Given the amount of computation involved in this MMO it'll definitely be very demanding on a server, the game would run itself into insolvency if it were free or a one-time-pay thing.

Not entirely true, I doubt it would be anything near demanding, WoW is damanding but this is much different. We're talking about a 50MB game remember...
It all depends on how many players this game gets, given enough a one time fee could surfice.

Nile online is a similar MMO from what i can tell looking at the SHK website and that is free, it gets enough money to stay in profit through ads alone and has thousands playing.

Hi everyone,

Paul at Firefly here.

The payment system for Stronghold Kingdoms has not been finalised yet but as with all games of this type you have to cover costs through some financial model whether its through advertising, subscription or something completely new. We will let you know as soon as a decision has been made.

One thing i would like to clarfiy is the statement by Warren T:

"The costs might be slightly different here. When Brian Fargo left the company he took the rights to publish Stronghold with him"

I assume the Brian Fargo you are talking about is Brian Fargo, founder of Interplay. I can assure you that Brian is not (and has never been) in anyway connected to Firefly and certainly has no rights to publish Stronghold. I think you might be thinking of the old "Castles" games which Brian's company published back in the early 90s, which are nothing to do with Stronghold (apart from the fact they are both castle games!) or Firefly. Firefly own the Stronghold IP which gives us a lot of freedom to make games such as Stronghold Kingdoms.

Thanks

Paul

money to play shk = lost... I don't think where are so many stronghold player what WILL PAY...

Personally, i prefer a cheap subscription than an horrible cash shop wich transforms the p2p into p2w ( pay to win ).But many do not agree.
Advertising+"Premium account" with attractive but not advantageous features is the best solution for me. But there are undoubtedly many other...

paulh wrote:

QUOTE:
Hi everyone,

Paul at Firefly here.

The payment system for Stronghold Kingdoms has not been finalised yet but as with all games of this type you have to cover costs through some financial model whether its through advertising, subscription or something completely new. We will let you know as soon as a decision has been made.

Thanks for clearing this up, glad to see much thought is being given to how to do this the fairest and yet most profitable way.

I don't understand, why can't there be pay 2 play servers and free 2 play servers. (the payed ones could get updates)

FF have the facts i'm sure, lets stay calm here

I hope it's just through an ad system, I wouldn't mind seeing ads during transitions. Subscription will severely limit the audience while microtransactions give paying players an advantage. I suppose the latter will be alright if the things you can purchase with real money can still be acquired in-game (albeit slower).

EDIT: no swearing, not even implied swearing thanks!

anyways... i think if its f2p with microtransactions make it like battledawn. in the old version you could buy lumpsum resorses with no limit. it also added a ton of bonuses per perchase. people spent alot of mone but this made the game boring and unplayable for most. in the new game you buy "tokens" with tokens you buy what you want. the real difference is you can buy recsorses depending on how the world is doing for examlple you can get a set ammount of metal depending on how much metal everyone else has so spending alot of money right when the game starts does not matter. weshouldhave a token system where you get bonuses based on where other players in the world are