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Ankama, you can't do both. Choose one:

• Subscription model (with perhaps that nice bonus of being able to access some content without paying the subscription, thanks for that).
• Cash shop that sells power, not only cosmetics.

Seriously Ankama. Choose one. Your last announcement of pets being linked to money transactions in one way or another hints you're not going to stop there, and that you're somehow trying to squeeze in both transaction models in the same package.

Seriously, it won't work. It hasn't worked for other games with much bigger budgets and a higher degree of polish. Even if it did for them, it wouldn't for Wakfu, since it will already struggle for people to wrap their minds around the subscription fees when its audience is primarily young and interested in free/freemium models.

This game is nowhere as good (at this point, although I hope it eventually will) to warrant a subscription fee, but adding power-for-cash in the form of those preorders (and whatever comes next) is adding insult to injury. Wakfu should have a cash shop only if anything, and our collective eyebrows are already raised at the fact there's a subscription fee, but having both coexist is just a no-no.

I'm not complaining in the strict sense. Fortunately I can pay for Wakfu and all it's extras without a problem. I'm just trying to warn you from a customer's perspective, that this is not going to fly. The audience isn't the right one to cope with this sort of bullshit.

I hope more effort is put in development and actually listening to the players (for instance at removing those completely unnecessary server restrictions within Europe) and less in finding out the optimal way of milking us.

Thanks for reading (if someone by chance did).


This post has been edited by Aranfalc - February 03, 2012, 14:24:59.

dude, they are using the same model as in Dofus. Stop with the conspiracy theory!!  

I haven't played Dofus, but I'm fairly sure it doesn't have a cash shop, and that it doesn't directly sell you power ups (such as those armor sets and +25% damage pets) which Ankama is offering as preorder bonuses.

yes it does... Oo they give different bonus but yeah...


This post has been edited by microundeas - February 03, 2012, 14:38:16.

You get that bonus at pet lvl50. Even gemling can be better at that point.

And yeah, dofus dosen't have cash shop. Just "prizes" and "bonuses" you get at some point for buying subscription.

Just like in wakfu now, same system. I'm really not seeing why he is freaking out O_o

Gemlin seems to stack with pets so that's a moot point.

Any way, it's not a matter of how little of how much. Ankama is going to give more power to players who pay more. In a game with a monthly fee. This is seriously wrong.

better question is
why subscription from Dofus (ankama account) dont work on wakfu??
at begining of beta test it was clearly posted that Subscription is for ANKAMA ACCOUNT and ALL GAMES why they try to change it now?

No no, that's not the same.

Giving you bonuses by having a subscription is completely fine. You're paying a subscription, you get access to premium content. That's expected, and for some games "premium content" means "absolutely everything" because the game isn't even accessible without a sub.

But Wakfu is having that and also preorder bonuses / possibly future microtransactions that are not only cosmetic. If you've been around this market for a while you'll recognize that's not going anywhere: It will just annoy everyone when they realize they aren't equal customers even after paying the fees.

that is just a small gift and the set doesn't give much bonus... you doing a thunderstorm on a bottle of water...

This game will not last long at all with a subscription system, as everything is player run.
And there aren't many players as is.


This post has been edited by Raeko - February 03, 2012, 15:16:12.

You're not realizing how grave this is.

It's not a matter of the bonus being big or small. The problem is that it sets a precedent for Ankama to exploit. And no, I'm not freaking out: I work at the MMO industry, and I've had experience with companies that have much more experience than Ankama, and they know which lines they can't cross.

The payment method for a game must be crystal clear since it's the area in which people are understandably the most picky and sensitive. Commonly (and by commonly I mean always), a subscription fee means you have to forget about any other sort of transaction: You just get access to the full thing.

The only microtransactions acceptable on a sub model are account services (such as character transfer between servers) and occasionally and very carefully cosmetic improvements. Even this last point is more contrived than it looks. Champions Online tried this and the whole project went down the drain, partly because people were bothered by this double payment method.

EvE online lost a great chunk of paying customers and had to issue a formal apology, as well as fire a substantial part of their team after they introduced a real cash transaction model for cosmetics. Imagine if it was for power.

In a game that supposedly enforces competitive PvP, when a player finds out he's 0.005% behind someone else just because they paid for the preorder or bought a powerup item, the shitstorm will be immense.

Really, I'm not making this up. If they go this route it's going to bite Ankama in the ass, and if you think I'm paranoid, I honestly think you should read on MMO history (if that's even a thing).


This post has been edited by Aranfalc - February 03, 2012, 15:17:07.

i still don't see what you mean in what ankama is doing wrong Oo is about the pioneer set?? cause a flag is useless just like the emote, or the difference on the pet bonus??

As said... they have already done this with Dofus.

Dofus subs... get a "gift" along with it: gifts, like the Wakfu pets.

"Hax Or Set"... obtained via the "Dofus 2.0 collectors edition": Click here

There are some others, such as items only available to those who played Wakfu: the guardians, Islands of Wakfu granting unlocks, some code to unlock a unique dragoturkey that came exclusive with their Dofus magazine, etc.

I'm sorry this is coming from me, as since the very first moment I started playing Dofus I always supported Ankama's decisions, but this guy here is not wrong.
Some years ago, when Ankama introduced the Subscription+Gift way of p2p I was like "Hey, the more you pay for your subscription, the more gifts you get?"
Yes, it's a pretty small gift, can nearly be ignored.
But you know, there are lots of players in Dofus who subscribed for an Year just to get their One-Million worth Pink Dragoone, instead of the 80kk Ghast.
You guys know how much a Livinitem ring and how much a Livinitem Cape cost right?
Some players, usually the most "focused" ones, see them crossing the "Pay to win" line with this, and that's half right.

That said, it is also half wrong.
Ankama is one of the best companies I've ever played with, I never found myelf appreciating Nexon, or Aeriagames, or whatever. That's because Ankama know how to keep themselves with a foot on the line without crossing it, having a great balance between players.
I.e.
Say you get one year sub and get a pet worth 1mk, I sub 12 months for 12 80kk worth pets, we'll have about the same advantage in the end.

Every p2p Game can be turned in pay to win, if in an absurd situation we say I buy 4 computers and pay to subscribe and run 8 clients on them to always have a full party.
Theorically there's no way to avoid p2w completely, it's just impossible. So just appreciate the way they try to keep the balance.

I agree with Micro, dunno if you already played DOFUS Aran, this items that Ankama gives it's newbie items ( you can find better items at the same level ) or just show off items ( horrible equipments but cool appearance ), those pets are horrible, the better one is Tofu ( 25% damage ) for who never played Ankama Games before, 25% it's not all this ( if you have 500% damage won't grow up to 625% but 525% ), and probably you can get much better pets in achievments or droped from monster ( Ankama said that we can drop pets! ) so you are overreacting in my opinion.
You said just 0.0005% can be a difference but in pvp matchs for example can have much more difference the 3% of critical hits if you have luck than this suck pets that you can find much better ones  


This post has been edited by -Joker - February 03, 2012, 16:17:48.

The only problem is, that it's only 3 months after subscription that you can sell the pet. Normally, that's okay - It'd take you that long to level it. However, the guy with the dragon can just sell it for 1 million after 3 months, and the guy with the 12 1 month subs, will have to wait 15 months in total to get the full worth - You see the difference? That's not even counting in price fluctuations.

Btw, the dofus sub pet gave 50%+ Damage bonus - I got one when I sub'd for 6 months. Wow, I can't remember the last time I played Dofus. Oh well, xD.

why is anyone complaining about subscriber gifts.

1. they always end up on market (so nobody considers subscribing to get them only the by the way subscribers)
2. you need to be a subscriber to get the gifts
3.if your not subscribing your not really playing the game so why would you complain about it?

these gifts are only pure ostentatious incentives (Ego boosting) gifts you get from subscribing, this system is much better than cash shop because people are not paying for the gifts (unless they have no value for money) they are paying for the subscription service. if ankama can make more money out of adding such minor content like +50 initiative, +50 dodge and +25% damage (this will take about a month and a half or more to actually get these pets to level 50) then great, it means much better quality game for all of us when they get bigger budget.


they told us like last year


This post has been edited by Venusquake - February 03, 2012, 18:14:17.

its unfair for those who subscribe monthly(when the monthly payment option is out) since there isnt any bonus for them, so those who are able to subs a year now will get an advantage compared to them.
Those who subscribe monthly will end up having to buy from those who subscribe yearly.

Er. That wasn't really the point I wanted to make, was a random example, also you have to consider that after those 3 months he won't be able to buy another subscription for another 9months, which means the million from the Dragon has to be spread all over the 12 months.
Then we could argue about the price of the food, if tofu feathers or pet ghosts, the fact a pet is easier to sell than the other and so on..

The point I was making is that it's easy to say pay2win, since it doesn't matter how hard you try, who spends the most will always have an advantage, no matter how small it is. I could subscribe for two accounts, get a better internet provider to avoid lag, or hire someone to play for me when i'm at work.
In other words, there's just no way to have the game perfectly balanced, the trick is keeping it to a minimum.

Also i'm pretty sure there will be dozens of pets in game with the same properties of subscriber pets, and just like Dofus they'll only differ in appereance.


This post has been edited by Lindel - February 03, 2012, 18:25:25.