[Poll] A guide to customer service

dkffiv

I've seen a lot of arguments recently about how losing vets is a calculated and measured response to increasing their bottom line but isn't there a way to nerf characters, keep the vets happy and make the game more accessible to new players? I came up with this solution for "funbalancing" and would like the communities opinion on if my views are shared by everyone else.

While we may not agree on if 4hor, Xforce, Sentry, etc. nerfs are necessary, lets assume that the developers are indeed correct and its for the health of the game. If they handled things in the following way, would you still be seeking refunds and/or be less or more likely to spend money in the future?

1. Announce balance changes a week in advance, both on the forums and with an in game banner. No waiting until a day or two before it goes live to state it in game.

2. For 1* and 2* characters, value their covers at 100 / 250 ISO. The MMags sell for HP was awesome but pretty stupid overall, no one spends HP on 1/2*. For 3* and 4*, 1250 / 2500 HP.

3. Drop the sell back window to 5 days (2 PvP events). During this window if a player chooses to sell back a character they receive 100% of the leveling ISO cost and 50% of (# of covers x cover value). This refund comes regardless of how you obtained the covers, currently I would have the option of selling back my 5/5/3 level 270 Xforce for 400k iso and 16,250 HP and my 5/1/2 level 70 would be 0 iso and 10,000 HP.

4. Players who choose not to sell their characters or are not online for those 5 days receive 20% of the ISO and 10% HP value of the character they chose to leave in their roster (80k iso and 5,250 HP in this example).

5. Sellback would only occur for major (mostly ability revamp) changes. Minor tweaks like 5-10% damage increase or decreases or hp tier changes wouldn't have to have this.

Players who are unhappy with the new character can get rid of theirs and reinvest in a new character. If you're mad Xforce sucks you can sell him and level up Professor X or Iron Fist instead. If you want to keep him because you figure you may have a use for him later you can use the little bit that you got back to partially level a replacement. Your favorite character might suck but you're given the tools to choose a new one, vets don't feel like they're getting dicked over, noobs are happy they aren't facing OP characters over and over again, everyone wins.

I was trying to figure out how this type of change would affect their bottom line. As a vet I think I would be more likely to make a purchase due to the generous customer service (much like you are more likely to make a purchase when a company gives out free samples). With a surplus of HP I think I would be more willing to purchase covers and explore / enjoy the game more. Would giving away HP like that deter players from making real money purchases (was thinking along the lines of I already have HP so I don't need more) or would people loosen up and splurge a little with their bonus? At the very least I think it would garner a lot of positive word of mouth and at least pull in a few new customers that way.

** The %'s for keeping / selling could be tweaked but I think those are fair numbers.

wymtime

I have not spent money on this game and I will continue to not spend money on this game. I have 7k HP saved up and all the 3* characters in the game. I have always felt pride in winning my covers, and not buying them with real money. I know some people look at this as a subscription and only buy some covers, but I really like winning all the covers instead of buying them.

simonsez

I understand you're looking for a player-friendly option here, but I'm not ready to have to fight every PvP battle vs. a maxed KP and PX. If you offer full buybacks, this is pretty much what would immediately happen.

dkffiv

wymtime wrote:

I have not spent money on this game and I will continue to not spend money on this game. I have 7k HP saved up and all the 3* characters in the game. I have always felt pride in winning my covers, and not buying them with real money. I know some people look at this as a subscription and only buy some covers, but I really like winning all the covers instead of buying them.

This is just an opinion and you should in no way feel obligated to do so, but I think developers deserve to be compensated for their effort and maintaining the service if you enjoy it (especially over prolonged periods of time). Someone needs to pay to keep things running and we should all chip in rather than wait for whales to do so *if* the company is doing a good job (most of the recent changes have pointed me to no, they aren't doing a good job and I question whether I will continue to support them). More options to buy things with HP would be nice (like cosmetic changes / special effects) so players like you would have the option to support the company without feeling like they're paying to win.

simonsez wrote:

I understand you're looking for a player-friendly option here, but I'm not ready to have to fight every PvP battle vs. a maxed KP and PX. If you offer full buybacks, this is pretty much what would immediately happen.

If they're really working on funbalancing then the team you field would have comparable power and you shouldn't feel so bad. The issue of all the damage you're taking due to being forced into even fights would need to be addressed though.

simonsez

dkffiv wrote:

If they're really working on funbalancing then the team you field would have comparable power and you shouldn't feel so bad. The issue of all the damage you're taking due to being forced into even fights would need to be addressed though.

Correct... and as I said in another thread, I don't believe balancing is what they're looking for. Rotating the meta and making everyone chase the new shiny generates cover sales. Making all characters balanced and equivalent, doesn't.

Unknown

Honestly, the reason I haven't spent money on the game in over a year, and don't know why I would in the foreseeable future, isn't really because of much other than there's not really anything for me to spend money on. I've never bought covers, I never buy tokens or packs (aside from the anniversary daily tokens), ISO is too expensive to be worth buying, and, in any case, I have about 22k HP and 75K ISO in reserve right now.

I think part of the reason they keep tinkering with the formula is that they haven't monetized the game very well. There's a lot of stuff they could do to make me spend money on it - there's a reason I drop a buck on Tapped Out once a week for the golden lotto ticket - but there isn't really anything I can buy in MPQ that's worth real money at this point.