Quoting the Devil in Hellblazer, "And to be mortal is to be stupid, proud, conceited -and ultimately pathetic."
You go Chicken Little, and talk like more than 1% of people actually have a clue about marketing and how the world actually is.
Quoting the Devil in Hellblazer, "And to be mortal is to be stupid, proud, conceited -and ultimately pathetic."
You go Chicken Little, and talk like more than 1% of people actually have a clue about marketing and how the world actually is.
Let's flip an argument I had with one developer on the subject:
Developer states: You won't notice the changes, it's not like everyone are going to buy everything!
If you FunCom feels that so few are going to use it, is it really worth uprooting large parts of the community over this? If you feel the revenue is going to be so low, it won't affect our perceived view of playing the game. Why are you doing it? Why are you creating all this drama? It's just stupid.
Only thing you are doing with any great success in this new addition to the game. Is to force away some of your most loyal players. How is that positive for you?
Darkempire 220/30/70 Agent
{edited by Anarrina: see me if you have questions}
When specifically asked for positive words, responding with a personal attack is incredibly rude and inappropriate. Please do not repeat such behavior.Originally Posted by nums214
I'm genuinely curious to know how much of a factor this really is. Are you under the impression that most of the people you team with are 220s rolling new alts? and that these people will ALL be buying their toons from now on?
Seriously, if I have time later today, I might log in some toons of various levels and send messages to everybody on /lft and see how many of them are alts of 220s...
Surely there's a bit of a irony here. If this buying-levels idea is so bad and so many people object to it, then very few will be using it and it won't really have that much effect.
It's like people are assuming this will be the only way to level from now on. Honestly- we don't even know how much it might cost. If it costs $5 that's one thing, but if it's $500 to buy a 199 toon, I doubt the masses will flock to this option.
Considering that marketing is not an exact science and no company is able to show the effect of its marketing efforts on customers versus the money spent on it, maybe you could enlighten us on how it works then?
Besides quoting questionable sources ;D I think you are missing the point of the post. It is about no marketing effort versus any marketing effort. That is really not too complicated.
Besides, there are a number of psychological effects that mmos (ab)use to bind players to the game by catering to atavistic traits (hunting and gathering etc.). By selling out this mechanism for potential extra revenue long term growth of the player base will be diminished by having less retention. I think that is really easy to see.
Talking about successful micro transaction: There is a game in asia where all you have to do is open boxes. To open these boxes you need to have keys which you can buy for real money. At the end of the day there is a ranking on who opened the most boxes. (There is also some stuff in these boxes but you get my point.)
Way to go i guess... ?
Actually, studies have been confirming the marketing and advertisement->brand equity->financial benefit relationship for over 6 decades.
Ilikethongs (220/21 Atrox Enforcer)
Antithongs (220/22 Atrox Soldier)
Thesocialist (220/12 Solitus Bureaucrat)
Hence, when he says we should do some advertisement because we currently have none and you pull some elitist rubbish out of your .... about how he does not really know about marketing, you do not have a point. ;D
Besides you do not really understand what I am saying. I did not say it does not have an effect I just said the effect although observable cannot be traced to certain efforts. Last peeps I talked to this about where from marketing department at P&G. They said the only thing they know is when they spend less they have less sales. Apart from that they cannot really tell what effort had what effect.
I forgive you though, since you are clearly no professional ;D
Henry Ford said something about marketing in early 1900:
Half the money spend in marketing is wasted, but no one can tell wich half of it.
just trolling
Funcom may have set the stage, but I don't think you can blame them for creating the drama. It's forum posters doing that. Perhaps they should know better by now, but I think FC gave the playerbase too much credit for being able to respond to new ideas rationally and with common sense- and wait to see how things actually play out before going all "ragequit/delete toon/burn computer/kick puppy".
Means has mentioned marketing the game in the Q&A thread a few weeks back. It's easy to say "do some advertising" but we don't know their budget and what else is going on.
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...64&postcount=2
The relevant part of that was:
Q: 6) Is it still your intention to have the new 'New User Experience' up, running, and debugged on live before the arrival of the new engine (and correspondant advertising)?
Means' Answer: 6. The new startup area for the game will be complete for the release of the new engine + marketing…so “yes”. This is very very important.
Assuming they have a limited budget for advertising, I suspect they want to wait until they have the new engine and startup experience or they'll end up with the same retention rate that they have now. Means said a while back that the problem isn't a shortage of new players starting, it's keeping them. Lots of people start, get lost or confused and leave. Advertising now would only bring in a bunch more new players, with whatever percentage continuing past the first few levels. If they wait until the new startup experience and/or engine is done, they'll hopefully keep a greater number of new players. If that's not what they're thinking then I don't know what to say- just speculating.
Random thought of the day: Anyone thought that the potential additional revenue from the proposed item store might actually go towards the marketing which there currently seems to be little to no budget for?
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This is a one way street, once it's done they can't go back on it. Not everyone is going to post a thesis with true and tested arguments, to many factors weigh in on that.
Why are people acting like "ragequit/delete toon/burn computer/kick puppy"? It's a game that people have invested money and time in, it would be odd if people did not state outrageous posts.
People always deem others whiners or this or that, when their opinion is suppressed by the vocal majority. Often claiming that the "whiners" are wrong, yet opting to ignore the fact that it is the majority's opinion and themselves are the minority.
Darkempire 220/30/70 Agent
{edited by Anarrina: see me if you have questions}
When specifically asked for positive words, responding with a personal attack is incredibly rude and inappropriate. Please do not repeat such behavior.
Looks more like squeezing the last bit out of it.
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Couldn't have said it better. And some of the posts here are trying to justify level boosts etc with same reasoning... think people! No matter the price I seriously doupt they can even get enough money to cover the loss on subscriptions of long term players - and of everyone else who want to gain their phats and power by playing the game, not with Visa
Actually, over 16,000 views, just a little over 450 posts, some posts made by the same users a few times so let's be generous and say 400 users. So in theory 1 out of 40 people posted. About 2.5% I think, now I believe only 1/10 of the playerbase actually use the forums. So the "majority"is 0.25%, so 1/4 of 1% voiced their opinions and out of those not all agree.
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Keep in mind: My posts are my own personal views and thoughts.
People who have a strong opinion will take time to post, I think this is evident because I haven't heard off half the people posting here.
What's going to be real fun however, is observing how detrimental this will be to the game.
Darkempire 220/30/70 Agent
{edited by Anarrina: see me if you have questions}
When specifically asked for positive words, responding with a personal attack is incredibly rude and inappropriate. Please do not repeat such behavior.
Who said there were going to be phats sold in the shop? I believe that we've been told time and time again that no phats are going to be sold in there, and so far they haven't.Couldn't have said it better. And some of the posts here are trying to justify level boosts etc with same reasoning... think people! No matter the price I seriously doupt they can even get enough money to cover the loss on subscriptions of long term players - and of everyone else who want to gain their phats and power by playing the game, not with Visa
How about just "how it will affect the game" instead of the solely negative view?
Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
The Red Brotherhood
I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.
Means: about f'ing time :P
Satenia: heresy <3
Znore: Mastablasta <3
Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics
...but it's rather like trying to heal a bullet wound with a grenade.
Selling VP for cash + making Ofab (which you buy with VP) yesdrop -> can buy credits for cash.
And if you have followed at all how this is progressing (XP stims -> VPs, Tokens -> Levels, Buffs, "Past Veteran items") it honestly isn't hard to guess where it leads
Not so random thought of the day: If I wanted a well-marketed store instead of a game with goals and challenges to meet them, there are plenty within easy walking distance of my home. And they don't charge a monthly fee. And many of them have several decades more experience with customer service than Funcom.
Plus I'll have something more than pixels to show for my money.
Yes, but then how long till you max out the market for OFAB gear... two days after the store goes live and the already existing hundreds of characters with VP in the million range fill up their playershops with all OFAB gear?Selling VP for cash + making Ofab (which you buy with VP) yesdrop -> can buy credits for cash.
And if you have followed at all how this is progressing (XP stims -> VPs, Tokens -> Levels, Buffs, "Past Veteran items") it honestly isn't hard to guess where it leads
XP stims, VPs, tokens, levels, buffs and past veteran items and whatever, are all available pretty much free of charge ingame already. I don't see how that leads to selling actual credits or phats. I really don't. But then, you can prove me wrong on that account the day they do start doing it. Till that day, I'll be the one who's right.
So, a 1$ product on the internet that exists only on the internet is not worth 1$? How about all kinds of software, is that not worth anything? Plugins for said software? I don't see how a product that only exists because of another product is somehow less of a product and less deserving of purchase than others.
Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
The Red Brotherhood
I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.
Means: about f'ing time :P
Satenia: heresy <3
Znore: Mastablasta <3
Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics
If FC wants to make money/people to play...
Make the subscription to NEW players cost -50%.up to 6 or 12 months.
Make +100% XP weeknends ingame. Why not everyone else is doing it?
Make item shop contain items like +50% XP ring. levelable arul sabas etc etc. Why levels or tokens or vp?.
Make a new armor set close to AI armor to be placed to shop for gods sake. All other mmorpg:s that has items shop has the shop tough from the beginning (total free play, areas etc...). if you just toss it ingame after allready having such HIGH price on subscriotions... well you will see what happens then.
Using shop for Levels and tokens or vp is like the poorest idea ever. Did you came up with this after 5min brainstorm after 10 pints of beer?
And social items... This is a rpg after all. Sci-fi one. Why the hell there is ballerina suits, pumpkin aircrafts?!? Least enable option to disable all the social crap as it really kills the whole atmosphere.
(Writen drunk but least 99.9999% seriously)
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