Races added after release with a longterm MMO

[Aviarium]

there is something that disturbs me a bit. You plan an MMO like EVE with longterm and realtime skill leveling, but you are going to implement races from time to time. The start for the Beta is done with only 3 races. The beta will not reset for release, so every char leveling from start of beta will become more and more valuable for the player. If you release races after the point of char creation, those players will not change them, because all the time they invested in their char would be wasted.

Thinking of EVE, they never released any new relevant starting option that impacted the whole playing time with that char, no new races, classes or whatsoever.

Pathfinder Online does not have explicit classes, so this works here too, but realtime skilling and afterwords added races just not do well together.
Is it possible, that you focus on the races to get far more from start on ready? Even if that delays the Beta and shortens the other content you planned for beta/release I'd prefer the choice of race from start on.

On long term sight, that avoids the ranting, when some new, nice races are implemented, people wanted to play as, but have to sacrifice a lot, to get them.

[MidknightDiamond]

They've mentioned that as they add races they're possibly going to let people change their character race (likely just once per character) as new races are added so that they get to play the race they want without having to start all over again.

So while I agree with the fact that such limited races at the start isn't super, I'm happy that they're considering this and how to minimize the impact of it on people long-term.

[Hark]

They would probably turn a nice profit by allowing race switching as a Micro-transaction.

[avari3]

They have talked about making "race changes" available, especially in beta.

This game does lend itself to having 2 or 3 characters though, especially when your main capstones.

[Nemo_the_Lost]

Just to play devil's advocate, low-pop MMOGs like Pathfinder Online benefit from mechanics that encourage the creation of new characters after launch. An player-run economy requires producers and consumers at all tiers. If Goblinworks convinces you to delete one of your high-level alts and replace it with a new alt of a more desirable race, they've achieved a design goal.

[avari3]

Nemo_the_Lost wrote:

Just to play devil's advocate, low-pop MMOGs like Pathfinder Online benefit from mechanics that encourage the creation of new characters after launch. An player-run economy requires producers and consumers at all tiers. If Goblinworks convinces you to delete one of your high-level alts and replace it with a new alt of a more desirable race, they've achieved a design goal.

Yeah and I'm planning accordingly. Three characters. A main, an alt and a "player to be named later".