Semi-Premium/Speed Game Improvements

by **Luvr** on Sat May 01, 2010 6:02 pm

Concise description:

A monthly membership option for a low price (~$5?) that allows speed games and more game slots but not unlimited.
Add a link at the top (Similar to the new "Tournaments" link) that links directly to all speed games awaiting players.

This will improve the following aspects of the site:

Possibly get more people playing speed games, less wait time for them to start.
Lets people get a taste of premium without committing much money for a yearly membership.

by **anonymus** on Sat May 01, 2010 6:58 pm

Luvr wrote:Concise description:
A monthly membership option for a low price (~$5?) that allows speed games and more game slots but not unlimited.
Add a link at the top (Similar to the new "Tournaments" link) that links directly to all speed games awaiting players.

This will improve the following aspects of the site:
Possibly get more people playing speed games, less wait time for them to start.
Lets people get a taste of premium without committing much money for a yearly membership.

so this cheap alternative would actually pan out with the player paying 35 usd more per year than the "expensive" yearly one? and you still dont got all the benefits.. AND you have to go through the hassle of finding your CC (creditcard) every month if you want to keep playing on CC (y'all know what this means)..

speedgames-tab might be a good option though..

by **Baron Von PWN** on Sun May 02, 2010 9:07 pm

anonymus wrote:
Luvr wrote:Concise description:
A monthly membership option for a low price (~$5?) that allows speed games and more game slots but not unlimited.
Add a link at the top (Similar to the new "Tournaments" link) that links directly to all speed games awaiting players.

This will improve the following aspects of the site:
Possibly get more people playing speed games, less wait time for them to start.
Lets people get a taste of premium without committing much money for a yearly membership.

so this cheap alternative would actually pan out with the player paying 35 usd more per year than the "expensive" yearly one? and you still dont got all the benefits.. AND you have to go through the hassle of finding your CC (creditcard) every month if you want to keep playing on CC (y'all know what this means)..

speedgames-tab might be a good option though..

Of course premium would be a better buy, the Semi-premium would be meant to give people an idea of what the full package is like without paying for a full year.

by **Luvr** on Mon May 03, 2010 1:26 am

And I'm not going to go about deciding prices for them, just an estimate/suggestion... And like Von Pwn said, if it's a worse deal then people might decide to just get the full premium. And you could have an auto-renew for the monthly plan...

by **JoshyBoy** on Wed May 05, 2010 3:13 am

An interesting suggestion, and I'm sure that there have been other threads suggesting trial/partial premium membership. I'm not a computer whizz so I'm not sure how much work this would take implement this or whether or not lack wants to give this option. If you set out exactly what you are looking for from this proposal and get a more concrete idea, it could go a little further. What price would you set? How many games slots would you allocate? Some features would still have to be locked surely? Like I said, I'm sure this sort of suggestion has come up before, so I'll have a look around. In the meantime, anything you guys would like to feedback?

Cheers, JB

by **SirSebstar** on Wed May 05, 2010 7:14 am

I wish to add that lack has commented on that he does not want auto renewal plans for cc. you buy in conciously, or not. That might mean this plan, like many simular plans will likely not make it as a suggestion.

still is another much suggested suggestion, and i dont think its really wrong to keep reminding the staff that some people are really looking for this

by **Luvr** on Sun May 09, 2010 2:32 pm

There's no need for an auto-renewal. The real point of this is to give freemiums a taste of premium speed games and more game slots. If they enjoy it they will realize $5/month is more than $25/year and switch over. I would suggest 10 game slots and speed games allowed. There's not too much point in putting many more restrictions on the semi-premium considering they pay more per year anyway. I would like to see a link under Game Menu that just says Speed Games and takes you to all Awaiting Speed Games. This makes it easier for regs to refresh and for new people to find them and get interested or hooked on those. I'd like to see the games takes less time to start and for more variety/options if more people are playing them.

by **TheForgivenOne** on Sun May 09, 2010 5:16 pm

Hasn't CC Given Freemiums the taste of Speed games with the Specials that came out, like the Hallow'd Hallows one?

by **Luvr** on Sun May 09, 2010 8:58 pm

TheForgivenOne wrote:Hasn't CC Given Freemiums the taste of Speed games with the Specials that came out, like the Hallow'd Hallows one?

No idea, I've been gone for 1.5ish years and just came back a couple weeks ago.

by **AgentSmith88** on Sun May 09, 2010 10:31 pm

TheForgivenOne wrote:Hasn't CC Given Freemiums the taste of Speed games with the Specials that came out, like the Hallow'd Hallows one?

Around Halloween there are speed games for freemies on Halloween Hallows.

This idea is not bad at all. I would say that many players would rather pay for a month of premium to try it out. Those who like it would probably pay for a full year. My guess is the majority of those who would pay for a month of premium are probably freemies, so the site would make more money.

If 1 month is too hard to do maybe in 3 month increments?

by **Queen_Herpes** on Sun May 09, 2010 10:42 pm

I think a lot of United States teachers would buy this for the summer. Most are locked out of CC at the schools by a DNS filter. I know my spouse has tried to play from the school site and wasn't able to access CC. I've also met a few teachers on here who play at nighttime. Perhaps they will buy into a one month or three month premium for the summer?

by **Hornet95** on Tue May 11, 2010 10:31 pm

I would also argue for the

3 month trial membership
20 full-turn games
unlimited speed games
$9.00 per quarter.

Reasons:
- It costs money to accept a credit card - typically about $1 in fees for $9 collected. $8 x 4 = $32 per year, which is about $8 more per year than they are collecting now.
- Speed games have a natural limit - You can only play 2 to 4 at a time.
- Winter lasts about 3 months. Summer break lasts about 3 months.
- I just came off premium in early April. I loaded up with 68 games at that time. Currently, I'm at 11 games. For less than 1 year runs, we have to limit the number of games so that we don't have people paying for 3 months and getting 4 months of multiple games.