Heroes for Hire - Price Update (5/19/17)

Storm of fire

I picked up five Heroes for Hire (I think) at 2500HP because I didn't care about the extras, I just wanted better coverage/wanted to get out of a sticky situation. I thought it was an excellent solution for just that kind of situation where you might be stuck at 5/5/0 or 4/4/2 and champ/placement/vault rewards and/or bonus heroes weren't going to work in your favour, especially for characters not in tokens that aren't otherwise available.

Mildly disappointed and sad to see the 2500HP store that was offered to me go, but not surprised.

I was going to pick up War Machine blue since mine is missing that colour when it popped up available for purchase for me tomorrow, but that's not looking likely anymore with the higher price point.

dudethtsawesome

how was the decision made?  The only h4h store I ever had was the 4*cover plus some iso8 for 2500 hp.  It never really seemed like that great of a deal.  I'm definitely never going to spend 3600 hp. I'm not sure the market research was well thought out on this one. 

broll

Alsmir said:

scottee said:

Why would they lie? If they wanted to just make an expensive package to "make more money", they wouldn't AB test. They'd make only the 3600 package. Forumites are such conspiracy theorists.

If they wanted to acually test which option is better, everyone would be able to choose between A and B.

Also if they really did a fair test, they would be willing to share the results and what determined the decision.  When asked Brigby didn't say his usual "good question I'll ask", he said "I don't have that information"  I suspect he was given very clear boundaries on what he could say on this topic.  He can feel free to prove me wrong.

Beer40

Can someone else make the joke about them vaulting the 2500 offer? I'm already a point down on my account ????

astrp3

broll said:

The sinic in me suspects that if the 3600 did sell more, it's only because it was given as the only option to a larger group of players.  

Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Why in the world would they deliberately rig the results by offering the 3600 to significantly more players so they could claim it was more popular, instead of just charging 3600 from the start? What possible benefit is it to them to offer people a 2500 deal, knowing that they were going to change it to 3600, then rigging a test (that they didn't need to do in the first place and that no one asked for) to produce the results they wanted, ticking people off in the process? Are they just masochists who get their jollies tweaking us? Or are you claiming that it wasn't deliberate and that everyone at D3 is so monumentally stupid that they don't understand the concept of using buy rate rather than number of purchases when the populations are unequal?

scottee

I'm not saying their testing method was good. I'm saying they genuinely wanted to test it, and it looks like their results point towards more buys at 3600.

That's different than saying they never truly wanted to test it and are now lying to us. 

genapp

This is frustrating. I would've bought at least a couple times at 2500 if I'd been offered that amount. 

GritsNGravy

As a player that had the 2500 offer, this makes me happy.  The value in CP and ISO is much better.

Starfury

MushroomGenius808 said:

Bought 3 at 2500 (Nova, Rhulk, can't remember the first one I bought, but it was week 1)... won't buy any at 3600. 

Saw the announcement for the 300hp, didn't receive it.

"anyone that helped us determine the best offering"
You voted for the other side, why should you get something?

scottee said:

Not sure why everyone's up in arms. There's already a comment from an alliance saying the 3600 bundle was more worth it.

Most of the sales on these will be from those in buyers' clubs, who have lots of spare HP. That'll account for far more sales than people who save up and only purchase the package every once in a while. The whales are adding up all the contents, and if they deem the 3600 package more worth, what's that to you?

Then they should definitely create a store selling 4 elites, 6000 iso and 2 cp for 1100 hp. That would sell like hot cakes.

irwando

astrp3 said:

broll said:

The sinic in me suspects that if the 3600 did sell more, it's only because it was given as the only option to a larger group of players.  

Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Why in the world would they deliberately rig the results by offering the 3600 to significantly more players so they could claim it was more popular, instead of just charging 3600 from the start? What possible benefit is it to them to offer people a 2500 deal, knowing that they were going to change it to 3600, then rigging a test (that they didn't need to do in the first place and that no one asked for) to produce the results they wanted, ticking people off in the process? Are they just masochists who get their jollies tweaking us? Or are you claiming that it wasn't deliberate and that everyone at D3 is so monumentally stupid that they don't understand the concept of using buy rate rather than number of purchases when the populations are unequal?

Given the quality of other changes, my money says its more they thought they were testing correctly but don't actually have people who understand how to properly run A/B testing in this scenario, nor is the system built for it.  

Alsmir

Just one more thing.

Giving every player two options: 2,5k and 3,6k is a good way to determine if players feel that extra stuff is worh extra 1,1k hp. It's simple, it's transparent and quite consumer-friendly.

Offering a single option for a customer at random, doesn't serve that purpose. If there is no 3rd option - all the axtras priced at, 1,1k hp, this tactic is used to determine how high can they push the cost for people to still accept it. You can't directly buy 4* covers with hp, so players can either desperately spend up to 3,6k hp per one cover or not get that cover for hp at all.
That is not consumer-friendly at all and just a way to maximize profits.

The Viceroy Returns

Storm of fire said:

I was going to pick up War Machine blue since mine is missing that color when it popped up available for purchase for me tomorrow, but that's not looking likely anymore with the higher price point.

Damn, I need War Machine Blue to finish mine off too.
I've pulled THREE War Machine Reds in a row as a bonus covers...

Alsmir

astrp3 said:

broll said:

The sinic in me suspects that if the 3600 did sell more, it's only because it was given as the only option to a larger group of players.  

Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Why in the world would they deliberately rig the results by offering the 3600 to significantly more players so they could claim it was more popular, instead of just charging 3600 from the start? What possible benefit is it to them to offer people a 2500 deal, knowing that they were going to change it to 3600, then rigging a test (that they didn't need to do in the first place and that no one asked for) to produce the results they wanted, ticking people off in the process? Are they just masochists who get their jollies tweaking us? Or are you claiming that it wasn't deliberate and that everyone at D3 is so monumentally stupid that they don't understand the concept of using buy rate rather than number of purchases when the populations are unequal?

Simple answer is: for money.

Starfury

astrp3 said:

broll said:

The sinic in me suspects that if the 3600 did sell more, it's only because it was given as the only option to a larger group of players.  

Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Why in the world would they deliberately rig the results by offering the 3600 to significantly more players so they could claim it was more popular, instead of just charging 3600 from the start? What possible benefit is it to them to offer people a 2500 deal, knowing that they were going to change it to 3600, then rigging a test (that they didn't need to do in the first place and that no one asked for) to produce the results they wanted, ticking people off in the process? Are they just masochists who get their jollies tweaking us? Or are you claiming that it wasn't deliberate and that everyone at D3 is so monumentally stupid that they don't understand the concept of using buy rate rather than number of purchases when the populations are unequal?

True. However I strongly doubt more people bought the 3600hp offer over the 2500hp.

I'd say Enough people bought the more expensive offer for them to make it the default.

broll

astrp3 said:

broll said:

The sinic in me suspects that if the 3600 did sell more, it's only because it was given as the only option to a larger group of players.  

Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Why in the world would they deliberately rig the results by offering the 3600 to significantly more players so they could claim it was more popular, instead of just charging 3600 from the start? What possible benefit is it to them to offer people a 2500 deal, knowing that they were going to change it to 3600, then rigging a test (that they didn't need to do in the first place and that no one asked for) to produce the results they wanted, ticking people off in the process? Are they just masochists who get their jollies tweaking us? Or are you claiming that it wasn't deliberate and that everyone at D3 is so monumentally stupid that they don't understand the concept of using buy rate rather than number of purchases when the populations are unequal?

This is a fair point, I probably went to far into crazy town there, but I'll never believe more people bought 3600 then 2500 unless they produce statistics.

Also your last sentence is probably correct, RNGsus knows they've been proving that in spades this year...

Uncletas

While this is not shocking, my first thought was about the 300 refund. So I was in the 3600 group and did not buy because I was hoping for the lower price but my friend in the 2500 paid, got his 4* and now is going to get more hp for participating?  Obviously my vote of not buying doesn't really count but it feels like another slight. I know life is not fair but man they could have thought through the wording of that better. Also since the test was so long, might as well go all in. 2nd cover run anyone who had the 2500 deal would have the 3600 and vice versa and then 3rd cover give both options.   Everyone has a chance to make their voices heard 

liminal_lad

Didn't buy any at 3600. Will continue not to.

BoyWonder1914

I really wonder sometimes about the business acumen of the people that run this operation. Pricing is a situation that any business that offers any kind of product deals with, so this is no way unique to you guys. Every business faces the dilemma of making more money by:

1) Charging more money, and thus making more by the same people paying more, OR
2) Charging less money, and thus making more money by attracting more customers/more purchases from the same customers

I don't honestly see why option 2 isn't the obvious choice here. The people that are willing to pay 3600, do you honestly think you'll lose a single one of them by charging LESS! Hell no, if anything they'll buy more, and probably more often. You are however, practically guaranteed to lose the people that paid 2500, because they are not willing to pay 3600. This is a free-to-play game, so they don't make any money simply by a new person joining the fray. They make money by people SPENDING. What entices people to spend? Prices that are reasonable, and provide good value. To a whale, I highly doubt 1100 HP is decision-changing. To just about anyone else, bang for buck matters a great deal. Please take this one back to the drawing board Finance guys. 

pheregas

@Brigby

Regardless of the decision making, now that this store is set in proverbial stone, I would like to humbly request that the store be relegated to it's own button and that button alone (as the button already exists!)  Like SHIELD RANK, VIP, and Daily Supply, this menu can only be accessed through the button.  This store does not need to float in front or behind active vaults/stores for ongoing events and serves no purpose there.

astrp3

Alsmir said:

Simple answer is: for money.

Sorry again, but your "simple" answer still seems ludicrous to me. I agree that overall they did this to make money, but how do they make more money by running a fake test with a lower offer and rigging the results than by just offering 3600 from the get-go? The explanation that they did it to make us think they care seems even more far-fetched. Am I to believe that there are players who normally would not have bought the 3600 offer but were prompted to do so by the warm fuzzy they got from D3 doing a test then making them an offer they would not otherwise have accepted? If any players would be so prompted, I'd think they'd be more players who were ticked off that they jacked up the price on them or didn't give them both options. If you were just trying to push people into buying by making them feel like you cared by running a poll, wouldn't offering them both prices serve just as well? You can't say "no, then people would know about both offers and be ticked off" because the whole conspiracy theory that they were doing the poll to give us a warm fuzzy requires that players actually knew they were doing testing (which I find questionable).