After 7 days of Open Beta, NCsoft is ready to launch Blade & Soul Taiwan this coming week on 26th November. Having added more servers since the initial 5, the game is now brimming with players and getting way over-populated. Even some famous Taiwanese celebrities are complaining on Facebook!
With the official launch, the business model was also revealed. While Blade & Soul Taiwan will remain Free-to-Play with a cash shop, there will be a special “Dragon Silver” membership which players can purchase, like a subscription. NCsoft is not labelling this as a VIP system, since there are no actual benefits such as priority queue, bonus EXP or more drop rate. Let me explain below.
There are 2 packages (30 days and 90 days), with players purchasing before 26th November getting some extra costumes. For those who purchase and become Dragon Silver members, the game will give them a new currency call Dragon Silver (duh) according to how many hours they play.
For those on 30 days, they will get an instant 1,000 Dragon Silver, 300 Dragon Silver daily (9,000), while the maximum Dragon Silver they can accumulate for playing in 30 days (5 hours daily) will be 9,000. So, the total Dragon Silver in 30 days at maximum will be 19,000.
For those on 90 days, they will get an instant 4,000 Dragon Silver, 300 Dragon Silver daily (27,000), while the maximum Dragon Silver they can accumulate for playing in 90 days (5 hours daily) will be 27,000. So, the total Dragon Silver in 90 days at maximum will be 58,000.
According to the video above, the Dragon Silver shop will sell many exclusive items, such as boost potions and unique costumes unavailable anywhere else. Once again, this Dragon Silver membership will not provide any bonuses such as priority queue, bonus EXP or more drop rate.
