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In a long (and rather obtuse) announcement, RedBedlam describes the pre-order details and pricing plan for the upcoming Roma Victor. Here's a brief summary (you can thank me now):
Players will pay a one-time fee to obtain an account key, and there will not be any monthly subscription fee after that. However, you will be able to purchase in-game money ("Sesterces") with real-world funds and the game will be actively tuned such that casual gamers will have a hard time playing without availing themselves of this service. The idea is that dedicated players who don't believe in purchasing in-game money are rewarded for their hard work by not having to pay a subscription fee. Other players, who'd prefer not to grind in order to raise funds have the option to get their sesterces more rapdily, but will have to pay for the convenience. While an exact pounds-to-sesterces exchange rate has not yet been determined, it is estimated that a casual player will be able to survive comfortably in the game on around 5 pounds (GBP) worth of sesterces a month.
Regarding the preorder, a limited number of account keys will be made available near the middle of this month for a discounted price of 14.98 GBP (the regular retail price will be 19.98). Additionally, a select few individuals who participated in the Roma Victor testing programs will receive free pre-order account keys at this time. All preorder customers will be granted a 2-week head-start on the official game servers before the official launch date, which is estimated to be April 1, 2006.
Any experienced MMORPG player will tell you that some players positively contribute to the game world in terms of content, services and gameplay while some players may want to power through the game without contributing much at all. So it's clear that some people are actually putting value into the system just as others take value out of the system.
We therefore needed a billing system that rewarded the players that contributed and charged a fair fee from the rest. In its simplest form, our revenue model will involve selling the currency of the game world, in this case Sesterces*, in return for real world money. This is by no means the only source of in-game funds since players can earn game-world currency just as they would in most other conventional MMORPG's.
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Roma Victor: Revenue Model and Pre-order Plans Announced @ Official Site
