Would You Pay for Species?

I feel like paying for cats wouldn't go so well because...well...we have the felis model. Unless you put that behind a paywall (please no) or add a size restriction, people will just use that instead of paying for a cat if they really wanted to (I probably would, no offense). It would just be like making people pay for a small dog...even though you can already do that with the canis model.

Personally, I would rather not pay for more species unless it was something amazing, like a dragon or something. Then again, I'm not big on horse RP so I don't know. However, I don't think that you should assume that people who don't want to pay for the creature aren't as committed to RP as people who do (in my opinion!), since you'll find some pretty dedicated roleplayers on 100% free RP forums/platforms. Even if there is a paywall, there will still be people would just buy the model for fun and non-serious reasons; then that doesn't really change anything at all besides having less of said species around.

I'm never that good at giving feedback, but I hope at least something can be taken from this.

I'd think for some species it is a great idea for premium members to have access to a special premium species. maybe like unusual animals instead of popular ones everyone wants. It would prompt more people to actually get it since it has even more awesome features.

I think that if massive MMOs can make money off of things like mounts and cosmetics, then so can the little independent ones.

I've already technically paid for playing as a certain species on a game called Istaria. Their quadruped dragons cannot be played unless you pay a monthly subscription. It wasn't a very large sum (I think $10) but it depended on "service type" which had many different options and was either recurring for 1-12 months. 

Personally I don't mind paying for something that a developer built from scratch: modeled, rigged, animated, and textured. While it's nice to have free access to things, I also think that developers deserve proper remittance for their hard work, which, IMO is something that separates CS from other animal games that are F2P, such as, let's say, between IT/FH is that it has KITO to keep resources flowing but the mechanics of the game have never changed due to lack of coders and there is no developer backing them anymore nor updating it. 

I really like the sound of at LEAST a minimum $5.00 for species unlocks. That's 4 different species for $20. Perhaps this could also encourage packs of animals to be bought all at once? But that will obviously depend on what is available to bundle up. It wouldn't be mandatory to spend that much money but it leaves the option open for people that want to! While I'm glad that there is a Premium membership feature, I don't think it should grant someone everything :)

I am not a huge fan of paying for things in games with real money, but perhaps a secondary currency system might work. It seems to be a fairly popular system in other ftp MMOs and it would still allow people who don't want to or cannot spend real money the chance to unlock species, they will just have to put in extra work and time. To elaborate, we have arrows already, which we can earn in-game through various methods, but there could also be a second currency you could buy with real money or trade in a large amount of arrows for on a currency exchange system of sorts. Then you could make species purchasable with the secondary currency. That way the people who do not want to spend real money (or just don't have extra money to drop on species) can spend extra time and effort farming arrows to trade for secondary currency, but those who don't want to spend the time and effort to do that can just buy it with real money.
I feel like that might be a good compromise, but those are just my thoughts.

I have no problems buying species or other things with real currency. I do have a habit of going overboard however when given that chance in various games (like for cosmetics and such) but I digress. xD

As someone who's played multiple F2P MMOs with 'cash shops' and the like, I really support the idea of a second currency. So there'd be a way for people with enough dedication to earn those species or other perks. In addition to what was said by Natsuwolf though, I think the second currency should be trade-able? If you want to go that route with features. It'd maybe be easier to make things you buy trade-able among players too, but I figured that'd be hard/impossible with a species. So having the second currency able to be traded/gifted by members would be a good alternative.

So people could say.. offer commissions with art or presets and obtain the second currency that way. Or find someone willing to trade it for arrows. Maybe over time there'ed be this in-game economy going on, but that could lead to a headache down the line. But I agree having a second currency obtainable or farm-able in game by players would be really good too. It just depends on how you want to grow the game and in what direction.

Even if it's not for species, this would be a neat idea for other in-game perks or cosmetics. While I like things for free, I to like seeing someone get rewarded for their hard work. It'd help the staff, fund the game and in the end help CS grow, so I'm all support for some sort of paying for content.

The thing I worry about with warriors people is that a majority of them are underage and underage users make up about... guessing off of the top of my head 80% of the bad user reports we have.

"This person is harassing users- OH and they also happen to be 10 years old" Is a really common issue we're running into- we think perhaps a paywall would help mitigate the amount of younger users. Perhaps even something as low as $1.00 for the cat, just so that having a credit card or some way to pay online somewhat proves you are of age. I know younger kids can ask their parents to pay for them too, but from my personal experience once money has been put into a game people tend to... behave a little more I guess? The threat of losing progress of any kind has kept the community just a little bit better, but even still we're still seeing regular reports of users 13 and under attempting to goad other users into sexual acts or just straight up harassing them and with all the turmoil surrounding every site in this community that has ever had anything to do with Warriors, I think we would ALL benefit from having less young users in the communities.

I also think some kind of referral program would help. We also plan on doing something involving big communities who want to migrate to CS, I'm the one who runs everything so if someone wanted to pull some strings "Hey I have a forum of 100 people who want to migrate to CS just for cats and we want maybe some kind of discount or something" I can absolutely do that!

WARNING: A bit of rambling, sorry!

I'd be a little upset if species costed more, rather than maybe earning it. Not like the skulls however, as people (Including myself) like to help new players or old ones on new accounts find their way to the skulls again.

So here's my thoughts, if species had to cost anything, i'd just say they're for premium only. I'm interested in getting premium membership seeing it's pay once and never again (As I don't really like "Pay to play" games other than World of Warcraft lol... And even then I can't always play it due to funds/don't always want to.), and Cereal Soup is already a free to play game. So it's... Almost as if I were buying a game on Steam, that I could then keep forever. Premium membership gives off that "You helped supported the game" feel that rewards players with a bit more content, while some players may not be able to or are simply disinterested by personal choice.

What i'm saying, is if the species had to cost anything, i'd prefer it'd come with premium membership rather than making them separate pay... Some kids might also play this game and only have a minimal amount of an allowance, and while i'm not one of them (RIP I wish I was still a kid, lol) I still feel it wouldn't be fair to them to go "Okay, 5 bucks for this. Awesome, now 5 bucks for that." As it may not seem like a lot of money for an adult, but I remember only getting maybe one or two quarters a week for an allowance. Some kids might get less, so it would just appear to be a lot to them if they had to save up to be playing the things they wanted. This allows players the option to pay or not to help support the game, while other free-to-play players won't necessarily feel like they're losing a whole lot...

Or... That's what I think. ;3; I'm going to be honest, i'm a HUGE Warrior Cats fan, but I don't think i'd be very upset if I wasn't able to play a cat... Because you can still play a felis, even if that's more lion/big cat focused than a small domesticated house cat. If anything, fans could pretend they're part of Lionclan or whatever from the books lore of the cats "Ancestors", which really were Lions, Leopards and Tigers... So... As long as people used their imaginations, they wouldn't really be locked out of anything. -3-

If the game really needs money, why not just make arrows cost money if people wanted them RIGHT THEN rather than waiting for Seeky or treasure hunts? Just another idea if people would need money for the game. Maybe make the said "Harder to achieve animals" take more work like ugh... "Find both the felis and canis skull, play through one full life of baby to elder with each Suri, Felis, and Canis lives. Explore so and so maps thoroughly. Make or at least be in ONE tribe for said amount of game days (So they don't just join and leave at once and have to work for it), then travel to <so and so> location at dawn. Congrats, you have unlocked the <Animal here>." While the animals still technically being free, you know whoever is playing one really worked hard for one? ;3;

Maybe that's just my thoughts but in short:
1. If breeds/races cost money, have them be unlocked through the one time pay with premium membership.
2. If the game is fully free to play across all races, then I suppose any thoughts are null lol.
3. Instead of making the animals cost money, make them extremely hard to obtain and give the players something crazy hard to earn them so not EVERYONE will own one. If the game still needs money, perhaps have "Arrow packs" in the market to spend real money on, aside from the Seeky wheel and treasure hunts if they wanted to farm some up instead of just paying for said amount at once?

Just a few ideas. ;3; I wouldn't pay for the animals separately, but I would buy premium with or without the animals coming with it, and i'd love if the animals were just available to everyone without money. c:

Some people dont have paypal (like me) and would love to play the other animals

I can see how the buying arrows for real money thing would be a problem, but having a second currency that is purchasable for real money (or can be traded for in-game with large sums of the primary currency like I stated in my initial post) is pretty common in free to play MMOs from what I've seen (I'm thinking, like the GB from Lioden for example, or Gems in GW2).

If it's scammers that are the issue, though, then I can see how this wouldn't be ideal I guess. (I've never personally had issues with scammers but I can understand why there would be concerns about that.)

I suppose my point is, if you are going to make species purchasable, I personally would also like to see an alternative, but much more difficult route to get the species without spending real money. That way the people who don't want to put in the work to earn the species in game can just buy it quick with real money, and the people who don't have the money to spend can put in a bunch of extra effort and achieve it through the game. It would also encourage people to be dedicated to playing the game, I would think.

Anyways these are my thoughts.

Weeeeeell, I've got mixed thoughts on this. First of all, I strongly agree about what some people have been discussing which is about how you shouldn't make such small/not very super interesting animals come into the game and must pay for it to get it, for ex. cats, foxes, etc.. If you know what i mean. I'm more into having to pay for the gryphons or dragons, anything 'BIG' not as in size but those that are just the most popular type maybe like hybrids or any animal relatable to that level of extreme. It's just some people have Paypal and can pay for these creatures, and some sadly cannot. People who can't pay wouldn't know how to feel about which characters you'll need to pay for. Like me i don't have the money to buy anything really but i see everyone's point about how it could be fair don't get me wrong.

That's my thought about this.