The Platinum Carrot.

[Hiosahaf]

So I've been silently (well not that silently) watching the forums and I've made a some acute observations regarding one topic- Platinum buyers. The haughty attitude of some people regarding the plat spenders is really rude. Just respect others' opinion guys! It's a public forum and everyone is allowed a say! Being nice doesn't hurt and gains you respect too. Shunning down people rudely with the Plat excuse is NOT good.

There have been many flames regarding this issue that if Platinum buyers didn't exist then game wouldn't exist and STS needs to support themselves too and etc etc. So there have been a few discussion regarding that (on an external app) and there were pretty enlightening discussions that we had.

Let me first begin by saying that I am NOT against Platinum buying, and these are just suggestions and (more of) a lengthy analysis.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...g-free-to-play
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur...e_.php?print=1

So I looked up these two threads. (I am NOT talking about STS here). I'll just quickly summarise them here.

There are Free-to-play games which rely heavily on the whales. Whales are those spenders who spend tons and tons of money on the game. The game is essentially an addiction which provides this gambling high to those who are stuck at it. If you have read the links (which you should, before commenting), you can see how devastating these addictions can be.

Remember how we used to see rant threads about some people complaining that they opened x hundreds of locked crates and got nothing but worthless items? (It doesn't help at all that the forum shuts em done. Cases like these should be handled delicately IMO. Just the right and the noble thing to do) So these are the soon to be whales who get the first taste of their loss and then quit. STS hence loses a highly potential spender.

Anyways, these two links have a massive point to make. It is possible to remove the crates and still make revenue IF STS had a huge player base. One example is Team Fortress 2. This game crashed PayPal with their new introduction of cash hats. Just. Cash. Hats. The difference between STS and other biggies like is that that STS makes its money via a small player base which pays like anything (the whales) while these games are essentially free to play with just some additional things. The best gear is available only via farming. Arcane Legends has essentially become way too dependent on crates and the whales. The result of this is the evident and we can now see the clamour for gold sink. The top end of the market is essentially and mostly controlled by the whales. (I said mostly. Read back, I did say mostly!). Now the purpose of this game was that that people will play it and work hard for stuff.

(While I know that this is not possible in the case of STS. STS has come a long way from 2005 after a series of setbacks and nobody can question the motives of the devs regarding the F2P system they have. Their rise to success has been phenomenal.)

Now the purpose of this game was that that people will play it and work hard for stuff. Although one would say that it was designed to be a pick-up and put-down game. While this mantra HAS gotten STS an immensely long way (http://gamesauce.org/news/2013/08/20...connect-video/), there are certain aspects which do need some attention.

What the games firstly need is a large player base. An estimate puts the Pocket Legends player base at 4m-ish. I'd say 6m combining SL and DL. Factoring in Arcane Legends and BC and BD (not including them since they are relatively new), you have an immensely strong 9-10m player base (could be higher. and the base does need to expand, IMO). Now suppose each of them paid a dollar (I'll explain below why), STS will have a huge amount of 10m cash at hand for 36 people (I don't remember where, but I did see that there were 36 people in STS).

Now why would they pay a dollar?

-Simple introductions like vanities which cannot be traded for 1 dollar of plat. Introduction of fabulous items at low cost and keeping them bound to the character.
-Introduction of a lower plat bundle of 5 plat or so at 1 dollar and make somethings which are really sweet available at that price. If you've seen the vid of G I posted above, you would know which zones would be the ones to target.
-Advertisement of the game. Make lucrative stuff available to the players who sign in from FB rather than from email (example- 500g per day of login from FB). Link the games to their accounts and make them post on their walls the achievements
"Hiosahaf reached level 21 and started killing Captain Bluecrab! Join the Adventure now at Arcane Legends!"
It is really surprising- the effects advertisement can have.
-After they achieve a massive player base through publicity- Removal of the heavy whales' diet, that is, the locked crates. Feed off from the large player base which you have. SL and AL have a massive, massive, MASSIVE potential if harnessed to the max with crazy publicity. Every college student knows of DOTA and Diablo and other stuff, you don't see many of them playing AL or other Legends, even though we have the capacity for it.

So in the end I would like to conclude that the removal of the Platinum Carrot is for STS' good itself!

Please keep your comments civil and constructive. Thanks for reading!

Edit- Would love to thank EliteFamily and Livetokill for being a part of the amazing discussion. This is a product of their intelligence! Basically Live gets all the credit for bringing this topic up to Elite and me. He showed us these links and we had the discussion. So it's kinda me posting on his and our behalf.

Edit of edit- To the flamers (haven't seen any gratefully):

[Hiosahaf]

~

So we saw the latest energy bars thing. You get three little money drain... er energy balls I mean. A portal spawns from mobs and you can enter it as long as you have the green ball present.

Time to regen the money.. er energy ball? 8 hours! Of course you can speed up using plat!

Is this a good idea? Nopity nope. Remember those games like "Injustice: Gods among us" where there is a timer? Or the Real steel game? Yup! Pay through the timer or put down your device and do something else. I deleted all of those games as my S4 can't handle it. Too laggy device.

So I use my laptop to play. And I have no free offers except the ones which of course don't pay and which have low input (country issues). So that means that if I play a lot, and I get say 20 portals, I can enter only 3 of em! How amazing! But the other people- nope they can run 20/20 with it!

I agree that plat spenders should have power and they already do. This is just a money making slot machine type idea to get people to use plat and widen the gap between the super rich and the super poor.

Thanks for reading and sorry for bumping my own thread. But I didn't want to create a new rant thread (the idea was tempting though, very).

Hio the poor who can't spend plats.

[Anarchist]

You my friend have taking a look behind the scenes.

#illuminated

[Jexetta]

Nice write up and analysis Hiosahaf.

[Bless]

Nice summary. I like the ideas.

If the game is supported by (mostly) 'whales' then that is a problem because premium features and new items - realistically - are intended for them and the few pure players. An average player will not keep up with the platters. For example, if an arcane ring is released at season start, it will take players atleast a month or even 2-3 months to get 100m to buy it, after you brought it, one season later it is worth a fraction of its original price and new Overpriced arcanes are out, it is not a balanced cycle. Y'know what I'm sayin?

[Emmacheese]

Awesome write up, Most of the suggestions you made are already in a game called Order & Chaos Online (mobile game) and that is why I love the game, so it deffo can be done! I haven't spent much money in AL for a long time because the addiction of crate popping is just the thrill of the gamble and I ended up giving everything I looted to friends/guildies all you do is work irl for your items in a game :/ not really much skill there and I learnt this first hand! and I'm enjoying the game a whole lot more without opening loads of crates, this is just my opinion/experience with it

[Hiosahaf]

Nice write up and analysis Hiosahaf.

Thanks!

Nice summary. I like the ideas.

If the game is supported by (mostly) 'whales' then that is a problem because premium features and new items - realistically - are intended for them and the few pure players. An average player will not keep up with the platters. For example, if an arcane ring is released at season start, it will take players atleast a month or even 2-3 months to get 100m to buy it, after you brought it, one season later it is worth a fraction of its original price and new Overpriced arcanes are out, it is not a balanced cycle. Y'know what I'm sayin?

Hey bless! ,

It's not just about the Arcane Ring, it's about the whole system here actually. The revenues which the small fishes can bring is quite bigger than the whales. And the Trouts which farm their way to the top gear can take a lot of time because the prices are crazily insane!

Awesome write up, Most of the suggestions you made are already in a game called Order & Chaos Online (mobile game) and that is why I love the game, so it deffo can be done! I haven't spent much money in AL for a long time because the addiction of crate popping is just the thrill of the gamble and I ended up giving everything I looted to friends/guildies all you do is work irl for your items in a game :/ not really much skill there and I learnt this first hand! and I'm enjoying the game a whole lot more without opening loads of crates, this is just my opinion/experience with it

Hey Emma! ,
Crate opening is basically an addiction. When you have the amount of plat and you hit open once, you're hooked to it. This results in the creation of even Beluga Whales! Beluga whales who can eat the Trouts and the Planktons without doing any effort in the game except spending money.

Now the counter argument here would be that that they work hard IRL and they just want to enjoy in-game for the few hours they can spare here. I can completely understand that. (Before I say more, remember the saying "Time is money"). Sure you work hard and are in your dream position today. It is completely obvious that you want to just chill out and open a few crates and just have a thrill- and there is nothing wrong with it either. For those who want a thrill, there can be more additions in the store items which you can enjoy! But in the long run, crate addiction is only gonna harm you (unless your surname is Gates)

(I haven't played OnC actually.. :| )

~

Thanks for keeping this friendly and constructive guys! Highly appreciated!

[Z]

I like the enthusiasm and the ideas are wonderful, but one issue, alot of players like the ability to separate themselves from the crowd. Platinum allows people to do so, its already f2p. I think the setup they have is perfect. They just need to be able to prolong and sustain a longer life cycle. Pl would have been more successful if the crate idea was infused into it imo. Once again I love your ideas and they make some sense but tbey would lose half of their game base, for the simple reason that we dont wanna be equal to each other.

[Anarchist]

I will also like to add that AL has been doing well so far, the f2p and p2w aspect of the game have been in balance till date, at least confronted to other games that enter in the free category.

The problem we are having now, due to the natural course of a F2P structured this way, the free market, the inflation ecc ecc, is that unlike before were the gap was small and somehow the game gave enough tools to the freemium players to reach the premium players side now due to the process Bless mentioned earlier the gap between the two factions is getting bigger and the game doesn't offer good tools to compensate this gap or better it offers the same old tools.

Personally i don't think gold sinks will change anything.
Rather we need to find a way to revalue the loots from the game and scale them to any price the whales will monopolize the best items to while somehow keeping the increase in price of the best items in a sane range.

[Hiosahaf]

but tbey would lose half of their game base, for the simple reason that we dont wanna be equal to each other.

Thanks for a non-flammy post first of all I'd hate to see this thread closed down actually.

Alright so I'm gonna present my views and I hope you take them in a positive manner!

So this is a game, aight. And we're meant to play this game. What I think is that using RL money SHOULD give you a boost but not such a big boost (or big kick- if you read the links, you'd know. They're worth the read, trust me) that you enter the big league of Midas Touch gold. That is the gold cap!

The fact that a whale wants to be a whale and feed on the trouts is understandable But if the player base is large enough, it can be done away with!

Really, read those links you'll know what I'm talking about! I mean, crashing PayPal is a huge thing with just the introduction of meagre Cash Hats!!

[Z]

Thanks for a non-flammy post first of all I'd hate to see this thread closed down actually.

Alright so I'm gonna present my views and I hope you take them in a positive manner!

So this is a game, aight. And we're meant to play this game. What I think is that using RL money SHOULD give you a boost but not such a big boost (or big kick- if you read the links, you'd know. They're worth the read, trust me) that you enter the big league of Midas Touch gold. That is the gold cap!

The fact that a whale wants to be a whale and feed on the trouts is understandable But if the player base is large enough, it can be done away with!

Really, read those links you'll know what I'm talking about! I mean, crashing PayPal is a huge thing with just the introduction of meagre Cash Hats!!

Kinda hurt am I know as a flamey player ?

[Hiosahaf]

Kinda hurt am I know as a flamey player ?

Sorry.. Didn't mean it. I say that to everyone "Don't quote me and flame me" is what I usually add

Sorry again Zhau! My apologies..

[Hiosahaf]

I rarely put people down on forums, Zhau. Just my opinion that everyone is equal and has an equal voice irrespective of who they are!

~

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[Aziiii]

From what i saw over time , big crate openers don't last long.... why? they need new stuff to do. Once they have that it's just a matter of time before they get bored.I'm sry but that's how i see it . Plat users open , Farmers take time and farm farm farm.....pvp guys kill the ones they farm with. XD
It's a cirlce, just play the game as it is Have fun and take care

[Zylx]

Very interesting thoughts. When one thinks about it, platinum isn't an actual boost to prosperity, but more actually a "direct and only road" as it quickly discourages the new people by inducing the belief that you would need to constantly fuel money into the game to keep up with those "whales". Quite a few players who work their butts off farming in the game for months would be easily shunned by the "whales" who could get everything within a matter of hours. It's discouraging the base growth, especially this late in the game's development, because people see all the old players with great equips, and assume that since this is a p2w game, they will never be as good as those players.

This is a game. It's supposed to be competitive. When a player sees another player far superior than they are, they become jealous and want their items at that moment in time. Hence why we have beggars. When that player learns that the top players are "whales", they will either a) buy platinum to try to keep up, or b) quit all hopes of ever reaching their level, and possibly play a different game. They'll most often choose the latter.

In order for this to be fixed, STS would need to remove the exclusivity of the platinum and turn platinum into more of a shortcut to everything. Make locked crates opennable with gold and plat, but decrease the chances even more of looting the desirables. If we remove the exclusivity of the plat, players wont be discouraged as much, especially those unable to buy platinum.

[Xenobiotic]

Hio is a carrot.


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[Wutzgood]

As a farmer who farmed and sold locked to get just about all his gear I have to say removing locked would destroy most farmers income.

90% of my gold comes from selling locked crates and without them there would be nothing worth farming. Farming Elites aren't much different from opening locked or merching in that you either hit it big or lose a ton of gold.

Without whales buying all the plat exclusive gear and selling it for gold there would be no leprechaun amulets in auction or vanities to be had. If people want to spend money to speed up the game then more power to them.

With hard work you can get anything you want in this game without spending any platinum. You used to have to buy the bundle pack just to have enough inventory slots to survive. Now it can be bought with story tokens so its really a f2p game.

Let the plat spenders keep gambling. Like Vegas ill just keep pulling in profits from it. Just my opinions of course.

[Zeus]

What I do feel that people should take from this is that STG should perhaps add a spending limit for players to help budget their paychecks if people really are spending them.

[Limsi]

Yes definitely an in-depth analysis you've got here. I'm really looking forward to farm the best items in game (arcane weapons, accessories, and pets) via elite bosses. Platinum should only ease the farming experience via elixir and other stuff such as speeding upgrades and revives. In this situation, you've got a bunch of people who would be willing to spend their cash for platinum to aid them in the tedious task of elite farming, and another bunch who's willing to enjoy a casual farming experience without shedding a single dime in the game.

[Livetokill]

@Hiosahaf Thanks for mentioning a certain someone who educated you on this topic
On a more serious note, I hope after reading the articles the discussion on decisions by STG will be made on the merits of the decisions and not end with the usual "They need to feed their kids" line since it has been proven by other games and developers that a game doesn't need to put a glass ceiling for free players to monetize it.
Also for those who think that this game is free to play cause of benign developers(it's not) and you all should definitely read the Gamasutra article to find out why.
I would like to end my rant by saying that any game that depends on spending money to avoid playing the game is inherently flawed and ends up leading to problems sooner or later(*cough*inflation*cough*)

PS: people are welcome to trash my rant to pieces