled from the Court because it's pretty much the only IC thing I have left. My character is a scholar and an artist, and made vastly unhappy by being reduced to thugging, smuggling and sneaking around!

Honestly, I'd pay for this game. Given the QUALITY of the prose, I've always been willing to throw you guys a dime when I've been able to. I don't have a huge amount of disposable income, but I've probably bought around $50 worth of Fate, over time. Maybe more. The attitude of people who expect freebies annoys me. I'm not being a derriere-kisser, but really. This game has fascinating, scintillating content, and people work their butts off to provide that. If I could still play the game for free (when EB could easily become a paid only game it if wanted to) and advance my storyline, even if it was a tiny bit slower than before, I wouldn't be complaining. In short, you guys are flawless. I'll continue to throw money at you when I can, as your customer service in the past has been nothing short of attentive and personal and wonderful. And your gameplay is the best I've seen. I don't play online games at all, but there's a reason I keep coming back to yours. You got my dollar, when I have any spare. Thanks for all the wonderful prose, and here's looking forward to new content. (You've no idea how excited I am - I've just been repeating the same old actions for weeks now.) Keep being awesome. I less than three you guys. (<3)

@Vael Victus
You're not wrong about their being two different formats, but your conclusion from there breaks down. If we take a similar 'apples n oranges' example, we could compare something like Call of Duty to WoW. While we could not come to a precise equivalent between the two, what we COULD do would be to compare the cost of development and continuance to the price point. We could also compare, admittedly in more subjective terms, the value delivery in relation to the price point. By doing so, we could determine whether both were reasonable. I'm not going to do that, because it's not truly relevant, but my point is that just because two things are somewhat  dissimilar does not mean they are incomparable, especially when they both serve the same core purpose - to entertain through interactive electronic media.

@Alexis
Thanks for the response.

As with Vael Victus, your argument in part stems from the perceived dissimilarity between the two games. I won't speak to that part further, but as to the remainder; No doubt you deserve money for your game, and the end goal of all business is to maximize that profit, but even with that as the sole aim I would wonder if this is the best step. Perhaps it would be better to give the premium players more actions than you are, but not reduce the them for the so-called casuals. That way people at least won't take it personally the way I *guarantee* they will and have this.

By doing this, you will bring the value offered closer to being in line with expectations set by that other juggernaut, but will also further incentivize premium purchases.

If the fear is that, at this level, 'casuals' will eat through your content and thereby defeat the purpose of increased action/day totals, you might consider allowing some user-generated content to seep in, cordoned off into its own little section with minimal rewards. That would give people something to do when they finish with the official content, and also a chance for fan-fiction types to tell a story of their own to a larger audience.

I guess what I'm saying is, you should be thinking a bit further outside the box rather than sticking to this path which I'm betting is going to piss off a lot of free players who may eventually become profitable. The artlessness of it is uncharacteristic.

Even if it works out for you in terms of making money, you've still spent a bit of your public goodwill, and if it doesn't you've driven away some of your profit base. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe your accountants know something I don't.

@Arthur
I, at least, come back once an hour to use up all my actions and then go away again. Even if I didn't, sitting and watching the counter come down is hardly 'gameplay.'

@Kat Edge
NEVER friend your family members. Seriously. No good comes of that ^.^

I have to say, this makes a lot of sense, and if I had any disposable income I'd be more than happy to buy another candle - as it is i'm tempted to find the money, somehow. half the actions for free as you'd get with the money works, especially if you rebalance the menace cards.

I hope this helps keep the game running! I love Fallen London, and puzzling out the mysteries is wonderful!

Kat's suggestion #2 sounds nothing short of phenomenal. I can see how you wouldn't be able to hold such competitions all the time, but every once in a while could be fun.

I also agree that a forum would be a lot of fun, but that's something the fanbase can do on their own.

I have to say, I'm a little miffed that actions are being cut, since I also use all 70 of mine almost every day and still find myself wanting more. I also do not have the money to purchase Fate, (and if I did, nothing could stop me, I assure you,) but I understand that FBG is a smaller company than, say, Blizzard or Zynga, and you need to protect your assets more carefully. I do hope there will be more in-game ways to earn Fate, for dedicated players. I think that more than anything, this will separate the "casual" players from those hardcore fans who don't have cash to spare. Certainly don't make it too easy or too much, but just a little to let us know that you know we're burrowing ourselves deep in Fallen London.

*stoned at the public square for mentioning Zynga*

I just want to say that I can understand rebalancing free actions but I hope that you'll get to finishing the Ambitions someday. (I really want to bag that legend.) I can't afford 50 fate to start a new one.

Just want to throw my hat into the "on the whole, I think this is a good thing" ring.  Nobody likes paying for content on the Internet, it's true, but this is the whole problem with the digital age - people expect content to be free (or nearly so), but content still costs people's time and energy to produce.  Balancing the two is tricky.

There seems to be a general attitude that writers and artists and the like don't do "real" work and therefore don't deserve to get paid for it, which is ridiculous - would you expect an attorney to represent you for free?  Or a doctor to treat you?  An artist may not have quite the same level of formal schooling (or then again, they may), but if they're any good they've spent equal amounts of time honing their craft.  "Art" isn't just some nebulous concept that pops up randomly through inspiration.  Creating good art takes work.

And if you can't or won't pay, what's the 50-action limit really going to change? It's not going to alter what stories you can access, or affect your gameplay in any meaningful manner.  The biggest effect is that it might take you a few more days to finish a given storyline - which can be a plus, as it builds anticipation while you're waiting.

I am encouraged by the general thoughtfulness and intelligence of these comments, even the disappointed ones (although perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that a game as literate as EBZ would attract a higher calibre of player than most online games), and I imagine that most of the people who play this game will have the maturity to realize that ragequitting over "the writers would like to eat" reflects more negatively on them than on the creators.  

As for the people bringing up Zynga games?  If you want to support their business model (www.cracked.com/...rmville-gets-people-hooked.html ), that's fine, but don't compare EBZ to it.  They're two different companies founded on entirely different philosophies, and personally, I'll take the "quality" option any time.

I would support this move so much more if it didn't feel like you're penalizing free - not casual - users in a somewhat misguided attempt to force us to buy content.  I understand you have costs, but reducing free user actions so you can increase paid user actions seems alienating to a majority of your fanbase.

I always expected EB to go to a paid option, but not at the cost of the free users.

Hello again all!

Thanks for the many positive comments, folks. Really appreciated. Some replies.

About content contribution. This is something we've been working towards for a very long time - but it's very, very hard to get right without hurting people's feelings or spending more time explaining, judging and editing than we would actually writing the stuff. But watch this space.

@Vael - do be aware you haven't really nearly finished the game, you're just approaching the cap! There's lots more to come.

@Palliata and @Kabuki - 'accountants', 'producers' - I think you guys are making the common mistake of thinking we're much bigger than we are. There are eight people associated with the company. Only four are full-time employees and one is a toddler. (http://www.failbettergames.com/Home/About )

@Kira - we don't compete directly with Zynga. One, we're not prepared to be that aggressive with marketing and virality, two, we want to appeal to a more thoughtful audience, three, we'd go down like a deer under a tank. We expect that the majority of our players will still play free. But we can't do what the big companies do, which is to use a giant army of free players for virality.

@James - thanks! We'll be adjusting some other numbers to go along with the changes. We hope it means that visits to the fail states will make them rarer but severer, so less routine and more interesting.

@Kit - that question is one of the reasons we're wary about offering much extra content with a sub - because we don't like the idea of withdrawing content when a sub ends, but we don't necessarily want to give away a year's content to a month's sub. This is something we'll monitor and consider. For now it's mostly about the actions. (and the no ads.)

@Probably_Evil and others - if you've basically finished the extant content, there's not much we can offer you until there's more content out! We're glad you enjoyed it and thanks for supporting us. This does underline the issue with extra actions - it costs us content lifetime to give too many actions away.

@Chris: Thank you! An extended sub for a smaller price is something we're considering. We'll see how all this works out for us.

@autolycus: one of the reasons it's 40/50 and 80/100 actions is that extra candle, double actions, makes it all much easier for people to understand what they're getting.

I have to say I'm actually not that upset by this. I'm in college, so I often don't use all my daily actions as it is, and it's not as if anything is actually being taken away from me besides those 20 actions. Given that you could have completely restricted free players' access to certain content (which is why I stopped playing most of my other Facebook games, incidentally), this seems like a pretty good deal.

Also, MAHOGANY HALL. It's hard to be mad at that, I must say.

@mr_teem Yes - we have the Ambition arc planned out to the end. The main reason they don't go further at the moment is that we need to sort out content up to a raised cap. It'll come!

as @Miss Rose Rose - thank you! and yes, absolutely, to the standard of response. Like any game we attract a few trolls or troublemakers, but I've been doing this for a year and a half and I'm consistently impressed by how civilised and articulate the vast majority of our players are, even when we don't agree with their opinions. As I've said before, there's an advantage to making your UI a reading comprehension test.

I don't want to get into a long rambly note, I think people have covered a lot of the pros and cons. But I did want to say that I think a better comparison than WoW is e-books (or real books!).

Think about the amount of free story we've been getting. Think about what it would cost to purchase that as novels. Then consider how much more value you think it's worth to be able to make your own choices in that series of novels. (And share in a great community!)

So although I know it definitely feels like a 'cheat' to those who can't afford or choose not to pay for the subscription, I can totally understand why Failbetter feels they need to reduce the amount of story they are allowing players to read/consume each day.

Well, I do understand the need to get money, and this was probably a very hard call. Still, I've gotten away with less than 50 actions some days, and I could probably stand to not have too much of my time sunk into the game. So that's a good thing. I'm definitely sticking around.

I agree that having storyline contests would be fantastic. Not only would it be a great way to keep players involved in the game, but it would also be a neat way to leverage the social aspect of the game.

Maybe this is going a bit too far, or is outside Jonathan's capabilities, but perhaps you could even have a Digg-ish setup whereby players submit storylines, double-checked for canon adherence by the EBZ devs, and then the players earn Fate for them based on their monthly quality ratings, or something like that. Or maybe the most popular storylines would be incorporated into in-game areas, earning their writers Fate.

Obviously, there'd be problems to be addressed (people writing storylets just to grind their own stats), but this might be part of the solution. Plus, it would give you something very beneficial (more storylet content) for cheap.

Eh. Just ramblings of mine.

On the other side, it's cool to know that you've got new content coming out, though I'm hardly high enough level to get to it yet. Cheers!

On the subject of finding a way to provide subscriber storylines that you don't lose access to when your subscription runs out, how about this:

- Whilst you're on a Exceptional Friends sub, you have a special item to denote this status - perhaps something perishable, like a genuine surface carnation for your buttonhole. When your Exceptional Friend status ends, you lose the item.
- Exceptional Friend-exclusive storylines require the carnation to start, but don't require the carnation to progress. So, the first card in the Subscriber's Lark plot has a "requires: Subscriber's Carnation 1" tag on it, but every subsequent card just requires points in the "Progress: Subscriber's Lark" quality.

That way, you can finish up storylines you started when your subscription was active, but you won't be able to start any new subscriber-only storylines until you get your carnation back.

So long as you make it obvious that the carnation is associated with being an Exceptional Friend, this would also have the effect of advertising the subscriber-only plotlines to non-paying customers to whet their appetite, which can't hurt and might help them decide whether Exceptional Friendship is worth it.

I'm not going to comment in general, because I'd just be repeating what others have said.  But so that everybody knows where I'm coming from, I think this is a sensible and fair-minded way forward.

I wanted to share one piece of feedback, though.

You've been very clear from the start that you're selling content, and I completely agree with that.  But for that reason, the price I think is fair is related to the amount of content, not the length of time I play for.  After all, much of the time I'm playing, I'm seeing the same text over and over again; and while that's fine as a game mechanic I don't put much value on it.

So when you talk about what's essentially a monthly subscription scheme, it doesn't chime with what I think I should be paying for.  By analogy, if I buy a book, I don't expect to have to buy it again (and again) just because I'm a bit busy and it takes me a few months to read it.

Also, I'm up against the content boundary on three of the four tracks (and I'm generally avoiding the fourth as a half-hearted nod to role-playing).  So the rate at which I get content just now is entirely within your control.  It doesn't seem fair to me that I'm charged for time when I'm waiting for you.

Look, what I'm working up to saying is: why not a buy-out option?  No monthly subscription, no fate-locked doodahs, you just buy the content - perhaps in tranches of 60 levels, like the old "book 1".

Yes, I appreciate a buy-out wouldn't come cheap - but it surely wouldn't cost you much to implement, and you might be surprised.

Cheers
Richard

When I first saw this I was kind of disappointed by the upcoming change. There's some days where I'm just too busy or the content available to me is low so I don't use all my actions, but then there's days where I run out of actions before I've even realized it. It's a combination of these two situations that has prevented me from buying a second candle. I have purchased some fate for fate based content - additional storylines (Rubbery Murders, A Trade in Souls) and fate based options in opportunity cards.

With both the extra candle of the past and the upcoming subscription, I'd feel like any day where I didn't use all my actions (ar at least most of them) would be money wasted. Is there any chance that you could offer an actions rollover for subscriptions customers? If not a 1:1 ratio, perhaps a 2:1 ratio where every 2 actions left over becomes an additional action the next day? Perhaps this is too much to ask, but would you consider a small discount on fate based content to those who subscribe? Not necessarily for the big things found on the fate page, but on the opportunity cards and the such.

No matter what, I intend to continue buying fate for little expenditures here and there because I certainly don't mind contributing financially (when I can afford to) to sites that I otherwise get to use for free. But as it stands, there's not quite enough incentive for me to pay for a subscription at this point in time.

I view Echo Bazaar not only as a game, but a novel (of sorts) that you get to write yourself.  So it's part game, part adventure reading.  Maybe others rush through the text trying to get to the next level, but I have found myself rolling with laughter over some of the stories, situations, or even just things worded humorously.  I'm content as a "casual" player to get downgraded, but hope others appreciate the literary value of this game, too.

What I think about the Fate/Exceptional Friends has been said before. I've bought fate and will probably do so again when I'm not at the cap of everything. I think that 50 is rather harsh, even 60 would be alright - twenty lower than now rather than thirty. I do value this game and its content.

But aside from that, I just wanted to drop by to say *new things to do/see, eeee*

I'm a little concerned at dividing the player base into 'free' and 'pay' like this - because actions drive progress, giving 'pay' players double the actions will leave the free players well behind. My fear is that the 'free' players will feel divorced from the community as a result, particularly in those elements of the game that compare your qualities, or a baseline, to those of other players, such as Knife and Candle and a few of the more exotic storylets. Resentment is not a successful business model!

I feel like Exceptional Friends should have the same cap, but have storylets that are more efficient 'grinds' - reducing Menaces, inducing particular dreams, raising connections, things that don't relate directly to progress. Exceptional Friends still practically get more actions to spend, as they're spending less on not going to elsewhere, but it'll 'feel' fairer.

Another possible suggestion - Exceptional Friends can hold an extra opportunity card. It's a perfect example of a significantly desirable perk that won't make the free players feel like second-class citizens.

The people saying that EBZ can't be compared with other games (WoW, etc) because the format is different or the companies are different sizes or whatever are absolutely wrong. They can be compared, and Palliata showed us how: look at the subscription costs, look at the amount of playing time those subscriptions buy, look at the amount of content provided, etc. Things like company size have little relevance to the consumer. I don't enjoy EBZ more or less knowing that they only have a small team. And as anyone in any kind of artistic business should understand, it's not what you deserve, it's what you can get. Will the market bear your prices? Can you entice people to buy through marketing, value-adding, or other means? And so on.

I've always thought Fate was too expensive (and so has my girlfriend). Maybe if the Christmas sale had been made permanent I would buy Fate; I waffled about it at the time, almost did, and might have done, given more money or enough time to distance myself from holiday spending, but by ending the sale FBG eliminated the possibility that I would. Will there be another sale in the future? Will I buy Fate then? Ask me if/when it happens, not today.

So now, not only do I feel that more and more of the game is being reserved for paying users (thanks to the addition of new opportunities, storylets, and unlockable storylines that cost Fate), but I can see that the trend is continuing and that subscribers are being given greater access to the game while I am being given comparatively less.

Maybe it's FBG's intent to offend the long-time free users; maybe they think that if we haven't paid by now and if our friends haven't seen our tweets or FB updates and joined, we never will, and they'd rather we stop using their servers altogether. I don't know (and even if it is, I doubt they'd ever confirm it so bluntly).

I will probably still play EBZ for the foreseeable future - but when happens when I exhaust most of the free content again? Will I have a better-paying job that affords me the opportunity to give charity to art? Will Fate come down in price? Or will I be too busy, too bored, or too alienated to continue playing?

I'm fine with lowering the actions per day, but only if they are allowed to roll over and be played all at once. I personally can't play every day and would like to be able to do a marathon session on Saturday when I can take time to read the storylets abd think about what I'm doing. Also a "note to self" feature would be great to remind myself the next part of my ambition is available in x but I need to get shadowy y before I can accomplish it.

I have to say that I'm pretty disappointed. I would have been very happy to see a new subscription method that gave me double the amount of actions each day, for example - I would have happily paid for that. But I'm afraid that I look at this "exceptional friends" subscription model and see that for my $8 a month I get 10 more actions a day than the current free level, and it doesn't allow my actions to roll over if I miss a day. Note: I'm not including the echo refresh, because in order to get that I have to advertise the game on Twitter.

It's not really a matter of hurt feelings or anything - I just feel miffed that I'm being asked to pay money to retain basically what I currently get for free. (And I do not entirely see myself as playing for free, tbh, as I contribute to the site by viewing ads and by advertising the game to others.)

The whole idea sounds reasonable.

What I'd love to see would be a "weekend subscription" that allows me to buy a month's worth of Exceptional Friend status but spread it out over weekends only (so fifteen and a half weekends). I don't have time to burn through more than 50 actions on a weekday, but I'd love to support the game on the days when I can actually make use of the extra actions.

Adding a rollover is a great idea. The problem I have with this isn't lowering the number of actions per se -- I'm gonna be paying for the Fate upgrade, and happily -- but it took me a long time to get into the game, a week or so, because I would go through ten actions at a shot and just be getting involved in the storyline. It'd massively increase immersivity while still controlling the physical time people spent playing the game. You could do only a partial rollover, maybe -- half the actions you have at the end of the day.

My playing habits look a lot like those of Lils above - some (many) days I run out of actions rather early, other days I don't have time to finish all actions before rollover. I suspect that I will be an Exceptional Friend most months - perhaps not every month, but one big benefit of this system is that, as far as I can understand, it will be possible to be unexceptional for a while and then return to exceptionalitude without losing any content. (If you had added content for EFs that would be lost when the player didn't pay one month, it would have been frustrating.) Having an ad-free environment would be worth as much (if not more) to me as getting more actions, given that I don't always use all of the ones I get today; I loathe adverts, though I obviously understand the need for you to have them, and would not at all mind paying to get rid of them.

All in all, a very reasonable change and YAY for new content!

Coming back to say that I absolutely have no problems with wanting to support the game, and bought Fate previously with the idea in mind that it did just that.

In fact, the root of my problem is that this setup is an inefficient way for me to put more money back in - at this point, there's no good reason to buy an extra candle, even if I would LIKE to buy extra fate as a way help keep the game profitable (and fun!.) If I don't give you the money now, how will I support the future content development?

I wish this were more along the line of being able to buy a set amount of Fate to become an Exceptional Friend, and not dictating how I spend that Fate - does that make sense to you?

That's an idea I can get behind. Buying at least 35 Fate a month is perfectly cool with me, but saying I have to blow it on a candle when I'd rather 'shroom hop, for example, is not the thing.

I have to say, what I really love is that real money in EB buys, for the most part, opportunities rather than exclusive premium items. And while I admit I'd be more upset if I was a new player grinding away at my stats, I think it's a good solution that does not change the feel of the game overmuch. Just one question-- will the Exceptional Friends subscription be available for purchase directly, or will it be something you can pay Fate for?

Hi, any news on the "A present from the Solitary Glim-sculptor" opportunity?

There was a fate spending option and the text was as follows:

The key to Flute Street
It's the other half of the coral sculpture! The Solitary Glim-sculptor thinks that you are ready to see Flute Street.[This opens the way to Flute Street. 20 storylets of the mysteries far below the Neath. What are the Rubbery Men up to down there? What else lurks in the darkness?]
This branch costs 18 Fate to play.

I spent the 18 fate. I'm not sure anything happened?

Lemme be one of the ones to say this is definitely all worth it. I started playing just a couple of weeks ago, promptly got all my friends involved, and I'm enough in love with this game that I will be one of the first in line with my credit card for the new system. I'm always a little boggled when people complain about decreases in the awesome they're getting for free. IT'S STILL FREE AWESOME, GUYS. They owe you for, what, being a consumer of the awesome? Not How The World Works.

@K - it'll just be the same 35 Fate as the current second candle card.

@David - sorry about this. That card went briefly live early in error a while back, and we're still working on the next part. It's due out soon (weeks not months) but if you mail ebbugs@failbettergames.com we can refund the Fate if you don't want to wait any longer.

Hey, EBZ!  I don't play WoW, but I've been playing EBZ religiously since I "discovered" it a couple of months ago.  I've only bought 40 Fate, and that basically because I felt that you had more than earned a few bucks from me, and I couldn't imagine how you could generate so much content "for free".

I don't like micro-transactions and I don't subscribe to a damned thing on the underwubs, but I'll pony up to keep you guys creating content.  It's a fair deal for value provided.

Of course people gon' whine about losing their "free" content and explain how they're supporting you by viewing your adverts.  Screw 'em.  Your adverts are exceptionally unobtrusive as these things go, and you can't be making much money off of those either.  

Damn the appalling secrets, full speed ahead!

Hmm. Well, here's the thing. If you guys literally cannot keep the 70-actions-a-day model running, there's nothing that can be done. But someone might have to explain to me why that's so, in small words, because I don't really get it.

I think I'd rather have heard of this as an unfortunate decision the company has to make, than as part of a package of 'good news for exceptional friends.' But the announcement would've been the same, regardless, and as I said I'm not really coming from a place of understanding. Maybe this is good news. But unfortunately I don't really get it, and I can't really say.

The social aspect of the game, for me, is like the social aspect of the novel -- not really with other players, but because I like the novelist, designing a little world and telling me a story and occasionally roguishly deceiving me and taking minor amounts of money. But in a benevolent carny sort of way (Mdm Shoshanna?) so it's all in good fun. I might equate this game with reading a serialized Dickens from a magazine or something.

I'll keep playing the game, occasionally paying for content, as long as I enjoy the company of you mischievous lot of developers ... and of course I'm perfectly fine with you guys trying to get rich ... as it would even seem hypocritical to play a roguish sort of character but balk at the developers doing the same.

Though if there is one thing that I would ... point out to change, it is that the nightmare storylets are too generically "surreal" or "dream-like". I would probably favor shorter, less generic texts.

My concern is a bit different from most. Already, I don't go through my full allotment of actions per day, because I'm at work for a good chunk of it. The refresh rate for actions is so slow that, even if I play from the time I get home until I go to bed, I've MAYBE played 40 actions. So where is my incentive to support you and get more actions I won't have time to play? Not everyone has the option of hanging out on the web all day waiting for their game to refresh.

I understand that it's a matter of economics, but reducing actions per day for free players will probably cause some initial frustration and less members joining through word of mouth. Sorry you had to go this route.

I love this game. But it's now harder for a non-paying player to play. Why couldn't the action cap have been set to 140 for paying people and left the cap for us regular people at 70? I don't have the money to spend on a game like this. I love it, but I'm feeling alienated now. I get you want to make money off of this game, but maybe alienating the people that already love it isn't the way to go about it. There may be novels and novels of content, but now it will take me a whole hell of a lot longer to discover it all, to the point where I'm sure my progress will stagnate, and I'll lose interest. Please don't abandon us "casual players."

Yeah, you got me. I'll be paying.

I think it's totally fair.

so.... how do you become an exceptional friend exactly? by purchasing fate every week?

Well, maybe it's good that I'll spend less of my time on the site. More studying for me, less bandwidth for you.

Intellectually, I completely understand this decision, but emotionally I'm very unhappy with it. I'm a student and I don't actually make any money at all, so I sympathize, but there's absolutely no way I can buy 35 fate for a month of content I can already access.

I'm actually quite happy with this announcement. Not with the free-play action cap dropping, but I understand why that's needed. You all can only produce content so fast!

However, the subscription seems a *touch* pricey. Not hugely so, but if subscribers still need to pay Fate to (say) go to the shroom-hopping races and other similar things, it seems a bit awkward. Is there any chance you can make some of the cheaper Fate-based options free to subscribers?

Alternatively, could you give a *discount* on Fate for subscribers? Possibly to the same point as your highest bulk discount, so your subscribers can make impulse buys in small quantities? (I see this as analogous to Amazon Prime... and it certainly pays off for them. When one's subscription makes it easier to spend more money, one tends to spend more money!)

First, let me say that I'm really enjoying exploring Fallen London. I've been playing for less than a month, and I'm blown away by the atmosphere, the evocative language, and the quirky and twisted storylines; I don't see my interest waning any time in the near future.

That said, I have qualms about the new payment model. I'm not a fan of microtransactions to begin with, but I find combining a subscription model with microtransactions to be particularly problematic. If I'm paying for a monthly subscription, I expect to not be nickle and dimed to death in order to see content. If this means that I pay a subscription price of $12 per month rather than $8 per month, then so be it.

I understand the need to gate content so that your users don't blow through it too quickly, but I'm not sure the way you've chosen to do that actually meshes very well with a subscription model. And reducing the number of actions for non-subscribers feels like a stealthy attempt to further gate content that isn't staying fresh for as long as you'd hoped.

There are half a dozen other thoughts I have, but in the interests of avoiding tl;dr, I'll stop here, having presented what I consider to be the most important.

Re-reading this post, and yeah, I think my unease is not with the decision itself -- especially if it's a financial necessity -- but with it be presented as as move "to provide greater value to our Exceptional Friends." I'd like to clarify that, because I think it's an important point that shouldn't be lost: when you make announcements like this, and you anticipate that some of your player base is going to feel "sold out," you have to be careful with your wording. In this case, you have to careful that your wording doesn't unnecessarily divide your player base, or make it sound like you're catering to some players at the expense of others. Catering to players who play is fine, but I think the "at the expense of" distinction is critical.

I know this may seem a silly question and...well, it is. Will Exceptional Friends still have the welcome line as Delicious Friends?  I'm not sure I want to lose that amazing greeting when I log in.

Also, I heard there is an iPhone app in the works.  Truth?  How about an android app?

Thanks for the beautiful game. It's a great way to unwind after a stressful work day.

corrections:
*with it being presented
*to players who pay

Aye, I am going to have to say that fifty actions a day from eighty is quite low.  I personally, as well, don't feel justified in paying for something that only lasts a day, and in my experience, making people pay for something they once got for free never wins any votes.

I'd like to suggest a one-time flat fee for people to raise their default number of actions back to seventy (or eighty, I suppose now).  I'd definitely pay that, just about whatever it may be.

This seems like a pretty fair set of changes, i'm a little sad that might not always be able to play echo bazaar as much as i'd like to sometimes but now it seems that the candle is actually going to be an option worth paying for! I have to say the only reason i hadn't bought one previously is because it wasn't valuable enough for 35 fate, having it raise the action cap as well as how many actions you can store is a sensible move.

I love this game, a lot.  I have recommended it to many  people, and have already investigated the possibility of buying fate, but sadly I can't justify spending $13.50 (which is what it roughly works out to in my currency, with the exchange rate at around .75 US) for only 40 fate, which is only enough to do a small number of things.  Either the fate options need to cost less, or you need to provide more fate for the money.  As amazing as this game is, it is still a game that only allows me a maximum of 100 actions per day, when you consider around 50% of those actions need to be spent on curing menace, or repeating actions to raise levels or earn echoes, rather than advancing through the content, I feel the current prices are a little unreasonable.

I'm sure there are many others like me who would very gladly pay if the $ to fate ratio was a little more realistic, and reflected the fact that many actions are spent on "housekeeping".  

I am pleased with the announcement. I much prefer to subscribe to those things I enjoy if it allows me fewer advertisements. I also am an oddball who believes in paying people for their talent and  hard work ;)
Looking forward to the new content as well!
Well done in making and engaging game that engages even those of us who are not gamers!

I feel a bit jipped.
Not that it matters I'm sure, after all, you're only after money, so is everyone else in the world, money makes the world go 'round.

Sadly though with all my medical problems I can barely afford the leisure of internet as it is, so I suppose that if it grinds on my nerves too much I'll just have to find a new game.

A shame, I really like/d EBZ

Hey guys, I really wanted to throw my two cents in here. I'm loving this game, and I would happily support you by buying the candle every month, however...

I tend to be a very busy guy. With 100 actions I would need to be able to log in pretty regularly over an 8 hour period. I already have difficulty using my 70 actions, as I often only have time to play in the evening, which gives me 4-5 hours worth of actions at the most. (Sometimes less)

So my concern is this: If I subscribe and get 100 actions a day, I often won't have time to log in that regularly to use all of my actions (That would be logging in at least once every 2-3 hours over the course of the day). As a result I'm less inclined to subscribe because I wouldn't be able to use what I'm paying for. Is there any chance you could add an option, perhaps even at an increased cost, to use all the actions for the day at once? Or even have candles refresh at twice the speed of normal players? That way I'd feel like I was able to use everything I'm paying for and would be more inclined to subscribe.

Just my two cents.

So, to me, this is mostly good news. I approve of the lengthening of all Menaces to be an threshold of 8, however, I sincerely hope that all three will be somewhat faster at lowering the Menaces too - as it is, the Tomb-Colonies are very boring to be in.

Speaking of, I hope you guys intend to put more content into these areas, similar to the Courier for the Dead or the Enacting Love's Revenge stories. The Tomb-Colonies are kinda bleh... and while the Mirror-Marches are a FASCINATING place, it could really use some story.

As for the Exceptional Friend subscription, now, IMO, it's finally worth it - more actions as well as the second candle. Particularly since starting school, I haven't been able to use up all my actions, the second candle might be helpful.

I'm glad to see more Shadowy content, even though I'm nowhere near the cap for that. Hopefully, the others will have new content released as well, soon.

Also, when will there be more additions to the Merchant/Shepherd of Souls and Long-Lost Daughter stories? Or perhaps the Rubbery Murders? I've bought and finished all three, but I could really use... more. Particularly from the Long-Lost Daughter and Merchant of Souls stories, they were quite interesting, and I feel a great deal more could be done with them. Hell, I have my Daughter as a companion item, but she doesn't do anything, at least, not that I know of!

One small request - please revisit the odds of cards appearing. I get some cards several times in a row, while story cards (such as for the Singular Plant, or the Searching for Your Soul, or Uncovering Secrets Framed in Gold stories) show up very, very rarely. In particular, I have seen VERY few Opportunities for the Uncovering Secrets Framed in Gold recently.

I do like a subscription option, because I tend to buy Fate in chunks and then forget how long it's been. But I like the game enough to want to support it regularly, and something that makes that easier for me is a good thing.

I already commented but I'd like to register interest in better ways to gift. If I get a certain card I can give my friends fate in, I think, 10/30 increments? But I would love the option to just pay for someone to be an Exceptional Friend.

I know Dreamwidth.org has a cool scheme where you can pay for your friends or gift a random user from the active free user database, and I've sunk quite a bit of money into that latter. Any chance of something like this? That way those with means and incentive can support the site beyond their own fate, and those wavering get a chance to experience paid content.

Finally I think the difference between WoW and #ebz is that when my Fallen London friends (and enemies) have higher stats than me it doesn't actually injure or impede me in any way.

Many people seem to be upset about the decrease to 50 for casual players, but this casual player is almost... relieved. I've been finding myself longing in constantly because of wanting to expend all possible actions over a 24-hour period. This little decimation would take off some of that pressure and would probably allow me to enjoy the experience much more.

That's what this delicious friend thinks, anyway.

I'm sorry to say, my first reaction was WTF. I was like, "40? That's like almost half the actions!". After calming down a bit, I can't say I'm totally happy about the changes, but I understand the reasons behind them. The strangest thing is that usually, I don't hit the 70 action cap that often, so the 40 action limit isn't actually affecting the way I play, but somehow, I'm still resentful. Absence makes the heart grow fonder?
I still think that I wouldn't pay $2 each week, though. But I might consider shelling out for something cheaper. Maybe there could be like a 'lower' version of the subscription? It'd cost either .50 or 1.00 each week, but you don't get the 20-action candle. Instead, you get 70 actions, and 80 for an echo refresh. I think I might buy that.

Since most of the comments made thus far have been from veterans, I suppose I'll add my perspective as a newer player. I've been playing the game for a couple of weeks now and am in the early-mid 30's on my main attributes; thus far, I've really enjoyed it. However, I do have to admit that the coming change in turns is very discouraging.

The big reason I'm discouraged by the change is the grindiness of the game. Maybe this gets better as you progress, but right now it feels like I'm grinding a lot of things, either to slowly progress storylets or to reduce Menace; it's repetitive, and sometimes it feels futile even with my current turn allotment. My big worry with this change is that I'll end up spending even a larger proportion of my day grinding the same few storylets over and over to progress and that fresh content will seem even further and further away. (That isn't to say the content I'm grinding isn't good, but as has already been mentioned, even the best content gets a little stale when you've read it ten times in the past hour.)

I understand that some kind of change may be necessary to keep the game viable; believe me, EBZ is good enough that I don't begrudge FBG any attempt to make it profitable. I'm not going to be quitting over this, and hopefully in the future I'll have the funds to be able to support the game via Fate purchases. I just hope that this change doesn't result in frustration for those of us who can't afford to be exceptional at the moment.  

I personally will not be effected too much by the drop in actions per day. I'm capped out on nearly all my skills and, being busier with school this semester, often don't make it through the full 70 anyway.
That said, as someone who has been loving every moment of your game, I do have to advise that your hybrid model does look to leave much to be desired.
Subscribing for a rather pricey per-month fee allows people to power through the content they have available at a faster rate. It does not, however, give them access to new content. I am definitely amongst the camp that would figure, if someone is going to be paying per month, it seems reasonable to give them a discount on fate-based opportunity cards and the like.
I wouldn't necessarily say on all fate packages, but I would see people getting disgruntled at needing to shell out another five bucks to get the quest they want when they're already dropping a monthly fee.
Just a thought.
Selling a yearly subscription may be something to look into but if I were you I would first give your subscription model a month or so to see if it balances like you think it will.

I certainly hope one of the new bazaar items is watchful shoes! I need a full set of watchful gear, feel like a FOOL for not taking those shoes at character creation, they're the only watchful footwear in the game XS

A fashionable Neathman must have a matching outfit, or it's a terrible faux pas!

Thanks for your reply Alexis! The implication that each menace region will be worth a new visit is appealling...

@MulligaP: the "A past benefactor" lets you restart the 'Protégé of a Mysterious Benefactor' storyline for a cost of 8 Fate - I really recommend it, in addition to the shoes your new Benefactor is...truly memorable! A fun storyline.

@Vendetta: http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20091007/#n1950 I also have serious medical problems that limit my ability to work, but really, how is that EBZ's fault? Will their starving to death benefit us in the long term?

I'm not going to quit playing, and I fully support FBG's ability to make a living.

Having said that? I've tried two Fate storylets, and I've been disappointed by both. The first time, I accidentally became Concerned with Rats because I couldn't tell the difference between continuing-adventure gold and Fate gold. Can you turn one of them green, maybe? I didn't expect much content for 3 Fate, and so far I haven't gotten it.

But the other one was the biggest ripoff ever. Eight Fate, to find out that the Privy Counsellor's motives were the VERY SAME TEXT as the high-risk Watchful text I got for free? Let me repeat that. EIGHT FATE for the SAME content I got for FREE. For eight Fate, I expected some investigating, maybe some persuading--certainly more than one screenful of text. I can't imagine why you thought that was a good idea.

@aegtx: Thanks for the feedback. Obviously we try hard to make sure people aren't disappointed by Fate storylets, because people who are disappointed once won't buy again. It can be difficult providing clear information up front, though, and sometimes a snippet of text that has important backstory clues, or we think fills a satisfying gap, may not suit  everyone.

One-off or significant storylets at the top level are gold. Choices are only gold if they cost Fate. We will review the colours in the next UI refresh, though.

The Privy Counsellor branch

(a) provides a chance for players who haven't maxed out their Watchful to get some backstory. Most players get this far without the exceptionally high Watchful necessary.
(b) does *not* contain the exact same information as the Watchful branch (although some important information appears in both).

@xplo and others: we are not looking for 'charity'. I mentioned we're a small company because other commenters asked us to explain why we couldn't compete on equal terms with the most commercially successful MMORPG ever, run by an industry-leading giant full of twenty-year game veterans. The answer is: right now there are a handful of us doing something niche with a game I built in my bedroom. If you're looking for a mainstream product with highly polished production values and sophisticated technology, we're never going to meet your expectations. Fortunately, WoW and EVE and a dozen other really great games are out there as alternatives.

@TheDerpCaptain and other folk - it's worth bearing in mind that an extra candle allows you to get through more actions in a day as well as providing more actions - you can burn 60-70 actions in three visits at least two hours apart.

All the folk suggesting alternative subscription methods, discounts, different subs periods, all those things: thanks! We may do some, all (or none) of these things, but this is a big shake-up and we want to trial it first. The feedback forum is a good place to suggest this stuff, because people can vote on it and we can get an idea of how popular it might be. Buying EF membership for other players sounds particularly appealing. But we'll see.

Thanks for the reply, Alexis, and I'm sorry to keep arguing, but this has been bothering me for days. Because I don't keep copies of the text, I noticed only the similarities--and I doubt I'm the only one who thought it was the same text. Telling me that it isn't the same text doesn't address the reason I feel so cheated: one screen for eight Fate. I was expecting something as involved as the Mysterious Benefactor, which also costs eight Fate. A label saying "this unlocks one screen of backstory" would have let me know that it wasn't the right choice for me.

I am unhappy about this new pay model but I won't ragequit over it.  In fact, I understand why you're doing it.  Servers and programmers cost money.  And with the game becoming more popular, these will cost more.  This cut would also save you strain on the servers from the free players.  

The problem is, you're not going to make more money by angering your players.  Cutting back on what the free players already have will annoy them.  And annoyed players will not spend more money.  I know in my case that I was considering buying Fate and now I'm not.  Besides, with the limitations on actions, I'll probably eventually get bored and annoyed with the game and move onto something else.  It's a great game but I'm not going to stay interested if I only can have a small taste of it every day.  

While I understand the games themselves are very different from ebz, i'd like to compare and contrast two facebook based games and their decisions as to the subscribe payments vs. incremental payments which they made about a year and a half (maybe 2 years) ago, at the time both being about the same size in regular players. Mousehunt chose the incremental option of buying 'superbrie' which in a sense is similar to the Fate option here, buy some, support the dev team, unlock pieces of content, but aside from missing a mouse (storyline) here and there the regular player is unaffected. Packrat chose both in a way, bringing out tickets (fate) and then a short while later bringing out a subscription option. This subscription increased the size of workable space available to the user, and restricted a large number of avenues by which to acquire more content. As a large part of the fun of that game revolved around being the first to unlock new content through a 'recipe' mechanic involving the released-to-market content, the restrictions made it so that the die hard fans unable to pay were relegated to waiting for new content until far past the excitement was over. While ebz isnt per se competitive or interactive to that degree, with the excellent narrative and setup you have in this game has surely created some rabid fans, that this could alienate if they are unable to pay.

I suppose in conclusion, the two games have taken marked turns in different directions. Packrat, the subscription service, now has  14,500 regular players, and Mousehunt? 349,000.

@aegtx: Thanks for the feedback. I've just checked and the Fate branch does actually already say '[Fate will give you a clue to his intentions]'. We'll review and see if we can make it clearer.

As someone with the ability to understand that businesses need money to function, I am ashamed to share the Fifth City with such moaning cretins as have posted here recently.

Hiho,

what about an option like in "Mercenaries of War" to complete surveys and other (payable and non-payable) offers to get some fate? The game would still be ad-free, but you could collaborate with these companies and earn some cash and players who can't afford or won't spend money for fate would be happy aswell to get some fate at least. Of course those people who don't want to make surveys will just buy fate in the store, so you don't have to worry about people not buying fate. Mercenaries runs smooth with that.

Another thing: please do the favour of removing unnecessary "I don't want this" choices like in the "A mysterious benefactor" storyline. I didn't know what I was doing and removed the mysterious benefactor without wanting it. At least give players the chance to return to that story again. Why would I give away my humbugs and miss all the treasure? One mistake and I really didn't want to keep playing. But I was so far in the game that I did not want to leave it. It bugs me, however.

I have only been playing for 3 days and really enjoying the game.  Interestingly, I stumbled on this blog trying to investigate when I will receive the 240 Fate I purchased.  (Character name is Strangeite, if anyone reading can find my wayward Fate).

From my limited experience, it appears to me that this transition is moving your company in the right direction.  You have an interesting product model, wherein your players desire to have the ability to do more actions quickly, but you as the developer need to limit their actions because content can only be produced so quickly and you don't want them to run out of content, or they will quit coming back.

I don't think I will be rage quitting over this, but I can foresee that I will be playing less and less. I have no problem in paying for content, but it's not content that is being payed for here, just the ability to grind more efficiently than other players, and I would still buy it if it was a yearly payment but micro transactions are the worst.

As someone with the ability to understand that businesses need customers to function, I am ashamed to share the Fifth City with people who attempt to invalidate customer opinion and stifle discussion and feedback by throwing around such loaded phrases as "moaning cretins."

Everyone else who as commented so far has had something constructive to add to the discussion, whether supportive or critical. Please learn from their example.

I adore this game, and would love to spend money on it, but you simply don't get enough 'bang for your buck' to justify it. My friend and I are in agreement that you could bleed us dry if you did it correctly. I don't wish to be rude, but you haven't quite grasped the concept of microtransactions. If you have tens of thousands of players and extraordinarily few buying content, I don't think the problem is with the players. People like spending money on and in games. I'm ashamed to admit I've spent about £20 on the mere chance of winning a cosmetic item in Team Fortress 2. It's simply a matter of how you go about it.

For example, people would pay to get their entire day's worth of action points in one go. For 50p worth of fate, you get 5 candles for a day. You keep the cap, they access the exact same amount of content, only now they're paying 50p's worth of fate for the privilege.

Right now it costs you £1.50 to refill your action bar once. It's just poor value. People won't spend that much. To change your ingame portrait is £4.50, or $7.31. Same problem.

I have no problem with the changes made, but I don't see them having a major effect on your number of paying customers. As I've said, I'd gladly pay for unique features, but your current system does not encourage players to buy Fate.

I love your game, and would love to spend money on your game, but you really don't seem to have a clue how to encourage players to spend money.

@Nero: we have tried that in the past, but withdrew it when we couldn't be certain that the offers were all decent quality. We'll probably try it again in the future - the offers market seems to be cleaner now.

@Strangeite: I've answered your email (customer support on a Saturday night, how exciting is my life ). Thanks for your support!

@P. McFadden: re "I don't wish to be rude, but you haven't quite grasped the concept of microtransactions" - thanks for your no doubt well-intended advice, although you might wish to avoid phrases like "you don't seem to have a clue" if you want to avoid the impression of rudeness. Some salient facts I'd like to share.

(1) the average industry conversion rate is around 2-5%, that is, 95-98% of customers in most Facebook games play free.

(2) We've experimented with lower Fate prices in the past, and found that reducing the price encourages slightly more players to pay - but not enough to make up for the loss in income from reducing the price! The presence of the free option skews people's attitudes - if we offer anything free, any non-zero price looks disproportionately expensive. There's an interesting Ariely paper on this here: http://web.mit.edu/ariely/www/MIT/Papers/zero.pdf

Game improvements are always welcome. Since I'm a casual gamer, I always had 30 surplus actions in stock I never really used so the 40 cap is OK (at least for me).

Can't wait to see more content (and probably an interface overhaul, yes?).

Right now I only see glitched icons and the photo of Charles Dickens on my Watchful slots O_o

I suppose if something can be had for free, most people will take the free option... but I have paid/premium accounts on MOST of the games I play regularly, and compared to them, Fate really doesn't seem a good value for the cost...not when you can easily blow $10 on just a small handful of Fate-based opportunities. I paid for the Rubbery Murders, mostly because I was out of other content, and while it was an entertaining diversion I doubt I'll pay for the other storylines, because I didn't find enough THERE there to justify the cost. (I spent the $7 worth of Fate to change my in-game avatar, too, but have no regrets there because I knew exactly what I'd be getting, and the new avatar is an ongoing thing, not something done with in two evenings of play.)

While I'm sad the actions for free players is decreasing, other people have articulated pretty much anything I wanted to say better than I could have.

I do have one question though -- I payed fate for the attempt to regain my soul storyline (this was a little over two weeks ago), and I got my quality to 2, but I haven't encountered a card or anything to continue on that storyline ever since. Surely I couldn't have screwed up my chances to get my soul back this early, right?

I can fully understand the desire to encourage more people to buy Fate and thus fund further Echo Bazaar operation and development. Taking away things that non-paying players currently have seems like a fast way to offend the majority of your playerbase instead, which actually acts as a disincentive to pay. I've already been eyeing the extra candle option, personally. Adding a few extra daily actions and some bonus content to that would help me go ahead and pull the trigger on that. Almost halving my daily actions if I don't, on the other hand, ticks me off and makes me disinclined to support that kind of business model. And this despite the fact that I think your game is amazing and despite the fact that I personally haven't used all my daily actions in months.

In summary: Exceptional Friends program - good move. The various extra Fate branches and storylines - good moves. The prospect of yet more such stuff down the line - excellent. Shorting free players on actions - not so much.

PS: I still think you'd increase your playerbase significantly if you offered a non-social-network login option.

About half a year ago I would've freaked out at having my 80 actions a day cut down to 50 (technically more, since there were downtime refreshes and the end of the day refresh-bug), but now that I've hit all my content caps and exhausted all the non-card storylets, I wish there'd been fewer actions available so I'd taken it a bit slower.

It took me the better part of a year to get through all the content EBZ had to offer, and that was with between 80-90 actions a day for about 80% of the time (sometimes I forgot about it, didn't use my refresh, whatever), and I honestly think it would have been better to take it slower. Once the content is gone, it's gone unless you make a new account, and the appeal of the game disappears. Right now I'm spending most of my time saving up for an overgoat because I have nothing else to do. It makes me wonder if I'd still be delightedly hacking away at the University or Shuttered Palace if I'd had fewer actions to use per day.

I am a bit wary in terms of the Knife and Candle, though. I never played there, as I was more interested in the game content, but when it goes live again will there be a way to prevent the paid users from trouncing the free users? It seems they will be levelling much faster and therefore at an unfair advantage.

Also want to pitch in that I very strongly agree with @Nero about the options that go along the 'end this friendship/affair/whatever' line. Not so very long ago I began an affair with a bandaged gentleman and was thrilled at having new, semi-regular content. Then I made the mistake of clicking on something without reading the last line (which was, unfortunately, "this will end the affair"). As it was the only new content I'd had in a while, I was pretty devastated. I don't think I should have my hand held or not be held responsible for my actions, of course, but it's so easy to click on something by accident and then lose a huge chunk of story. And why? Does anyone actually choose to deny themselves these storylines?

I'm curious as to how what essentially boils down to "How dare you ask for a small amount of money in exchange for slightly better play quality!" could at all be construed as constructive, and am honestly baffled that you believe such constitutes "discussion," but if you insist: I'm not fond of having the actions cap reduced for free players, as taking away from people what they once had never works out well in my experience. However, since servers cost money to run and increasing the action cap for subscribing players would add traffic to the servers, thereby increasing the cost of running them, I can see why it might be necessary. For me personally it doesn't make much of a difference, as I never seem to spend all my daily actions anyhow.

You may now return to demanding that Failbetter Games give you things at a financial loss simply because you can't afford it.

Read up on your behavioral psychology theory much?

From this: www.gamasutra.com/.../behavioral_game_design.php

"A chimpanzee is doing a simple task such as pulling a lever and is being rewarded with pieces of lettuce, which they like to eat. After doing this for a while, one pull is rewarded with a grape, which they really love to eat. On the next pull, the chimp is given lettuce again and they get very upset, throwing the lettuce at the experimenter. They were perfectly happy with lettuce before, but the presentation of the grape creates new expectations and when those expectations aren't met, frustration and anger invariably results."

The last sentence is what you are doing to the free players. They were perfectly happy with getting a great game completely free. But you've given us the expectation of getting 80 actions a day. By lowering it to 50, people that have the expectation of 80 will invariable get frustrated or angry. New people joining, getting a great game for free with 50 actions a day will be completely happy.

That being said, my anger/frustration was certainly not high enough to cause a rage-quit. And once the visceral reaction faded after about twenty minutes, I thought about the extra actions that being an exceptional friend would give me. And I decided for the first time that it was worth buying fate (bought the $50 deal too) to get the new-and-improved candles.

So I think your move was certainly the right one from a business perspective, and will not actually turn many people away from the game. And I definitely don't think it will slow the rate of new recruits.

Still, it was a bit frustrating hearing about this.

The next paragraph from that same article is also applicable:

"The moral here is that reducing the level of reinforcement is a very punishing thing for your players and can act as an impetus for them to quit the game. It needs to be done carefully and gradually, or there may be an undesirable backlash. This applies even to temporary reductions, such as when killing orcs stops producing points but the player has not yet discovered that trolls can be killed instead. Sudden loss of reward is very aversive and should be avoided when possible."

@Spineneedles - you should be fine. If you drop ebbugs@failbettergames.com a line, someone will double-check for you.

@em and others - remember we do have more content on the way. We have arcs planned to run a long way yet.

@Will and others - yup. We do appreciate that people will be disappointed that we can't be as generous in the future. That's why we're taking care to warn everyone up front (not doing this was our big mistake last time we changed the action cap). We'd rather not upset people at all, but we sinply can't afford to give away too many actions at once.

I've commented before, but I've been following this discussion with a great deal of interest, and would just like to restate something I've been thinking about, excuse me while I waffle a little.

For me the I think that, aside from the knee-jerk psychological reaction so well described by Will, *throws handfuls of lettuce* the objection I have towards the drop in actions (as well as the price for more actions) is that as a fairly high level player (edging towards 70+ for all stats now) I use the majority of them for things that aren't very rewarding. I feel like I get one or two "gameplay" actions in 10, and the rest is grinding stats, raising something like a running battle, or healing menace.  Most new content I see comes from the opportunity cards (which I find I'm using as a break from grinding) At times it almost feels like I'm watching a pretty, but repetitive, loading screen between some amazing levels.  (And don't even talk to me about scandal.  I've spent an entire candle of actions to receive a measly -2 decrease more than once.)  

Don't get me wrong, I do love the game, it's unique and funny, and I would be very happy to pay for it, if the pricing reflected the amount of content I'm getting for my actions.

Removing a chunk of actions from non-paying players, while understandable, doesn't actually "leave me wanting more" so to speak, but rather, it means I'm less likely to reach new content during my daily grinding/healing, and just means that it feels like even less reward for me, the chimp, when I pull that lever :p  Also ...um, can I have the lettuce back now? It was my lunch.

Hmm... I suppose what really bothers me is how much less there will be available for free players verses paying players. For me, this is particularly disappointing, as I don't actually have paying as an option right now; I recently moved to Japan and can't do any of the payment options without jumping through quite a few hoops. But that's a problem unique to myself.

The thing is, Fallen London, while very entertaining, isn't quite something I'd pay money for. It's not about how much money I'm spending (although $8/month is actually a bit much for a browser game... perhaps a yearly subscription option might be a better idea?) It's the fact that it's not engaging enough for me to pay money for. That's nothing to do with the written content. The written content is gorgeous. But you see, for one, even if I'm spending the money I still have to wait for my actions to refresh. This means that even if I feel like being a less "casual" player, I still feel like it's a casual game since I can't devote all my attention to it at once: I blow through a few actions, then I have to go do something else for seven minutes before I can do anything again. (perhaps a quicker refresh rate?) Also, while there have been a lot of new images recently, there just... aren't enough. The black background, while I suppose good for atmosphere, isn't much to look at. The bars at the top are wonderful, but those are just above the viewing line. I barely even noticed them when I first started playing. It took me a while. Maybe some more decorative boxes on the side or something? A more interesting background? Also, sometimes I find that I'm not even reading the text after I click something. I just scroll down to the results. Horrid of me, I know. But perhaps... if you could accompany the text with an image of some sort? I realize there's a great deal of text, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt too much if you repeated the images a lot...

Anyway. My point is, Fallen London, while as engaging as a text-based game can be, still feels like just that... a text-based game. And no one pays for text-based games anymore. And the action refresh rate just makes me lose interest almost as soon as I've run out of actions; it makes it something I'm kind of doing in the background while I'm doing other things. If I remember. So I'm not going to want to pay money for it (which I can't since, well, I don't have a Japanese bank account yet, I certainly haven't set up a Japanese paypal account yet, and so on and so forth... but that's an issue only I'd have).

Oh, actually! I'd love it if you had one of those options where you can click on ads or something for credits. I don't know if those exist anymore or not. And I'm completely okay with the advertisements at the bottom. I have no issue with those. I think most internet users have grown used to the fact that free means ads. I'd be fine with "paying" for playing by seeing more ads.

Apologies for the long post. Echo Bazaar is a great deal of fun for me, and while I'm happy about the new storyline being available (yay!) I'm greatly disappointed in the fact that less and less is going to be available to me.

Hmm... not sure how I feel about this. I mean, on the one hand, I understand that you need to make money in order to keep the game going, but on the other...
Reducing the number of daily actions for non subscribers feels like you're punishing people for not paying. I got into this game because of the huge amount of detail put into a free game. I'm a uni student and only just scraping by as it is - buying more actions isn't a matter of choice of me, I just straight up CAN'T.
I get the feeling that this decision may cause people to switch off, but I don't know. I'll have to see how this affects my own playing of ebz.

Enough a this jibba-jabba. People you gotta understand. Aint nothin for free in this world. I pity the fool that thinks they deserve somethin for nothin.

"You may now return to demanding that Failbetter Games give you things at a financial loss simply because you can't afford it."

Again, that's not only a inaccurate encapsulation of most of the comments - almost all of which say "We want to financially support the game, but we're not sure the candle model is the best way" - but it's rudely phrased. What an excellent way to make your point! You did come to be rude to other players, and thereby raise your esteem in the eyes of the game designers, didn't you?  

Do you honestly think the EBZ staff is thinking "Thank goodness this honest fellow is able to say what we all WISH we could - three cheers!" If so, you've misinterpreted the tone of the discussion completely.

There have been some unconstructive complaints, but that's hardly call to rush into name-calling and insults. If you notice, you're the only one who's chosen to go that route.

The comments board is meant for people to address the company with their input.  If FBG didn't want to hear it, they would have disabled comments.

I support EBZ, and I have no problems with them moving towards a paying model. I'm not completely sure this method is the best for the *paying* customers - not because of the price, but because of how it works. To clarify for YOU, I think the actual COST is low, but I would happily pay MORE for something I, as someone at the level caps, might be able to use more - or to pay a set fee simply to subscribe without a perk that seems useless to me.

I've been playing since around the end of October, when I finally got past my reticence toward connecting my Twitter account with something game-shaped. I haven't bought Fate, I typically chew through seventy actions with hours to spare on the reset timer, and am not typically the sort to click through ads.

I also saw this written on the wall during last month's huge influx of new players, and applaud the devs for having the guts to go through with it. There's simply no way that income from ad impressions covers the cost of running the game-- especially when a massive increase in players forces an upgrade on the back end. The specter of people quitting really isn't much of a threat when their habits are dragging you down in the first place.

Am I going to become an Exceptional Friend? Maybe, maybe not. I'm certainly not going to complain when an unusually well-written game that I enjoy has to tighten its belt in order to keep running, though.

I'm afraid you've misinterpreted my motives entirely. I do not care what the developers think of me personally--with thousands of players, it's likely they're not going to remember me at all. I'd be an idiot if I believed they thought anything of me, much less that I have any respect in their eyes compared to other players. I'm frustrated with comments like:

"Maybe it's FBG's intent to offend the long-time free users; maybe they think that if we haven't paid by now and if our friends haven't seen our tweets or FB updates and joined, we never will, and they'd rather we stop using their servers altogether. I don't know (and even if it is, I doubt they'd ever confirm it so bluntly)."

and frankly, if you're going to suggest something that ridiculous simply because they need some financial input from a minority of players to keep the servers running smoothly, you deserve the name-calling and insults. (Accusing eight people in London of a contrived conspiracy theory for which there is absolutely no evidence counts as an insult too, by the way.)

That said, as this conversation now has more to do with whether I have any tact than whether the coming change is a good idea, I will happily concede that I do not, in fact, have any tact at all and leave the rest of this page to those who wish to intelligently discuss that.

Math isn't quite working for me either, and I'm an accountant.  I'm a "casual" player, i.e., I have a demanding job, commute time, and other stuff in my life.  Cutting me down to 40 actions per day doesn't change things, its about all I get to do anyway.

Since free refresh is so slow, I buy a few Fates each week so I can up my actions when I have time to play.  The way you've explained things is not helpful in figuring out whether I'm better off if I keep buying a few Fate or subscribe.  Which will give me more actions when I have time to play?

I guess I'm too low level to even have a hint of the content I'm not seeing, although it's apparent from the map that there are other places I can't go. (I even went to one that I can't see anymore.)  You need to find a way to give more info, without spoiling the mystery of the game, so people can figure out if subscribing is worthwhile.

Or maybe I just have to wait until I start bumping into parts of the stories where I get told "Action locked.  Available only to subscribers."

For now, I'm going to continue as is.

M

I'm echoing (heh) what Imogen said:

"That said, I have qualms about the new payment model. I'm not a fan of microtransactions to begin with, but I find combining a subscription model with microtransactions to be particularly problematic. If I'm paying for a monthly subscription, I expect to not be nickle and dimed to death in order to see content. If this means that I pay a subscription price of $12 per month rather than $8 per month, then so be it."

Since I've been playing EBZ for a long while now and am all maxed out, I probably won't be buying the subscription service— I've paid in for a fair amount of Fate to buy storylines (some of which, honestly, have not really been worth the money). I'd rather see one or the other.

Or, perhaps, some low-grade subscription service that allows me to access all the content but at a lower action rate? The subscription cost does seem steep to me in particular, especially because I just don't need to use that many actions. I like supporting EBZ, I love the game, but this is a lot of money for something I don't need or want.

This is rediculous. How can they lower the actions on casual players just because we don't feel like paying over a hundred dollars a year?

yeah, they should be paying you to play their game!! Where do they get off??

You know what else I can get for a hundred dollars a year? A pint of beer every two weeks. Over a year anything sounds expensive

I will, like others, first acknowledge the developers' rights to charge a fee for what has to be an endeavor that is expensive to maintain. It's a lovely, inventive game, which is why people are so devoted to it.

The problem that I have is that the way the game is constructed, it doesn't really make it possible for you to be more than a casual player in reality, due to the waiting period. I have not yet bought any fate because the regular gameplay was adequate for me. Additionally, I tend not to pay to play online games anyway, because I do tend to get addicted to certain things and I might end up spending far too much time and money here. But never mind about my personal habits.

I'm sorry that the cost-cutting measures extend to what seems like the marginalization of 'casual' players - I wish that your choice had been instead to offer subscribers an entirely different level of play that would not affect interaction with other players (re: Knife-and-Candle play).

I will probably stay with EB until the inevitable point that I notice that my gameplay is reduced to a mere tagging-along with the players who pay for the service. When my 50 actions per day barely keep my head above water, so to speak, I will take my departure from Fallen London.

Frankly I was expecting this. You can't keep a game running without money to pay the bills, and with the recent influx of players, it has to be done. I've paid for Fate occasionally in the past (to change my avi, to get an extra candle that I let lapse, to play storylines, etc.), and I'll see after the free week trial (which is what it is, I am sure) whether I want to pay regularly or just intermittently as I have been doing. And I paid, basically, because I know that the game won't continue if the player base continues to grow and they can't keep enough revenue. I've seen online sites sell out, and believe me, this is not it.

Anything that we can do to support your creation of new content will be appreciated. I'm sort of excited about the inclusion of Mahogany Hall, because my high traits right now are Watchful and Dangerous, and baring anything that would be out of character, it will be interesting to have that waiting for when I get done. Otherwise, I do intend to start up a new character with a new ambition and see where the other storylines go.

Someone upthread mentioned a "subscription weekends" option, which might help you generate more players who are both casual and paid in addition to those who are casual most of the time and pay for random things, just to support. As there is a social aspect to the game, I STRONGLY suggest that you make an option available to buy Fate for your friends, or something like it. That will lead to people gifting Exceptional Friend status to their friends for birthdays and when they're feeling blue, and that would also help you reasonably get some revenue.

I'm also really glad to hear that there will be new swag for newer characters to get. The pricing of the stuff in the Bazaar is a deterrent, and sort of frustrating, since I didn't get equipment from storylines until later in the game.

Keep up the good writing, guys. I'll still be here.

Catching up on King of Dragon Pass in word count I see…

The new pricing scheme seems simpler, and more likely to actually buy Fate (though I expect not to).

It also makes it a little easier to recommend — it’s now harder to get sucked into an (entertaining) time sink.

I also appreciate hearing that I will some day be able to complete the game. Some of your earlier blog posts implied that all would be revealed in recent content, but it’s not. While I suspect there will always be dangling plot lines, I look forward to a dramatic conclusion.

I like @Arthur's idea about needing some sort of an "Exceptional Friend surface carnation" to denote that you'd paid something in order to begin certain storylets, but once your month subscription expired, still being able to continue the storylets you'd paid to begin - though obviously not to start any new ones.

Does that make sense?

For what it's worth, I'm also one of the people who can't get through my current actions on weekdays, but can use them all up and more on weekends.

Thanks for all your hard work, I'm really looking forward to seeing the new content!

I've only started playing in the last month and I really enjoy your game, praise be given to all your team.

Right now, I wouldn't donate. The cash to fate ratio is simply too high for my budget.

With the free fate you get when you start a new character, I went mushroom racing. I thought it was an interesting little storylet but I wondered why it was not unlocked permenantly. If fate opened up those storylets for all your game life, I'd be a little more interested to get some fate to open them. Stuff like second candles aren't as important to me compared to that. I just love seeing new content, even if it takes longer to see it.

I'll be a little saddened by the drop of actions since it can be a little slow to level up over time. I hope you take the xp curve into consideration in the new patch, which I'm looking forward to.

Tally-ho

Sir Tripwood

I expect this to be the marketing equivalent to shooting onself in one's foot.

While I support the idea of a subscription service-- you never, ever strip the 'casuals' that have made your business what it is of what they have already. It's a slap in the face. It's down right rude! Yes, you're making a fabulous game. We love your game. MAny of us have bought fate to play more of your game.

But then to say, "Sorry, but that's just not good enough." and strip is down unless we're willing to do a monthly subscription?

Sir-or-Madam to thee I say: Bugger That.

You strip me of what I have enjoyed, and I'll find another thing to piddle about with in my breaks at work or while I wait for supper to finish baking in the stove, and so forth. My clicks-- and money-- will move elsewhere.  It's simple math: If I suddenly get less than what I got, even if I will get EVEN MORE if I pay, I am still being punished for being a free player because you've said, "Sorry, you can't have that much. You're not good enough."

You're going to lose more money then the subscription will gain you at this rate, as plenty of free players who woudl have paid certainly won't if you punish them for being free players in the first place, and already, you've noted that you're losing money on the game... Which means if you lose players who might pay -- instead of keeping players who might pay/buy fate/get a subscription -- you're watching your revenue walk out the door when you asked them to be larger revenue, but followed it up with a threat of, "If you don't, you won't be special to us anymore."

Not on, Betterbloggers. Not on at all.

I suggest a re-think before you shoot yourself in both feet; your right's already bleeding, and if you keep up with the bad aim, you're liable to cripple yourself.

Frankly, I'm disappointed. I can't afford a monthly subscription; I wish I could. I feel like I'm being penalized for being poor, and frankly I get enough of that in real life.

I agree with badbadwebbis:

<em>I will probably stay with EB until the inevitable point that I notice that my gameplay is reduced to a mere tagging-along with the players who pay for the service. When my 50 actions per day barely keep my head above water, so to speak, I will take my departure from Fallen London.</em>

I'm really sorry that you're doing this. I liked the game.I guess I'd better get used to liking it less.

Quoth Alexis:
About taking actions away from players: we did the homework and found we just can't afford to give away 70 actions a day! Interaction with content is our stock-in-trade. It costs money to create content, it costs money to run the servers, and the way I'd suggest you look at it is this: you got *all this great free stuff for a year*, and now you're getting a smaller quantity of great free stuff. Unless you want to support the game, in which case you'll get more equally great stuff.

Well understood here, and I've been a paying player for some months - but I think you dun goof'd, PR-wise, by not putting that out on your front page about the changes! Lots of people are sympathetic to impoverished writers, but I think your casual players, being casual, have not carefully studied the habits of Failbetter folks and think of you as a Big Corporation Screwing the Little Guy, unless explicitly informed otherwise.

...did my comment really come off as that sharp? I hope not. The tone was intended as affectionate levity, but may not have come through in the text-only format. (That, or it simply hasn't been approved to show up yet and I'll feel like a fool in the morning.)

Tatterdemalion - no no, we just moderate on UK time (and have a perennial spam burden)

I am looking forward to trying the new content, thank you.
Not sure how I feel about "Exceptional Friends", but it probably will not affect me much, because at the moment there is not much left to do in Fallen London for me. So the cut to 50 actions is disappointing, but those fifty may be enough in my case. The funny thing is that I stopped buying the extra candle only in this month.
And yes, thank you for giving a free week of Exceptional Friend membership.
"the secret of the Fingerkings and much more" - is that correct or did you mean fisher-kings?

I think this is an interesting idea, I like the fact that I could pay and have the exceptional status for when I like as opposed to having a monthly subscription. I work odd hours and sometimes can't get on a computer for a week so this appeals to me, I can be casual some months and exceptional others!
Also this is a game that limits actions as there are few other game play limits (this is how I see it and may have missed the point entirely, but if we have too many action we could (in theory) burn through the stories in very little time, in fact people may even stop reading (I am thinking EXTREMELY general about most MMORPG players) and just do things to increases levels.
I am looking forward to the new stuff, Take care of yourself guys and gals.

@Reviarda: I'm pretty sure it's "Fingerkings"— a cat in the Mirror-Marches asks about them (whoever they are) by that name...

I was initially going to protest the action level cut, if only for the straightforward fact that it is essentially a promised service to your players that you went back on (an implicit promise, but one nonetheless, otherwise there probably should have been a disclaimer saying that action caps are subject to change).

I still don't necessarily like the way it's been handled, but given your staff and the demands of the game, I can understand the need, and while the overestimation of how many actions-per-player you could handle is disappointing, well, we all make mistakes. Especially with something as groundbreaking in format as EBZ.

That said! Someone suggested user-submitted content, and I can understand how that could be a whole can of worms (and beetles and earwigs and sorrow spiders), I was wondering if you guys do (or would consider) accepting volunteers. Naturally you'd put them through the same application process as you would a staff member, only they'd be agreeing to work for free on a partial schedule. Given those restrictions, I don't think you'd have to worry about being overwhelmed with more applications than you could handle, and it could be a good way to ease workhorse tasks off the main staff.

Also, seconding Ink_Petrel. Seems you can use up a candle awfully fast on level grinding or healing just to get to the next story bit. Especially when your only available actions are moderate or lower in difficulty. Though I assume that's going to be addressed with the rebalancing you mentioned?

@Mirth: To be fair, the "Beta" banner on the game's site should be all the disclaimer needed. As players we don't have any guarantees that any aspect of the game will remain as it was when we signed up; that's just kind of how a beta works.

Dear failbetter games
I have recently started playing your 'echo bazaar' and have quite enjoyed it. I have a few suggestions: Currently, my problem is often not reaching the ten action limit, but waiting for even a single action, if you increased the rate at which the candles regenerate for exceptional friends (to say X1.5) then it would seem more appealing. Also if you offered a discount on the fate costing mini-storylets it would also seem much more appealing (and removed the ones that have odds, that seems less than ideal, since I feel that if I am paying money I should not have to worry about odds). Also with regards to your pricing: Buying the 20 fate twice saves five cents over buying the 40 fate, and I feel that if you added a 30 fate option, since this is what you are charging for exceptional friendhood, it would seem much more appealing.
Your delicious friend,
Sound Logic

Bartimaeus, thank you! A sidebar text mentions "fisher-kings" urchin gang, and I thought of them when I read about "Fingerkings". If it is someting different, it is even more interesting.

I would feel a LOT better about this if came with a modest amount of Fate (maybe 15?) in addition to the actions and candles. In general, lately, I'm more likely to buy Fated storylines than anything else--I've never bought a second candle, and I haven't used fate for actions since the last Bag a Legend update--but that becomes much less appealing if I lack the actions to play them out.

My biggest concern is that some of the larger storylets--even at lower levels--take something like 10-150 actions to complete. At only 40 actions a day, that type of grinding is going to get very, very frustrating and I can imagine it chasing away new players. I don't expect it to chase *me* away, I'm too invested. But I do expect that, like the loss of the cheeky exploit, it will lead me to visit the site less often.

@Alexis: Ah, glad. I am very fond of the Bazaar and think of myself as far more Magnanimous than Ruthless and such-all-like. I figured out that it was a moderation thing after posting the second comment (and seeing it also not show up on a later reload) but did not wish to compound the error.

I too have been frustrated by some of the things my fate has unlocked, which spooked me away from purchasing other bits of storylet (and not being sure if I'm unlocking a storylet or just having a one off event). Given this is a Beta it would be great if there was some kind of streamlined feedback system other than communicating disappointment by not purchasing more fate.

@azahru Thanks for your comment. This is something we're working on making as clear as possible, and will hopefully get even better at as we go along. Just FYI, there is in fact a feedback forum - click the blue tab on the far left of the screen in-game.

Hello, we're over a month into the changes.  I have not renewed my Exceptional status -- NOT because I dislike the changes, but because I'll be super busy the next three months, and won't be able to take advantage of the moves.  Heck, I have days now that I cannot use all 40.  Also, I'm nearly maxed out in three qualities.  I don't want to run out of content, so I am trying to amble, rather than gallop.

The new content is delectable, and I'm savoring every disaster and triumph!  Thank you.