Alamaze Service Levels

[Ry Vor]

Attached please find the Service Level options for Alamaze.  Service Levels determine how many Alamaze games you can be in at one time, from one game with Scout Level Service, to up to eight at Imperator Level Service.  

We think you will be quite pleased with the value you receive in the monthly subscription we provide as compared to what players were accustomed to paying in the old pay-per-turn method of most PBEM games.

The attached Service Level document was updated January, 2015.

[Ry Vor]

Attached please find what will soon be on the yet unpublished Alamaze website describing service levels in Alamaze. We think you will be quite pleased with the value you receive in the subscription over what you were accustomed to paying in the old per-turn method of most PBEM games.

BTW, the first 30 players will have no setup fee for that game, and we want everyone to sign up for Warrior Level Service initially, although we will bill at the lower Scout level for the first month (this just for the first 30 players), since we are restricting everyone to one game at the beginning. So sign up for Warrior Level and in month one you will be charged for only Scout Level.

We will open it up to the higher service levels and start the Epic games sometime in April.

[Greyhawk]

Attached please find what will soon be on the yet unpublished Alamaze website describing service levels in Alamaze. We think you will be quite pleased with the value you receive in the subscription over what you were accustomed to paying in the old per-turn method of most PBEM games.

I love this, we will be able to keep a CC on file to pay monthly with? This would be much easier for me then trying to mail in a check every week.

[Ry Vor]

Yes. No checks or snail mail of any sort. Your payments will be by secure PayPal processing, where you can pay by debit card, direct from bank account, or credit card.

Also - everything with Alamaze will be by email or internet through our websites. No snail mail, phone-ins, etc. Just so everyone knows - you may miss your long phone conversations with Phil (not as much as me, I can promise you), but we think you'll also like your turns arriving on time.

[Lord Diamond]

I hate to say this, but I feel these rates are much too high in today's gaming landscape.

Consider these games: http://www.mmobomb.com/games/mmorts, http://www.ea.com/lord-of-ultima and http://www.ironhelmet.com/

Nearly all of them (heck I think ALL of them) has a free to play mode. None of them are as good as Alamaze IMHO, but that doesn't really matter. These games have a low barrier of entry in the form of a $0 investment.

With the multitude of free games out there I just don't see too many new players putting up any money up front to play an unknown game such as Alamaze.

My suggestion: Give the game away for free. Build your customer base. Then figure out ways to make money later.

Attached please find what will soon be on the yet unpublished Alamaze website describing service levels in Alamaze. We think you will be quite pleased with the value you receive in the subscription over what you were accustomed to paying in the old per-turn method of most PBEM games.

Dave, we are well beyond the point where Rick can afford to give it away for a few years and "figure out how to make money later". If players don't pay, there won't be an Alamaze. It's that simple.

Besides, this isn't the type of game that you stick on a server and let it run itself. Each turn, at this point, requires human intervention. That doesn't come for free.

I doubt we'll ever see thousands of players, but I believe that there are enough to make it worthwhile. An 80's PBEM game will always be niche and people will pay for niche. I already paid, as did about 29 others, and there will be more.

[Jumbie]

OK, I got confused, I think. At first I thought the comment about wanting everyone to sign up at Warrior level initially was a requirement, but rereading makes it seem like it was an option and Scout was available from the get go if you wanted it.

Maybe the wording can be changed to reflect that? Or am I the only one that got confused?

Also, this thread should be stickied to the top of the forum for newbs.

[Lord Diamond]

We signed up as Warrior, but were only charged as Scout.

[Ry Vor]

But that only applied to the first 30 though, didn't it? (I am not one of the 30) And only for the first month?

I just think that the way it's phrased right now in the 2nd post it sounds like starting out at Warrior is requirement and I don't know if it is.

Jumbie,

You have 149 forum posts and you want to be a Scout? Seriously.

[Lord Diamond]

I am glad that you ask a lot of questions. Not only does it bring traffic to the forums, but many of the questions make me think about different aspects of the game.

[Ry Vor]

I had a lot of questions. :-)

But yeah, I wanna be a Scout for now. Thinking about warrior since I might add another game if the timetable isn't too rigorous, but I have 3 jobs. I get to post here a lot because the jobs allow me to be online a lot, but it's very irregular. (Some of you may have noticed that I'm always listed as browsing the forum. That's cuz I usually just leave a browser tab open to this page and post whenever I see something interesting or have a question about the rules.)

Also I often have to travel so I suspect turns will be harder to manage when I'm out of town for days at a time.

Jumbie,

Yes, of course you can play at Scout level as long as you like. I'll have your renewal at that level unless you change your mind and want to join your second game.