22 replies to this topic

[MoonUnitBeta]

For those interested, been keeping track of the grab-bag events just to use as a quick reference to how PGI divvies up the rewards, and how much the approx $ value it would be if we were to buy what they give away.

https://docs.google....dit?usp=sharing

The only thing is that the pie charts are more comprehensive in excel.. Oh well.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 02 January 2016 - 08:02 PM.

[Random Carnage]

You, sir, have too much time on your hands.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Random Carnage, on 02 January 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:

You, sir, have too much time on your hands.

Haha, it's not a huge undertaking. Excel does all the calculation, and once you got the first chart done, it's all basically copy+paste to make the other ones. I think in total (time spent creating, entering data, and tinkering/fine tuning/pissing around) a total of 3 hours.

I made this when the first trick or treat event started, and every event I've just been adding to the doc.

[Hauser]

Damn. Good thing its all space-bucks to PGI.

[VirtualRiot]

It seems like a lot of "money" they're giving away, but MC is really really overpriced, especially if you god forbid *gasp*, buy c-bills for MC, that is probably the biggest rip off in this game haha. So it seems like theyre giving away a lot because the conversions are crazy because everything is over priced. Personally, none of the people I play with buy MC unless its on 50% sale, and usually its used just to buy premium time.
They have been giving away more recently and I applaud them for that, its a big step in the right direction to making the pricing model for this game more fair, but I really do feel they have a long way to go.
Imagine if I could convert all the c-bills i've ever earned into cash via; price of c-bills in mc from the store reverse conversion. I'd be filthy stinkin rich I gaurentee you.

Edited by VirtualRiot, 02 January 2016 - 09:47 PM.

[Eregion]

VirtualRiot, on 02 January 2016 - 09:45 PM, said:

Imagine if I could convert all the c-bills i've ever earned into cash via; price of c-bills in mc from the store reverse conversion. I'd be filthy stinkin rich I gaurentee you.

Here you go!
You know how the F2P model works...

[Narcissistic Martyr]

MoonUnitBeta, on 02 January 2016 - 02:03 PM, said:

For those interested, been keeping track of the grab-bag events just to use as a quick reference to how PGI divvies up the rewards, and how much the approx $ value it would be if we were to buy what they give away.

https://docs.google....dit?usp=sharing

The only thing is that the pie charts are more comprehensive in excel.. Oh well.

I could bloody kiss you mate.

Mmmm.. I do love me some data analysis.

[Ultimax]

Its interesting data for sure, but they aren't really giving anything away.

Giving away a few MC here and there, or a mechbay, is like getting a coupon from a store or $5 of <STORECASH!>.

It costs them nothing, the product is virtual - what are you going to do with 270mc?

Mostly it incentivizes purchases.


The other aspect is people playing, more people playing will generate even more people playing - some one will buy something.


Effectively, this helps them cast a larger net and is very likely built into their pricing scheme which is why prices are on the high side for many things.


So just like a store will mark up product by some amount and then put it on "sale" for a reasonable amount, they didn't really lose anything or give anything away.

Edited by Ultimatum X, 03 January 2016 - 12:07 AM.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Ultimatum X, on 03 January 2016 - 12:06 AM, said:

Its interesting data for sure, but they aren't really giving anything away.

Giving away a few MC here and there, or a mechbay, is like getting a coupon from a store or $5 of <STORECASH!>.

It costs them nothing, the product is virtual - what are you going to do with 270mc?

Mostly it incentivizes purchases.


The other aspect is people playing, more people playing will generate even more people playing - some one will buy something.


Effectively, this helps them cast a larger net and is very likely built into their pricing scheme which is why prices are on the high side for many things.


So just like a store will mark up product by some amount and then put it on "sale" for a reasonable amount, they didn't really lose anything or give anything away.

Not sure about you, but I haven't felt more inclined to spend money (or more than I already do) because of these types of events.

There's a bit of difference between "receive $5 store credit for every hour you spend in our store" and "receive $5 off your next purchase". One lets you build up that credit at the cost of spending time in their store (or, playing MWO), while the other requires you to pay money.

That's partially why I feel like these evemts aren't exactly an incentive like coupons are. As you've said, what PGI is giving are virtual goods, but it's 270mc less than you needed to start with. If that's all you needed to get what you wanted, it could be seen as a loss, as PGI is not seeing a return on that MC, apart from your participation. But that's looking at it as an individual. Their loss on you could be offset by a larger return from someone else.

Things can get vague/confusing when trying to find an accurate comparison between physical goods vs virtual goods, and the differences behind their business models. As the $ value in the charts is not the $ value that PGI is losing - the value in my chart is our cost, not PGI's loss. And that cost is also converted with bulk purchase pricing. (such as largest mc package $ value, largest premium time pack for MC, etc). Which means that the actual $ value is far less than what would be real world (most popular MC option is the 6500mc option I'm assuming, but mc $ value is based on the largest 25,000mc $100 pack)

But in the end, I would agree that it does help sales; however from my point of view and given the nature of the commodity and business model, these events are purely "good-will" and future sales depend on what that means to customers. Customers who appreciate that sort of thing would likely be the ones feeling more compelled to give back by investing in a purchase.
Whether or not it's comparable to a coupon, or a marked up retail price to falsify a sale, the goal is still to attract or retain customers.
The difference here being is that I feel that these types of events benefit more from sentimental/loyal customers.

That's my 2% at least lol.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 03 January 2016 - 01:03 AM.

[5LeafClover]

Puts the upcoming tournament prize pool in perspective.

Just imagine if they decided to give the prizes in MC of an equivalent value.

[MoonUnitBeta]

5LeafClover, on 03 January 2016 - 01:47 AM, said:

Puts the upcoming tournament prize pool in perspective.

Just imagine if they decided to give the prizes in MC of an equivalent value.

Haha yeah. Someone with even just 1/10th of the total MC they've given away with this current event would not have a reason to buy any more. That'd be a wonderful prize lol. They would basically own the game at that point haha, for a few years at least

[Ultimax]

MoonUnitBeta, on 03 January 2016 - 12:43 AM, said:

Not sure about you, but I haven't felt more inclined to spend money (or more than I already do) because of these types of events.

I don't know your situation but you've been playing the game a long time, so I'll assume you probably have a nice collection of mechs considering your start date.

I have a big collection of mechs, lots of premium time from packs.

These events aren't really aimed at you or me, they are aimed at players who haven't invested much in the game - they get some things for playing and PGI hopes that incentivizes them to buy in or at least keep playing.


What the events do for me and you, whether it works or not, is fill the queues with people to shoot at and give us some extra reasons to play (and we also become extra people to shoot at for others).

[Octantis]

I stepped away from the game for 10 months. Got an email about this event and decided why not try it again. The game has improved much. Since then I've prepurchased the Archer. So they gave me some free swag that I'll probably blow on a color or something and they made $ on some other sales... I am the person they are shooting for.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Octantis, on 03 January 2016 - 10:29 PM, said:

I stepped away from the game for 10 months. Got an email about this event and decided why not try it again. The game has improved much. Since then I've prepurchased the Archer. So they gave me some free swag that I'll probably blow on a color or something and they made $ on some other sales... I am the person they are shooting for.

Good to hear! Welcome back!

[xWiredx]

That is kind of what PGI is aiming these at, yeah. Imagine a guy that buys in just a little bit, uses most of his MC, then starts getting some in the event. He's just short of something he'd really like to buy, so he spends the $7 to get just enough MC to get it. That's another scenario this type of event can feed.

Also, looks like there's a decent bit more redemption than previous events. Looks like launching on Steam really was good for a small growth spurt.

Personally, I only got about half of the prizes this time around. Spent a lot of time with family, friends, and working on the house.

[Big Tin Man]

Eh, even for the old vets the MC prizes can milk an extra dollar or two out of us. For example, a while back the Misery was 50% off and I was a few MC short just before the sale ended. Boom, $7 mc pack sold so I could get mech #60something out of 112 currently owned.

Would I have paid full price for a Misery, god no. Would I have bought a Misery at half price, if I had to buy a fresh MC pack to fully fund it, no. Would I buy it if it only meant buying the smallest possible MC pack to get over the hump and have a lot left over... yes.

[Big Tin Man]

Wow, looked closer at the numbers, and the active hours played must be much, much higher. Stocking stuffer #2 is nearly double the size of #1, despite #2 not offering mechbays as a prize, and Halloween #2 is 60% larger than #1, and Halloween #1 ran much longer.

Any chance you can throw up the # of grabbag draws for each event?

From the numbers, it sure looks like the playerbase is growing.

[Deathlike]

Big Tin Man, on 04 January 2016 - 05:50 PM, said:

Wow, looked closer at the numbers, and the active hours played must be much, much higher. Stocking stuffer #2 is nearly double the size of #1, despite #2 not offering mechbays as a prize, and Halloween #2 is 60% larger than #1, and Halloween #1 ran much longer.

Any chance you can throw up the # of grabbag draws for each event?

From the numbers, it sure looks like the playerbase is growing.

To be fair, you need more of a contextual giveaway per day as not all of the events have the same length of time scheduled for the grabbags. The last Christmas event tends to be extended, where some take a week+ (but not more than 2 weeks).

[MoonUnitBeta]

Big Tin Man, on 04 January 2016 - 05:50 PM, said:

Wow, looked closer at the numbers, and the active hours played must be much, much higher. Stocking stuffer #2 is nearly double the size of #1, despite #2 not offering mechbays as a prize, and Halloween #2 is 60% larger than #1, and Halloween #1 ran much longer.

Any chance you can throw up the # of grabbag draws for each event?

From the numbers, it sure looks like the playerbase is growing.

Deathlike, on 04 January 2016 - 07:06 PM, said:

To be fair, you need more of a contextual giveaway per day as not all of the events have the same length of time scheduled for the grabbags. The last Christmas event tends to be extended, where some take a week+ (but not more than 2 weeks).

One might be able to work out an average value on a per-day basis for each of the events, with the amount of grab-bag opportunities acting as a multiplier.
Since Stock Stuffer Event #1 has different prize weights than that of #2, it could be possible to then swap in the daily averages from Event #1 into the prize weighting of Event #2 (or the Halloween Event #2 since it has mechbays), and then study the differences in results.


I have been toying with the idea of excluding the Blood Money event, as players who own and played with their ® variants received 250k more c-bills as a bonus, but for now I've simply just added a tag in the title to signify that it's different than the rest. It's interesting to note that the weightings aren't much different than what we have now.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 04 January 2016 - 07:38 PM.

[Big Tin Man]

Deathlike, on 04 January 2016 - 07:06 PM, said:

To be fair, you need more of a contextual giveaway per day as not all of the events have the same length of time scheduled for the grabbags. The last Christmas event tends to be extended, where some take a week+ (but not more than 2 weeks).

The Christmas events were about the same duration, and the first halloween event was shorter, so to compare xmas to xmas and halloween to halloween are somewhat fair, it just comes down to the question of if they changed the prize weighting that much. Also, this xmas event was gimped on overall MC value because mechbays were not given out. Where it gets interesting is the number of pulls.

For example:
Trick or treat 2 offered 25 bonus pulls for warhammer pre-order + up to 125 pulls for playing (with an easy bar to enter)
Trick or treat 1 offered unlimited pulls, but a harder scoring formula to qualify
Trick or treat 2 gave out 60% more MC value than 1.

Stocking stuffer 1 offered 100 pulls, no bonus pulls
Stocking stuffer 2 offered 150 pulls, and up to 50 bonus pulls for archer and rifleman preorders
Both used match score to qualify, fairly low bars as well. Both ran about the same duration too.
Stocking stuffer 2 gave out nearly double the MC equivalent of Stuffer 1. So what conclusions can we assume here?