I think we all agree that the game needs as many monthly subscribers as possible. More members -> More revenue -> More money for servers and development -> Faster load times and more goodies for everyone -> Better game Right now what you get for $10 a month is more loot, which is doubleplus good, especially if you work fulltime and you're too old to stay up all night playing computer games. (If you're a teenager and you're reading this, you'll get there too one day...) What would be is a bit extra spice for members. Something just a bit more grinding won't get you. This could come in a super special awesome Card Hunter Membership Letter that you can open when you log in for the first time in a given month. So, what could this be? For example, this month, the letter could have contained one or two of the special Halloween items for free. Here are some other ideas: * An exclusive member figurine (for example, this month could have been a spiced up version of the female human Wizard as Halloween witch) * A free legendary item (A divine weapon with 2x Nimble Strike, 2x Nimbus and 2x Unholy Power for everyone!) * Free poetry by Melvelous the Magnificent ("Dashing through the Firestorm...") * 30 days early access to new maps, adventure modules and features (a.k.a. we love the game so we pay to beta test) * Custom forum titles * Ninja Turtles as exclusive player race! * Customizable text color in MP chat! * The exclusive 2014 Card Hunter Cosplay Calendar (Karen and her identical twin sister in a Slave Leia pillow fight? ... Maybe you shouldn't let Gary pick) (Note: Some of the above are obvious jokes.)
I think shortening the path to the epic chest in PvP for club members would be a nice incentive that might get more people to join the club.
I have a one-month club membership that will expire in a week or so. Honestly, I will not renew the membership afterward unless Card Hunter improves the values and offerings of the membership. At this point the membership does not offer enough value that is worth $10 a month, and the game interface still has too many problems that need to be addressed. I suppose it is a good value for someone who plays a lot of hours and opens a lot of chests every day. For casual players who just want to play a game or two every day or every other day, or skip playing during weekends to go out and have fun, the membership seems like a bad deal. The membership is geared towards people who play a lot so it is worth the $10. I would rather spend $10 for around 200 "keys" or "lockpicks" that unlock the membership-slot chest items, (instead of having unlimited access to the membership slot in a month.) That would be a better deal for casual players who only want to play just a few times a week and do not want to feel pressured to play as many games as possible every day after paying for the membership.
What if, Card Hunter had a server browser that listed player-hosted custom maps & campaigns, and only Members can host, though anyone can play. If it works out, it'd be the perfect system to adapt towards player GM's, of course that too would be Members only.
@Bobi: That's a business model where only the DMs pay. Not what an MBA would recommend. KT Chong has a very good point: Many of the members will be casual players like him or me. People who don't mind spending $10 or $20 on a game each month, but only if they feel that there is a value in that. Many of us have jobs and families so at best, you can play 1-2 adventures a day, maybe 3-4 times a week. It's just not possible to play every day, so the 24 hour counters will often pass unused. That's 5-10 chests a day or maybe 50 a week at best. Club membership means that you get 5-10 extra items. Still, even in a month of play, you'd maybe get one legendary from a chest, that's it. Here's a suggestion to support casual gamers. It's a bonus that you'll get only a few times per day. Everybody gets the bonus, so it's fair, but if you play more than that it will make less of a difference. (Runescape has something similar) It's a counter set at 100 maximum. Each time you open a chest in MP or SP, the counter is reduced by two. Every day during refresh, the counter goes up by 20. The counter increases the chance to find items of each category except common by X%. So on your first chest a day, the chances for each item category are doubled. After that, the bonus decreases by 2% for each chest you open. (Pizza-paid chests always get the full bonus)
Here is my proposal: Let paying customers spend $10 on two options: (a) the current one-month club membership, or (b) a certain amounts of "keys" or "lockpicks" that unlock the club-membership chest slot. For people who play a lot, then option (a) would be a better deal. They pay $10 a month and can enjoy have the "all you can eat" buffet. For people who play casually, like a few times a day or a week, then option (b) would be a better deal. They can buy a certain amounts of "keys" or "lockpicks", like 250 keys/lockpicks or so. Each key or lockpick unlocks one club-membership chest slot. That way, they can play at their leisure pace, and do not feel that spending $10 a month on a membership that they do not use enough is a waste of money. I am using using the 250 as an example. I am assuming: (a) if someone wins 6 multiplayer matches/chests a day to open the the first 3 gold chests, he will open 6x30 = 180 chests in a month. (b) if someone wins 11 matches/chests a day to open the first 4 gold chests, he will open 11x30 = 330 chests in a month. So 250 is a good middle ground between 180 and 330. The 250 keys/lockpicks are not enough for someone to reach the purple chest every day in a month. They are not even enough for someone to get 11 chests (or 4 gold chests) every day. People who want to play that much should pay for the club membership. However, for people who want to play about 10 matches a day (and assuming he wins 80% of the time,) or people who play mostly on weekdays but not on weekends or vice versa, then the $10 "250 key/lockpick bundle" is a better alternative to the club membership.
I do think that club membership is most useful when you're just starting to play as you want to accumulate as many new items as you can (the extra figurines are a nice bonus for sure). In time when you have alot of duplicates, even of many rares and some epics, you may find the membership less useful. If this sentiment is shared by most club members and BM will see a drop in membership as time passes I believe they will change it, it is a key part of the business model after all. Very likely that an extra incentive will increase the number of club members and will motivate more members to extend their membership if not buy longer memberships in the first place for better value. Some of the suggestions here are very nice and can really make the numbers of members rise drastically I feel.
There are two problems with club membership : It is not worthwile to grind without club membership(you have between 50% and 66% item drop rate, unless you highly value junk). It is not worth getting membership if you don't plan to play a lot in a given month. I'd rather be able to purchase a lifetime club membership so that I don't have to look at my organizer to see whether it will be "worthwile" or not a given month. Even worse, quests and treasure hunts are something you should not do with the current system if you don't want club membership now, but might want to pay for club membership at a future time, as you'd "waste" these opportunities for good loot, so considering to pay for club in the future makes you play the SP portion of the game less now, which is pretty awkward.
