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):