S2Nome : Regarding F2P and EAP

  An S2 designer's viewpoint on F2P/EAP

We are our harshest critics

First things first; as you already likely know, I am employed by S2 Games, and therefore you should come into this topic with tempered expectations. However, if I may, I will ask you to, for the purposes of this thread, take me primarily not as a mouthpiece for my company, but first and foremost a fervent fan of Heroes of Newerth.

When the Early Access Program (EAP) was first announced to the designers several months ago, I was initially apprehensive to the thought. As I sat in Maliken's office along with everyone else, there were a lot of thoughts racing through my mind. I wondered why we were doing this, how the playerbase would respond, and I felt conflicted because I knew that we would effectively be reneging on the avowal of shunning pay-for-power, something every single employee of S2 Games prided ourselves in doing.  

But here's the reality:


We do not have investors like our competition. The bulk of us are located in a small, middle-of-nowhere town lodged between Chicago and Detroit. Our workplace is in the husk of a former real estate office. We embody the humble indie studio. Yet we are all fiercely loyal to the company, and in stark contrast to the profit-centered, publicly-traded gaming behemoths that dominate the employment climate, almost all of our employees are salaried workers, not contract or hourly. Before we relocated from California, I personally commuted 3 hours each day to get to work, paying $30 in bridge tolls and $60 in gas a week. Yet each night, I could barely keep myself from thinking about going back to work the next morning, and I knew it wasn't just me feeling that way, or just me making such a journey just to arrive at work on a daily basis. One of our programmers, Deejay, recently said that applying for S2 was one of the best choices he's made in his entire life, a sentiment a lot of us can attest to. Spirits are always high, and we're always looking not just forward, but higher--that's something that is unfortunately becoming more and more of a luxury among the game development community, and it's something we're all proud of here. We're an indie studio, but we have heart.
To contrast, HoN is not a cheap game to develop. To pay our nearly 50 employees, to continue providing working servers, to keep pushing out content at a steady rate is not a cheap endeavor--in fact, it incurs costs higher than most MMOs. What is most important to understand here, and what changed my opinion on the subject, is that the F2P conversion and addition of EAP serve the ultimately purpose of improving HoN. As a designer, this is what struck a chord with me, and why I eventually gave my seal of approval and continued commitment. As I mentioned before, we are not a publicly traded company. Our primary motivation is not to turn profits to please shareholders; it's to create and maintain a top-of-the-line product. My boss is Marc DeForest, AKA Maliken; he's about 30 seconds away, down the hall and to the left. I can talk to him to bring up troubles. We eat lunch together once in a while. He's invited me, and other employees, over to his house on multiple occasions. He is a real, living, breathing human being, not a nebulous overlord across the ocean that I'l never meet, who has no personal connection to me or my job, and communicates via directives down a corporate stepladder of bosses. And that's what changed me into a believer--knowing that no matter how vested any of our players may be, the most passionate fans will always be ourselves.  
Because we are the ultimate critics of ourselves, trust that we are doing what we believe will benefit our community and game the most.
To our loyal players and fans, thank you for your staunch support. To those who are joining us, you have a wonderful journey to begin. This is not the end, but a beginning, and I humbly believe that you too will see that the fruits of this initiative will far outweigh the negatives!

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