LocationStill doing ungodly amount of damage, but with more accuracy.
Posted 08 September 2014 - 07:37 PM
LOWER. THE. PRICES.
Make mechs, colors, camos, cockpit items more accessible to the casuals--you know, the type of crowd PGI began to suck up to, with the inclusion of 3PV?
Once casuals begin dropping money, they will be hard pressed to leave--thus making them more likely to drop more dollars. Kinda like TF2, LoL, or Dota2. Casuals spending few dollars each, in the long run, will be more profitable than only whales spending hundreds--since they will bring in their friends as well.
Add to the fact that many of the whales are now disappointed with PGI, and no longer drops money, attracting the casuals with lower prices is the next logical move.
Per battle boosts. Someone else brought up the idea of making premium time only tick when actually on. I think per battle boosts, if priced right, can be a good compromise for helping more casual players take full advantage of what they're buying.
Personally - I think that 500 dollar gold Mechs should be done away with and never looked at again.
You sound jealous. I don't think you are, but you sound it with that tone.
$500 Gold Mechs that don't grant you any kind of powers are *perfectly in line* with a F2P model because it gives certain players a chance to get all opulent an' **** all up in dis b*tch.
Seriously, though, it would only be a problem if those Gold Mechs were more powerful than default Mechs. The fact that they aren't means that PGI already has more credibility than you give credit for. If they were making a P2W game, instead of a F2P game, then the Gold Mechs would be better than normal Mechs.
If you want to help the Community, then you should come up with actual ideas instead of complaining about inconsequential business that some people really enjoy at the expense of NOBODY. Nobody is losing anything from the sale of Gold Mechs because the people shelling out the cash are getting exactly what they paid for: rights to have something fancy and rare that makes them have more fun.
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I think if you want to make the game more friendly to F2P players, then you should probably decrease the price of colors and patterns, since those are frivolous sales. I only own a few colors because I think they are too expensive on a per-each basis. If they were cheaper, then I would be spending much more money on them than I do now because my bulk orders would probably out-factor the price reductions.
Also, you might want to make Mechbays unlockable for free with the XP-Leveling of Mechs. This would encourage free players to grind more, because more grinding would mean more Mechbays, which means more Mechs, which means more grinding. Maximizing the number of happily-grinding players will keep the server load high, and reduce matchmaking wait times.
LocationStill doing ungodly amount of damage, but with more accuracy.
Posted 08 September 2014 - 07:51 PM
headclot, on 08 September 2014 - 07:39 PM, said:
What prices would you suggest?
5 dollars? 10 dollars 20 dollars?
TBF, MC cost between mechs even in the same chassis vary depending on the equipment they come with.
IMO, on average, with $5 you should be able to buy any single Medium and Light. $7-8 You should be able to buy any single Heavy. $10 you should be able to buy any single Assault. Hero mechs should cost no more than twice as much as regular price--so around $20 at most.
Colors and camos need to lower the price by half. Or keep the current price for the regular camo, but make it appliable to all mechs bought.
I do not use cockpit items much so I cannot comment on those, but lowering the price on those as well is the way to go IMO.
What I suggest to PGI marketing team, is to take a look at other successful casual catering F2P games, and their pricing models.
Kickstarter style map-pack funding for map and game-mode building contractors...
Go ahead and call them "stretch goals".
$100,000 - one extra map in the next 3 months.
$250,000 - two extra maps and one game mode in the next 3 months.
$500,000 - three extra maps and two game modes in the next 3 months...
El Bandito, on 08 September 2014 - 07:37 PM, said:
LOWER. THE. PRICES.
Pretty much this. Back before I stopped playing entirely, I wouldn't have bought anything because the prices are too high for me to be able to justify the expenditure of my limited RL funds.
If they lower the prices, then the only thing they need to do to get me to become a paying customer is FIX THE GAME. Things like useless jump jets, etc.
Please see Marvel Heroes 2015 on how to properly run a FTP.
In short:
Step one: create small items to consume, like 1 day C-bill boosts, Xp boosts, 2 hours of premium time, etc.
Step two: have events like all the time, give away these new baubles
Step 2.5: put the baubles in the store for chump change. Just remember, a dollar from 1 million players is more then 1000 dollars from 20 players.
Step 3: Profit. Retain more players, improve players perception of how PGI deals with money system/finances. Players are happy to get free ****, even if it is insignificant free ****, especially if they know it is normally stuff you have to pay for.
Marvel heroes has XP and loot find rate boosts, along with stat boosts. We donrt have loot(maybe coming?) but we do have c-bills and XP. And premium time.
i also like the idea of premium time counting only when logged in. I am sure a revamp of pricing would be needed, or amounts, whatever. But it would make it more appealing.
ALSO< AND IMPORTANTLY: This game would benefit immensly from going hybrid style model. Add a sub, 10 or 15 a month to go along with the store. What sub gets:
Premium time active while sub active
Mechbay per month or something, or just a MC allowance, maybe 500MC?
Maybe some of the boosts, like 1 each C-bill and XP.
Then, price premium time so it looks like a good deal to sub up, but you dont have to to buy premium time or anything else. If you dont play enough to bother with sub, dont! If you play nightly, sub time is prolly worth it for the premium time, and then you get goodies.
What is in it for PGI? A mostly stable income they can count on to plan budgets etc, likely more money overall as many would do it just for the conveniant premium time and associated goodies cause they play a lot anyway. New accounts get a one month sub for free as part of cadet bonus etc.
Star Wars the old republic has a hybrid model, and it worked well for them, though certain things they were a tad bit restricting on in players feedback. City of Heroes had a hybrid too before NC Soft shut them down, and it worked gangbusters for them, they made more money instantly going to hybrid.
But those mini items are a key to do: you need little stuff for give aways and incentives, and for people to try out. A little coding creates a whole new product line for the store and gives the devs a tool to use for events and stuff.
Subs should not really gate content. They should be for conveniance, and possibly some value. I think gating content is the biggest offender for ost people when it comes to the idea of a sub based game. The old model of pay to play is pretty well history in the gaming market now, and the hybrid models vary a lot.
I think giving premium time, and an MC allowance is a solid start for it. You get premium time, and 500 MC for example.
That MC allowance gives players some choices on what they want to do-
Play as normal, earn premium time c-bills XP. use the MC to buy 300 MC mechbay, use c-bills to put mech in it. use leftover MC to buy a camo and paint.
OR
Want that nice Illya? Save your MC allowance, buy it in a few months. New chassis released? Buy three mechbays with allowance, fill with c-bill mechs. Buy all three mechs with allowance MC. whatever floats your boat.
What does PGI get? Monthly sub money. Player that wants to save for that hero? now they get multiple month sub money. Sub money is reliable for the most part, and can be used to show trends in player populations and other metrics. Give away a free month to a new player, they might get hooked on the premium time and sign up.
In the end, end result: you have reliable income coming in every month, and the store is still there for those that want instant gratification, or just plain ol have the money to spend right away on MC and such. Get that MC allowance, lets them buy a mechbay and mech. new chassis, well you need 3 to elite it, so now players can either wait for more allowance, sell mechs to open bays, or buy more bays right away by purchasing more MC.
It will take some planning out and number crunching to see what would work best, but I think the hybrid model would add some good income to PGI, and make a lot of the player base happy also. its having a FTP, and a sub game at the same time, both sides of the coin are happy. Nothing is gated, sub players get a discount/better value of sorts for the premium time in exchange for giving PGI a steady income, FTP players nothing is changed.
Subs should not really gate content. They should be for conveniance, and possibly some value. I think gating content is the biggest offender for ost people when it comes to the idea of a sub based game. The old model of pay to play is pretty well history in the gaming market now, and the hybrid models vary a lot.
I think giving premium time, and an MC allowance is a solid start for it. You get premium time, and 500 MC for example.
That MC allowance gives players some choices on what they want to do-
Play as normal, earn premium time c-bills XP. use the MC to buy 300 MC mechbay, use c-bills to put mech in it. use leftover MC to buy a camo and paint.
OR
Want that nice Illya? Save your MC allowance, buy it in a few months. New chassis released? Buy three mechbays with allowance, fill with c-bill mechs. Buy all three mechs with allowance MC. whatever floats your boat.
What does PGI get? Monthly sub money. Player that wants to save for that hero? now they get multiple month sub money. Sub money is reliable for the most part, and can be used to show trends in player populations and other metrics. Give away a free month to a new player, they might get hooked on the premium time and sign up.
In the end, end result: you have reliable income coming in every month, and the store is still there for those that want instant gratification, or just plain ol have the money to spend right away on MC and such. Get that MC allowance, lets them buy a mechbay and mech. new chassis, well you need 3 to elite it, so now players can either wait for more allowance, sell mechs to open bays, or buy more bays right away by purchasing more MC.
It will take some planning out and number crunching to see what would work best, but I think the hybrid model would add some good income to PGI, and make a lot of the player base happy also. its having a FTP, and a sub game at the same time, both sides of the coin are happy. Nothing is gated, sub players get a discount/better value of sorts for the premium time in exchange for giving PGI a steady income, FTP players nothing is changed.
They need to adapt and be agile with their free to play and overall methodologies just how Star Wars the Old Republic implemented theirs to improve their game and retain subscribers. Additionally, Planetside 2 also has some neat F2P features. It's not just World or War Tanks or League of Legends. Other games get it right to and there is no shame on standing on the shoulder of giants.
and the: Super wale offer of the day! (no offense, we players did not coin the term did we? )
Includes: All cammos for ALL mechs you ever buy and all current Colors:
450,-
Put up a Starter set, which could cost 60,- the price you pay for a brand new game of the shelf,
include 4*3 Mech variants Beginner art bundle, some premium time, 2 Hero Mechs, a selection of faction cockpit items, could do a "Starter set" for each faction.
Add then, "Add on unlocks" like it is done with DLC on some F2P games, which give you assortments of Project phoenix/Clan mechs, w/o heroes or colors or anything, for 30,- (or 29,95)
If they go with a subscription plan it should be permium time during the whole subscription and a monthly MC amount. Rift and DDO did this and I subscribed and enjoyed spending my "MC" equivalent instead of grumbling every time I needed to add some MC to my account to buy paint or camo.
Drop the prices across the board by half and you will sell more than twice what you are now, thus profiting more.
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