*** It's an interesting point. In the past I strongly got the impression that players wanted their turn Yesterday (or at worst NOW!). I understand that primal urge - must have turn.... 
With Fourth Age games I am often in contact with the players (too much to get a game going!). Our policy so far as been to inform the Team Captains that the game will start as soon as we have all the players in - or the list, forum and FS (by inference I agree - if there's one nation left then the game is going to start up VERY soon). We leave account issues as a general rule for players to inform us and keep in credit, and we look after running of turns.
One option to rectify this is
1) Contact players before hand 1 or 2 days so that they can get money into accounts.
2) Get rid of the start-up fee.
3) Allow them to charge their account afterwards for this s/up fee.
1) We tried this once, players were not very fast getting back to us. Takes some admin but I would estimate around 2 hours extra work for each game set-up. Reasoning being; dealing with enquiries - how much, when is the game going to start, what nation have I got etc... It could be done. What if a player is away on a business trip?
2) Could do but I think that is detrimental to the game. There's something in Flagship about this - free games get around a 70% drop out rate compared with say 30% for paying games. The set-up fee encourages only very interested parties to play. Ie less drop outs. One of the horrors of Middle Earth is the missed 1st turn. We want to find anyway to discourage that that we can. Ie charge for a set-up but give a discount.
3) I don't want to do 3 - this is a massive amount of additional Admin for each game. Admin is boring. Admin is expensive to provide. Some players will leave it to the last moment to get their funds into us as well. (The deadline effectively being extended 2 wks for Set-up fee). Then payment would be sent in, miss the deadline (slow email, forget to do it the usual reasons), and then the same complaints would occur. (We would have to change the way the program charges for accounts for this as well which is presently outside our ability to do so.)
Have I missed some other option?
Sorry, but handing over
50, 60, 70, 100 dollars to someone who may or may not start your game just
to have it sit for 2-3 months while a game is being generated is COMPLETELY
unreasonable.
So send in $15... ? We don't ask you to send us 100s of dollars. If you are playing in multiple games, then why not keep an additional $8.00 in your account for the s/up fee?
Fees don't give us much income - turns are where it is at. Set-ups costs us money. I would estimate it to be 99+% Turns.
We're presently hoping to set-up the automatic CCard charge in the coming few months. (I would say mid Nov but don't count on it). That will stop players, who sign up for this system, from going low funds. Also we've nearly got the system where we will inform email players when we have received funds. Should be out this week.
I am not sure if this a big issue. First time, that I can recall, it coming up in several hundred games, and hence several thousand set-ups. If you feel it is important though I can look into it further.
Clint
Hey Harley guys,
I understand that you want to get games started as soon as possible, but
to be honest, you need to give people some warning when games will start.
Albeit, it was back when GSI, and its complete lack of customer service was
running the game, I have waited in excess of 3 months to see a game started,
only to have it start the next day without warning. Sorry, but handing over
50, 60, 70, 100 dollars to someone who may or may not start your game just
to have it sit for 2-3 months while a game is being generated is COMPLETELY
unreasonable.
So send in $15... ? We don't ask you to send us 100s of dollars. If you are playing in multiple games, then why not keep an additional $8.00 in your account for the s/up fee?
···
It would be simple and common courtesy for you guys to give
at least a 24 hour warning, if not 48, when a game is going to start. This
will give people enough time to get money in the account and prepare for the
game, especially considering most of the means of money transfer to you
takes 24 hrs to begin with. Like banks, I am sure you count on fees for
some of your income, but I have heard from a few regular players to which
this is a source of frustration, and I guess its a weight of the value of
those fees versus the continued patronage of those players. I have said
before that customer service has improved since you guys have taken it over
(have to excuse me, GSI sucked rocks) and this is a very simple, and as I
said, an expression of common courtesy, to warn people before you start a
game and charge them fees. I would gladly wait 24 hrs or 48 hrs to get my
turn to make sure that I can get funds in my account. Another, more
customer friendly method of dealing with the issue is to send out the turns,
and give people 48 hrs before the fees are assessed. Simple things to make
your player's life a little easier, IMHO.
-Kenneth Weed,
Who told himself to only be in 3 positions, and now finds himself in 6...
_________________________________________________________________
Surf the Web without missing calls! Get MSN Broadband.
http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp
Middle Earth PBM - hit reply to send to everyone
To Unsubscribe: http://www.yahoogroups.com
Website: http://www.MiddleEarthGames.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
****************************************************************
Middle Earth Games
Mailto: me@middleearthgames.com
Website: www.middleearthgames.com
UK: 340 North Road, Cardiff CF14 3BP UK
US: PO Box 280, Medford, Oregon OR97501-0019 USA
Phone Times: 10am-6.30pm UK Time (BST);5am-1.30 (EST)
UK: 029 2091 3359 (029 2062 5665 can be used if main is engaged)
(Dial 011 44 2920 913359 if US)
UK Fax: 029 2062 5532 24 hours
US Phone and Fax: 541 772 7872 10-5pm PST Weekdays, Fax 24hrs
****************************************************************
