About why the guest account is even better than membership - Newbie experiences after first few weeks of playing.

[TreeKiwi]

Add me in game! We can go for a hunt. Yes sometimes it is better to erase the doe's. So they don't spook and don't take the calls!

[DHRifleman]

But I realy don't understand why we have to pay real money for every single piece of equipment.

Because it costs real money to create and have the game available for us to play.

Also you keep mentioning a trial membership, there is no trial membership, just different amounts of membership time (3, 6, and 12 month) with the longer time the cheaper per month, and starter memberships that include some items.

As for Ducks, it will cost around $35 US just for a mallard set up and a bit more to add the other ducks into the mix.

Now if you don't play much, or compete, and are happy hunting only the free animals with the 12 Gauge shotgun, then there really is no need for a membership.

Personally just not having to purchase ammo for the weapons I own, and being able to hunt any animal I feel like when ever I want is worth the $35 US, and I usually only hunt one day a week for several hours.

[TreeKiwi]

There is a 3 day trial membership mate! When you first start the game you get 3 days free

[Sherab86]

Because it costs real money to create and have the game available for us to play.

I perfectly understand this. But the same gous for other productions, like WarThunder, World of Tanks, World of Warcraft and so on. First two are Free-to-Play games. And of course you have there payware content too, but it do not influance gameplay (at least in case of first one - never played second one). Both - premium membership, and premium vehicles increase only xp and/or ingame currency gain. So you can go trough vehicles tree much faster, but in a "battle" you have same chances as free-to-play users. In case of WoW, you pay ones for full game (and you can purchase DLCs if you want them too), and then you have to pay for time you play (equiwalent to membership here I would say). But no one is charging you for every single maggical rod, sword or whatsoever. And all of those games are in constant developement due to its nature, same like TheHunter. Here just for a "set" for hunting one animal you may pay a sum equal to one single-player, "offline" production.

As for "trial membership", it is like TreeKiwi said.

[Tod1d]

Because it costs real money to create and have the game available for us to play.

I perfectly understand this. But the same gous for other productions, like WarThunder, World of Tanks, World of Warcraft and so on.

What could be the difference between those games & this one...???? Perhaps the number of paying players, gross revenue?

I'm sure if theHunter had the income of those games, it could support a different business model.

[Hawkeye]

Because it costs real money to create and have the game available for us to play.

I perfectly understand this. But the same gous for other productions, like WarThunder, World of Tanks, World of Warcraft and so on. First two are Free-to-Play games. And of course you have there payware content too, but it do not influance gameplay (at least in case of first one - never played second one). Both - premium membership, and premium vehicles increase only xp and/or ingame currency gain. So you can go trough vehicles tree much faster, but in a "battle" you have same chances as free-to-play users. In case of WoW, you pay ones for full game (and you can purchase DLCs if you want them too), and then you have to pay for time you play (equiwalent to membership here I would say). But no one is charging you for every single maggical rod, sword or whatsoever. And all of those games are in constant developement due to its nature, same like TheHunter. Here just for a "set" for hunting one animal you may pay a sum equal to one single-player, "offline" production.

As for "trial membership", it is like TreeKiwi said.

Don't forget that World of Warcraft has expansion packs every year or two, which will cost you another $50 or so. So, let's say you wanted to start playing today, you'd buy the base game for $20, the current expansion for $50, and pay $15/month for subscription. Even if you never touched the pets or mounts in the cash shop, why could run you $10-$30 each, you'd still be out another $50 when the next expansion releases. When you have millions of active players, supplementing your revenue with cash shop items it quite lucrative. WoW has traditionally brought in over a BILLION dollars a year, so never a good comparison to theHunter's business model.

As far as World of Tanks goes, a recent poll among players that have played at least 50 battles showed that around 70% of them have spent at least $200 on the game & 32% have spent over $1000. However you want to spin their business model, players are spending a ton of money there.

[Sherab86]

This is good argument indeed.

However I don't know the numbers. I would say that at least War Thunder is quite niche. But I don't know how much active players are here, and how much are there, and what percentage of them are payware-users.

Another concern would be: do eventual smaller number of players is an effect of niche theme of the game (solely), or maybe this is because of this whole business model at least equally?

I have simply this impression, that TheHunter devs can't decide do they want to have free-to-play type product, or rather fully payware one, so they have made some strange hybrid.

Well... My point is: I don't mean that there is anything wrong in that producers/developers want to earn money on their product - this is what for they create it. But I simply dislike a methods they do this. ;P

So it seems that for me this will be without bison and mostly without ducks experience. It looks like that for equipment set (weapon plus some decoys and at least one caller) for ducks I could buy maybe even two normal games. But I start to think about that pump-shotgun seriously. However I'll give myself maybe another week, to be sure of this.

Thanks for discussion guys. I hope it is clear that I realy like the game as such. I simply dislike some of her aspects.

[Sherab86]

Oh, Hawkeye answered when I was writing previous answer.

Don't know well World of Tanks situation. I've played only WoW (few years a go) and War Thunder (recently) from mentioned ones. So basing on last one - people in general are not very patient - this is one thing. And people, again - in general - get bored quite quickly without new stimulis. Developers of War Thunder uses this to theirs advantage. Even if you realy don't need to buy anything, but you are bombarded with advertisments of new high tier models, or even new set of avatars and so on, and combine this with realy slow speed of free-grinding, there always will be people ready to pay. Point is, that besides of how much one player payed, he/she and "free"-player are on equal terms in terms of gameplay.

So for example, I would have nothing against if every player would have access to free wooden .300 rifle, but you could additionaly buy an engraved version. It would do exacly same thing in terms of gameplay, but would be something extra looking, right? Gush, I would survive somehow even if that engraved version would level skills slightly faster and weight slightly less.

This was based on War Thunder. If in World of Tanks some payware content gives players a kind of advantage, I would not like that a bit too.

[baloo.the.dog]

I agree, for some reason it felt more challenging while as a guest, while being a member I am constantly wondering "What do I hunt today?," however as a guest I know I have to hunt whitetails, this gives me the objective to find the biggest whitetail buck (as a member, I am not so fascinated with hunting trophies), and also gives me the objective to create the best setup for them ( if you have stands/blinds left over from being a member).

For me, being a guest feels a lot more competitive and challenging. While as a member, I am often bored and relaxed. -Pros n' Cons...

[Sherab86]

I'm amazed there is someone that at least to some point share my feelings. To be honest, from the beginning I was certain that I'll be the only one who thinks this way, and I'll be defending my standopoint.

I'm also a little dissapointed that discussion focused so much on devs/producers methods of gaining money (aka bussiness plan etc.). Because, while I mentioned this in my original description too, It was supposed to be mainly on gameplay differences.

But I'm glad now, that someone find this somehow similar (again - about gameplay).

Best wishes!