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SPS Accounts Priced Too High?

Discussion in 'Sorcerous Sundries' started by Taluntain, May 14, 2013.

?

How do you feel about the site supporter account pricing?

  1. The prices are fine, no need to change anything

    3 vote(s)
    25.0%
  2. The prices are fine, but you should run a reduced pricing special from time to time

    4 vote(s)
    33.3%
  3. The prices are slightly too high

    2 vote(s)
    16.7%
  4. The prices are moderately too high

    2 vote(s)
    16.7%
  5. The prices are considerably too high

    1 vote(s)
    8.3%
  6. I would never donate no matter what the pricing was

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. Tarrasque

    Tarrasque Whoever said Paladins had to be charismatic? ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Certainly I've never considered the perks of the SPS account to be worth it, but then I've never got the SPS account due to the perks.

    I got it because I've been coming back here for nearly a decade and wanted to give something back.
     
  2. Arctic Daishi Gems: 6/31
    Latest gem: Jasper


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    It's not free though, ultimately someone has to pay for it. It costs money to keep the lights on.
     
    Bladezuez likes this.
  3. Deathmage

    Deathmage Arrr! Veteran

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    I’ve been wanting to say this for a while, and this seems like a good place to do it.

    Tal, SP is great. It’s perhaps the best community I’ve ever been to. There are no spam, no trolls, and everyone is genuinely helpful and kind. The reason I keep coming back – and the reason everyone seems to keep coming back – is for the community, the people, the memories. I can honestly say SP changed my life. I’ve managed to make friends from here and have wonderful cross-continental meetings with them in real life (Octara, Eze, Aikanaro; I may be meeting Loreseeker in the not-too-distant future). Winning people’s loyalty is maybe the hardest thing on an internet forum and you’ve done that. Look at this thread – there are people willing to give you money not for any benefits, but just because they love this site. That’s freaking amazing, and the reputation is well-deserved (what the community did for Kitrax’s family and Octara’s wheelchair comes to mind).

    But the problem is, the site and forum are outdated. Forgive me for being blunt, but every time I come back here, I find some new, useless, tacky gimmick. Last time it was the achievements and the ridiculous “XP” system – I have no idea how it works and I doubt anyone cares about it (besides, doesn’t post count and tiers mean the same thing?). This time it’s this ridiculous “Likes” thing you can apparently do on posts now. What the hell is this, Facebook? And isn’t giving reputation the exact same concept?. Forums are about PEOPLE. The longtimers aren’t gonna care about these new little gimmicks and the newcomers won’t join because you have them. They’re just distracting. Look at reddit, look at imgur – all you have is a username and karma (which does nothing). Simple, but it works.

    And another thing – the number of forums. I have to press the page down key eight times to reach the bottom of the main page. Do we really still need separate pages for SoA and ToB? Or even IWD1 and IWD2? Do we need the Sensorium and Techno-Magic when people can just use Whatnots? Sure, once upon a time when the forums were bustling it may have been necessary, but now that there isn’t that much activity, isn’t it better to consolidate and streamline? I can imagine, to newcomers, the amount of forums would be pretty daunting.

    With Torment 2 and Project Eternity on the horizon, SP definitely still has a niche on the internet – a place for intelligent gamers to discuss things without being trolled by annoying 14 year olds (like yours truly). But there needs to be changes, and we need to try to absorb new, intelligent members to the community.

    Just my two cents.
     
    Lantus and Bladezuez like this.
  4. Silvery

    Silvery I won't pretend to be your friend coz I'm just not ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran

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    I'm not going to like that because the irony may well kill me.

    Another thing (which I have said before) is that people are doing a LOT of console gaming now. There is the big focus on PC games, and yes that's what this site used to be all about, but people are using desk top PC's less and less and switching to consoles. Skyrim and Dragon Age (amongst others) are coming out for the Playstation and Xbox because their developers have realised that they need to move with the times and they'll get a wider audience by adapting to consoles as well. I know that there's a forum on here for consoles but that's ONE forum for a whole group while we have single forums for everything else.

    There is a definite need to update/modernise this place and move with the times
     
    Bladezuez and Deathmage like this.
  5. Deathmage

    Deathmage Arrr! Veteran

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    I decided to like your post for that delicious double-irony. Mwahahaha.

    To add to what Silvery is saying, I think we need to have new game focuses, but I also don't think it's a good idea to pander to what people want blindly and throw up new forums just because. There's already dedicated sites for discussing Warcraft or Starcraft; we don't need to jump on the bandwagon unless it will actually attract new thoughtful discussion.
     
    Silvery likes this.
  6. Silvery

    Silvery I won't pretend to be your friend coz I'm just not ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran

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    Absolutely, adding two dozen new forums would just kill things. I meant that there should be an equal emphasis on all gaming, not just PC stuff. Not every game needs an individual forum, as you said, it's a pain in the arse!
     
  7. Morgoroth

    Morgoroth Just because I happen to have tentacles, it doesn'

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    For me personally it has nothing to do with the costs anymore at this point. It's mostly about usage. SP is not anymore the useful resource it used to be. I don't play computer games like I used to and for most new games there are frankly more up to date resources with more content (the age of wiki).

    While I do appreciate the site and its history. And it has been an important resource in the past, it's not that anymore. The forums are certainly less active than they used to and while I write on them occasionally it's not really enough for me to find a reason to renew my SPS account.

    So I guess at the moment I wouldn't donate no matter what the price was.
     
  8. Gaear

    Gaear ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful

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    I know the purpose of this thread is not to debate this and that, but I'll just state for the record that I like the 'Like' thingie and the number of forums. I've always had the impression that fewer forums and/or fuzzier lines between them is 'dumbing down' a message board, and I always figured that SP types were a bit more sophisticated than the typical teenager who can't process a page with more than 7 different pieces of data without getting confused and losing interest and wandering off.

    So fewer forums, ala -

    GENERAL - discuss anything not game-related here!
    GAMING - discuss anything game-related here!

    would be pretty dumb IMO. Do you really want Baldur's Gate threads mixed in with Skyrim threads, and political rage threads mixed in with funny video threads? :D
     
  9. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    And out of curiosity, I notice I don't have my SPS status restored yet - is there a step I'm missing here?
     
  10. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    As a guess, the step you're missing is to consider you're not worthy no matter how much you paid... ;) :lol:
     
  11. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Thanks for the compliments first. ;)

    I actually agree with a big part of your criticism. The achievements mod is actually pretty standard on most gaming sites so I assumed it'd be a good fit for us, but people don't really seem to care much for it in general. The aim is to reward people for posting though and any little nudge in that direction that the mod can provide is welcome, since that is a rather big issue here. I don't think it really detracts from anything overall, but it would be no big loss if we only kept the awards bit.

    I don't agree with you on the Likes though - I feel it's been a very welcome addition and has, if anything, increased the level of connection and community interaction. There were a number of posts that people didn't feel needed a short thanks/like response in the past, but giving feedback via a press of a button is very easy and makes people less likely to feel that they're posting in a feedback-less void if no one responds to their post.

    Likes are also an integral part of XenForo, which is the forum software that we'll be switching to in the near future. I know from experience that it works very well there. I like the concept of Reputation, but liking is easier and more immediate so perhaps better. Hard to say since the concepts are somewhat different so it boils down mostly to personal preference, but the fact is that XenForo has a likes system and not reputation, so that takes a lot of overthinking about what's better out of the equation.

    And like it or not, forums are competing with Facebook for the same users' time and attention, so taking one thing that Facebook does well and applying it to forums (likes) seems to me a small price to pay for staying current.

    Personally, I hate reddit - it's a half-assed quasi-forum script with even basic formatting functions missing so IMO about as usable as cardboard toilet paper. I have no interest or desire in copying something I find almost unusable myself. Less can certainly be better in some cases, but I don't feel that reddit is a good example of that. But again, this is my opinion, YMMV.

    As far as the number of forums goes, I'll likely be merging some less-used ones, but certainly not those for major games covered on the site like IWD1, IWD2 etc. The SoA and ToB ones are also separate for a very good reason - namely the fact that ToB introduced a whole slew of features, issues and bugs that SoA-only games don't experience, so having them coupled together would be confusing at best.

    I'm not really keen on consolidating non-game forums just because there's less traffic now since that'd result in one big container forum... I'd certainly like to make it easier to make the more widely used forums more accessible, though.

    As for attracting new members goes, that really is the biggest challenge today. The fact of the matter is, every game has its own forums and wikis today and they're always the first stop for more than 90% of the gamers seeking information or help with a game, which is the role that SP has been fulfilling for years before the wikis came along and before every game developer had decent official forums. But we've discussed this issue at length in another thread - suffice it to say, the golden days of fansites like Sorcerer's Place are not likely coming back.

    Actually, those forums aren't really PC-only... any game like Skyrim that has both the PC and console version can be freely discussed in the main forum. The Playground is simply for games that don't have their own forums here. I think the issue is more in the fact that most of the games covered on SP were traditionally PC-only... so console gamers rather hang around sites with the focus on titles that were never released on the PC.

    There are quite a lot of console gamers here as well, but they rarely discuss any console titles. Any other reason besides the one I mentioned above?

    Can't really argue with that. There's too much focus on the old stuff and little to no interest in keeping up with the latest games or providing content for them by any of our regular contributors. Pretty much all the volunteer work is done on the wikis and it's impossible to compete with a resource that is being expanded and updated 24/7 by hundreds of fans from all over the world.
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2013
  12. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Sorry, didn't renew it yet given the likely chance that I'll be adjusting the prices and don't want you to get less SPS time just because you donated a few days earlier. But I've renewed your access now, I'll just extend it in case of a price change.
     
  13. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    :thumb: Thanks Tal!
     
    Taluntain likes this.
  14. Old One

    Old One The Old Warrior ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    I have to say I am about to load a "Master " collection that has BG 1 & 2, both Icewind Dales, Elemental Evil and the Torment games. Where will I go for mods and additions if not here?
    I have often been help by Tal and others here who have taken their time and sometimes a lot of effort when I asked for help. I pay to suport this site because as other have said "it is the best". I live on the minimum social security amount (a hair more than 7000 a year) and do not consider $35 a year to help keep this site up and running a large amount. Remember, you get what you, or someone else pay/pays for. It's well worth paid membership.
     
    Bladezuez and Taluntain like this.
  15. T2Bruno

    T2Bruno The only source of knowledge is experience Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I've been supporting SP for a while now (but not quite long enough for "distinguished") and will for the foreseeable future. If you want to give us a good SPS account bonus negotiate a GOG discount for members -- I've bought a bunch of games from GOG (and they'd better be paying you for them) and have only gone there through SP. You'd think they could give an incentive for your members.
     
    Bladezuez and Taluntain like this.
  16. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    That's a cool idea, just not likely to happen I'm afraid... GOG has hundreds if not thousands of affiliate sites like SP and if they offered it to us, eventually everyone would want it. There's also a whole slew of technical issues with implementing something like that (since they'd need constant access to our SPS members database for verification) and we don't bring in anywhere near enough traffic for them to consider something like that.

    Some kind of raffle for GOG games, however... that might be possible. I'll check with the GOG guys. ;)
     
    Old One, Montresor and Bladezuez like this.
  17. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    We need more threads like this one. It's been one of the most popular discussions for a while.
     
    Bladezuez likes this.
  18. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Feel free to start more if you've got any ideas or suggestions to discuss... that's what this forum is for. If there was more community involvement with the site beyond what me and the staff and our regular contributors are doing, it'd only be beneficial.
     
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