How many chapters in the original game design?

[SunsetDanar]

I may be mistaken but I seem to recall reading or hearing that the original concept for Elvenar was that it would span 30 chapters. We have a relatively new FS member who seems quite sure the game ends after chapter 20. In that regard, however, I have seen a couple of websites that speculate on what's in store for the game and they do both seem to only offer guesses through chapter 20 but that would seem normal to me as anything beyond that would not even be worth consideration. Does anyone have any credible information on this?

 

[SoggyShorts]

afaik the original concept was 5 chapters +

 

[SunsetDanar]

chuckle...Yeah. I do recall something similar to that as well but it's the + that is now under consideration. + what? The game has worldwide appeal, is played by millions (if you trust Inno PR) and is among the top moneymakers so I expect insanity in chapters moving forward if it does.

 

[ajqtrz]

afaik the original concept was 5 chapters +

How do you know? I mean what evidence did you get for this or is it more speculation?

In any case I doubt the economics of the game will take it past about chapter 22-25 as the number of players who drop out of each chapter reduces the number of players who will ever reach the last chapter. At some point the revenue from the number of players who will ever reach the last chapter will be sufficiently below the cost of development that it would not be cost effective to create that chapter. Like I said, my guess, based upon some consideration of the amount of players in my area who are inactive at each chapter (i.e. when they became inactive), is that at chapter 20 less than 2% of players reach that level. Admitted, my "data" is a very limited and may not represent the overall numbers AND that the amount of $$ spent by that last 2% is unknown, so it's a bit of a guess.

I'm planning on stopping at about chapter 20 or so -- maybe 22, but not past that as each chapter takes longer and longer for me to do.

AJ

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

How do you know? I mean what evidence did you get for this or is it more speculation?

Because when the game launched 6 1/2 years ago, there were only 5 chapters. And then a few months later, the concept of guest races was introduced when chapter 6 was added. This is all documented in the Release Notes or Announcements sub-forums. And somewhere around here, someone made a thread that compiled all the release dates for all the guest race chapters.

 

[ajqtrz]

Because when the game launched 6 1/2 years ago, there were only 5 chapters. And then a few months later, the concept of guest races was introduced when chapter 6 was added. This is all documented in the Release Notes or Announcements sub-forums. And somewhere around here, someone made a thread that compiled all the release dates for all the guest race chapters.

What Soggy said was that the original concept was "5 chapters +", which to me means they intended there to be five chapters plus adding on other chapters later on. I was just wondering how he knew the original intent was "5 chapters +" not if the game was introduced with 5 chapters. The distinction is simple enough. Perhaps they had 10 chapters on the drawing board at launch and intended 10 chapters + (or any number even if not, strictly speaking, "on the drawing board." A "concept" of "5 chapters +" seems pretty specific and I just wonder if the conclusion/statement is drawn from sources of which I'm not aware. Perhaps there are statements by Inno at the time saying "we planned for five chapters and thought we might add some new ones later on" or something like that. Of course they could have said, instead, "We planned to release it with five chapters completed and have another 5 on the drawing board for later release...." (Unlikely, as Inno seems to keep things pretty "close to the vest" as they say).

So the question remains of from what evidence Soggy draws the inference that the original intent was for "5 chapters +" I'm not saying he's wrong and knowing Soggy he's probably more right than wrong. Just asking for the reasoning/evidence he used to draw the conclusion stated.

AJ