Its a positive direction GM's are moving with bans of cheaters/bots. But what is the future? during peak login times maybe 3000 toons online...maybe 1000 live players each with a couple afk clients fishing. maybe 10 clans with 50 players each and 500 randoms...
so what is in the pipeline? anything new? anything to bring people back to game(better not be reinstating past banned accounts)?
I heard new levels will be unlocked? what does that mean and imply? are new items being introduced? new jewels/armor/weapons etc...
just wondering whats going on, cause right now game is boring and I am trying to find some hope/motivation.
Its a positive direction GM's are moving with bans of cheaters/bots. But what is the future? during peak login times maybe 3000 toons online...maybe 1000 live players each with a couple afk clients fishing. maybe 10 clans with 50 players each and 500 randoms...
so what is in the pipeline? anything new? anything to bring people back to game(better not be reinstating past banned accounts)?
I heard new levels will be unlocked? what does that mean and imply? are new items being introduced? new jewels/armor/weapons etc...
just wondering whats going on, cause right now game is boring and I am trying to find some hope/motivation.
I'd only see this as a step in the right direction if they keep it up.
I've seen them "crack down" on bots/cheaters before... to prepare for a big merge or game change (GoD/F2P). But inevitably they just stop within a few weeks/months.
And they never advertise... like, ever. L2 is a game they devote no marketing resources to. It gets an occasional mention along with other games, but there hasn't really been a consistent drive to get new players interested in quite some time.
Its a positive direction GM's are moving with bans of cheaters/bots. But what is the future? during peak login times maybe 3000 toons online...maybe 1000 live players each with a couple afk clients fishing. maybe 10 clans with 50 players each and 500 randoms...
so what is in the pipeline? anything new? anything to bring people back to game(better not be reinstating past banned accounts)?
I heard new levels will be unlocked? what does that mean and imply? are new items being introduced? new jewels/armor/weapons etc...
just wondering whats going on, cause right now game is boring and I am trying to find some hope/motivation.
There is so far no information on whether we will get all the Infinite Odyssey patches in one bundle (like with High Five), or whether they will be coming in the sequence they went live in Korea. But sooner or later the Skill Enchantment System will be fundamentally changed, a very interesting raid will be introduced, where bad persons can after some time teleport into the instance and interfere with the battle. The new Boss Weapons ("Tauti for Daggers") seem to have not yet dropped in Korea, i.e. they are very rare. You will find details in these threads: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=1229&start=180#p26627 (first and second installment) http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=1303#p27587 (third installment)
There is so far no information on whether we will get all the Infinite Odyssey patches in one bundle (like with High Five), or whether they will be coming in the sequence they went live in Korea. But sooner or later the Skill Enchantment System will be fundamentally changed, a very interesting raid will be introduced, where bad persons can after some time teleport into the instance and interfere with the battle. The new Boss Weapons ("Tauti for Daggers") seem to have not yet dropped in Korea, i.e. they are very rare. You will find details in these threads: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=1229&start=180#p26627 (first and second installment) http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=1303#p27587 (third installment)
No, it's Kelvim, the director of the Astatine refinery that Etis van Etina has built on the grounds of the former School of Dark Arts. He makes a short appearance in Lionna's nightmare at the beginning of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARWy_w1tnDc
Its a positive direction GM's are moving with bans of cheaters/bots. But what is the future? during peak login times maybe 3000 toons online...maybe 1000 live players each with a couple afk clients fishing. maybe 10 clans with 50 players each and 500 randoms...
so what is in the pipeline? anything new? anything to bring people back to game(better not be reinstating past banned accounts)?
I heard new levels will be unlocked? what does that mean and imply? are new items being introduced? new jewels/armor/weapons etc...
just wondering whats going on, cause right now game is boring and I am trying to find some hope/motivation.
Im sure the plan is the same new armor weapons even a free trip to the pleasure resort of your choice...BUT DONT FORGET TO SPIN THE WHEEL TO WIN GREAT PRIZES....LOL TARDS... WHY YOU FALL FOR THE SAME CRAP IS BEYOND ME,
I will say i have seen increase in GM cleaning up servers but.... I have 40+ reports through the support with screen shots of 3rd party program users that have been going for last 5 days and are still there today. Hero's in blue chat saying they have botted or bot and ebay adena and say the cant be banned... ppl selling and buying items for 10b adena.. knowing that is all ebayed adena.
I have found that even though everyone says they did in legit that they have full bot buffers , healers, all 99.. and GM's let it happen.... now the 10% legit player left in game who never did bot have much ahrder time catching up and will never be as geared as all the ebaying heros and 99's on server now. I am in clan with 3 heros at this time and all 3 ebay and have "alts" farming ect. And they use scripts for pvp every time. GL l2 players... Truth is out there
Well L2 is the game with the smallest revenue from all NC games, something is wrong here.
L2 could have had the legs L1 has but it failed to achieve that and its development team is to blame.
As I said on Rochand, not only I but also other players miss the old world of L2(old leveling zones, catacombs, old quests, etc..).
I'm not aganst upgrades in leveling zones when it comes to improvements in monsters AI, skill set, behavior, etc, but I don't like the idea of destroying a leveling zone by turning it in a high level one, it happened to several zones in L2 for years and as a result, the content from lvl 1 - 85 is so meaningless that they should simply make the character start at lvl 85 upon the creation.
The destruction of several contents in the game also collaborated to the death of the crafting in this game, L2 has a extremely poor crafting and it got worse due to the things I said above and also the reduction of drop rates.
In Lineage 1 for example, developes managed not to destroy any content they created so far, the game still starts at level 1 15 years after its launch and the low level materials -crafting still are as important and meaningful as they were 15 years ago.
Improving the game =/= destroyng it. They could have improved L2 without causing so much damage.
The only thing the classic L2 needed was: balancing classes from lvl 1 and implementing a better and richer crafting system. I can't stand its broken and poor designed classes as well as its poor crafting system(well at least the classic L2 had some crafting, because now it is completelly dead).
In short:
1 - What I miss in old L2:
- Focus on open world, open dungeons, open bosses and few instances;
- Old hunting grounds;
- Old drop rates;
- Catacombs and manor;
- Old quests;
- Old pvp rules;
2 - What I hate in old L2:
- Unbalanced and poor designed classes;
- Boring gameplay: auto attack, auto attack.. or for nukers - using the same spell over and over and sitting on the floor after killing 5 mobs;
- Boring class mechanics;
- Boring buff dependence;
- Boring crafting system(the lack of a proper and rich crafting system with several options as becoming alchemist, engineer, etc..).
Kightofdarkness nailed it when he posted about the broken and boring mechanics in the L2 classic thread:
For a grinder, good gameplay and variety helps to make the grind fun, and it explains why people still find the grind in L1 fun while the grind in L2 is so boring, as a result, L1 still is among the top 10 online games by revenue this year, from January to September, it made 178 million USD:
Who really benefits from a level cap removal? The players or the company that sells exp/sp/drop runes to the players? Before the level cap removal, what happens when a player hits a level cap? The player stops buying runes, and the revenue stream dries up from that player. Smart move, NCSoft. You have kept that carrot alive and beyond the reach of the hamsters at the wheel.
That's exactly it. The original Glory Days idea was that everybody should be at max level, with maxed out skill enchants etc., i.e. everybody more or less the same, and then spend the rest of their days with clan wars. This worked only on Lionel and Teon, with the PvP aficionados later leaving Teon and migrating to Lionel. In the meantime Teon doesn't exist any more, having been merged with two other servers into Sieghardt on June 11.
When in March a poll about whether players wanted more items or easier leveling got a bit out of control, it turned out that the majority of the Korean players is not interested in clan wars at max level but wants a growth perspective, basically the same feeling that Vood describes in his post. So removing the level cap, sending people on an Infinite Odyssey, is indeed for the benefit of the (Korean) players. It's what they want.
Of course there is the financial aspect as well. While our Runes also tick down when the player is not logged in, NCKorea only earns money when people actually play the game, as in "being in non-peace zones". Since Korean players get a 30% exp/SP/drop bonus when they play from an internet cafe, they are less motivated to buy Runes but are content with their normal game time points. So the developers must keep the players playing. Sieges once every two weeks are simply not enough. People must grind every day so that the company has a halfways reliable revenue.
But in an individualistic environment like at NCWest, where there is no direct social control like in Korean internet cafes, "grinding" often equals botting. So Juji establishing a rule of terror, killing off a major number of cheaters, is essential for keeping the legit players motivated to buy Runes in an infinite leveling race. If people have the impression that cheaters can with impunity storm ahead, get the new lvl 101 skills first and become, through the level-difference damage-penalty, de facto invincible at lvl 104, they will simply give up. L2 Store sales will drop and great unhappiness will ensue :D
.... So Juji establishing a rule of terror, killing off a major number of cheaters...
Due to this I back to game ^^ after 7 months.
If he can kick ztools from pvp the game will be more atractive.
But in an individualistic environment like at NCWest, where there is no direct social control like in Korean internet cafes, "grinding" often equals botting. So Juji establishing a rule of terror, killing off a major number of cheaters, is essential for keeping the legit players motivated to buy Runes in an infinite leveling race. If people have the impression that cheaters can with impunity storm ahead, get the new lvl 101 skills first and become, through the level-difference damage-penalty, de facto invincible at lvl 104, they will simply give up. L2 Store sales will drop and great unhappiness will ensue :D
Most ppl in the end game pvp clans will not smash keys night after night for years to come just to level their toons, it's not going to happen. They will bot, and if enough high level main toons get banned you will see the game die, trust me. The revenue NCSoft makes is fueled by ppl trying to make super toons, not from the guy that buys 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month.
I'm sure I'll get flammed by some for the above, but it's the cold hard truth. Taking off the level cap completely is even more foolish than what they did in GOD by raising it 14 levels in a single update. This is meant as just another revenue grab, nothing good will come out of it game balance wise.
Most ppl in the end game pvp clans will not smash keys night after night for years to come just to level their toons, it's not going to happen. They will bot, and if enough high level main toons get banned you will see the game die, trust me. The revenue NCSoft makes is fueled by ppl trying to make super toons, not from the guy that buys 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month.
I'm sure I'll get flammed by some for the above, but it's the cold hard truth. Taking off the level cap completely is even more foolish than what they did in GOD by raising it 14 levels in a single update. This is meant as just another revenue grab, nothing good will come out of it game balance wise.
That is a problem ncwest has created for themselves. They are not making store items that help "everyone". They are making "events", and I use that term VERY loosely, that are designed to do 2 things:
1) Push power players to drop a ton of cash on ncoin.
2) Push normal players to spend moderate to a lot of cash to feed items to power players.
They are wringing a minority of players for the majority of money. Why? Because these are the people that want to WIN, and gain every possible advantage over others that they can, or at the least "keep up" with those at a similar level to them.
Your average player won't drop 8k+ ncoin per event, let alone far more than that. At least not for themselves. I'd imagine the vast majority of people who buy ncoin use it on runes and other similar items, and then try the events a bit before they cash those items out to people spending billions upon billions of adena for them.
That model is unsustainable at all, regardless of banning top level players or not. Eventually the majority will get sick of being wring dry by "events".
NC needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out a more sustainable model that works across a broader set of players. Fishing for whales doesn't work when that population just keeps getting smaller.
The revenue NCSoft makes is fueled by ppl trying to make super toons, not from the guy that buys 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month.
This is an urban legend. Look at the numbers: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=407&start=1350#p28381
NC Interactive aka NCWest makes around 20 million US dollars per fiscal quarter. If we assume that Aion and Lineage 2 are evenly distributed, that would make around 10 million for L2 per quarter or 3 million dollars per month.
Now, how much does a member of an end game PvP clan realistically spend on NCoins (as opposed to e-bayed adena and equipment)? When there are things like the Brooches available, it might be occasionally 1000 dollars, but on average it will be more like 200 dollars per month. Let's be generous and say 300. In other words, it would require 10,000 end game players to generate NCsoft's monthly revenue. Unfortunately there are not 10,000 end game players. NCsoft's revenue is for the overwhelming part generated by the many many guys that buy 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month.
The cold hard truth is that the end game PvP clans are economic nonfactors. Exterminating the vermin will barely make a dent in NCsoft's revenue. Quite the opposite. As you can see from Colorado's post above, killing off the cheaters will bring back a considerable number of guys that buy 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month. And as we have seen, it's those people who pay Juji's salary :p
somehow that lvl cap will still exist ......... evan if lvl cap is removed since lvl of mob is 99/100 max can you tell me how you will get exp to reach more than lvl 109? I mean after 104/105 imo you will start to see absolutely all content with blue on map and beyond that you can not exp properly evan if you don't have lvl cap
Even after they stop updating, dailies and the like will still give XP. So at some point, even after everything has gone dark Blue and no XP, you can still get a bit of XP every day.
Although I'd assume that at some point, they will just make the top level monsters (whatever they wind up being) give xp regardless of how high level you are above them, albeit likely still with some sort of penalty applied.
Years ago i played a game called R.O.H.A.N where they develop an internal store for players, purchasing 15 bucks you had access to it and then you were able to sell your account and/or items or any other stuff like gold for "donation coins" which you can use for w/e you want, internal store or company store...
they got rid of RMT 90% ... they removed the bots 85% and have i have to be honest... i used a lot of real money on that game
Now, we have this problem with L2 where the economy is so shattered that if you are a new player... your chances to get decent gear is so low that people quit game.... Getting a set Seraph in my server, a clean one, is 1 billion adena in a good day... where the adena drop is tops 500 adena at those lvls
NC should implement something to put the economy back in place, how? well... why not implement adena for NCoins? i know is not the best option but... it would help a lot and they will earn a lot of money, of course, be smart and competitive against third illegal sites that sell adena :P
NC should implement something to put the economy back in place, how? well... why not implement adena for NCoins? i know is not the best option but... it would help a lot and they will earn a lot of money, of course, be smart and competitive against third illegal sites that sell adena :P
and what's the difference from what you are say'n with the current situation? with all this events if we consider selling event items bought with ncoins for adena is exactly the same thing with one more step to make between ncoins and adena ... take for example the brooch and jwl for brooch event that was few months ago ...... 20 unopened jwl box with 2000 ncoins from site and shops in aden with wtb each unopened jwl box at 50 kk adena
This is an urban legend. Look at the numbers: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=407&start=1350#p28381
NC Interactive aka NCWest makes around 20 million US dollars per fiscal quarter. If we assume that Aion and Lineage 2 are evenly distributed, that would make around 10 million for L2 per quarter or 3 million dollars per month.
Now, how much does a member of an end game PvP clan realistically spend on NCoins (as opposed to e-bayed adena and equipment)? When there are things like the Brooches available, it might be occasionally 1000 dollars, but on average it will be more like 200 dollars per month. Let's be generous and say 300. In other words, it would require 10,000 end game players to generate NCsoft's monthly revenue. Unfortunately there are not 10,000 end game players. NCsoft's revenue is for the overwhelming part generated by the many many guys that buy 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month.
The cold hard truth is that the end game PvP clans are economic nonfactors. Exterminating the vermin will barely make a dent in NCsoft's revenue. Quite the opposite. As you can see from Colorado's post above, killing off the cheaters will bring back a considerable number of guys that buy 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month. And as we have seen, it's those people who pay Juji's salary :p
You are making assumptions based on Asian Logic and Game Play which has nothing to do realistically with the way the West player base applies their own logic and style of game play to Lineage 2.
Get out of here with the Asian reasoning. It has no place here.
Since I am dealing mostly with Asians in real life, I was assuming that my fairly straightforward English could be understood by everybody, having overlooked that the USA only rank on place 24 in the Programme for International Student Assessment test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment#201 2) as far as reading comprehension is concerned. I sincerely apologize for this erroneous assumption.
I understand that you have problems comprehending longer sentences. What you can do is copy the post you have quoted into an MS Word file. Mark the whole text and increase the font size to 14 pt (you know how to do this, right?). It will also be helpful if you set the line spacing to 2x. Then print out the text. When you follow the lines with your finger and speak out the words loudly, you will maybe realize that there is nothing Asian in NCWest's earnings reports or the money NCWest players spend on the game. There is no "Asian reasoning" in my post at all :)
Most ppl in the end game pvp clans will not smash keys night after night for years to come just to level their toons, it's not going to happen. They will bot, and if enough high level main toons get banned you will see the game die, trust me. The revenue NCSoft makes is fueled by ppl trying to make super toons, not from the guy that buys 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month.
I'm sure I'll get flammed by some for the above, but it's the cold hard truth. Taking off the level cap completely is even more foolish than what they did in GOD by raising it 14 levels in a single update. This is meant as just another revenue grab, nothing good will come out of it game balance wise.
You are making assumptions based on Asian Logic and Game Play which has nothing to do realistically with the way the West player base applies their own logic and style of game play to Lineage 2.
I thought that NCWest and Juji were fully American.
they are killing the game for any legit players that are left... The bots ( which are about 85% of server) will bot to top and big spenders will drop $$ on runes. The legit players will die out... at the end of the day only bots and ncoiners left in game. This is such a great game and it really sucks to see it go this way. Already we are seeing very few exp parties, most just do dailies /raids. And please GM's we are all tired of hearing make a report about offenses. I have made 50+ reports and still the bots are running. And im talking about 85-99 bots. Dont come on server and ban alot of 84 and below toons and talk like you did something. pfft. very poor job, management.
Years ago i played a game called R.O.H.A.N where they develop an internal store for players, purchasing 15 bucks you had access to it and then you were able to sell your account and/or items or any other stuff like gold for "donation coins" which you can use for w/e you want, internal store or company store...
they got rid of RMT 90% ... they removed the bots 85% and have i have to be honest... i used a lot of real money on that game
Now, we have this problem with L2 where the economy is so shattered that if you are a new player... your chances to get decent gear is so low that people quit game.... Getting a set Seraph in my server, a clean one, is 1 billion adena in a good day... where the adena drop is tops 500 adena at those lvls
NC should implement something to put the economy back in place, how? well... why not implement adena for NCoins? i know is not the best option but... it would help a lot and they will earn a lot of money, of course, be smart and competitive against third illegal sites that sell adena :P
Some people never learn... How is it fun to spend enormous amounts of real life cash to buy virtual items so you can say I killed this guy in pvp.
L2 is already almost the same as any big casino... Look at our events.
By 10,000 of these items or you can farm 100 per day on your own.
Go for this Plus 10 shirt.... but how many Plus 10 Shiny shirts out there.
Never mind go for it Bro ..... Break the Bank!!!. IMHO.
The only future this game has is to try and entice 'old' players that once put up with all the ******** to somehow come back....
The only way that is going to happen is by massive game changes and that is never going to happen...
So, keep playing, and some of you keep 'paying' for what might be the 'worst run' MMO in NA history.
The fact that some of you remained amazes me; are you all living at Mama's house in the basement or are just so freakin' bored and sad in real life you would put up with what Lineage 2 is now?
Ipmw = Pussinboots and EyeSS
Cubert = LittleAmmyLee
GG bot of light.
1) Oh cool look, I'm on tv
2) Those aren't my toons, but w/e
3) I'm not crying, I'm just pointing out how this is going to go. Just like I pointed out how the whole F2P scheme would work out (I was dead on right about that too).
This is an urban legend. Look at the numbers: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=407&start=1350#p28381
NC Interactive aka NCWest makes around 20 million US dollars per fiscal quarter. If we assume that Aion and Lineage 2 are evenly distributed, that would make around 10 million for L2 per quarter or 3 million dollars per month.
Now, how much does a member of an end game PvP clan realistically spend on NCoins (as opposed to e-bayed adena and equipment)? When there are things like the Brooches available, it might be occasionally 1000 dollars, but on average it will be more like 200 dollars per month. Let's be generous and say 300. In other words, it would require 10,000 end game players to generate NCsoft's monthly revenue. Unfortunately there are not 10,000 end game players. NCsoft's revenue is for the overwhelming part generated by the many many guys that buy 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month.
The cold hard truth is that the end game PvP clans are economic nonfactors. Exterminating the vermin will barely make a dent in NCsoft's revenue. Quite the opposite. As you can see from Colorado's post above, killing off the cheaters will bring back a considerable number of guys that buy 800 NCoin worth of stuff each month. And as we have seen, it's those people who pay Juji's salary :p
So.. You're saying NCWest is making 3 million USD per month from lineage 2?
Go over your math again, i assure you something is wrong.
Unless you seriously think NCWest have 300.000 people paying $10 per month on our 4 servers?
When you click on the Rochand link in my post you will see that I quoted those numbers from NCsoft's official earnings reports :)
But where that money is actually coming from doesn't really matter. Juji can do the maths himself. All he has to do is add up what all members of Renovatio/Einheit spent in 2013 on NCoins and check how many percent of 38 million dollars (or whatever Lineage 2 generated in 2013) that is. The cold hard truth is that those people are absolutely irrelevant nonfactors. If Juji should on a whim delete the acounts of all Nova members, their demise won't even be noticed among the statistical fluctuations :D
When you click on the Rochand link in my post you will see that I quoted those numbers from NCsoft's official earnings reports :)
But where that money is actually coming from doesn't really matter. Juji can do the maths himself. All he has to do is add up what all members of Renovatio/Einheit spent in 2013 on NCoins and check how many percent of 38 million dollars (or whatever Lineage 2 generated in 2013) that is. The cold hard truth is that those people are absolutely irrelevant nonfactors. If Juji should on a whim delete the acounts of all Nova members, their demise won't even be noticed among the statistical fluctuations :D
Heya Yidao, i just noticed this is your first post without any links in it :eek:
-not even korean link /double :eek::eek:
When you click on the Rochand link in my post you will see that I quoted those numbers from NCsoft's official earnings reports :)
But where that money is actually coming from doesn't really matter. Juji can do the maths himself. All he has to do is add up what all members of Renovatio/Einheit spent in 2013 on NCoins and check how many percent of 38 million dollars (or whatever Lineage 2 generated in 2013) that is. The cold hard truth is that those people are absolutely irrelevant nonfactors. If Juji should on a whim delete the acounts of all Nova members, their demise won't even be noticed among the statistical fluctuations :D
AND WHY STOP THERE?
He can also delete everyone who is botting and scripting in this game and you alone can stand in aden and say okay its finally safe to leave town... lmfao... Good Luck with That.
AND WHY STOP THERE?
He can also delete everyone who is botting and scripting in this game ...
Why not? :)
First kill off Renovatio/Einheit (I chose that example because Retri is ex-Nova), then FuriousSteel, then SilentHorrors, then HouseOfErrants and so on, step by step, always observing how the revenue develops.
Of course it might be more cost-efficient to simply wipe the servers (in modern warfarfe 10% collateral damage is absolutely acceptable), but from an educational point of view it is better to kill people slowly and painfully so that they can watch what's happening, meditate on their wrongdoings and hopefully become better persons in their next life :)
When you click on the Rochand link in my post you will see that I quoted those numbers from NCsoft's official earnings reports :)
But where that money is actually coming from doesn't really matter. Juji can do the maths himself. All he has to do is add up what all members of Renovatio/Einheit spent in 2013 on NCoins and check how many percent of 38 million dollars (or whatever Lineage 2 generated in 2013) that is. The cold hard truth is that those people are absolutely irrelevant nonfactors. If Juji should on a whim delete the acounts of all Nova members, their demise won't even be noticed among the statistical fluctuations :D
Elmar, it's not just one clan. It's a class of players on each server, namely the ones that are trying to seriously compete in pvp. Casual players might buy some runes here and there, and occasionally indulge in a cosmetic or event item sale, but for the most part they're not dropping the crazy money that these other guys are.
Btw, I have to agree with the other posters that something is wrong with the numbers you're citing to. There's no way those numbers are just for L2 in NA.
Elmar, it's not just one clan. It's a class of players on each server, namely the ones that are trying to seriously compete in pvp. Casual players might buy some runes here and there, and occasionally indulge in a cosmetic or event item sale, but for the most part they're not dropping the crazy money that these other guys are.
Btw, I have to agree with the other posters that something is wrong with the numbers you're citing to. There's no way those numbers are just for L2 in NA.
As you can see, NC Interactive aka NCWest made 77 million US dollars in 2013. NCTaiwan, NCJapan etc. are listed separately, as is ArenaNet, which operates the Guild Wars franchise. NCWest runs Aion and Lineage 2, and it was a personal guesstimate of mine that the two games generate approximately the same revenue. It is also possible that some of the revenue is coming from ArenaNet paying back a credit that NCWest might have extended to them for developing Guild Wars 2. But roughly speaking, give or take a million, 3 million US dollars per month for Lineage 2 generated at NCWest should be just about right.
Retri, you are overlooking the "legit" Real Money Trading, people buying event items etc. from the L2 Store and selling them for (botted) adena in-game. If I would have to guess, those 3 million dollars per month are not coming from Runes, not from the Aden Wheel, and definitely not from cosmetics, but for the most part from L2 Store RMT. End game players usually bot their own adena, or buy it from RMT sites, so they do not contribute to NCsoft's revenue in that respect. The trick is in the numbers. On all five NCWest servers together there are maybe 1000 or 2000 players who spend an average of more than 200 dollars per month on NCoins. But there are many many thousands who buy event item packs, beauty shop tickets or whatever can be sold for adena in-game. That's adding up.
Of course you are right, the problem is not specific clans but a certain class of players. But those players, those who are trying to seriously compete in PvP, tend to band together in castle-owning clans. So at the end of the day and from a statistical point of view, it's the clans which are the problem. All the big clans have their own websites and forums where, among other things, 3rd party software usage is discussed. Any legit, non-using member who refuses to take screenshots and turn in his clan mates to the authorities is aiding and abetting the use of 3rd party software. They are all guilty and fully deserve death.
As you have probably read [here (http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1340#p28562)], I personally have no problem with summarily executing whole clans. Under the aspect of social acceptance however, it might be wiser to first eliminate only a few representative players. As you have seen, public reaction to the ban of Martel was mostly positive. The logical next step would be to kill for example DiegoVargas, one of the most outspoken advocates of the play-to-win principle, under some pretext and then see what happens. As I said above, Juji can do the maths himself. How much did Diego spend on NCoins in 2013, and how many percent is that of 38 million dollars? :D
... The logical next step would be to kill for example DiegoVargas, one of the most outspoken advocates of the play-to-win principle, under some pretext and then see what happens. As I said above, Juji can do the maths himself. How much did Diego spend on NCoins in 2013, and how many percent is that of 38 million dollars? :D
I'm from Magmeld, we not have here Martel and Diego but last 2 days here is rumors the one or 3 biggest clan in server (MAX) leader got hammer. Well lets not tall if that is true or not till not official info but we may talk for something what happen before. Diawa (old his char leader of DV) and his hummer (+ petition to unban, to change clan leader etc etc), NCWest know to kick leaders of "pro" clans. Problem is the from one hummer to another hummer run is to much time. ppl lose desire to play. Maybe if NC clean 10-15 best pvp/rtm bots in each server that will "call" new 1000-1500 players who will have desire to buy stuffs form ncShop and Juji and others will be happy. IDK, I just say what may be if ban hammer lend more and harder. Normal players in servers not even see deference if 500 no awake bots get ban but for sure will see deference in clan's group, in Castle owners, in clans politic/ally's if "pro" players get bannana island ticket...
Retri, you are overlooking the "legit" Real Money Trading, people buying event items etc. from the L2 Store and selling them for (botted) adena in-game. If I would have to guess, those 3 million dollars per month are not coming from Runes, not from the Aden Wheel, and definitely not from cosmetics, but for the most part from L2 Store RMT. End game players usually bot their own adena, or buy it from RMT sites, so they do not contribute to NCsoft's revenue in that respect.
This is the flaw in that however. Those players you say "don't contribute" do, in fact, contribute, just by proxy.
Would all that legal, in game, RMT exist to anywhere near that extent if not for these players shelling out billions of adena each to buy items from those who spent the cash to get them?
There are many people on Chronos for instance that don't spend a dime on the NC store themselves... but they are constantly "buying" ncoin and store items from other players.
It's pretty unlikely that, without them, those players would be spending anywhere near as much in the store as they do.
There is no real distinction between someone that spends say, $4kUSD on the NCstore in an event and someone that encourages several players to spend the same amount for them by using in game currency. At the end of the day, both have spurred purchases of equal amounts of ncoin.
There are many people on Chronos for instance that don't spend a dime on the NC store themselves... but they are constantly "buying" ncoin and store items from other players....
True but other true... ppl who have adena and pay with adena to legal RTM question is how they have constant income of adena... one of option is the they have bot groups who farm for them = they pay for drop/xp/sp runes and invest unlegal adena to legal "gift/trade" NC store items. :)
This is the flaw in that however. Those players you say "don't contribute" do, in fact, contribute, just by proxy.
Would all that legal, in game, RMT exist to anywhere near that extent if not for these players shelling out billions of adena each to buy items from those who spent the cash to get them?
There are many people on Chronos for instance that don't spend a dime on the NC store themselves... but they are constantly "buying" ncoin and store items from other players.
It's pretty unlikely that, without them, those players would be spending anywhere near as much in the store as they do.
There is no real distinction between someone that spends say, $4kUSD on the NCstore in an event and someone that encourages several players to spend the same amount for them by using in game currency. At the end of the day, both have spurred purchases of equal amounts of ncoin.
I am in no way approving or endorsing the "legit" Real Money Trading that is going on. In my post above I was just explaining to Retri where NCWest's revenue is mainly coming from :)
But to get back to the original topic, check what Tiferet wrote in her answer to Vood right at the beginning of this thread. Sooner or later, probably around Christmas, the level cap will be removed. This will result first in a race to lvl 101, where you get new skills, then in a never-ending competition to level as high as possible for the damage penalty vs. lower players in PvP.
Bots make use of their Runes 24/7, while a normal player, who plays maybe 4 or 6 hours a day needs five times as many Runes to get to the same level. So if Juji manages to instill sufficient fear in the playerbase that only a small minority dares to bot, he can easily increase the sales of exp Runes and Vitality Potions by the factor 5 as of the next update. This concerns mainly the players who are already playing the game now. If, like Staroto said, cleaning the 10-15 best PvP/RMT bots in each server will lure in 1000-1500 new or returning players, the loss of the few thousand dollars those PvP/RMT bots have spent will be easily compensated :)
If, like Staroto said, cleaning the 10-15 best PvP/RMT bots in each server will lure in 1000-1500 new or returning players, the loss of the few thousand dollars those PvP/RMT bots have spent will be easily compensated :)
That is sadly going to be wishful thinking I imagine. NC never advertises this... and the likelihood of 1k+ old players coming back for any amount of time is pretty slim.
Especially since many people would be like me. "Bans? lets see how long they keep it up". If NC keeps at it and actually keeps things clean up until, and more importantly, awhile after, the new update... then people might give it a chance. But if it's the same old same old... then people will just get frustrated with the shoddy support and take off again.
NC really needs to get on the ball with that and actually promote this game more. A few thousand new players every few months (since not all will stay), shouldn't be that hard with even a modest investment in advertising.
As you can see, NC Interactive aka NCWest made 77 million US dollars in 2013. NCTaiwan, NCJapan etc. are listed separately, as is ArenaNet, which operates the Guild Wars franchise. NCWest runs Aion and Lineage 2, and it was a personal guesstimate of mine that the two games generate approximately the same revenue. It is also possible that some of the revenue is coming from ArenaNet paying back a credit that NCWest might have extended to them for developing Guild Wars 2. But roughly speaking, give or take a million, 3 million US dollars per month for Lineage 2 generated at NCWest should be just about right.
Retri, you are overlooking the "legit" Real Money Trading, people buying event items etc. from the L2 Store and selling them for (botted) adena in-game. If I would have to guess, those 3 million dollars per month are not coming from Runes, not from the Aden Wheel, and definitely not from cosmetics, but for the most part from L2 Store RMT. End game players usually bot their own adena, or buy it from RMT sites, so they do not contribute to NCsoft's revenue in that respect. The trick is in the numbers. On all five NCWest servers together there are maybe 1000 or 2000 players who spend an average of more than 200 dollars per month on NCoins. But there are many many thousands who buy event item packs, beauty shop tickets or whatever can be sold for adena in-game. That's adding up.
Of course you are right, the problem is not specific clans but a certain class of players. But those players, those who are trying to seriously compete in PvP, tend to band together in castle-owning clans. So at the end of the day and from a statistical point of view, it's the clans which are the problem. All the big clans have their own websites and forums where, among other things, 3rd party software usage is discussed. Any legit, non-using member who refuses to take screenshots and turn in his clan mates to the authorities is aiding and abetting the use of 3rd party software. They are all guilty and fully deserve death.
As you have probably read [here (http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1340#p28562)], I personally have no problem with summarily executing whole clans. Under the aspect of social acceptance however, it might be wiser to first eliminate only a few representative players. As you have seen, public reaction to the ban of Martel was mostly positive. The logical next step would be to kill for example DiegoVargas, one of the most outspoken advocates of the play-to-win principle, under some pretext and then see what happens. As I said above, Juji can do the maths himself. How much did Diego spend on NCoins in 2013, and how many percent is that of 38 million dollars? :D
yidao is right, thanks god Im not the only one that think the same, many end-game players have an army of bots making adena for them, then you can read hv wtb ncoins, they dont need to buy ncoins when they have 100's billions of adena, I know ppl claiming they are legits when their whole party uses pvp programs so that make them part of it.
I dont know the criteria gm uses to ban an account, but the recent ban they have made it's a good step, and it brings hope to peaople, they are still many ppl that abuse of this known software, for example Dood XD, there is a thread and somebody that read that, should be able to make the right connection, and get to the master of the pvp scripter (when ego is higher than intelligence).
If the NCwest staff don't continue the good work they are doing till now, there will be more people leaving the game.
so how long will the grind be to level 101? if its double lvl 99->100 which took me a week (about 40-50 hrs) solo dim warp with full ncstore runes/pots, should i expect it taking 2 weeks to lvl 101? presumably faster if I found an aoe party? That would cost a couple hundred dollars. 100 bucks for 200% runes, 200 bucks for erupting pots, 200 bucks for vit maint. so 500 dollars at least for 2 weeks of leveling :(
It shouldn't really take you very long. You will probably do the Honors quest series for the new high-grade Noblesse, where you get not only a good exp reward but also level automatically while killing the many monsters required for the quests: http://lineage2.power.plaync.com/wiki/%EC%9D%B8%ED%94%BC%EB%8B%88%ED%8A%B8+%EC%98%A4%EB% 94%94%EC%84%B8%EC%9D%B4%3A+%EC%97%AC%EC%A0%95%EC%9 D%98+%EC%84%9C%EB%A7%89+%ED%81%B4%EB%9E%98%EC%8A%A 4#hd100896
Since you are already 99/100% and it's apparently much less than double lvl 99->100, you should already be halfway to lvl 101 by the time you have the high-grade Noblesse :)
Some years ago I played a game that had less than 1% of the complexity of L2 but made a lot of money by implementing a few ideas. I will translate them into how they can be put into L2:
1)divide the map into level ranges (somewhat implemented with the lvl restrictions for certain raids instances). I am talking about having Gludio region (towns, hunting zones everything) accessible to any level, Dion to 30+ etc. Have people WANT to go to higher levels (talking especially about difference from 95 > 99 > future 100+) it will also prevent adena spammers in the lvl 85+ zones (or make it much harder for them)
2) make all cities available to all lvl ranges during sieges and after sieges are over, port each toon to the max lvl area they are allowed in
3) implement a lvl 110 cap and alow a lvl 110 toon to reinacarnate into a lvl 1. he will lose all xp (have to lvl up again from 1 to 110) but gain a (let's call it) "star coupon" that will permit the toon to learn an AWESOME skill (something worth xp-ing 110 levers for, ubber nuke, ubber debuf, ubber buff)
This will increase the need for gear at all levels, the need for people to buy ******** of XP runes, the fun of the game at any level, PVP at any level, a more diverse game market (especially by re-introducing full drops)
IMO this would be an update worth implementing
Some years ago I played a game that had less than 1% of the complexity of L2 but made a lot of money by implementing a few ideas. I will translate them into how they can be put into L2:
1)divide the map into level ranges (somewhat implemented with the lvl restrictions for certain raids instances). I am talking about having Gludio region (towns, hunting zones everything) accessible to any level, Dion to 30+ etc. Have people WANT to go to higher levels (talking especially about difference from 95 > 99 > future 100+) it will also prevent adena spammers in the lvl 85+ zones (or make it much harder for them)
2) make all cities available to all lvl ranges during sieges and after sieges are over, port each toon to the max lvl area they are allowed in
3) implement a lvl 110 cap and alow a lvl 110 toon to reinacarnate into a lvl 1. he will lose all xp (have to lvl up again from 1 to 110) but gain a (let's call it) "star coupon" that will permit the toon to learn an AWESOME skill (something worth xp-ing 110 levers for, ubber nuke, ubber debuf, ubber buff)
This will increase the need for gear at all levels, the need for people to buy ******** of XP runes, the fun of the game at any level, PVP at any level, a more diverse game market (especially by re-introducing full drops)
IMO this would be an update worth implementing
Now take all this, translate in Korean and post in Korea forum :D
Some years ago I played a game that had less than 1% of the complexity of L2 but made a lot of money by implementing a few ideas. I will translate them into how they can be put into L2:
1)divide the map into level ranges (somewhat implemented with the lvl restrictions for certain raids instances). I am talking about having Gludio region (towns, hunting zones everything) accessible to any level, Dion to 30+ etc. Have people WANT to go to higher levels (talking especially about difference from 95 > 99 > future 100+) it will also prevent adena spammers in the lvl 85+ zones (or make it much harder for them)
2) make all cities available to all lvl ranges during sieges and after sieges are over, port each toon to the max lvl area they are allowed in
3) implement a lvl 110 cap and alow a lvl 110 toon to reinacarnate into a lvl 1. he will lose all xp (have to lvl up again from 1 to 110) but gain a (let's call it) "star coupon" that will permit the toon to learn an AWESOME skill (something worth xp-ing 110 levers for, ubber nuke, ubber debuf, ubber buff)
This will increase the need for gear at all levels, the need for people to buy ******** of XP runes, the fun of the game at any level, PVP at any level, a more diverse game market (especially by re-introducing full drops)
IMO this would be an update worth implementing
That takes away too much of what l2 is.
An idea I always thought was better.
Do away with all this killing old zones to make them higher.
Make EVERY area in the game empty of mobs other than a few raids, etc.
Make every hunting zone an instance. Not like a kartia instance, but like a dim siege instance.
There will be an NPC in every area that you talk to and you can port into it.
So every single area of the game will have 1-???? monsters according to what level range you pick. All xp/sp/drops/spoils will be adjusted accordingly.
All quest rewards can be switched to a % of something. So instead of a quest in dion giving you 10k XP, it gives you 1% XP.
Any level character can go into any level hunting zone, but quests only drop if you're in the right range and can only be turned in on the level range that did the quest. (To prevent people going on level 40 subs and getting an easy 1% on their high level mains).
That way there are tons of places to go no matter what level you are.
Combine that with the current instanced stuff (Dim warp, kartia, kamas, etc) and you will have tons of places to go forever.
When you click on the Rochand link in my post you will see that I quoted those numbers from NCsoft's official earnings reports :)
But where that money is actually coming from doesn't really matter. Juji can do the maths himself. All he has to do is add up what all members of Renovatio/Einheit spent in 2013 on NCoins and check how many percent of 38 million dollars (or whatever Lineage 2 generated in 2013) that is. The cold hard truth is that those people are absolutely irrelevant nonfactors. If Juji should on a whim delete the acounts of all Nova members, their demise won't even be noticed among the statistical fluctuations :D
It does matter.
First you say the money does not come from end-game content users spending shietload of money, but from $10 a month users.
With your logic, we have 300.000 of them. (ok, had)
But we dont. (didnt)
So the money must come from the cheaters etc, that you say dont spend any money.
With "it doesn't really matter where that money is coming from" I meant that NCsoft gives only numbers for Aion + Lineage 2, not separate for each game. For the sake of the argument I was simply assuming that Aion and Lineage 2 generate more or less the same revenue, i.e. the 77 million can be divided by 2. That may or may not be the case, but it doesn't really matter. After all we are just having a platonic discussion here. It's Juji who has the detailed numbers, both for the game revenue and the amount of money the cheaters are spending. It's him who has to do the maths and decide whether exterminating the vermin will actually increase the revenue of the company :)
I have to agree with Yidao in the NCsoft earnings question.
While I think too, that we haven't currently 300.000 active players.
But it is fact, that way more players use to buy the "800 NCoins" category than the "8.000 NCoins" category.
Lets make some simple calculation like, we have 5 servers on all of it we have like 1-1 rival end game clans who do everything to be the winner side. Lets say all of them has 100-100 members, from this like 20 players per clan who use to spend the "8.000 NCoins" at every event or month and +10 players from every servers who aren't in top clan but enter in this club and share the viewpoints of them.
so in totally they are like 250 players who are together make like 32.000$ in a month this 32.000$ is about the 1,07% of the 3 millions dollar incoming. Even if they would pay 1.000$ per month would be only 250.000$ what is less than 10% of the 3 millions dollars.
But if we looks how much players made quit because of these people from those who spent only 800 NCoins and how much players would come to our servers to play if they would know NCwest did ban the scripters/botters, and these new comers/returners also would pay this 800 NCoins.
While if this 250 cheaters would get ban, there would be probably about 1.000-1.500 players motivated to get the hero rank what before a cheater kept under lock down or get the Ceremony of Chaos hero title.
And those "motivated players" probably would increase the amount of money what they spend to Lineage 2 from this 800 to 1.200 or 1.600 or even higher.
So what currently the NCwest really can do if they really want to make good money try to keep the "fair race" in leveling, in olympiad and in everything.
People talk here about advertise. Maybe most of you know, that probably about the 1-10% of L2 players plays and played this game on official servers if we look all around the world.
So there is exist in totally ten millions of people who know what is Lineage 2 and who can be lured here with good offers and these people can lure here their family, friends, work mates etc.
Before I would get some flame, yes probably never will play here millions of players. But to target and keep 100-500 thousands of player in region it isn't impossible, if the NCwest makes fair service (don't even need advertising).
With "it doesn't really matter where that money is coming from" I meant that NCsoft gives only numbers for Aion + Lineage 2, not separate for each game. For the sake of the argument I was simply assuming that Aion and Lineage 2 generate more or less the same revenue, i.e. the 77 million can be divided by 2. That may or may not be the case, but it doesn't really matter. After all we are just having a platonic discussion here. It's Juji who has the detailed numbers, both for the game revenue and the amount of money the cheaters are spending. It's him who has to do the maths and decide whether exterminating the vermin will actually increase the revenue of the company :)
You realize to meet the revenue requirements you are talking about, if we have 10,000 active players (Spenders) that each of them would need to spend near 3000 a year, right? That puts you far under the desired 38million.
No way the random dudes trying to xp to level 93 are spending 500 dollars a month. They would get burnt out without seeing progress. The middle tier people who achieve xp with those runes possibly. It leaves you with the middle and end game players (Cheates/Ebayers/We else) spending the bulk of the money in this hypothetical situation.
However from personal experience being in a high end clan, I can tell you most my clan mates are not spending 3000 a year, not on ncsoft items at least. That makes up MORE revenue the lower tier people spend, which is absurd. No average person is spending 4,000-5000 a year on this game. Do some math bro :(
You realize to meet the revenue requirements you are talking about, if we have 10,000 active players (Spenders) that each of them would need to spend near 3000 a year, right? That puts you far under the desired 38million.
No way the random dudes trying to xp to level 93 are spending 500 dollars a month. They would get burnt out without seeing progress. The middle tier people who achieve xp with those runes possibly. It leaves you with the middle and end game players (Cheates/Ebayers/We else) spending the bulk of the money in this hypothetical situation.
However from personal experience being in a high end clan, I can tell you most my clan mates are not spending 3000 a year, not on ncsoft items at least. That makes up MORE revenue the lower tier people spend, which is absurd. No average person is spending 4,000-5000 a year on this game. Do some math bro :(
so the middle and end game players are cheaters/ebayers, and top end clans are not right? thats according to your experience in top en clans, insteresting when you say "my clan mates are not spending 3000 a year, not on ncsoft items at least", so where does that money go to? explain plz
Do you realize that your opinion complements what yidao says, top end game players dont buy ncoins.
so the middle and end game players are cheaters/ebayers, and top end clans are not right? thats according to your experience in top en clans, insteresting when you say "my clan mates are not spending 3000 a year, not on ncsoft items at least", so where does that money go to? explain plz
Do you realize that your opinion complements what yidao says, top end game players dont buy ncoins.
Sure, it complements it in one aspect (That end game players don't spend tons of money) It also upsets his idea that lower tier people pay for the bulk of things. Do the math, but no neutrals are spending 4000 dollars a year on this game, defiantly NOT enough to make this revenue bubble hes proposed.
Again, 10,000 people x 3000 dollars a year = 30,000,000 million. Take away the people I proposed, now you've got 9,000 people trying to make up a 38,000,000 million dollar bubble? Its going to be near 4000 dollars a year that the average player spends? Tell me you don't believe that, so I can at least not facepalm.
the 38 million figure wherever it came from is fanciful to the extreme. Lineage 2 global sales for 2013 were round about 52 million ... if our what?7-8000 strong player base are 73% of the Game's global sales they they better get a begging bowl out and do exactly what we want, not what Koreans want, I mean every bean counter will tell you that much no matter how removed they are from the world.
I just think they are "double counting" GW/GW2 revenues, both at the ArenaNET and the NCINteractive level, that's how you get the seemingly "stellar" sales performance.
Sure, it complements it in one aspect (That end game players don't spend tons of money) It also upsets his idea that lower tier people pay for the bulk of things. Do the math, but no neutrals are spending 4000 dollars a year on this game, defiantly NOT enough to make this revenue bubble hes proposed.
Again, 10,000 people x 3000 dollars a year = 30,000,000 million. Take away the people I proposed, now you've got 9,000 people trying to make up a 38,000,000 million dollar bubble? Its going to be near 4000 dollars a year that the average player spends? Tell me you don't believe that, so I can at least not facepalm.
Its not as he proposes it, is all I'm saying.
well he never said how much money each ppl is spending on this game but you.
If you read carefully you can find that he mentioned that NCwest made last year 77 millions, that includes the income from Aion and L2, also was he personal guessing that both game produced similar incomes. It is also possible that some of the revenue is coming from ArenaNet paying back a credit that NCWest might have extended to them for developing Guild Wars 2.
I dont want you to facepalm yourself, so where do you get those numbers? Failing at math?
Take a look at this:
As you can see, NC Interactive aka NCWest made 77 million US dollars in 2013. NCTaiwan, NCJapan etc. are listed separately, as is ArenaNet, which operates the Guild Wars franchise. NCWest runs Aion and Lineage 2, and it was a personal guesstimate of mine that the two games generate approximately the same revenue. It is also possible that some of the revenue is coming from ArenaNet paying back a credit that NCWest might have extended to them for developing Guild Wars 2. But roughly speaking, give or take a million, 3 million US dollars per month for Lineage 2 generated at NCWest should be just about right.
well he never said how much money each ppl is spending on this game but you.
Take a look at this:
Of course he didn't give an individual number, he gave a general population spending number. His math agrees with my math. "But roughly 3million a month should be generated for lineage 2 NCwest"
- 3x12 (12months, in case you don't follow) = 36 Million a year.
Again, that means that "roughly" the 9,000-10,000 active lineage2 spenders are having to spend 3000-4000 USD per year to achieve his numbers.
Its just not happening. Either the earning reports are fudged, or there is some drastic other income coming from somewhere else.
This is the flaw in that however. Those players you say "don't contribute" do, in fact, contribute, just by proxy.
Would all that legal, in game, RMT exist to anywhere near that extent if not for these players shelling out billions of adena each to buy items from those who spent the cash to get them?
There are many people on Chronos for instance that don't spend a dime on the NC store themselves... but they are constantly "buying" ncoin and store items from other players.
It's pretty unlikely that, without them, those players would be spending anywhere near as much in the store as they do.
There is no real distinction between someone that spends say, $4kUSD on the NCstore in an event and someone that encourages several players to spend the same amount for them by using in game currency. At the end of the day, both have spurred purchases of equal amounts of ncoin.
Of course he didn't give an individual number, he gave a general population spending number. His math agrees with my math. "But roughly 3million a month should be generated for lineage 2 NCwest"
- 3x12 (12months, in case you don't follow) = 36 Million a year.
Again, that means that "roughly" the 9,000-10,000 active lineage2 spenders are having to spend 3000-4000 USD per year to achieve his numbers.
Its just not happening. Either the earning reports are fudged, or there is some drastic other income coming from somewhere else.
Still you come with numbers that only you are calculating, no matter where the income of l2 come from. Yidao just refer to the 2013. And he made his explanation based of the 2 games and the credit ncwest could have received.
With "it doesn't really matter where that money is coming from" I meant that NCsoft gives only numbers for Aion + Lineage 2, not separate for each game. For the sake of the argument I was simply assuming that Aion and Lineage 2 generate more or less the same revenue, i.e. the 77 million can be divided by 2. That may or may not be the case, but it doesn't really matter. After all we are just having a platonic discussion here. It's Juji who has the detailed numbers, both for the game revenue and the amount of money the cheaters are spending. It's him who has to do the maths and decide whether exterminating the vermin will actually increase the revenue of the company :)
Okay, true.
And just quickly looking over the picture, L2 had ~15000 sales, Aion had ~25000, not sure if you can calculate it like this, but with those numbers it looks like l2 is 38% of those 77 million, while Aion is 72%
If NCwest want to prolong this games longevity, then they need to address the under lining issues of why this game has gone the route it has gone and start looking to modernize the game for the western market today, not what it was 10 years ago.
The grind for any legit player after level 90 is not insane (it is border line insane) BUT it certainly doesn't fit a western play style today. Not enough dailies to keep players interested or keeping them logged in. Adena drops are pathetic when you look at the cost of soul shots consumed to kill said mobs. Drop rates on items is probably the same as it was back in C3 atm, which isn't helping top up the servers market place. Spoiling doesn't become efficient until after level 97 and you can enter Hellbound at which point, you are regulated by what you can spoil based on what stage Hellbound is in.
This needs to be handled with care though if they adjust any rates what so ever because at the current moment, servers like chromos, the current price for anything worth while is a billion plus adena. If they banhammer the game in to submission, and adjust rates to reflect a legit player population, they need to keep on top of the bans to make sure that the prices don't get jacked to the point where that 1 billion standard cost then becomes 5 billion because they have let the issue run rampant again and the issue is then compounded 10 fold.
Anyways, the game needs to assist players to get to 97 faster. I doubt there is many players out there coughing down XP runes and potions at an accelerated rate to get there in a hurry. My suggestions are as follows:
- Decrease the amount of XP required to level after 85 - 99
- Increase the amount of quests, dailies, repeatable etc. in the ranges of 85 - 99 for solo, group and raid bosses.
- Increase the drop rate of itemization, resources and adena in the ranges of 76 - 99 for solo, group and raid bosses.
- Decrease the cost of Adventure packs, XP runes and Potions in the Ncoin store so that more people have the incentive to want to purchase them.
- Implement more dungeon based group instances and environments so that players want to group up together rather then running 2 or 3 man small parties.
- Allow the newbie buff helper to buff people up too 95.
Not all of these need be implemented, you could implement a few in combination to get a desired out come.
If NCwest took these suggestion to NCsoft, I am sure they would cater to a more modern westernized market by doing so. If they don't take it too NCsoft OR if they do and NCsoft ignore it, kiss this game over for L2 in the western market.
Okay, true.
And just quickly looking over the picture, L2 had ~15000 sales, Aion had ~25000, not sure if you can calculate it like this, but with those numbers it looks like l2 is 38% of those 77 million, while Aion is 72%
^ This
With a company like NCsoft, whos shares are traded at the Korea Exchange, you can take it for granted that the earnings reports are not fudged. That would be equivalent to stock market manipulation and a serious real life crime.
It is possible that NCWest has extended credits to ArenaNet for the development of Guild Wars 2 (that would also explain some of the deficit at NCWest in 2011) which are now being paid back and constitute part of the reported revenue. But I don't think that would be really drastic numbers.
It was simply an erroneous assumption of mine to divide the revenue from Lineage 2 and Aion 50/50. Aion is siginficantly more popular than Lineage 2 in Asia. I am not sure whether the same is valid for NCWest, but assuming a 60/40 or 70/30 ratio in favor of Aion is probably not far off the mark. So let's say that Lineage 2 generates more like 1 or 2 million US dollars per month at NCWest :)
But the other inevitable conclusion is that the average joe is spending significantly more than 10 dollars per month on NCoins. The so-called "whales" are even less important for NCWest's overall income that I originally assumed :D
With a company like NCsoft, whos shares are traded at the Korea Exchange, you can take it for granted that the earnings reports are not fudged. That would be equivalent to stock market manipulation and a serious real life crime.
It is possible that NCWest has extended credits to ArenaNet for the development of Guild Wars 2 (that would also explain some of the deficit at NCWest in 2011) which are now being paid back and constitute part of the reported revenue. But I don't think that would be really drastic numbers.
It was simply an erroneous assumption of mine to divide the revenue from Lineage 2 and Aion 50/50. Aion is siginficantly more popular than Lineage 2 in Asia. I am not sure whether the same is valid for NCWest, but assuming a 60/40 or 70/30 ratio in favor of Aion is probably not far off the mark. So let's say that Lineage 2 generates more like 1 or 2 million US dollars per month at NCWest :)
But the other inevitable conclusion is that the average joe is spending significantly more than 10 dollars per month on NCoins. The so-called "whales" are even less important for NCWest's overall income that I originally assumed :D
Today NC released their earings for the 3rd quarter, Aion sales increased from 18 billion KRW in 2Q14 to 32 billion KRW in 3Q14. Lineage 2 Classic seems to have a not so strong effect in the revenues, in 2Q14 L2 made 13 billion KRW and in 3Q14 it made 14 billion KRW. This 1 billion korean won growth is certainly related to the Classic servers.
While there is still the problem of debuffs and nukes landing on higher level players, PvP does not really look that bleak in Infinite Odyssey. Like Tiferet said, there are no new item series introduced, no R100 equipment or anything like that, also no new Boss Jewelry. So in a halfways cheat-free gaming environment people will have a chance to catch up :)
While there is still the problem of debuffs and nukes landing on higher level players, PvP does not really look that bleak in Infinite Odyssey. Like Tiferet said, there are no new item series introduced, no R100 equipment or anything like that, also no new Boss Jewelry. So in a halfways cheat-free gaming environment people will have a chance to catch up :)
Catching up at what cost though? By losing long term players in the process?
Also, what kind of time frame are you looking at players *catching* up. I am not real sure I want to invest a year+ to get one toon to 99, let alone looking at alts etc.
The game simply needs to modernize its approach to the western market and while it can be perceived that just because its relatively easy to get too 90, that 90 - 99 bracket is just as harsh as it was 9 years ago to level up, unless of course you spend hundreds if not thousands in the cash shop on xp runes/potions, which leads me back to my original point, lowering the cost of these items would make it more appealing for people to buy them.