What should we infer from iso sales on back to back weeks?

Vhailorx
Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
edited August 2016 in MPQ General Discussion
I can see at least two plausible scenarios:

(1) demi/d3 know that the player base is agitated about iso, and have been rolling out small increases at the edges to release some of the pressure they are getting from players (i.e. this sales are just like revising the taco vault rewards, or raising the daily alliance rewards).

(2) demi/d3 are worried by low iso sales and are trying to bring in a bit more revenue.

Any other plausible explanations? Does back-to-back weeks at the same discount level offer any additional insight?
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Comments

  • jredd
    jredd Posts: 1,387 Chairperson of the Boards
    same thing we should infer from yellow spider gwen and yellow star lord in back to back pvp's. we're spoiled...
  • SnowcaTT
    SnowcaTT Posts: 3,486 Chairperson of the Boards
    All the whales have all the 5*'s they need.

    All the mini-whales have enough 4*'s maxed that they don't feel the need to max more.
  • Orion
    Orion Posts: 1,295 Chairperson of the Boards
    People have wised up to the fact that ISO in the game is horribly, horribly overpriced?

    Seriously, they'd need to have a 500% increase in ISO, not 50% and maybe, just maybe I'd consider it.
  • Sluggo
    Sluggo Posts: 504 Critical Contributor
    One possibility: They didn't make enough $$ from last week's sale, so they ran it again.

    Another possibility: They made pretty good $$ from last week's sale, so they ran it again.

    I don't think we can really infer anything for sure. We can speculate, but it's really anyone's guess.
  • hodayathink
    hodayathink Posts: 528 Critical Contributor
    Sluggo wrote:
    One possibility: They didn't make enough $$ from last week's sale, so they ran it again.

    Another possibility: They made pretty good $$ from last week's sale, so they ran it again.

    I don't think we can really infer anything for sure. We can speculate, but it's really anyone's guess.

    This. It's just as likely that they made more money than they were expecting from last week's sale and decided to run it again to see if the trend repeated than it is that they made less money than they expected so they ran it again to try to make up for the shortfall. We can't really infer anything without knowing how many people are buying.
  • Ratboy
    Ratboy Posts: 10 Just Dropped In
    My guess that we will be able to earn a lot more ISO in the very near future so they want to milk people one last time before purchasing ISO is an ever worse deal.
  • snlf25
    snlf25 Posts: 947 Critical Contributor
    Ratboy wrote:
    My guess that we will be able to earn a lot more ISO in the very near future so they want to milk people one last time before purchasing ISO is an ever worse deal.

    icon_e_confused.gif
  • carrion_pigeons
    carrion_pigeons Posts: 942 Critical Contributor
    Are they really sales if they cost the same as they always did? The opportunity to buy more for the same price doesn't really qualify as a "sale" in my opinion.

    In any case, my understanding is that promotions like this are run at random, with the idea being that people are more likely to buy one if they don't know when the next one will be. Pretty sure I read that from an actual dev at some point. Ultimately, who cares? A 50% increase to nothing of value isn't an increase at all.
  • Alsmir
    Alsmir Posts: 508 Critical Contributor
    ISO went from "horribly overpriced" to "still horribly overpriced". Oh boy!
  • Chrono_Tata
    Chrono_Tata Posts: 719 Critical Contributor
    My guess: Most people aren't buying ISO because it's way too overpriced. Running these sales basically give them some real world feedback on how much they need to give for people to be willing to spend on ISO.
  • OneLastGambit
    OneLastGambit Posts: 1,963 Chairperson of the Boards
    Genuinely speaking nobody in their right mind who doesn't have an unlimited bank balance would buy iso at the current price/iso ratio.

    I am constantly champing at least one character and even when I'm desperate to get that last 90k I would still rather sell the cover than pay at those prices.

    If d3 changed it so that 32k iso (not 3.2k) was $5 dollars then there is a very good chance that I might have bought it for every character I've champed to relieve the pressure. As it is d3 has lost approx $40 in possible sales because the conversion rate of $ to iso is so poor that id rather just miss my champ target than pay.

    D3 it's you job to make these buy options attractive enough that people like me will consider it when in a bind but not so attractive that people stop playing and just buy their success. Your current set up grossly misses this equilibrium
  • hodayathink
    hodayathink Posts: 528 Critical Contributor
    OneLastGambit wrote:
    D3 it's you job to make these buy options attractive enough that people like me will consider it when in a bind but not so attractive that people stop playing and just buy their success. Your current set up grossly misses this equilibrium

    It's their job to make sure someone buys it at that point. That someone doesn't have to be you or the other people on this forum like you.

    And I said this in the other thread, but for as much as everyone here complains about it, if no one was buying ISO, then the price/value wouldn't be where it is. The prices are where they are because people are buying it at that price. If it weren't selling, I have no doubt that they'd change things up (increasing the ISO offered at the price points).
  • OneLastGambit
    OneLastGambit Posts: 1,963 Chairperson of the Boards
    hodayathink wrote:
    OneLastGambit wrote:
    D3 it's you job to make these buy options attractive enough that people like me will consider it when in a bind but not so attractive that people stop playing and just buy their success. Your current set up grossly misses this equilibrium

    It's their job to make sure someone buys it at that point. That someone doesn't have to be you or the other people on this forum like you.

    And I said this in the other thread, but for as much as everyone here complains about it, if no one was buying ISO, then the price/value wouldn't be where it is. The prices are where they are because people are buying it at that price. If it weren't selling, I have no doubt that they'd change things up (increasing the ISO offered at the price points).

    Solid point but it's actually more beneficial if you can get more customers right? So if people are buying mother lodes (which we know whales do) then why wouldn't you also want to get you lower paying player base in on the act too?

    The argument that someone must be paying because the price had never changed is not entirely accurate, that would be like saying that IW is clearly a popular character because they have not removed her or that cho is great because they have not fixed him. It may well be true but i doubt that the majority of the casual player base are happy paying $100 just level a 4* three or four levels. That price point is there only for people for whom money is no object (a small portion of the player base) and those who might qualify as OCD.

    I'm not saying that d3 have to cater for me personally but players like me who could be customers but have nothing that represents value for money. People are buying...but why don't you want everyone to buy instead of 5% of them?
  • Linkster79
    Linkster79 Posts: 1,037 Chairperson of the Boards
    carrion pigeons wrote:
    Are they really sales if they cost the same as they always did? The opportunity to buy more for the same price doesn't really qualify as a "sale" in my opinion.

    Agreed. At most it should be classed as a special offer, not a sale. Its like going to a car dealership and them offering to throw in the mats and mudflaps to get your money and make you think you are getting a good deal, they are only offering some extras that should be included anyway and not actually lowering any price.
  • Polares
    Polares Posts: 2,643 Chairperson of the Boards
    OneLastGambit wrote:
    Genuinely speaking nobody in their right mind who doesn't have an unlimited bank balance would buy iso at the current price/iso ratio.

    I am constantly champing at least one character and even when I'm desperate to get that last 90k I would still rather sell the cover than pay at those prices.

    If d3 changed it so that 32k iso (not 3.2k) was $5 dollars then there is a very good chance that I might have bought it for every character I've champed to relieve the pressure. As it is d3 has lost approx $40 in possible sales because the conversion rate of $ to iso is so poor that id rather just miss my champ target than pay.

    D3 it's you job to make these buy options attractive enough that people like me will consider it when in a bind but not so attractive that people stop playing and just buy their success. Your current set up grossly misses this equilibrium

    Exactly this.

    Right now I am in one of those "get iso as fast as possible to champ a 4 or a cover is going to expire before I can use it" frenzy (in fact there are two covers), so I considered for 0.1s second to buy iso in the 'sale', but of course, I decided not to. I spend a lot of money in the game, but iso is so stupidly overpriced that I would never ever buy it. 20$ for 13k iso?!?!?!? Is this some kind of joke? They need to multiply the amounts of iso at least by 5.
    hodayathink wrote:
    ...
    And I said this in the other thread, but for as much as everyone here complains about it, if no one was buying ISO, then the price/value wouldn't be where it is. The prices are where they are because people are buying it at that price. If it weren't selling, I have no doubt that they'd change things up (increasing the ISO offered at the price points).

    I dont think this statement is true. I think almost nobody buys iso (in this forum or as a casual player). And they know that, and they are ok with that, because they make money with HP.

    I think Devs really think that if iso was cheaper, we would buy it at first, but then in the long run we would just stop playing. So they have it really overpriced so just super whales buy it.
  • The Herald
    The Herald Posts: 463 Mover and Shaker
    I would expect the difference in Hero Point sales to iso8 sales to be pretty significant.

    This MIGHT be a sign that the dinosaur has finally registered the stubbed toe and is now slowly comprehending the problem.

    What does everyone want?

    Iso8.

    What does nobody buy?

    Iso8.

    They will likely be super cagey about it. A single hour of an abusable system running could really throw the game off and they couldn't undo the damage as they charged people money for it.

    But hopefully they're grasping their way towards a solution.

    For our part we just need to go on not buying iso8 until it's worth the price, while still complaining about the lack of iso8 :p
  • simonsez
    simonsez Posts: 4,663 Chairperson of the Boards
    I would infer that we're not going to see significant in-game ISO increases until the devs make sure that we really, really don't want to buy it at these ridiculous prices...
  • mpqr7
    mpqr7 Posts: 2,642 Chairperson of the Boards
    I've given up on worrying about iso. I'll just play and then every few weeks or months, I'll finally make enough to champion a new 4*, and then I will. And I'll sell all 14th covers between then and now so that I can "sell-all" and not need to sell every 1* individually.
  • GrumpySmurf1002
    GrumpySmurf1002 Posts: 3,511 Chairperson of the Boards
    Polares wrote:
    I think Devs really think that if iso was cheaper, we would buy it at first, but then in the long run we would just stop playing. So they have it really overpriced so just super whales buy it.

    This is true. It was said way back when (I think IceIX, maybe someone else) that the Iso was supposed to be when you're desperate to finish a character, they didn't want people whaling the whole character. It's a consistent theme with all resources, they never want people bypassing 'stages' of the game with money. Yet they're a business, so they still left that option open for people willing to drop enough money to do so.

    Of course, since they introduced championing, Iso as a 'playing time' gate is more of an outdated concept. Having iso isn't enough any more, you still need thousands of covers to finish a roster. Token sales obviously help take care of that, and is a known gold mine, so Devs are fine with that avenue. Otherwise, playing is still the way to get those covers, which means buying out your roster with iso means considerably less than it used to. Prices for said iso should come down to reflect that.
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    OneLastGambit wrote:
    Genuinely speaking nobody in their right mind who doesn't have an unlimited bank balance would buy iso at the current price/iso ratio.

    I've said it before, but having worked in the financial field for a few years: you cannot even begin to conceive of how horrendous people are with money. Most people's mentality with money is "I can buy anything that I currently have the cash or credit for, because at some point in the future I will somehow have lots of money because reasons." And it's usually the people with the least cash that are doing the dumbest stuff with it.

    I have zero doubt that there are people dropping Benjamins on ISO on the regular. You just don't see them on this forum.

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