Last Day To Back HEX!

So we are down to the wire, 30 days later.

 

Hex: Shards of Fate, the very first TCG/MMO crossover has less than a day remaining.   Most of the higher specialty tiers are picked over at this point, what with the campaign shooting for a final stretch goal of 2.5 million dollars.  Fans were upset that the final goal, which is to put on a HexCon in Las Vegas in the next year, with free invites to a special day of activities for King ($120) level backers and above.    But Crypto has been adamant that their primary goal is getting the game into our hands as quickly as possible, and to that end, have refused to do anything that would delay a release.

 

In fact, several times since my last post Crypto has stuck to their guns, saying no to fans for clear and well reasoned…well…reasons.   And at other times, where there was no harm/no foul situations, Crypto was more than happy to add in fans desires.   To give two examples:  they have refused to add any more numbers to the limited tiers, despite the possibility of getting even more money, because that would not be fair to those who signed into those limited slots and devalue their investment.   And in the latter category, when fans asked if the double card bonus that was unlocked as one of the stretch rewards could apply to *all* the Kickstarter exclusive cards and not just the PvE ones, Crypto said:  sure, why not?

 

And despite my bluster about sticking to a Warrior Tier ($35), as I’ve watched Crypto navigate this morass and handle their success with aplomb, humor, and heads-screwed-on-straight, I’ve come to admire them.   And maybe even trust them.

 

So one night, when a $250 Pro Player Tier opened up…I snagged it.   I didn’t even think twice.   Even now, as the timer counts down, I may chicken out and move back down, but no further down than King Tier.   I’ve tried to figure out why I was initially comfortable with dropping $250 on the game, because that is far outside my comfort zone.

 

And I think the only angle I can come up with is that that’s about the cost of a game + lifetime sub in the MMO world.    Which is basically what that tier is, with free weekly booster drafts included (3 boosters a week for free basically.  For life).  I mean, I spent $150 on Star Wars, followed later by another, what, $70 or so for a six month sub…but that wasn’t all at the same time.   And it was close enough to my birthday that I could convince my wife to let me do that in exchange for no presents.  This one….man.

 

Anyway, stay or go, I’m still pretty invested in the game at this point.   Beyond Crypto, the two Twitch.tv live feeds put me over the top.   The game looks fun, clean, and incredible.   The MMO elements are exciting and the dungeons interesting.

 

My only real curiosity at this point, is not about the stretch goals, but about how much I will, when the timer dings, have spent on this Kickstarter…

Lifetime Sub Sale Is Enticing

STO is rapidly approaching the 1000 veteran reward mark for its lifetime subscribers, and had been promising a new ship to go with it.  But they did one better.  Not only are there new ships (a new Heavy Destroyer for each side, more on that below), but they put up a sale on lifetime subs and went one better – anyone with a lifetime sub will now instantly receive all the veteran rewards, regardless of join date.

 

The sale itself is for $200 instead of $300 – which knocks it down to what is pretty much the industry standard these days.  So in that sense, its not too much of a deal.  But the game seems to be in good shape, with no danger of going anywhere anytime soon, and to be honest, dropping a lifetime sub any lower than that almost defeats the purpose of the monthly sub.  At $200 you really only need 13 months to get your money’s worth out of it.   Given that I’ve been playing the game regularly for the last 8 months, and haven’t hit any sort of ennui or dissipation of interest yet, and am in fact on the verge of getting a second character to 50, with a third on the way…it still seems like a great deal to me.

 

There has been some blowback on the Veteran Rewards going out instantly.    From a business perspective, it is certainly the way to go – nobody is going to buy a lifetime sub now only to wait 1000 to get their hands on the new ships.  So it kind of had to be done.  Still, I can understand the angst there.

 

Beautiful! From Jason “Vektor” Lee. The image hotlinks to his website.

 

As for the ships…boy are they sweet.  A cruiser/escort hybrid, they both look great.  The Starfleet one is actually one of the runner ups from the “design the new Enterprise” contest.  Its gotten mixed reviews but I absolutely love it.  I’m not wild about the “modes” – a little too Transformer-ish to me (I had the same problem with the Voyager’s variable sweep nacelles), but the overall design is great.  Its a fresh take on the elements while looking aggressive and sharp at the same time.   And to be honest, its the real sell for me.

 

Getting that ship, which I would already be paying $25 for, means I’m really looking at less than a year to recoup my loss.  Not to mention there are a couple of things in the C-Store I still want, and since Gold Sub status pays out $5 a month in store credit, I will save that money in Game Cards over the next year as well.

 

On the other hand…there is a tiny part of my brain wondering if this is a good idea.  I mean, it looks great to me, but pull back the camera a little and I’m paying out $200 for a F2P game that is two and a half years old.  They say the devil is in the details, but this time I’m thinking its the other way around.

The Secret World Serves Up a New Conspiracy…

As in, what happened to the Collector’s Edition?  Turns out, that instead of that whole onerous name and label, you can instead choose optional upgrade packs (and even go ahead and buy more character slots – because you only get 3!) that range from an extra $15 to an extra $200!!!

 

Initiate Pack ($15):

• Blood Raven – social flying pet
• Faction Leather Jacket – three color sets, one for each type of society
• Set of Weaponry – better quality beginning weapons of every type

Master Pack ($60)

• Game Time – one additional month of game time
• One Extra Character Slot
• One additional Name Reservation
• Set of Talismans – one high end beginner talisman for “every slot” (7 apparently) – this makes you “better”
• 10 XP Boost potions
• 10% lifetime discount on purchases from the social clothing store

Grand Master Pack ($200)

• Everything in the Master Pack
• Lifetime Sub
• Exclusive Snakeskin Jacket

 

Click for full size...

No word on whether the Master Pack also includes the Initiate Pack, though I assume not.  Oh, and additional slots and name reservations are $10 each…

 

The pre-order process itself just smacks of “incomplete”: an in game t-shirt that will have some kind of unknown monster design on it, a ring that will boost XP for the “earlier parts of the game”, and a “powerful combat pet” (one of which is a cat…not like a mountain cat, like a house cat…).   Plus I don’t think any of us really believed the game would be launching this soon.

 

On the other hand, maybe I’m just biased that I’ve been following the game since day one, and, like with TOR, have nothing to show for it.

 

Unanswered mysteries, conspiracy bias, and myths aside, its apparently for real.  So go get yours now…if you dare.