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(Seriously, WTF? Still no shopping cart?)
First, always pre-order.
The reason is simple. Let's say you don't care about the decal, hanging items, or Cbills. The true kicker here is the color. If you've ever checked the unlocked price in Mechlab, those colors are going for about 1000 MC each. Now, I understand that you are not a big color guy. But 3 colors at 1000 each, is 15 dollars right there. If you pre-order, you are essentially getting the pack for free if you have to purchase colors later! This is truly a much better deal aside from the one time that you get a free mech for pre-order.
Second, collector pack is such a rip-off.
Now, obviously, if earning 15% fictitious space dollar is important to you (like, twice the price important), than go ahead. Because by all accounts, it's a terrible deal even WITH the premium time incentive.
Let's say you purchase premium time from gift store. The current going rate is 105 dollars for a whole year. (And keep in mind, if you wait for MC to go on sale, that price will drop significantly lower). Let's take the Champion junk out of the equation for a moment, and say all those extra dollars are for the incentive to buy Premium Time. Well, for Escalation, it's 75 dollars extra to buy 4 months of time. You see how by paying 25 dollars more, you get the entire YEAR?
(Again, wait for MC sale to buy year worth of premium time)
Now, you can certainly argue that the Champion is pretty, thus not out of the equation. Fair enough. What do you think should be the fair price of a Champion mech then? Remember, a Mastery bundle is about the additional price of the Collector. It gives you 30 days, Champion, AND a Hero mech. And if special paint-job is that much of a draw, let me remind you of the whole debacle of Scorch, which they still haven't fixed fully yet. (And I don't understand why people are giving them a pass so easily after the shoddy ring unlock. The whole point is for the effect to EXTEND to the entire body, not the first 25% of the mech)
For one pack, you can reasonably argue that Collector may be worth it. But the more you buy, the more you lose. Just purchase premium time separately, wait for sale, and save yourself a whole lot of money for Geico.
Third, always check the price difference between real money and MC in-game store.
Always do a conversion check based on the going rate of the MC, and whether waiting for sales is worth it. For the most part, Mastery Bundle purchased through real money store is always a rip-off. However, with that said, some mechs are hilariously mispriced, and that you may occasionally find a good deal.
For example, recently I came across the Vindicator Pack and Shadow Hawk Pack. Did you know that Shadow Hawk Pack is way more expensive than the Vindicator using MC store, while it's cheaper in the real money store? Factor that in, and it may be worth it to purchase Shadow Hawk Park in the real money store. In any case, always check the price difference between the 2 stores, AND compare the price with it's peers too. It never hurts to check a few different prices. (In the real world, you check 3 Toyota dealership to buy the cheapest Accord. In PGI's world, you check the 4 corners of the SAME dealership to buy the cheapest Accord. Go figures.)
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A sincere message to PGI:
As much as I love exploiting ways to pay you less money, I also want to highlight with this strategy of how archaic and inconsistent your marketing decision have been.
What do customers want? They want deals. (And good product. Where is my zoom-able mini-map that you promised?) You need to figure out incentives for customers to buy more, not less.
The whole concept of Collector Pack is just trash. If you buy a "Collector's edition" of a video game, first of all, it's not double the price. Second of all, you usually get some cool things that cannot be purchased anywhere else. And as much that I will be blasted for it, what's the whole point of being a "Champion" if you aren't just a little bit better? None of these "paywall" guys are looking out for you to promote the game. Why aren't these Champions starting out with a little extra quirks on the side? (yea yea P2W, go suck a lemon)
And if that's a problem with perception, at the very least, get Sean Lang or EMP to design a pre-decked out Meta version of the mech, where the draw is, you spend no extra space dollars to get it functioning. There has to be a difference. There has to be a better draw than double the price for 1 mech with the ability to earn extra fictional currency and hit or miss paint-job.
High resolution art e-book? Hanging/standing items that will never be released for purchase? Or simply, just merge "Collector" and "Reinforcement" pack.
Maybe every time you buy a Collector pack, you earn "PGI points", that will enter you into a monthly raffle to get free stuff? The world is your oyster, be creative! If you've ever watched Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare or Hotel Hell, you know the biggest problem of any of the failing properties is resistance to change (and/or management), you have to evolve your marketing strategy as you evolve your game.
Listen to your customers. Be bold and creative. Modernize. Just because you are a video game company doesn't mean everything you do is automatically on on point. You cannot stick to your old ways and expect to grow. Remember, the more ways you have to confuse a customer, the more money you will rake in. And DEALS are automatically what confuses customers. So start making sensible modern deals, not your archaic model from 4 years ago.
I mean, that's what Tina is for right? Figure this out. I have faith in you. (As it took a lot of hit recently, but renewed with the release of Nightstar. Thank you for listening to your fans.)
O and, for the love of god, SHOPPING CART.
SHOPPING CARTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
(And that would be the last tip that I promised. To not get your card locked, purchase 1 pre-order every few days. If you space them out, your credit card company will learn the behavior and not lock your card for 4 consecutive purchases. Way to make it convenient and for customers to have a chance to have a sober reflection of their life choice, PGI! And yes, that was sarcasm. ALWAYS PROMOTE IMPULSE BUY. Setup a shopping cart.)
Edited by razenWing, 04 June 2017 - 02:30 AM.
