There’s a major update to WarLight coming! And it’s going to be awesome!
WarLight will soon be upgraded to 2.0, which will be the biggest update to the game since 1.0 released over two years ago.
A big part of 2.0 will be the official release of the mobile client, which will allow playing from iOS and Android devices. However, the mobile client is not the only thing coming in 2.0 — there will also be changes and improvements to the website.
One of these changes is that the site will start showing advertisements to non-members. I’ve never been a huge fan of advertisements, but this change is unfortunately necessary. WarLight has, so far, never been able to be profitable under the membership revenue model, and at some point that needs to change. The site costs over $1,000 every month just to keep the servers running, and less than 5% of players purchase a membership.
By showing ads to non-members it provides two paths that players can take: You can either purchase the game (i.e. a membership), or play for free and see ads. I intend for the ads to be as unobtrusive as possible.
Along with this change, there will be ways for non-paying players to gain access to many of the features that are restricted to members today. More details on this will be announced later.
In the end, I believe that most non-members will be happy with the new WarLight, as they’re going to be getting a lot more from the game than they are now.
Stay tuned to the blog for more information about what else is coming in 2.0!
Version 2.0? That is great, I’ve been waiting for it.
I’m happy that the mobile clients will be finished. I would like to be able to play WL without having to take a Laptop or PC, I hope it will all work as it should 😀
To bad that the site costs you so much and is not yet profitable for you. If adds are the best way to solve this (they obvious are) then it is ok, it is very good of you that you will give some back to non-members so they get something back for the adds 😀
I hope I’m able to buy a membership soon and help you a bit, as that is the best way I can help you i think.
Anyways, thanks a lot for the game and all the effort. Keep on doing this great job 😀
Nice, I am intrigued by these ‘ways that non members can access membership features.’ But don’t get to carried away Fizzer, last thing you want to do is to make membership not worth buying…
Nice, Randy!
I wish all the success to Warlight. I think this is the right way to go, because ads aren’t obtrusive when well placed.
There will be new features to members? But just to take note, I bought the membership to 1. help the site and 2. be able to create games with tons of players, in this order.
Long live to Warlight, the best Risk game out there!
Glad to see the updates. I think you’re more than justified for putting ads in Warlight, even for those of us who have bought membership. I would suggest having ads for all users, but removing the ones on the “Singleplayer” and “Multiplayer” tabs for ‘Members’, but of course that’s just me.
Congrats on getting the new features and platforms done, and thanks for all the hard work, time, money, and support you put into Warlight.
This update looks (as you put it) awesome!!
The non-members being able to access some member features is a great way to keep new players coming; as long as it doesn’t detract from buying a membership good job!
I think the adverts are a great idea (especially as you are going to try and make them unobtrusive as possible). I hope you can profit from this website; it’s the least you deserve.
Once again, thanks for everything you put into WarLight. This game is fast becoming the main reason I use my computer 😀
wow. I can survive some ads here and there
the only thing, I want for non-membership (me in other words), is statistic and android (mobile)
Do we have a specific date for the release of WarLight 2.0? A countdown on the homepage and perhaps a live stream of Fizzer explaining what’s changed would be great 🙂
As soon as it’s ready — I’m working towards it as fast as I can. But I can’t predict it well enough for a countdown or prediction.
That’s fine; thanks again Fizzer.
If you need it for the costs of the servers, ads are okay. Just tell us if you get more for it, when we click on it and i think many will do so.
I’m hoping that non-members will be able to create tournaments on their own made maps!
Only on them, that’s enough. Otherwhise i fear a flood of poor tournaments.
And maybe the open-tournaments-page gets a thumbnail which map is played.
You should lower the price, If the game was $10 dollars USD, I know, all my friends and I would love to purchase it.
If it’s easy to implement, could members get an option to /also/ (voluntarily) view ads? Just to help out a little more. I know at least one other (big) site which has had such an option for years; I’m confident they know what they’re doing and it’s apparently worth it.
Yes, members will be able to control whether they see ads or not. Part of the reason is because I want to subject myself to ads to ensure they aren’t too obtrusive or annoying, and I play under a member account.
Does opting for adverts generate extra income for you? If so I’m sure many (including myself) would be happy to see ads.
no, he’s just putting the ads for non-members as a punishment, it doesn’t actually make any money for him.
sarcasm aside, this was by far the best strategic game i ever played, thanks a lot for the time you spent on this (not so much for the time i spent on it :P), fantastic game 😀
i wish you the best of luck, even though i’ve stopped now i’m still recommending it to people (although i’m far too lazy to give them the wierd link that’ll give me credit and that looks like a virus)
Do you know what the different updates you are going to do to Warlight?
Fizzer needs that 20 extra dollars to keep the WL servers running.
Sorry, I meant to respond to Nikokin…..
But alot more people would be willing to buy it.
But even at $30 (nearly £20 for me) the game is very good value. Many other games offer extra features when you become a paying ‘member’ but they charge per month or per year. Some games will give you membership for six months at the same price Fizzer offers membership for free. IMHO, the price is more than fair; it’s a bargain.
“one of the reasons Fizzer has given for not lowering the membership fee (and he repeated it many times) is the big overhead on payments. Unless something changed at the payment providers (I don’t keep track, so actually, it might’ve) I don’t think “micro transactions” are very likely.” (Thanks for that RvW)
If it was a very good value, more than 5% of the players would own it. I buy most of my games on steam for $10 or less. This is one of the games I play the most, but I don’t own it because of the excessive price.
Steam (I don’t have an account so can’t speak in detail about it) may have some games which are good, but I don’t think they are like WarLight. I believe Steam games are just ‘games’. Games that don’t have an extra tier of ‘membership’ (I may be wrong here). Games like Power Soccer and Superstar Racing offer an extra tier (much like in WarLight, many players feel they can’t play with just the basic settings) for something like $30 dollars per year (I plucked this figure out of the air, but to get membership for even a year would probably cost $30+) – WarLight offers a life membership for the same price.
Also, the second point (which I quoted from RvW on the forums) is a less debatable reason – no elaboration needed there.
Also, XBox live is around $50/year, and that’s not a game, just the ability to play multiplayer online
If you’re going to put ads into the game, please don’t have ads with ridiculously small “close” buttons.
I’ll try, but that’s not directly under my control.
Great idea with adverts,i won’t mind having to see adverts especially when the game is free and i won’t mind if adverts even show when the game loads things.However i have not seen any adverts yet so i don’t know where the adverts will be so i can click on them.
Hey, I hope it is not to late (I hope you have already made this change), but if you haven’t please do: Vacations should be an amount of days (like 50 days or less if you want) and not just 5 times max 10 days. If I go away for a weekend then I don’t want to lose 1\5 of my vacations. (The uservoice for this is around 60 votes I believe)
Cool stuff! I cannot wait for the update. Do you have any idea when it will be finished?
Also, you should seriously consider moving the game off of flash and onto HTML 5. It’ll put much less stress on your servers and more on the clients themselves. The future is HTML 5 anyway. Just my two cents.
Keep up the good work!
can not wait for season 2.0 … thx ! can we know when is it going to release ?
I hope you can buy a membership from the iPhone app.. 😉
Can’t wait!!!
So are we any closer to having a relative release date for al 2.0? Is mid August early September too early or like sometime in the fall? I hope its soon cause I cant chat on my kindle. 🙂
thx for all the hard work fizz
I don’t have enough money for a membership, but loooove the site. I won’t mind the ads at all. Hope you make lots of money from it!!!!
This introduction can be negated by some using ad blocker.
Awesome