Editorial
One thing i love about Australia is the fact that the McDonalds restaurants here change their menu. Back in Europe our Macas always remained set with the classic stuff. Just today before i got home i saw a new burger release and it was soooooooo good. So good that i decided to spend the editorial space just to talk about it! I know eating McDonalds isnt always the healthiest choices you can make but DAMN i love me some french fries and a big mac (now a McFeast). Its just one of those guilty pleasures we all have. And besides with life as busy as mine sometimes i really have no choice but to go for a quick snack at McD`s. And its that busy life that prevented me from releasing this issue earlier (+a bug in blogger that prevented me from posting yesterday). Even my steam rating dropped to like 28 minutes per day at some point. And as a gamer watching that average feels like being tortured by the devil. At least i can always play D2N because its possible to do your thing really quick (albeit forfeiting the auto-searches) and go on to do some real life stuff. And the reason i and every hero out there needs to do those real life stuff is because well....they pay the bills. But the times are hard. . . . people are broke and out of a job and D2N has always been an expensive game. . . . .
Yours Azmael
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DOWN WITH THE ECONOMY
I love games. I have been a gamer since a kid and almost from the very begining of the gaming industry itself. Which is why im so naturally good at games, because i as a gamer evolved with the industry itself. From Mario to Call of Duty and World of Warcraft ive seen and done it all. I have also always played some kind of a browser game. I usually play one altho now with Facebook and its casual Zunga games i have found myself sometimes spending couple of minutes building up my City in CityVille but being the gamer i am i go for the max profits and points and ignore the fact that my town looks incredibly boring. One thing with browser games however is that even tho they are 95% of the time free they always have this premium content that gives the edge to those who are willing to pay. And in some cases that edge is an overpowered advantage that some rich players exploit in an attempt to dominate the game. And i dont blame them i mean hey if they got the $$$ to spend on the game good on them. But times have changed. Since the recession in 2008 the world has been in a pretty bad shape. Normal folks are having harder and harder time finding a job and paying their bills. And for gamers lack of money means lack of gaming which means....well . . . its kind of like an addiction and gamers hate it when they cant play their favorite games. Die2Nite has always been an expensive game. And a big part of the player base made it very clear that they think the prices are too high. Usually people dont look at the big picture of premium content pricing in games such as D2N. It takes less than 1$ per day to play the game for a month as a hero but usually what people do is just fix on that set number on the buy page. Still for a browser game 17$ is not cheap i mean some normal desktop games have subscrition fees like that. But it was all good until . . . until the world economy got fucked AGAIN. The US credit rating was downgraded and the americans are having an increasingly hard time fixing their economy. Europe has some major issues aswell. Spain, Italy and Greece are in some deep trouble. Germany has had people on half day shifts just to prevent people from losing their jobs.
So with all these issues at large perhaps it is a good time to rethink the pricing of D2N? When people dont have money they spend more time at home and on the computer thus playing more games or watching more porn. But still when those same people are on a budget even 17$ seems like a big deal. And this is why a slight reduction in the pricing of the HERO mode might not be such a bad idea. Just 1 or 2$ can make a huge difference in the decision of a player whether to buy or not. Another solution can be to increase the hero days. Instead of a 1,3,6 months it can be increased to like 45 days/5months and 9 months. Or maybe Motion Twin could include weekly sales at random times when buying hero days is cheaper. When people have limited amount of money salesmen need to be extra creative in their attempts to get the consumers money. Increasing the days given doesnt take away anything from MT its virtual item for real money its a win situation. And with bonuses like this some new customers might be brought on board.
The times are hard and its good to remember that 15$ is better than no $ at all.
POLL RESULTS
Here the results from last weeks poll:
Should the SearchTower Remain a Blueprint?
Absolutely NOT! It gives unfair advantage to lucky towns! -29 (48%)
Yes but the architect study should be easier to build! -17 (28% )
Yes it makes the game more competitive. -14 (23%)
So pretty clear results here. It seems almost half the voters agree that the SearchTower being a blueprint is too unbalanced. Will this and all the world forum threads tip off Motion Twin to take action? Only time will tell.
And for this weeks poll:
Should buying HERO days become cheaper or the day bonus increased?
Dont forget to vote after you finish reading.
FORUM WATCH
The Forum watch is the Heralds summary of what has been going on in the world forums. We pick some of the more interesting threads on the World Forums and bring it to the attention of everyone. This idea was suggested by tamle who we suspect used his ties with the chief editor to get this into the paper.
* Suggestion Tracker *
WARNING: This thread may contain some spoilers of content found in die2nite!
by packersfan250
This is a very curious thread that aims to keep all the current suggestions gathered together in a nice and tidy list. He is also scoring each suggestion based on players opinions. But even if a suggestion has a low rating if you like it say so. A bad idea from last month may seem much better now.
We`d also like to point out that packersfan250 is going to update the thread once every saturday so dont go and spam his thread with questions like when is the list going to be updated. It takes alot of time to gather all the info and sort it out so dont rush him.
* Mega Meta Jump *
by Annette
With the recent changes to the jump mechanics alot of the high level meta-coalitions have been thinking of ways to partially go around the town limits. The Mega Meta Jump (MMJ) thread aims to help willing players to organise and do a massive random joining in order to get as many experianced players as possible in each town. The jumps usually happen couple of hours after the zombie attack in order to avoid the initial wave of players looking for towns. If you are looking for some more serious towns with serious players you should keep an eye on that thread. There alot of towns still alive from the last jump but the Herald reckons in 5-6 days they will start dying off so be vigilant and always check in to see whats going on.
* Anything Odd Lately? *
by Whisperinthedark
A very curious thread albeit not really viral at this point. Have you experienced anything strange in the game since the last update? 4 buildings next to each other? 50 kills with the machette or maybe couple of players were talking about pink pants and naked pillow fights in your town forum? Check out the thread and share it with us.
GOSSIP
@Workshop has something very nice in store for the rest of us. He is keeping his lips and ass shut tight but we have seen him going to the office of our chief-editor and something is brewing we just cant quite figure it out yet. But whatever it is it must be good because Azmael has been walking around the office with a weird smile on his face that we have not seen on his face since he made out with those 2 blonde girls from Sweden.
@Sense the organiser of the Wonderfull Failure jump is planning another coup d`etat? One of our sources claims that he is planning another meatlocker gallore and that the poor rookies in his town will be the first to go. Is this how the meta-coalitions will deal with the meta cap, just kill all the noobs? We`ll keep you posted.
@People have been complaining about issue with the War Camera. But we got a confirmation from Motion Twin that they are aware of the situation and are hard at work on fixing it. So dont worry people noone has wasted their money. But dont forget that the camera still wont save you from a poison vial or the gallows.
Interviewing a Space Marine
*dislmaimer*
All players must agree to the terms and conditions of our interview policies. No interviews will be hold or published without the consent of the player. The Die2Nite Herald holds no responsibility for what might happen to the players image. Everybody should mind their words.
D2N Herald Q: Hello Skarvald thank you for joining us today. Now we must ask you. . . . are you a relative to Torvald the viking from Entourage?
Skarvald A: Surprisingly enough I haven't even seen Entourage. So that would be a no. Neither am I a relative to Sigvald from the Warhammer Fantasy epos. The name came to me from a World of Warcraft boss encounter in one of the Northrend dungeons.
D2N Herald Q: Let us guess....you were a dwarf?
Skarvald A: I was. However, my name was Blunderbooze. Blunderbooze the dwarven hunter. Can you believe that it took me 6 hours to come up with that name? Six hours of sitting in front of the character creation screen.. But then I finally got it. It was punny, it was funny and sounded like a true dwaven name. To me, coming up with a cool name is 80% of the character creation process in any system.
D2N Herald Q: Yes a good name is crucial for any game. We all had those SexyBoy89 nicknames as kids and it never got us any respect or girls. Now tell us Skarvald how did a WoW player ended up fighting for his life in a zombie game? It is a huge change of pace.
Skarvald A: First of all - not a huge zombie fan. I know.. I'm weird. It has to do with my general dislike for horror movies. It is the general post-apocalyptic/survival vibe that is often an inevitable part of any zombie outbreak. I love roleplaying a character's survival, especially in modern times when we can finally use some modern everyday knowledge. My first zombie game was actually "Urban Dead" which is a very simple browser game with classes to choose from... sort of like Die2nite. I really liked some of the roleyplaying options in it - you start alone in a random building or on the street and it is your responsibility and choice if you want to survive as a human or if you want to turn into a zombie. There was also a part where you could describe your character for the rest of the world to see, including gear, clothes. It was all words, of course.. but it made a difference.
Second - it was a friend of mine that got me into Die2nite. I was reluctant at first, but then I quickly fell in love with the surviving aspect of the game.
D2N Herald Q: So besides the roleplaying possibilities what else attracted you to the game? What are your favorite mechanics?
Skarvald A: Easily the part where you HAVE to work as a team. I have yet to find a game in which team-work is so important to the game. After a few failed towns me and my buddy slowly started to accumulate a few followers and with them we used to talk on Skype for hours - from discussing what buildings and upgrades to do to the crazy expeditions.. I really enjoy helping others and the game even allows you to do that as well. My first games were as a Guardian and man did it feel good to not give a single fuck when there were a bunch of zombies in my way, especially when I had a squishie Scavenger following me. Expeditions are a lot of fun and when they are done right it feels like you actually accomplished something. For a simple browser game, the amount of fun and accomplishment that you can get out of it can compare to some of the mainstream MMORPGs out there. WoW, I'm looking at you and your grindfest of a gameplay. Die2Nite is also awesome because all you have to do to contribute and enjoy the game is to log in once a day for a few minutes. It's all you have to do to save the day."
D2N Herald Q: yes but there is always someone who wont log-in and just takes up a citizen slot in each town. And we all know how easily those few minutes turn into an hour or two. Now you sound like a guy who loved D2N but inspecting your soul we are noticing that after a single town in S2 you stopped playing. What happened were the updates not to your taste?
Skarvald A: On the contrary, I loved S2 and the Tamer class. It was an annoying job and a few other things (I play Warhammer 40,000 a lot and it was Adepticon time) got in the way. It's true that you only need to log in for a few minutes a day, but for me it was all about logging in on Skype to talk with my friends and discuss strategies. Unfotunately at that time our group was experiencing some major drama, which eventually lead to a lot of people splitting ways. From then on I kind of failed to keep in touch, despite the pestering of my friend.
D2N Herald Q: yes the greatest enemy of every gamer - REAL LIFE!!! Nevertheless you are a veteran from S1 and the game was so much different back in those days. So Skarvald share with us some funny or weird stories from your past.
 |
| According to Skarvald, Nyah is still on the run from PETA hired assassins! |
Skarvald A: Well, remember that screenshot I sent you of me killing a bunch of zombies with my huge snake and my pussy cat? That was pretty epic.Or when that chick killed what was it.. 8...9.. 10 zombies in a row with a cat? I even have that screen shot!!! Also playing doctor and having so many Twinoids that I didn't have a place to store them. Other than that I can't really think of anything too epic. I'd say that doing an expedition with 8 or more people at a time as an epic adventure of itself no matter what you find. Though those two times when I picked up the RP envelopes when you had full inventory were also pretty darn epic.
D2N Herald Q: Oh dear killing zombies with cats? Thats animal cruelty it is! We should introduce you to insubordenate you guys will make great friends. And last but not least, dish out some words of wisdom to those of our readers that are just starting out their career as zombie survivalists.
Skarvald A: Aim for the head and always double-tap.... But seriously - this is a social game. Don't be a loner. A Bulgarian proverb states that united allies can lift a mountain. Invite your friends and together you may not die2nite.
D2N Herald Q: Indeed games are best experianced with your friends. Listen to him eople and start sending links to your mates and get them to join you. That way you can all have fun dying together. Skarvald thank you so much for your time. We are happy that you are back in the game and wish you the best of luck in your future towns.
Skarvald A: Until next time, burn some heretics, kill some mutants, and do it always.... FOR THE EMPEROR!
*Skarvald is from Europe but now lives in the United States. He loves to talk but no one dared interrupt a 8 foot tall covered in power armor guy who can kill you with a cat!
At The End Of The Day
This issue was delayed couple of times due to real life scheduling conflicts and a blogger maintenance but its finally here and we will even sell it with a discount and all our subscribers will receive a free darts poster with the Crow`s face on it.
I have some pretty awesome things in the works. Big THANKS to all the readers and thank you for the amazing support.
No comments:
Post a Comment