Black Prophecy Community Q&A

[Snowcrash]

The announcement of the cooperation between Reakktor Media and gamigo, as well as the information regarding the payment model for Black Prophecy has answered some important questions but also raised new ones.

Therefore we would like to offer you the opportunity to ask the questions that concern you the most. In a Black Prophecy Community Q&A, Kirk Lenke, CEO of Reakktor Media and Patrick Streppel, Chief Marketing Officer and Chairman of gamigo, will take some time to personally answer as many of your questions as possible.

Please use this forum thread to post your questions. Any discussions or off-topics will be removed without warning. This is a unique opportunity to receive answers to your questions from the very top, so use it wisely!

[Garfboy]

This may concern gamigo more than Reakktor, but can you provide any information on the payment structure for Black Prophecy? The free to play announcement has made many of us afraid that BP will be turned into a stereotypical 'cash shop' run system. Is there any hope of a 'single payment' system to unlock all extra content?

Thanks

[LasseBlutströmen]

What Garfboy said.

And: How exactly, in detail (just to make sure), is the F2P system going to be implemented? Does this have anything to do with the crafting system that you are building for BP? If so, how are the two related to each other? What will we be able to buy in the item shop? How will item shop equipment differ from regular, non itemshop equipment?

[larret]

Will payments system (f.e. better equipment which we would be able to buy) affect balance of PvP?

[Ogedai Khan]

I'm sure Reakktor/Gamigo desire a hefty number of BP players.
I also want the chance to play with and against a lot of players in BP.

I was wondering what is your projected player base
and what is your strategy marketing-wise in making BP known to and attracting potential players?

What was the thought process in deciding to go F2P for BP?

[Flaps]

Yup, I got the same questions as above really.

Seeing as this is going to be F2P... will any micro transactions actually play a key role into making your ship far superior to those who wish not to purchase anything?

[Guts]

1 How are you gonne make blackprophecy know to the public
whats your marketing strategy.

2 after reading the forum i saw that mostly every 1 has his doubts about the F2P system
and would rather see a P2P system.
after so much negative feed back from the community are conidering to change the F2P to P2P ?

3 what kind of system would some 1 need to have blackprophecy running smoothly
as in a 2year old system ''new at the time'' be more then capeble ?
just wanne know if you need state of the art system or not.

Thanks for this opportunity !

[Brammers]

Well my main questions are about how the F2P model is going to work.

1) Do you have any examples how the F2P will work in game. (With some idea on the pricing - in a real world currency.)

2) How will Reakktor handle balance in PvP/Clan wars when potentially a player could buy a better ship for £10, and then come and completely kick my ship to pieces.

3) Is there any more details on the crafting system that will be in BP?

4) Will crafting be connected in any way to the F2P system?

[CMaster]

1. What effected the choice of Gamigo? Who approached who first? (if you are liberty to explain this)

2. Do Gamigo have worldwide rights to handle BP? I notice they only deal in Euros at the moment, and it isn't clear to what extent they can run servers in different locations.

3. All of Gamigo's games so far are pretty low profile, at least in the English-speaking world - I hadn't previously heard of any, and they don't seem to get much coverage on major MMO or gaming websites. Are you confident that Gamigo has the marketing clout for this game, or will Reakktor be handling the marketing themselves.

4. What is the typical income you would be desiring per player, per month? Considering that most players will presumably pay nothing, how much do you anticipate those players who do pay to stump up?

5. Are existing Gamigo systems (trade RL cash for a specific ingame currency) a model we should expect to see in Black Prophecy? Are the prices in existing Gaming games in line with what BP is expected to charge?

6. Who has the responsibility for day to day running of the game and support, Gamigo or Reakktor? Whose responsibility are continuing to update the game?

7. Have you had the chance to look at the experiences of action games like Battlefield heroes in this "F2P" market, as well as MMOs of various kinds.

8. The crafting system was implemented at the behest of Gamigo - is there any concern among the Black Prophecy developers that such a system gets in the way of the action orientated, minimized downtime idea for BP?

9. When you speak of "opening up" the gameworld, does this refer to a reduction in instancing, or simply making it bigger to add timesinks?

10. How much of a relief is it to have this all sorted and announced?

[Lorgarn]

A common question right here:

1: What level of requirements will be regarding buying in-game values through a cash shop? Do players have to buy certain amounts of "stuff" in order to play effective enough for the game to still be enjoyable or for them to be competitive

That's it for now.