Early Enrollment for PATHFINDER Online Opens Today!

You can now sign up for early enrollment for Pathfinder Online! For $100 you get three months of play and various early enroller perks; plus you get in before the Open Enrollment starts in 2016 and get to establish settlements and be part of the growing economy. "The River Kingdoms are being crowdforged by the first players in the world. This is a chance to shape the world you will inhabit."

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[Feeroper]

I supported this via the KS when it was offered. One thing that was a bit unclear in the KS is that the Early Enrollment in the Beta,(which is what is starting NOW), counts against game time purchased. So, in effect, they are charging folks to Beta test the game. Even logging in to verify the game installed correctly starts the clock on your 1st month of time, according to the Early Enrollment announcement sent out a couple of days ago. Something to consider when deciding on this one.

Oh wow really? I did not realize this. I also backed the KS. Yikes, I'm not pleased with that. Oh well, if I find it to be unreasonable, I guess Ill just not play it. On the other hand if its really good, maybe it will be worth it. Either way, the game shouldn't count until the game is done and out of beta.

 

[trancejeremy]

Gamers encompass various demographics. There are plenty of very comfortably off gamers out there!

That's actually how F2P games make money - they target "whales", people willing to spend huge amounts of money on games.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

The pricing seems awful but compared to what most F2P models are doing right now it's not that shocking (there was a premium buy-in for Neverwinter Online that was about $250 iirc, for example). Hell, I spent close to $100 just this week on various sales at Marvel Heroes 2015 (yeah I might be a whale). The problem is that the tagline for what you get with Pathfinder Online seems to imply a subscription model as well as a microtransaction model.....this is not normal, and most gamers tend to react negatively to a game which tries to gouge on both ends.

The other issue is that this is much closer to a "Steam Early Access" setup right now where you get to pay them to be a beta (or even Alpha) tester, rather than experience a finished game. I suggest that anyone who wants to play a final product may want to hold off on Pathfinder Online for another year or so until or if they announce that they leave the beta test stage and go gold.

EDIT: Two more bits I just discovered by going over to the PO site for Goblinworks....first, it does look like the game is in ALPHA stage now and is moving to BETA in January, if I undertand their subscription details correctly. You can wait until February, pay only $50 and join at that time, too, although the $50 only covers one month of subscription access.

Second....have they released any newer videos? The newest one on sight is the same thing they promised backers for the Kickstarter, a Q4 video that's at least...what....a year out of date now?

 

[Sonny]

Impressive given that it doesn't launch until 2016! I imagine the mass market hasn't even heard of it yet. I'd assume some advertising will take place in a year or so.

It's had two kickstarters, and the poll is on a site that caters to MMO fans, people there know of it. Heck, it's been covered enough there: http://massively.joystiq.com/tag/pathfinder-online/

These are the people that are going to be evangelizing the next great MMO to the mass market and on forums around the internet, they're just going to be saving their praise and excitement for other MMOs unless Pathfinder can do something truly unique and capitalize on it.

 

[Morrus]

It's had two kickstarters, and the poll is on a site that caters to MMO fans, people there know of it. Heck, it's been covered enough there: http://massively.joystiq.com/tag/pathfinder-online/

These are the people that are going to be evangelizing the next great MMO to the mass market and on forums around the internet, they're just going to be saving their praise and excitement for other MMOs unless Pathfinder can do something truly unique and capitalize on it.

I think you missed my point. It was included in a 2015 poll, but it doesn't release until 2016. Wrong year. Hopefully it'll be advertised heavily before the anticipated games of 2016 poll.

 

[Evenglare]

I'm not sure how much of a (video)gamer you are Morrus, but games are hyped YEARS before they are released. For example Final Fantasy XV has been in development since 2006ish SINCE that announcement it regularly comes up as a conversation piece. We can look back at Zelda, The Last Guardian, Kingdom Hearts 3, Halo, Everquest Next, Guild Wars 1 and 2, World of Warcraft Expansions, Starcraft 2, Diablo3.... etc etc. These games are announced several years before they came out and are constantly talked about. When games are announced they should generate buzz... and this... this just doesn't.

Gamers not talking about this game is a bad sign. Most don't even know it exists and if they do it's in the back of their mind. I simply can't see how this game is going to be any kind of success especially comparing it to other MMOs that are leagues better and better known. Many of those games have tanked hard. The Elder Scrolls online, there are legions of ES fans and the game is failing hard. Wildstar is a superb game but it just doesn't have the numbers to keep it afloat. Star Wars The Old Republic went down hard forcing it to move to a free to play model (look up a term called TORtanic).

These are games that have had millions of dollars backing them and they aren't doing too well despite how well known they are. The MMO market is tough for sure. If your game isn't pristine its going to fail hard. They should have been pushing advertising as soon as this thing got funded, but they didn't and it's not hard to see why. The game is barren, it feels generic in every sense of the word. It looks like they went to a site and downloaded public domain textures and slapped them on the game. The worst offender is that the animations are seriously unforgivable.

I legitimately feel bad for the developers for what they are about to unleash. The game is going to get ripped apart by gamers (video gamers). I can only imagine the most loyal pathfinder fans are going to be interested in this and that's simply not going to be enough for them especially since the game doesn't actually map to the Pathfinder RPG. It's in name only, no mechanics from the tabletop game are actually used. I can't see this being lucrative in any way.

Who knows though, I might be completely wrong. It might be a AAA game that rivals world of warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV.

 

[Grimstaff]

There has to be more to this game than the previews reveal. I mean it looks like you basically walk around a flat green space and hit other players? Or you can drop a couple hundred bucks and build a house in the flat green space? Is this genuinely sub-90's Neverwinter Nights quality or am I totally missing something?

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

There has to be more to this game than the previews reveal. I mean it looks like you basically walk around a flat green space and hit other players? Or you can drop a couple hundred bucks and build a house in the flat green space? Is this genuinely sub-90's Neverwinter Nights quality or am I totally missing something?

You can also kill monsters.

 

[Malshotfirst]

I backed the KS, so they got my initial money. What I got in return is a pile of hot mess with ZERO indication as to how to even play the damn thing. It's a lifeless, dead world with one or two players randomly running around and statue NPC's. When creating a character you cant even rotate the model to see what the damn hair looks like. It doesnt help that the dwarves (my favorite race) look like obese garden gnomes. Maybe in four years it will be something playable but right now its far from it.

 

[DragonBelow]

Did you see you can become tavern owner for $5000, that's a bargain!