FREEZONE

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Florent
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FREEZONE

Post by Florent »

To all TrackMania Nations Forever players with a free account,

Since one year, the in game advertising revenues are in troubles and Microsoft is now even closing the whole thing down.

In order to adapt to the new situation, Nadeo has decided to make an evolution on the way players get access to the online servers.

Players with a free account will now have direct access only to freezone servers, hosted by Nadeo. In order to have access to any other server, they will have to go through the use of the favorite server function. The goal of this operation is to better welcome the free players in a place that encourage them more to buy the paying game (TrackMania United Forever) while preserving the capacity for the most enthusiastic players to access to all servers.

To upgrade your account, go in the profile page in the main menu of the game.

We are aware that the game can't be bought by many (even in some nations) This is why we keep the solution to enter a server with the favorite list function. This list will be reset and limited to five for free account. A server can simply be added through a tmtp link like this "tmtp:https://#addfavourite=serverlogin"

For your information, around one third of connections are from paying accounts. The Nadeo team is working hard to have the capacity for all simultaneous players using free accounts. If we encounter unforeseen issues, we will try to adapt quickly to the situation and we apologized before if we create troubles. We have been informed really late by our partner that they are shutting down our contracts, and we now have to quickly adapt.

Looking forward to your comments
Florent
Nadeo Managing Director
jamie_macdonald
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Re: The freezone solution

Post by jamie_macdonald »

Oh that's quite a drastic change, i feel for you guys getting the warning of the Ad service closure so late though.

Wish you luck and hope that many help out and buy the game to support our beloved TM :thumbsup:

Thanks for the warning on here :)
xis101
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Re: The freezone solution

Post by xis101 »

jamie_macdonald wrote:Wish you luck and hope that many help out and buy the game to support our beloved TM :thumbsup:
yes :thumbsup:
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Jojo_44
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by Jojo_44 »

The solution with the favorite list is not very good because the most people join over the browser. We will lose a lot of player due this step.

Our statistic say, that 82% of our server visitors, ca.10 000 every day, are nations player.

Jojo from Zero
Last edited by Jojo_44 on 09 Dec 2010 17:56, edited 3 times in total.
tcq
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by tcq »

I really like this decision :thumbsup:
w1lla
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by w1lla »

Promising decision and a tough one also. Players will see this as a nice Free way to play but who doesn't have united is independent if his favourite server stays online.

Will be visiting one of these servers in a while ;)

gg nadeo.

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tmnforever is nations and united makes it special. tmnforever has united. I need united!
Florent
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by Florent »

Jojo_44 wrote:Our statistic say, that 82% of our server visitors, ca.10 000 every day, are nations player.

Jojo from Zero
probably many have your servers in favorite and will still access to your server

it will be interesting to look at the evolution of it once it is launched.
Jojo_44
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by Jojo_44 »

Florent wrote:probably many have your servers in favorite and will still access to your server

it will be interesting to look at the evolution of it once it is launched.
Yes i will look to our visitor counter tonight and give you report.

best regards, Jojo
Last edited by Jojo_44 on 09 Dec 2010 17:59, edited 2 times in total.
jamie_macdonald
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by jamie_macdonald »

Hi jojo, it's fine for those of us that are prepared to pay and support the developers. If your "userbase" that's so "massive" did the same there would be no problems for any of us,

The future is in your hands m8ty. to put it simply.

But just to remind you, for every person that steps out sulking about this, there will be another happy to contribute and keep TM alive. So you choose basically, to be there, or not to be. TM will not "die" purely because you do not condone the changes, it just merely puts your own future with TM at risk.

i do hope however you will stay and make use of them tmtp links to add to favourite :thumbsup:
Hotrod
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by Hotrod »

Hmm - What a hard desition to make - remember TM IS VERSITILE and thats what make it special. I actually think that you are going to get burned here. Your free accounts are you prospects to become customers and what you proved so far is that your "free" is working and is very successful in bringing in more ppl to the TM world. One of the biggest reasons why this game is popular is the infinate servers with infinate custom maps on each. This is what making the "drug" and making TM an interesting viral topic = tell your friends. Its all a numbers game. Taking this away, is like closing the tap of new accs, and with less prospects, you will get less customers. Remember the urge of upgrading is not after a week, its when you have been playing awhile - when you start to get social and when you find your favorite servers and authors. I would get better at convering prospects instead of cutting features. Remembers your USP - TM is versitile - endless possibilities. Taking away the possibility to easily choose your own favorite servers and your favorite map author is taking away all the fun. I think that you will loose ALOT of players. But I agree its a tough one, not an easy equation. Good luck

///Hotrod (a humble map contributor)
Last edited by Hotrod on 09 Dec 2010 18:37, edited 2 times in total.
Florent
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by Florent »

thanks jojo for your comprehension

I know we should have communicated earlier on this, but since it was announced really lately by Microsoft, we did many things at the same time.

Our goal is to try to resume the best solution as possible and it is probably through the cooperation with key players like you that we will do the best final picture (but I can't guarantee that, we need to see how things evolve in the weeks/months to come)

let's see the stats over time

and Hotrod, it is somehow the same answer. We need to work to improve the as much as possible the situation, and the first quick step is this one. There are a lot of players playing since a lot of time at the moment. At least your comments does not concern them.

as for the new ones, we already think on how to make servers hosted by players enter the freezone. They could have the responsibility to convert or a coppers equation deal: give coppers to be in the freezone but receive coppers when players convert. This is another topic and not for today. In fact, we need to work a better model, and maybe like we did in the TM history, we will see that over time.

and thank you for you encouragements!
Hotrod
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by Hotrod »

hmmAND Im hosting TM Masters for the 2:nd year with over 40 teams and approx 1000 racers as we speak. And that cup is in jepordy now now when alot of players wont be able to access servers !?! Not so fun when I been putting alot of my time into arranging this. Any suggestions?

///Hotrod
jamie_macdonald
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by jamie_macdonald »

Hotrod, if you took note you would advertise the tmtp favourite links to get people into the servers (practice and race).

With a bit of brain power you can work round the problem ;)

The alternative is to use money power. Buying 1000 accounts for your 'freinds' may be expensive though :thumbsup:

Please also consider this change may not be the 'be all and end all' it's pretty much, just a way to deal with the loss of ad revenue on a temp basis o would guess (unless of course it works out fine like this).
Hotrod
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by Hotrod »

@Jamie: you should work for Nadeo as their Sales Manager :P
Last edited by Hotrod on 09 Dec 2010 18:58, edited 1 time in total.
Bergie
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Re: FREEZONE

Post by Bergie »

Why oh why did you do this.. First of all, we didnt even get a notice before this change was due to happen. Secondly, we are in Semifinals and WB-final of STC/NC and now you do this? How the heck are we gonna be able to play the matches now? This is just silly, hope you fix it back to how it was before, or atleast make it a bit easier for people without a TMU_account to join specific servers..
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