scullyangel Posted:

Man, I don’t want to discourage a payment option, but personal experience in my business – checks and money orders are easy as having access to a laser printer, and even when they are real if they bounce the bank tends to charge the person cashing the thing a fee.

If a person can go somewhere to get a money order there is no legitimate reason they can’t get a Visa gift card. Almost every major mega store (think WalMart) sells them.

Just to give another point of view, we get quite a few money orders from my e-business, and have never had a problem with them. And if something were to happen you could always ban the account. There might be a couple of people who would commit criminal fraud to play Forumwarz, but it can’t be that many. On another note, I see seen prepaid ccs at the big drug store chains here in the states quite a bit (CVS, Walgreens)

enire Posted:

I’m all for the pre-ordering, too. Plus, I imagine it would be advantageous for your servers to not have everyone rushing to buy ep. 2 at the same moment. (TBH, I know little to nothing about that kind of thing; it just seems intuitive that it would work that way).

Since our payment is handled by Paypal right now, too many people buying it at once is not a big problem.

I am a bit worried about tens of thousands of people trying to play Episode 2 at once when it’s released though. We might have to rent some extra servers to handle the load.

TUBSWEETIE Posted:

Yes please. It would be a real turn-off to most people if after reluctantly opening their wallets they’re slapped in the face with monstrous load times.

Unfortunately, there is only so much we can do if that happens Log in to see images!

Even big sites can’t take a hoard of users like that. We’ll do our best though, and as in the past we’ll compensate with visits and such if we have downtime.

Maybe if access to Episode 2 features is somewhat staggered? Like, for the first week or so only a certain number of people could buy Episode 2 per day (500? 1000? I’m not sure what would be reasonable) with those that pre-ordered getting first dibs.

It would kinda suck for some people during that one week, but after that things would be fine, and Episode 2 has been waited for long enough that it would be a shame to have a laggy, hard-to-play release. The only problem is that many people are anxious to get the Episode 2’s equivalent of First To the Finish Line, and anyone who doesn’t start playing on the day of the release is at a serious disadvantage for it… but those people could be encouraged to simply pre-order, if it is something important to them.

MC Banhammer Posted:

Easy solution to that: Don’t offer one.

Then, stagger the release by — and I know this will draw howls — allowing people to buy earlier slots by paying more money.

I’d rather the biggest spenders (which does not include me) were given early access to the game as a reward for their loyalty. That also staves off any disappointment they feel at not getting a discount.

Evil Trout Posted:

Since our payment is handled by Paypal right now, too many people buying it at once is not a big problem.

I am a bit worried about tens of thousands of people trying to play Episode 2 at once when it’s released though. We might have to rent some extra servers to handle the load.

Well, that might not have been the best post. Now if you have problems, you can’t say “we didn’t anticipate the demand”. And you’re facing more blame now if there is a problem.

TUBSWEETIE Posted:

I’d go for that. I know 95% of the rest of the internet wouldn’t though.

I dunno about the Internet on the whole, but I think a pretty good percentage of the people on Forumwarz (drawn only from the people who are buying Episode 2 already) would go for that.

I don’t like this as a solution, though. While it would generate a little extra income in the short run, it would also breed resentment among the crowd, and bitter people are less likely to buy BP.

Whereas, if it’s first-come first-served (after pre-orders), people will have no one to be bitter at but other members of the community who were quicker on the draw than they are… which would increase pranks, and thus BP sales.

Most of all, giving first dibs to people who pre-order will encourage lots of people to pre-order… which means that instead of a short, mbumive income-dump at release time, Crotch Zombie will get the same amount over time (and starting sooner). Now, it’s none of my business how CZ spends the money they get (it’s okay to buy beers guys it’s for the good of the community), but more money early on *could* help improve the server situation before Episode 2 releases, making things go even easier.

MC Banhammer Posted:

Easy solution to that: Don’t offer one.

Then, stagger the release by — and I know this will draw howls — allowing people to buy earlier slots by paying more money.

that’s a ****stupid idea

staggered releases are just inhumane and people will spoiler things

don’t offer the first to the finish line e-peen though

the first person who beats ep 2 will have their title permanently changed to I CUT INTO MY OWN FUN FOR INTERNET ACCOMPLISHMENTS

btw when’s ep 2 coming out

if i’m gonna preorder it i want to know how long i have to wait

Aldo_Anything Posted:

knowing that date could get u a win at a contest, so feel free to tell it

All the likely dates have already been picked, so the knowledge alone likely isn’t worth much.