Monetize Your Game Better

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by KrakenReality, Oct 20, 2020.

  1. Nadisia Augur

    And closing a full headquarter ... (Versailles, France), firing hundreds of employees.
    Their customer service and forum moderation is now handled by bots.

    The game lore is now absolutely absurd, written by some 3rd grade failed authors (aka Christie ... YouknowwhoImean), they are putting censorship everywhere, even downgrading old text parts (Omg ... Garrosh said *bitch* 10 years ago) just because a dev was stupid enough to play a Teen ESRB ranked game with his 5yo kid, and so on ...

    And on top of that, the game is led by a jerk (and the company lead is even worse, aka. Bob the Sponge).

    Dunno why Brevik, Pardo, Metzen, Street, Mosqueira, Morhaime and many others left the company over the years. :D
    Yeah, for sure, all we need is more «Blizzard way of life» for EQ ... or not ;)
    Joules_Bianchi and Skuz like this.
  2. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    It sounds like WoW is at the point where EQ1 and EQ2 was at after the EQNext fiasco. Perhaps, not as dramatic as the SOE break up but a definite shift in momentum for WoW and Blizzard.

    I think there is a sort of set lifespan and entropy (gradual decline into disorder) with each game. It is a compliment for game developers to sustain it after that point of decline. EQ1 is like the Voyager 1 probe of MMORPGs, testing the limits of a living game.
    Zunnoab and Skuz like this.
  3. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    That's genius actually. Fantastic comment.
    Benito and minimind like this.
  4. KrakenReality Augur

    Holy crap, this post was about timing subscription sales to manipulate your customer base into spending more than they were intending. It’s now become about LGBT bunnies, something about EQ dying, WoW is dying, Blizzard’s financial status.

    Fact is Blizzard is better at getting people to part with $$$. They throw out some pretty pixels coupled with a 6 month subscription and people justify it as a good deal. They tell themselves they were going to play anyways and on and on.
    Zunnoab, minimind and eqgamer like this.
  5. Wyre Wintermute I'm just a butterly dreaming I'm a man

    If EQ really wants to rake is more cash, creating lockout timer removal items, Like SOE did with Vanguard) would likely see a significant amount of income. They could put a "limit" to exclude the most current expansion.

    Seriously, with all of the TLP's constantly being pushed out, being able to clear lockouts to speed up low-tier flagging?.. yeah, I can see that becoming more of a norm with the more fervent guilds and ones who don't triple split raid to speed up the progression due to condensed timelines.

    Even after progression is complete, I can see guilds using them on TLP's to increase the rate of end-zone farming before the next x-pac drops.

    You just have to do proper implementation, like excluding the most current expansion (say Scars of Velious) and lumping all events in a raid zone under one lockout remover (this prevents abuse of skipping a single disliked event and/or skipping all events just to repeat a single event in the instance).

    While Vanguard's version was simply per-boss, everything was also in an open world, so getting to/from any specific raid event was never an issue to begin with.

    There could also be a cooldown timer on lockout removal. Since Vanguard's raid events were on a ~8hr respawn, putting an 8-12 hr lockout removal coodlown in EQ would have a similar result. You'd be able to obtain a lockout, clear it, and obtain it again within a single day, but you wouldn't be able to chain it repeatedly. Thus, after the first lockout, you could unlock it again once/day from that point on, possibly twice per day.

    (oh and VG's were tradable, much like krono's and had their own in-game market values)
  6. Joules_Bianchi A certain gnome

    I wish I coule "Like" this post as much as I like this post.

    Brevik did some good Youtube videos about this.
  7. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.


    Reading between the lines of https://www.dreamhaven.com/news/announcement
    Has a lot of clues about that I think.

    “I’m excited to team up with such talented people who care deeply about games and their communities,” said Dreamhaven CEO Mike Morhaime. “I’ve always believed in the power of games to bring people together regardless of backgrounds or boundaries. With Dreamhaven, we look forward to creating and sharing new experiences with players everywhere.”
    The team at Dreamhaven came together around a common goal to empower creators, help bring their ideas to life, and create original gaming experiences that foster meaningful connections between players
    Nadisia likes this.
  8. KermittheFroglok Augur

    *sigh* As I already said in my earlier post... Welcome to the community :)
    Skuz and eqgamer like this.
  9. KrakenReality Augur

    Thanks, used to have an account on the old SoE forums.

    Throwing more gas on the fire, Blizzard is dying. They haven’t released a game in years (Warcraft 3: Reforged, lol 0.5/100 review) and that’s putting all the weight on WoW to show each quarter they’re making more money than the previous quarter. So, they take more money from their idiots and develop more content based not on fun but how long they can make people play.
  10. Joules_Bianchi A certain gnome

    and the post began with

    "You should be following the Blizzard model"

    Which led people to recoil in horror.

    The rest of the thread is a littany of reasons why.

    There are more factors than how much cash we can scrape off fools that make for a "better" game.

    and why I'm still in EQ and lasted one expansion cycle in WoW.

    Dignity is a thing.
  11. KrakenReality Augur

    Yeah, they’re good at taking money from idiots and making them think it’s a good deal. Plus, there’s not really any dignity left in this game after LoN loot cards.
  12. Nadisia Augur

    Not sure if this business model would work on the EQ community.

    For sure, I'm not THE whole community, so I'll just speak for myself, but I don't really care about pretty pixels on EQ.
    And I don't really care about a hanful of bucks saved over a year.
    In fact, goodies locked behind some packs tend to have the opposite effect on me, it's more repulvise than attractive.

    If I want to play something pretty, I play ... Genshin Impact, pretty cool FREE game.
    But pretty on EQ or WoW ... well :D

    And honestly, WoW doesn't even look pretty to me (even after all the so-called upgrades that are often downgrades, but whatever).

    Exactly like Joules-Bianchi above, content is what I like on EQ.
    And even more because this content is pretty much unlocked , and at least not time gated, so I can do it at my own pace, freely.

    I have played Legion, and it was probably the most stupid and frustrating experience I ever met on this game.
    Time gates, locks, bottlenecks everywhere.

    Khadgar : Ok Nadi, bring me 1000 or 2000 currencies for this step.
    Nadi kills some super weak mobs, completes a handful of even weaker world quests in no time, and comes back.
    Nadi : Ok Khadgar, voilà. So what now?
    Khadgar : Now? wowow, hold on pretty girl, see you in ... 2 weeks for the next part.

    :confused:

    I hate this system, that's one of the main reasons why I left.
    This, and all the gimmicky time locked follower-like mechanics since WoD (do you see me, Overseer? :D).
    Who knows, I might have been a squirrel or a bunny in another life, I don't like to feel trapped.
    Joules_Bianchi likes this.
  13. Joules_Bianchi A certain gnome

    Heh, I wonder how EQ players would react if they bought an expansion of 7 new zones and they finished the first zone and.. had to wait 40 days for them to finish testing the 2nd tier.

    You know, like WoW does.
    code-zero and Nadisia like this.
  14. KrakenReality Augur

    @Nadisia: Yes, the EQ base cares about pixels, LoN loot cards, the store is filled with them, housing, heritage crates, etc.
  15. Nadisia Augur

    Yeah, exactly, and time locked merc/partisan arcs?

    What? You have already completed the *Random Zone 1st Mercenary task* today?
    Nope, you'll have to wait till tomorrow for the next one.

    Let me iiiiiiiin ...

    [IMG]
  16. code-zero Augur

    How about going to the WoW forums and telling Blizzard to implement the Krono model of subscriptions?
  17. KrakenReality Augur

    They already have the WoW token and it can be redeemed for Blizz Bucks and purchase expansions and store items.
  18. code-zero Augur

    IIRC that's a neutered version of the concept. And my point is go to the WoW forums and make suggestions like the one you made and see if you get a lot of positive response
  19. KrakenReality Augur

    How is it worse? They’re more easily traded and have more usage than a Krono.
  20. Joules_Bianchi A certain gnome

    Re: Krono vs WoW tokens.

    Ask youself, what is the critical difference betwen how they're converted?


    Let's examine the following:

    I buy a Krono, always for the same price, and depending on the server economy I sell it, it's platinum exchange is purely determined by supply, demand, and current scale of SERVER economy, because EQ SERVERS ARE UNIQUE and EQ doesn't manipulate it's fiat currency. Actual server and player demand drives how much platinum a Krono is worth. This is organic.

    I buy a WoW token and regardless of what server I play on, BLIZZARD sells and buys it FOR me. At convenient times, like before earnings calls, new releases, etc, BLIZZARD changes the resale and even availibility to purchase a WoW token. These fluctuations are by design and are not player organic. Blizzard will remove them from purchase for periods to "increase sales" (delay predictable sales rates) to push an earnings call and artifically overvalue a token's Gold exchange rate. This is manipulation.
    code-zero likes this.