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Yeah, not making an argument here, but there's a lot of things to consider when looking at the monetization schemes of other games. I know the Smite model has been brought up a ton, so I'll give my 2 cents on that.

You have to remember, firstly, that when Smite and HON departed the price-per-hero model, they already had significant amounts of content (way more than Dawngate), and were struggling to monetize it. It was a change borne out of necessity. I think Dawngate could have gone that way, but certainly wasn't ready in beta. Moreover, it's really hard to go from a Smite to a LOL model, so even if you did plan on it, you'd want to launch with a LOL model first, gather some data, and then pull the trigger.

Also, DOTA is always brought up... now let's forget for a moment that Valve doesn't need to show profit. Both DOTA and HON (not as familiar with Smite) are designed such that you need more access to all champs, as there are some hard counters that are disadvantageous to compete without. Limiting champion choice actually helps new players by putting them against less meta variety, and without a robust guides system like HON (or even with), that hurts early experience, esp. in game as different as Dawngate. LOL had a different champion design philosophy that was less champion-specific in meta, and Dawngate was even less so with the brilliant role system.

The pricing is a long ass subject... suffice to say, a lot of it was designed to help us learn what players valued, and that shapes future content. There was also lots of guesswork. And maths. Pricing is a fascinating, endless subject, more psychology than science, if you're interested I recommend this book to start: Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value

I absolutely did want some kind of starter pack system, but that never took off... there were just too many other priorities. No matter how I sliced the data, I couldn't prove that player were in fact dying to try every shaper. Again, what people say and what they do doesn't always match.

I had a crazy idea at one point to do an Amazon prime like system of a small flat fee for recurring bonuses, deep shaper discounts, and exclusive special access. Proved the profit potential in my modeling, but alas... priorities yo. Haha!

Yeah, if I had to pick 2 things that would have been game changers for Dawngate, first-time user experience (FTUE) and progression were always by far the most important to me. Teaching people to love your game is the most important step to getting them to spend, period.

I saw them lean forward a few times, I think the logo was from one of the Astro headsets (http://www.astrogaming.com).

If you're looking for a good headset, I recommend the Sennheiser G4ME One (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00GWU8FTK) or the similar but older PC360.