Its seems like when ever theres something big like this that comes out it takes the devs forever to answer.
Its seems like when ever theres something big like this that comes out it takes the devs forever to answer.
Yeah, you would think they would want to clear things up asap so people dont make assumptions.
Main: Ardon lvl 41 Operative
I try to wait patiently, but their avoidance just makes it more questionable :/
This is not, I reapeat not a case of simple greed.
ANY business wants to and needs to increase revenues. Charities are on a constant mission to increase revenues. Businesses who's main aim is some sort of humanitarian relief want to and need to increase revenue.
Increasing revenue is a good thing.
It is extremely unlikely that this was done on just some random basis. It is obvious that STS is far too aware of their customer's interests to do that.
Just like the Winter Fest 2011 price model, they did extensive research to determine what would most likely be the best price plan. They then implemented that plan. Found out it was a huge success among the customers and decided to continue with that price model.*
Players can still purchase 2000 plat. It will cost $35 dollars more. That is less than 2 cents a plat.
"How Wude! Mesa your humble Servant."
"You can argue with me, but you can't aruge with the math." Foghorn Leghorn, 20th Century American Philospher
I agree, if you read my OP, there's nothing about conspiracy theories or mentioning of greed. It's a simple question to get a clarification on what the reason is why there's no more 2000 plat option anymore. I even mentioned it could as well just be a glitch.
And I also agree that STS is a business and that they need to make money, but I also think that changes like these could be at least communicated with their clients so misconceptions are prevented. That's called customer care IMO
Well, I use to buy the 2000 plat so I can lvl my 3 66 chars asap. You will need like 120 plat to go from 66 to 70 and then 400 more to 71, so you can raise 3 chars with 2000 plat. But now, without it, i think i just raise one char to 71 and use the rest of plat to make the others just 70 so i donŽt think STS will get more money with the change.
Think about it, when u have more than 1000 plat purchasing 30-50 vanities doesnt look too much, but if you just have 500 or so youŽll think much more about spending the 10% of your plat just for an item that doesnt give you anything but a different look, so im pretty sure revenues will down with change but maybe iŽm wrong.
Just my 2 cents. :-)
Yeh but it adds upOriginally Posted by Aikiebo:583963
I have bought 10k plat total
@the 800 plat price thats a little over $600
@the 2000 plat price thats $450
Kinda a difference
It is totally ridiculous to suggest that it was 'shady' or unethical to not formally anounce this in the patch notes. Just another example of a extreme statement where the person doesn't even attempt to back it up.
I don't know if people realize this, but the vast majority of today's gamers don't even know what patch notes are. Why would they? Patch notes are rarely as important as they use to be.
Most free-to-play games don't announce every change in patch notes. They never did and never will. Most free-to-play games don't even do patch notes. The closest thing to patch notes is a very occasional and thinly disguised promotional message.
Devs in video games make changes all the time with out players permission or consent. Patch notes used to list in great detail every single minute change. Those days are gone. Some games still do. But, extremely few players wants to spend a lot of time reading patch notes. Few devs want to spend a huge amount of time writing stuff that most players aren't even going to read.
It used to take an hour to read some day's patch notes. Those days are gone. People don't have time. What little time people have they would rather be playing the game then reading a bunch of stuff.
Also, it is ridiculous to even suggest that STS needed to notify us anyway. Patch notes were especially important when subtle nerfs or enhancements were done to game play. There is nothing subtle about this change. Anyone who goes to the web plat store will have no problem noticing that the 2000 plat option is not available.
Btw,* most free-to-play games don't even have forums. The devs of those games do not feel that they have any financial reason to spend the money setting up and maintaining one. When people want to drop yet another quarter in the "I want to whine about STS jukebox", you might want to remember that STS has always and will always care more for their players than the majority of games.
"How Wude! Mesa your humble Servant."
"You can argue with me, but you can't aruge with the math." Foghorn Leghorn, 20th Century American Philospher
Please don't derail the tread about details because 1 person mentioning patch notes. The only reason for this thread is to find out why this change was made and if it's permanent or not. Lets not turn this into another long winded discussion about patch notes, forums and STS being a caring company that needs to make money. Thx
@JaytB I agree, you did not mention conspiracy theory or greed. When I made that comment, I was not directing that at you.
You, in fact, started this thread in a fair and level-headed manner and made several attempts to keep it that way. That is highly admirable.
@Elyseon Yeah, you're right, it adds up. But, the rest of my posts suggest one possible reason why this change is happening.
-----------------------------
While, I see no reason they 'shouldn't' have announced it, it is very possible they wanted to hear initial feedback without that feedback being influenced by the dev's opinion/explanation.
To the player who said something like "I spend a lot of money on this game and now it looks like they are asking for more", I'm not sure if you were trying to say this change is ironic or bad in some other way. But, businesses raise their pricess all the time. It doesn't matter if someone has already spent "a lot" of money.
"How Wude! Mesa your humble Servant."
"You can argue with me, but you can't aruge with the math." Foghorn Leghorn, 20th Century American Philospher
Well... if it was intentional, simply to increase revenue due to the better ratio to the provider, I think it's a mistake.
Even though I haven't bought the 2k package as much as I know many others have, I believe there are people who would (eventually) stop playing just because of a simple move such as removing the 2k package from the website.
Let me get on a soapbox for a moment...
There's a "Rule of Five" that I remember which can apply to any business:
1. Identify and capture new customers
2. Retain existing customers
3. Increase their average buy
4. Increase their transaction frequency
5. View a customer's lifetime value
I can say a lot about each of these 5 rules, but for the purposes of this thread I'll focus on 3 & 4.
If removing the 2k package is intentional, STS is already defeating the purpose of #3. Sure, they get more $ per plat, but at what cost? It's not like plat has any overhead. It's already been discussed why it's not available on every platform (grrr iOS). But is there really a reason for it to not be available via the website? Players who've bought the 2k package previously know that they won't be getting as good of a deal at the 800 plat level. They probably won't even use their plat as quickly anymore knowing that they are on their last set of "cheaper" plat. They'll end up playing less, or leave entirely, defeating the purpose of #4.
Let's take a scenario of a big plat purchaser who might buy the $90 package every 30 days. They would spend $450 over the course of 150 days. If that 2k package wasn't available anymore, in order for that same player to spend $450, s/he would have to buy the $50 package around every 16-17 days. This is where the balance of #3 and #4 come in. With new content coming soon, #4 would naturally increase without any changes to plat packages. But artificially increasing #4 at the sacrifice of #3 is not sound judgment. In that scenario of the big plat purchaser spending $450 in 150 days, they would be losing out on almost 3k plat without the $90 package. And that's if they wanted to be bothered with buying plat almost twice as often!
Ehhh.. there are other ways to increase revenue than to increase the cost of plat.
One example is to provide more options to spend plat on. Other than elixirs or very high priced items (500 plat vanity helm) there isn't much variety to spend money on. Personally, I already spend enough on plat. And only rarely do I find anything to purchase other than elixirs.
I'm not sure how much it costs to develop a game like this, but what I do know is that I spent $80 every new campaign which is significantly more than I spend on a console games.
I'm not saying its shady or anything like that, but I do not think it is unreasonable to ask that customers be notified in a timely manner when a feature they use regularly is removed. Especially when it involves spending money.
Just my opinion.
AL: Rare (Rogue)/Common (Warrior)/Mythic (Sorcerer)
I jus purchased it on my android 2k plat.
@jaytB I have never been in a long-winded discussion about patch notes, lol.
Two people talked about patch notes and other people thanked and quoted them. So, it is totally ok for any forum member to also talk about them if they want to.
In addition to those two, eight or nine asked for an explanation, including yourself several times. In this case, patch notes and explanation is kinda, basically talking about the same thing.
@drewcapu as usual, your post was very interesting. But, there were quite a few assumptions made that don't really add up.
I can also mention the 80/20 rule. In this case that a f2p game company makes 80% of its revenue from 20% of its customers.
So there is no question that revenue from the $90 pack is going to end, at least for a time. The only question is will overall revenue increase or decrease.
@Atlannie I couldn't possible agree with you more when you suggest that a great way to increase revenues would be to increase the number of things we can spend our plat on. Imo, this game needs way, way, way, way, way, way more items/ways for players to support the game. Other f2p games have significantly more fun and great options.
It usually only costs a few million dollars to initially develop f2p games.
"How Wude! Mesa your humble Servant."
"You can argue with me, but you can't aruge with the math." Foghorn Leghorn, 20th Century American Philospher
2k plat option still not there on pocket legends or star legends on my android
Last edited by Iaceden; 03-06-2012 at 02:46 PM.
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