Due to the restrictions that are coming on warlight for normal players i just wanted to see off.

Several things i'm doing now will be no more available for me (like changing the luck affect, using templates on multi-player-games or even create games with 7 or more players).

Also (of course) i'm stopping making new maps. It's a bit pity that i worked on a big map with over 550 territories for a couple of dozen hours and it's nearly done but that is bad luck for both sides (and with the new limitations i even couldn't test my map as it has been created for).

So after 3 month with about 300games i enjoyd (mostly), a good winning-percentage and no boot i want to say thank you and good bye!

Restrictions?!?

Just read in the blog something about a "Freemium" model: paying community members can use more features of warlight. But i dunno if thats coming in the new release.

...Or just pay 30$US and you get all of those features and more. That amount is only a weeks worth of coffee (if you go to Starbucks) and the membership is good for life.

Oh, yes, I see now. Well if Randy is currently paying $300 a month out of pocket then I'd say it's only fair, and that's not even considering the time he has invested in creating it in the first place.

Metal, if you played 300 games and spent an hour on each, that means that a lifetime warlight payment of $30 = 10 cents per hour of entertainment, which is truly a steal, though I guess it depends on what the conversion rate is between your own country's currency and USD.

The link explains it all:

http://blog.warlight.net/index.php/2011/02/announcing-the-warlight-1-0-launch-saturday-february-19th/

Yes, there are limitations for non-members, but members will get all the features we love (changing luck, creating tournaments, etc) and all the new ones (Ladder, Statistics page)

It does bear understanding that the global nature of the warlight players means that $30 could well be a severe and basically unsurmountable obstacle. For instance, I found information that said that the average yearly salary in Poland is about 800 PLN (Zloty). $30 USD is 86PLN, so the warlight payment would be equal to just under 11% of the average Pole's yearly salary, which if you made $50k USD every year would be tantamount to paying %5,500.

Just figured I'd put that into perspective so we can be more understanding of those who might be able to afford it :)

Err, wish I could edit my messages here.. should be $5,500, and "so we can be more understandin of those who might NOT be able to afford it"

Maybe it's time to lay off the coffee... :/

I'm sure you are not alone Metaltubbie and it's a shame that Warlight will lose some valued members. Try to keep in mind that Warlight is the product of one individual, Fizzer. He has spent countless hours creating Warlight and thousands of dollars hosting it. I know it was a hard decision for him but something had to change or Warlight would be no more.

Thirty bucks is more than some can afford, no question, but it is a very reasonable price for a lifetime membership. In fact it is probably too low and I hope Fizzer takes in enough to keep things going around here. The good news is folks who can pay the $30 are able to invite their non-paying friends to fully customized games.

I should also mention, for those who don't read the blog, Warlight will still be available for free. The only features not available to free members which are currently present are the ability to change luck in games and the ability to create games with more than 5 players.

Fizzer has also indicated a monthly fee may be available later which might be more agreeable to you.

I hope you change your mind and hang around!

No reason WL couldn't price itself differently in different markets. Fizz should check with Amazon payments if they can process payments originating from certain countries at different rates without making those rates available to buyers in other countries. Seeing as it's Amazon, you'd think they could.

$30 is a very reasonable price point in the US/CAN/UK, but it should scale based on relative buying power in other countries.

Incidentally --the $300/mo. hosting fee is only one small fixed cost for Fizz. There's also his labor and everyone who has worked with him behind the scene's labor. Cost of forming an LLC, taxes, computer equipment and software, advertising, PR, marketing, administration, professional fees, travel, etc. Amazon's vig off the top. Hopefully lawyer/accountant to review all this activity. etc. etc.

I hope the site ramps up to $5K to $10K per month very quickly. 160-320 new members a month strikes me as doable. Frankly WL would do better with a lower monthly payment model and a "free" trial whereby you pay and can cancel within a week. Fizz has it kind of backwards in that he assumes knowledge and interest in the premium version will occur based on the trial sufficient to get people tofork over the $30. MUCH easier to get them to fork it over if its refundable (because the buyer could cancel if they hate it) or get them to pay a lower amount on a monthly subscription model, cancellable at any time effective at the end of the month (i.e. no prorata refunds).

It's also much easier to promote an ostensibly free product than a limited version with a fee to play the real thing.

There's also the cost of scaling Wl to accomidate significant increases in traffic should it grow. We tolerate slow downs and outages becuase it's beta and free. But with revenue comes responsilities too. Paying players might demand more or complain (or leave). Every new player could potentially bring in many more -- leagues should be a high priority feature.

along with better social networking functionality (a open game chatroom taht is a link to offsite freewhere is where this should be leading).

Another good idea for devoted players like metaltubbie might be to offer a number of free memberships for rendering services to WL:

Sign up 5 people and you're in for free.
Make it a prize for winning a ladder competition
Or a weekly tournament (set to experience levels (1-100 games, less than 3 months on WL)
Build a map that gets incorporated into the game (or if there a lot of these a monthly best map competition)
Moderate the chat room
Get 30 new nonpaying members to open accounts in one month and complete a game.

Now that WL has a valuable item to offer (i.e. a membership), it shoudl use it to promote itself and gvie the real ambassadors of the game like Metaltubbie a chance to get a premium membership just by advocating the site to others.

Hi, I have an idea for those who might be unable to afford the fee's.
See, I'll have the $30, but as someone said with the conversion rate it would suck for some.
So, why don't we see how things go, and those of the people who cannot afford it, why don't we have a pot, and those who have maybe an extra $5 put some in every now and then, and those who put money in, can vote to have peoples membership paid for.
I'd do it, and those who help pay for other people could say have something by their info, to say they are a warlight contributor, not just a paid member.

I know I have been a douche, but I do enjoy warlight, and would like to see it progress, with everyone involved.

And it means moneys going into it, which is important. I like Dukes last comment also.

Basically the worst case scenerio is losing players who really like WL and would otherwise get all their friends to play it. WL has survived and prospered on word of mouth exclusively. Losing that element woudl really be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I'm not crazy about the charity aspect (has a lot of potential to turn people off), but a twist on Illmerica's idea would be to permit players to buy memberships as gifts for somebody else (priced on a monthly or lifetime basis). I coudl see an anonymous gift or sponsor idea as well, but that should reallly only come in to play if WL isn't turning a profit. It shouldn't be necessary to turn to donations if the site is doing well.

Yes, but I aint gunna pay a ful $30 to see metaltubble join, I have the money to join myself but not loads, lol.
If their were people brought to my attention who had played alot, loved the site, played good games but didn't have the money, I'd chip in with a few others to give that guy membership and yet still be contributing so some people don't feel like they've paid and yet others can get in for free. Things still need to be paid for, if everyone could still be a full member without contributing people would choose those routes primarily to paying.

"along with better social networking functionality (an open game chatroom that is NOT a link to offsite freewhere is where this should be leading)."

There should've been a NOT in there.