AN OPEN LETTER TO SKOTOS PLAYERS
From Christopher Allen
President & CEO Skotos Tech
Friends of Skotos,
To start with I want to thank everyone who has supported Skotos over the last few years and who I'm sure will continue to do so for years to come. It's only been two years since we launched Castle Marrach, less than a year and a half since we went pay-for-play, but the number of talented, creative, and fun people who have come to Skotos in that time has been inspiring.
Though the community is more lively and creative than we ever might have imagined, its numbers are still much smaller than we had hoped when we started releasing games. As a result Skotos has not become profitable in the year and a half since we started accepting subscriptions and now our initial funding is running low. The releases of our newest games haven't generated the large surges in users that we were hoping for, and now we are faced with a situation where we still need to at least quintuple our user base if we don't make other changes. So, we're going to make changes in order to make things work.
These changes are things we'd prefer not to do, but are required given the economic climate. We've had a solid business plan in place for the company since day one, and had hoped to receive external investment long before this point to aid in our continued growth. Unfortunately, the stock market began its plunge in March of 2000, at the exact same time Skotos was taking its first steps. It's been harder to attract players because of the economy and it's been harder to attract investors because of the stock market. (And though we know that some players might have some interest in investing in Skotos, to do so requires them to be accredited investors.)
To sum it up: bad timing for the creation of an Internet game company has thus far left us a distance from the membership goals we need to reach.
Despite these problems we believe strongly in Skotos and know that we've got great potential here. We want to fulfill it. We want to continue advancing prose-based games in a way that no one else does on the Internet. We want to advocate real online roleplaying in a way that no other online game does. And, we want to give you, the players, the ability to continue expressing your creativity in a way that no other gaming community ever has--we want to give you the ability to plot games, code games, and create totally new games of your own. We're still very excited about all of these ideas and WILL ensure that they continue.
However in order for us to be able to expand Skotos and to continue to offer a superior level of support, we have to draw our expenses and income closer together. To do that we need to ask you to pay a little bit more, and we also need to ask you to help support us in other ways. To be blunt, this is not a "callous money grab" -- Skotos currently costs considerably more to run than we are receiving from players. We are in the process of reducing our costs, but we need your help to bring us toward break-even.
To start off with, we're introducing new fees as of October 1, 2002:
REGULAR ACCOUNTS WILL BE $12.95 MONTHLY. We will offer quarterly subscriptions at $34.95 and yearly at $129.95. We've long tried to avoid this increase, even though other online companies like Sony (Everquest), Mythic Entertainment (DAoC), and Simutronics (Gemstone, Dragon Realms) have already begun to charge this subscription fee. However, unlike those companies, who charge this fee for access to a single game, we will continue to offer access to all of our games for a single price.
Please note that we will accept the old payment levels ($9.95/$25.00/$100.00) until the end of September. If you find that the higher costs are more difficult for you to afford, send us a check for yearly payment and make sure it's postmarked prior to September 30, and you'll be able to lock in the old rates for an entire extra year.
WE WILL OFFER PREMIUM ACCOUNTS FOR $29.95 MONTHLY. We'll try to offer quarterly ($79.95) and yearly ($299.95) payments here if possible. Premium accounts are intended for the more hardcore players of our games. They will include more character slots, higher levels of access to some games, and other exclusive opportunities. We hope that our most ardent players will be able to afford the increased level of support that a premium accounts allows, as it will benefit not only you, but will also be of considerable help to us, as discussed further below.
(continued in next message)
From Christopher Allen
President & CEO Skotos Tech
Friends of Skotos,
To start with I want to thank everyone who has supported Skotos over the last few years and who I'm sure will continue to do so for years to come. It's only been two years since we launched Castle Marrach, less than a year and a half since we went pay-for-play, but the number of talented, creative, and fun people who have come to Skotos in that time has been inspiring.
Though the community is more lively and creative than we ever might have imagined, its numbers are still much smaller than we had hoped when we started releasing games. As a result Skotos has not become profitable in the year and a half since we started accepting subscriptions and now our initial funding is running low. The releases of our newest games haven't generated the large surges in users that we were hoping for, and now we are faced with a situation where we still need to at least quintuple our user base if we don't make other changes. So, we're going to make changes in order to make things work.
These changes are things we'd prefer not to do, but are required given the economic climate. We've had a solid business plan in place for the company since day one, and had hoped to receive external investment long before this point to aid in our continued growth. Unfortunately, the stock market began its plunge in March of 2000, at the exact same time Skotos was taking its first steps. It's been harder to attract players because of the economy and it's been harder to attract investors because of the stock market. (And though we know that some players might have some interest in investing in Skotos, to do so requires them to be accredited investors.)
To sum it up: bad timing for the creation of an Internet game company has thus far left us a distance from the membership goals we need to reach.
Despite these problems we believe strongly in Skotos and know that we've got great potential here. We want to fulfill it. We want to continue advancing prose-based games in a way that no one else does on the Internet. We want to advocate real online roleplaying in a way that no other online game does. And, we want to give you, the players, the ability to continue expressing your creativity in a way that no other gaming community ever has--we want to give you the ability to plot games, code games, and create totally new games of your own. We're still very excited about all of these ideas and WILL ensure that they continue.
However in order for us to be able to expand Skotos and to continue to offer a superior level of support, we have to draw our expenses and income closer together. To do that we need to ask you to pay a little bit more, and we also need to ask you to help support us in other ways. To be blunt, this is not a "callous money grab" -- Skotos currently costs considerably more to run than we are receiving from players. We are in the process of reducing our costs, but we need your help to bring us toward break-even.
To start off with, we're introducing new fees as of October 1, 2002:
REGULAR ACCOUNTS WILL BE $12.95 MONTHLY. We will offer quarterly subscriptions at $34.95 and yearly at $129.95. We've long tried to avoid this increase, even though other online companies like Sony (Everquest), Mythic Entertainment (DAoC), and Simutronics (Gemstone, Dragon Realms) have already begun to charge this subscription fee. However, unlike those companies, who charge this fee for access to a single game, we will continue to offer access to all of our games for a single price.
Please note that we will accept the old payment levels ($9.95/$25.00/$100.00) until the end of September. If you find that the higher costs are more difficult for you to afford, send us a check for yearly payment and make sure it's postmarked prior to September 30, and you'll be able to lock in the old rates for an entire extra year.
WE WILL OFFER PREMIUM ACCOUNTS FOR $29.95 MONTHLY. We'll try to offer quarterly ($79.95) and yearly ($299.95) payments here if possible. Premium accounts are intended for the more hardcore players of our games. They will include more character slots, higher levels of access to some games, and other exclusive opportunities. We hope that our most ardent players will be able to afford the increased level of support that a premium accounts allows, as it will benefit not only you, but will also be of considerable help to us, as discussed further below.
(continued in next message)
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