I think this is awesome, Fizzer made an update, Fizzer fixed warlight financially(at least, i do hope he succeeded in that) which gives him much better possibilities on improving warlight for the players in the future, and people complain they expected more.
he added some features.
He added a level-system and he made sure that nobody lost any features (while the new set-up of warlight actually forces new players to level up before getting access to all the features,) and people complain about the new features not being instantly available as well.
He gave some more features to non-members and gave them ads, and people complain about their membership being worth less, while pre-2.0 a non-member could get most member-features just by asking a member to make it for him; the only thing non-members couldn't get were ladders, and now it is ladders and ad-free playing, yet people are jaleous.

I feel ashamed not realizing this from the start of the thread, but:
whiners gonna whine.

To be honest aside from the app that I got l, WL has kind of ripped us members off, I agree with [UN] The man as well.

All our features used to mean something, now they're just blue M's beside our names

+1 powerneg !

Not to forget the new level system allows Fizzer to reduce alts or to punish by taking away levels.

So they just farm themselves right back

A non-member will find it a lot easier to argue against My/Red/M.A.N.'s side. No matter what we say I can see we won't sway you. I can see why you would like 2.0 - You've gained a lot from it, so enjoy it :)

So Arun

+1 to powerneg

I`m happy with the changes (as I`m not a member) but I understand the complains. If I were a member I would`ve wanted something more.

Yeah Min I'm feeling that now :(

Mirror, I don't know what you mean. Care to elaborate?

@Arun: what have i really gained of it ? Opening 6vs6 player games? You talk about non-members being allowed to play the ladder. What level do i have to get to be able to do that? Moreover, I as a non-member have ads now. Thats not really a gain but i m ok with it.

Where did I mention non-members in the ladder? Nowhere. Sure, opening big games is one thing you gain - of many. With so many levels (around 200 I think) I believe you will be able to gain luck change and other game creator things. We know a low level grants you the statistics box - another feature. Non-members gain a lot here. Members gain nothing.

Perhaps it is as simple as warlight has shifted its revenue stream from paid membership to advertising.

I think it was common knowledge that Fizzer wasn't making money under the membership business model. That, and every month a thread would come up titled, "Is membership worth the price?" and pundits from every side would spout off nonsense.

So, can't we just accept that Fizzer has been kind enough to support the game out of his own pocket for this long and now he's doing something else?

As a member, be happy you don't have to watch in-game ads, and have the option of turning off all advertisements.

Finally, if you can find a mad member, please point them out to me.

+1 Pooh

Non-member also pay now a bit by watching and even clicking those ads. This may add to considerable sums. So why shouldnt active players have access to some of the member functions?

Well, I'm pretty sure with all this extra money from the ads that the non-embers have to sit through, I'm sure the site will be upgraded with more features just for us members soon enough.

I say that members should have the ability to create 40 player games they paid for this and they deserve to get what they paid for because right now it is a unfair advantage and that members deserve more special treatment for their deeds of supporting a indie game company like this.

Not only has Fizzer not given us the ability to create 40 player games, new members can only create 20 player games. http://warlight.net/Membership

I understand your concern, and I'm greatly appreciative of everyone who has purchased a membership.

When designing the leveling system, I considered giving all features to members without requiring them to level up. However, doing this would basically render the leveling system meaningless to members. There would be minimal benefit to leveling up.

Already, if you browse the forums today you'll see complaints about members leveling up and not getting much (the rewards don't start until level 38). You can't have it both ways -- either there are rewards that require leveling up, or the leveling system is meaningless to members.

I tried my best to strike a balance between these two. Compare the quantity of those posts to the number of people complaining about there being features that members don't get for free. There seems to be an even number of both. You can't please everyone, but you can do your best to please as many as possible.

It's also worth noting that members did gain some extra benefits that weren't things they paid for. For example, members get to disable ads (this could have easily been a new purchase item separate from membership.)

Further, members get to play on the mobile client completely for free and ad-free. Compare this to other games -- for example, I bought Minecraft on my PC, but they expect me to buy it again if I want to play it on my Android device.

Also, you should note that today's membership doesn't buy as much as the 1.0 membership did. If you bought a membership in 1.0, you got a lot more out of it than the people who are purchasing today. In 1.0, membership basically unlocked everything at the time, but in 2.0, there are still a ton of features that you need to level up to get.

Contrast to this how early-adopters are treated in other products. For example, I remember when blu-ray players were relatively new and they cost over $600. Today, you can get a blu-ray player for less than $50, and that one will probably have more features. Consider how the person who paid $600 feels today, with their old dinosaur blu-ray player that cost them a fortune. They certainly don't get a refund when the price dropped. What did they pay $600 for? They paid the extra $550 for the premium of being able to watch blu-ray movies in their home years before anyone else.

You may feel slighted that other people are now able to get things at a better deal than you did, but that's something that happens with almost every product you'll ever buy in your life. I bought two copies of Team Fortress 2 at full price and now it's a free game. I bought a LCD monitor a while back, and now the same monitor costs $50 less. It's actually rare to find a product that *doesn't* subscribe to this formula.

Fizzer can you address my question? Can you please show what features members would have unlocked at each level (as we do so), that way we just don't see the same statement every level?

I can't dispute anything you said
and it makes sense you will focus more effort to increase the number of people playing warlight
in order to get some money you deserve it
I also feel I got many times my money worth and I don't feel cheated or angered
myself and many others would buy another membership if needed
having said that do you need to keep the member's happy?
no you don't have to you don't owe us anything
but you can easily just think of some small member only features and add them here and there
it doesn't need to be anything big
you are planing 40 player games give the members the new colors
set up a new ladder I doubt it will be hard you did the real time ladder for a day and it was popular
maybe some more statistics for the ladder most players want to be #1
if you would just put up a table with total days as #1 a lot of top players will have a new thing to aspire to
and maybe another one with most wins in a row
a members only forum
allowing members to create clans officially
of course these ideas are random and does not reflect anything
what you could do is make a survey that would allow only member to vote
on this survey put up things you are thinking of adding anyway and let the members choose
giving the illusion of choice is important for morale
(again I don't think the morale of the members is low but for arguments sake let's say it is)
you already did this with the tiny matter of the warlight logo and got many responds over nothing
again it is not that you have to do any of this
it is not the you should do any of this
it is that you can do this
and for most of us you are not faceless warlight corporation like the electronics companies you mentioned
you are a guy a gamer like all of us who made a great game
you are Fizzer
and thanks for making warlight

I see a lot more members wishing for the features than having to level up..... In fact I haven't seen a single member say "I'd rather level up to get features."

Also, just because most products follow "that formula", it doesn't mean that formula is God. Break out!