Pay to make groups or clans?

[PlayLOLPlayEON]

Topic please.

[Sureiya]

Do you want to suggest that for the devs to make more money?
Or are you just asking if it will cost money or not?

IMO creating a clan shouldn't cost money, and it probably won't.
There could be certain cosmetic clan extra features that do, though.

[Hadus]

Do you want to suggest that for the devs to make more money?
Or are you just asking if it will cost money or not?

IMO creating a clan shouldn't cost money, and it probably won't.
There could be certain cosmetic clan extra features that do, though.

Actually, clans would be an excellent source of income for Trion, and I don't think it's unfair at all. Formal clans are not essential to playing the game. There are plenty of ways to manage a clan outside of the game anyway. If Trion were to add their own intergated clan system and charge for it, I would be fine with this.

Here's how I imagine it could work (all $$$ are arbitrary numbers):

- The main game is F2P (duh)
- To create a clan is initially free; players get a one-month "starter service", with a cap on the number of players but all other features available. This is to allow the clan to grow before charging.
- After one month (or before then), the clan leader must pay for the service. They can opt for a one-time payment of $20 or a $3 a month option. The payment system will allow other clan members to contribute if they desire; thus if you have over 20 players in a clan (not unrealistic), they could pay $1 each for a permanent clan, or take turns paying the $3 fee.
- If, after a few months of paying monthly, the clan wants to become permanent, it can use the monthly payments as part of the one-time fee. For example, a clan that has payed monthly for 3 months (so $9), would only have to pay $11 more to become permanent.
- If a clan surpasses a benchmark number of members (lets say 100? I'm not familiar with the average size of MMORTS clans), the fee will increase. Monthly clans will simply see a mark up in the monthly fee. Permanent clans will either have to pay a second one-time fee or switch to a new monthly fee.
- To prevent abuse of the free service, after using up the one month trial, players will not be able to create (or join) another free starter clan for 3 months.
- Transferring ownership of a clan is free, but the former owner does not get any money back.

If you consider this system, I think it could be good for both Trion and the community. For Trion, it's a good source of income. For the players, it means a more structured, organized, yet accessible clan environment, for a few reasons:
1. The month trial means that the initial risk of creating a clan is nothing, and players can feel free to attempt forming a clan without worry. If it works out, they'll likely want to pay to keep it going. If it doesn't they don't lose a dime.
2. Requiring payment means that the clans that do become official will be more serious, since they've invested not just time but money into making this clan work.
3. If the clan is tentative and uncertain of its future, it can pay by month, while if it's got a consistent active playerbase it can pay a one-time fee and exist forever. Even if a permanent clan dissolves, the
4. The increased fee for large clans is fair because more players are making use of the service, and is offset by a larger pool of members who can help pay.
5. Now Players will be able to easily find what they are looking for. Those looking for a well-established, active clan can look at official ones. Those looking to join a smaller, lesser-known clan can look at starter clans.
6. The fee will prevent an onslaught of "here one day, gone the next" clans, which can be frustrating for players. The limit of one starter clan per 3 months will help limit the number of junk clans.


The key is making a worthwhile clan system for players to use. Clans should get their own chat room, message system, member ranking and organization system, and features that facititate group matchmaking and clan wars. If it's good enough, I think it will work for everyone.

[Einharjar]

Paying to form a clan would seriously send a negative signal to most (as in average) players and impede the social aspect of the game. Clans are going to be huge in this game via PVP laddering due to it's extensive team work requirements. I don't even think there is such thing as a 1v1 on here. PUGs will be insane, thus clans being a more organized and some what, required form of play once you've gotten your feet wet.

I do think added clan services could be a good and fair way to them to add to the cash flow. I certainly don't have any ideas but... I guess refer to other MMOs for Clan functions that you could charge for. Since it's so popular (sorry Trion) lets have a look at World of Warcraft clans. It's powered by an achievement system and a leveling system. Why not have some of those clan perks? Be simply bought. (shrugs)

The trick is to not add such services to make or break the game balance. For examples? A perk where the clan playing for one team get's extra cash from captured resources points because they bought a 5 dollar Perk for their members. Not exactly fair in PVP. However A boosted leveling perk of some kind would seem fine. We'd have to get really creative on things of this nature.

[Fritz]

i think founding clans is wanted by the developers, because clanbuilding is taking part in the community.
make users pay (even little amounts) for that is counterproductive.

but if you had to pay for clans Hadus' proposal would be fine for me...

[Myll Erik]

Just so we are clear - we are not doing this currently.

[EMPstrike]

Anything involving "perks" be veeeeery careful with. A game i played for years, being certainly popular amongst its niche group, i saw almost go down in flames due to just a rumor of this nature.


cosmetic things, clan advertisements (on the website or wherever)

The above idea of leveling faster wouldnt cause an imbalance, and would certainly be purchased, especially people who are leveling alts.

allowing the designing of your own tank skins with purchase (even if its a little higher than buying normal skins) i think would be very popular among established players

[Hadus]

Paying to form a clan would seriously send a negative signal to most (as in average) players and impede the social aspect of the game. Clans are going to be huge in this game via PVP laddering due to it's extensive team work requirements. I don't even think there is such thing as a 1v1 on here. PUGs will be insane, thus clans being a more organized and some what, required form of play once you've gotten your feet wet.

I do think added clan services could be a good and fair way to them to add to the cash flow. I certainly don't have any ideas but... I guess refer to other MMOs for Clan functions that you could charge for. Since it's so popular (sorry Trion) lets have a look at World of Warcraft clans. It's powered by an achievement system and a leveling system. Why not have some of those clan perks? Be simply bought. (shrugs)

The trick is to not add such services to make or break the game balance. For examples? A perk where the clan playing for one team get's extra cash from captured resources points because they bought a 5 dollar Perk for their members. Not exactly fair in PVP. However A boosted leveling perk of some kind would seem fine. We'd have to get really creative on things of this nature.

I think what it will come down to is what each clan wants to use the system for. If a clan is formed simply as a way to find friendly players to team up with, then yeah, it could probably be free as it's pretty much just a shared friends list. But clans that want to set up wars, assign a heirarchy, and perform lots of other actions, could pay a small fee. Thing is, I can't think of too many other features one can offer in a clan system at this point.