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[Thor]

A couple of months ago I was told directly that owners of this game were considering replacing observer mode with a new form of restriction. In the time that's passed since it has become clear to me from an indirect source that it is now a definite plan, intended to be implemented with the full release of V6.

Without copying quotes exactly, the basic idea is to implement free roaming areas of servers where trials can wander around normally, with for example other areas of a map and possibly alternate insides closed off via the client itself.

The first problem that came to my mind was that this would be utterly inappropriate for Classic, as it would cut off questing progress on what is primarily supposed to be a questing server, developed with a philosophy aimed towards using quests to provide legitimately new players with purpose and direction. Observer mode is terrible for the fact it frustrates players and causes bugs within Quests, but at least it lets them experience it in some way.

As it turns out, this problem is no coincidence, it is infact part of the strategy to shut trials away from quest content, and almost from the very beginning of our quest line.
My other main concern with observer mode is that due to the bugs and disruption it causes, it is difficult and/or impossible to allow trials to participate within events. Once more however, the new restriction would be shutting players away from events, and entirely deliberately.

The 2 things which have been highlighted as possible for trials to do, are the ability to "test the game" and "chat with friends". I thought the whole idea of trial accounts was supposed to be to allow trials to experience the game in such a way where they may feel as if it's worth upgrading for the full experience?
The old restriction where trials were unable to have any of their in game progress saved was terrible, but at least it actually allowed trials to play the game's content, and was barely sufficient enough to show trials what they would be buying into.

Due to there being certain unknown factors, such as how severely the restriction would be implemented, whether the expensive price of a subscription would remain the same or be lowered, or whether permanent subscriptions would be re-introduced, it's impossible to judge it against the current and previous main restriction with any certainty. The mere thought of this new restriction however suggests to me that the owners of this game have not learned a single thing from their previous failures on PC Graal, and their successes on iPhone.

Throughout the entire time Graal has been P2P, there has always been a maniacal main form of trial restriction which essentially treats trial accounts like prisoners of war.
Are the owners of Graal ever going to understand that it is perfectly acceptable to allow trials to enjoy their experiences actually playing the game?

The other issue which has been made even clearer, is the fact the owners are entirely unwilling to allow developers to have any say over the methods. Instead they want to continue using restrictions that are built-in and beyond the control of developers. We've just spent 3 years redeveloping a server from scratch, with fully custom systems, tonnes of scripted security for anything related to an economy, but what the hell would we know about what is the best way to market it?

I am aware that with recent events I am making this thread at the risk of a ban, but quite frankly I do not care. I have learned through conversations with staff on other PlayerWorlds that they are not aware of these plans, which they really ought to have a say in, and so I wish to make this information publicly known.

[Skyzer]

Horse shit.

[Thor]

Since posting this thread it has been suggested to me that the plan is not to remove observer mode completely, but to have it in place alongside the level restriction. It's just speculation but pretty disturbing if that is the case.

[PoJo]

This is just getting ridiculous.

Get all the playerworld tab server managers/development admins to start demanding server specific trial restricts, created by the local administration. Sure Stefan can ignore and silence you, but can he afford to ban every manager?

[Racil]

Era and Zodiac are doing good and already have server specific trial restrictions so they wouldn't bother.

[Dante Darkmane]

Just kicking Graal's rotting corpse at this point.

[Skyzer]

Stefan and Unixmad are hell-bent on making the game absolutely impossible to play unless you're throwing money at them.  It doesn't make sense to restrict trial members like this.

There aren't any other games with payment systems like this for a very good reason; this doesn't work. iGraal is set up like most MMOs. It's F2P with payments for bonus shit like hats, extra in-game money, and better outfits. That's how it should be on PC, and that how Thor wanted Classic.

[Thor]

Edit: <removed>

[Ranger]

Don't tell me someone sent it off with the brackets left like that

[Thor]

Don't tell me someone sent it off with the brackets left like that

That is correct.

[Skyzer]

Ugh... -__-

[Thor]

I don't know about anyone else but Stefan has now replied to me so there's no need to continue sending emails.

The reply wasn't very positive but did confirm observer mode would be removed completely. It said that trials could be allowed to play some events at the expense of some overworld space, which makes the idea slightly less bad, but ultimately on a server that has a map as small as Classics and is built so predominantly around quests it completely ruins our design. The only compromise I would be willing to make is to only prevent trials from playing the last big quest, an then open it up for them whenever a new big quest is released, that way there's more of a buzz surrounding the quest, other players are playing it, and so there's more incentive to try it, plus if they've got that far, they'll more likely be interested.

The problem with only allowing trials into a few events for me is the lack of variety, this is another example of where it would be much better to allow developers to script their own trial restrictions (such as a limit on how many events a trial can join), rather than building a restriction into the client.

[WhiteDragon]

The only compromise I would be willing to make is to only prevent trials from playing the last big quest, an then open it up for them whenever a new big quest is released, that way there's more of a buzz surrounding the quest, other players are playing it, and so there's more incentive to try it, plus if they've got that far, they'll more likely be interested.

As far as trial restrictions go, I think that blocking off the latest quest for trials is a great idea. We'll see just how allergic Stefan is to good ideas.

[spyke]

So I assume he did not address Gold price being adjusted or life-time subscription possibilities?

[Thor]

He actually said pricing and subscriptions will change in some way, but did not say how. It's somewhat annoying that he's left it open-ended, as if it were positive change the level restriction might not be so bad, or if it were either a negative change or unchanged, there'd be no hope.