Hero points and how to increase revenue stream for MPQ. Maybe

wymtime

So as I was looking at the offers for costumes and how they are available in HFH and VIP I like how MPQ is looking to drive revenue stream with cosmetics over PTW content.  I do think there is another way to help drive revenue for MPQ and will make the playerbase happier with some of the new content.  Make some of these items PURCHASEABLE THROUGH HERO POINTS!!!
here is the thing.  The top 2 purchases are hero points and VIP. When the game does a sale on hero points I here and see a ton of people buying hero points.  Now when you take a look at the typical player they unse hero points for roster slots, and shields. You very rarely hear about players splurging on heroic 10 packs or the 120 item support vault.  The reason why is these are really bad deals.

the solution is make more things purchaseable with hero points.  Allow support tokens to be directly purchased by hero points, costumes eventually purchased by hero points, reset simulator rewards by using hero points. The more use hero points has that is not RNG the more value they have and the more willing people are to buy hero points.

i really do think that getting more players to use up their hero points could be a great way to drive up revenue in the long run or the devs.  When players have a surplus or currency that they don’t spend it is because the value is not there in the purchases you want players to make.

any other suggestions on what you think would drive more revenue for the devs or how hero points could be used?

HoundofShadow

I doubt it's as simple as making everything purchasable using Hero Points. Sure, Hero Points are their main source of revenue. Based on what one of the devs revealed somewhere in this subforum, Roster Slots and Comic Packs are the top two uses of Hero Points, somewhere around 60% and 30% respectively. 10% goes to the rest.

I'm curious, how many HP do you think should be used to:

1) Purchase Master Support Tokens? 
2) Reset Simulator rewards?
3) Purchase Costume

The cost of items gained from RNG is always cheaper than guaranteed items.  

I believe one important question that the devs might ask themselves is:

If I make X feature easily purchasable with Hero Points, how does it affect the balance of the game as a whole, from 1* players to 5* players?

For costume, it's a straightforward no.
Support definitely.
Resetting reward definitely.

Making CP purchasable is the way to increase revenue.

Kishida

People are already spending on HP. Vets are sitting on untold stores of HP. I have a hard time seeing how opening up uses for a widely available currency increases revenue stream.

wymtime

HoundofShadow said:

I'm curious, how many HP do you think should be used to:

1) Purchase Master Support Tokens? 
2) Reset Simulator rewards?
3) Purchase Costume

The cost of items gained from RNG is always cheaper than guaranteed items.  

I believe one important question that the devs might ask themselves is:

If I make X feature easily purchasable with Hero Points, how does it affect the balance of the game as a whole, from 1* players to 5* players?

For costume, it's a straightforward no.
Support definitely.
Resetting reward definitely.

Making CP purchasable is the way to increase revenue.

Of the top of my head 
1 7K-10K HP major advantage needs to cost more.
2 500-1k reset if someone wants to recline in sim and start over from 0 more power to them.
3 1k for a costume or include in HP HFR store.

wymtime

Kishida said:

People are already spending on HP. Vets are sitting on untold stores of HP. I have a hard time seeing how opening up uses for a widely available currency increases revenue stream.

I am currently sitting on 34k HP 4MM iso so I don’t see a reason to spend money on the game right now.  Vaults and packs have terrible odds.  For me if I am going to spend money on a game I want it to be for a resource I can use.  It’s supply and demand I have too much supply but nothing in demand to use it on.

Kishida

wymtime said:

Kishida said:

People are already spending on HP. Vets are sitting on untold stores of HP. I have a hard time seeing how opening up uses for a widely available currency increases revenue stream.

I am currently sitting on 34k HP 4MM iso so I don’t see a reason to spend money on the game right now.  Vaults and packs have terrible odds.  For me if I am going to spend money on a game I want it to be for a resource I can use.  It’s supply and demand I have too much supply but nothing in demand to use it on.

Sure, but even if they opened up avenues for HP usage, you have so many expendable resources that you'd build up a significant advantage before you even needed to reach for your credit card. This seems like a great deal for you, but what on earth does it bring in for D3/Demi?

wymtime

Kishida said:

wymtime said:

Kishida said:

People are already spending on HP. Vets are sitting on untold stores of HP. I have a hard time seeing how opening up uses for a widely available currency increases revenue stream.

I am currently sitting on 34k HP 4MM iso so I don’t see a reason to spend money on the game right now.  Vaults and packs have terrible odds.  For me if I am going to spend money on a game I want it to be for a resource I can use.  It’s supply and demand I have too much supply but nothing in demand to use it on.

Sure, but even if they opened up avenues for HP usage, you have so many expendable resources that you'd build up a significant advantage before you even needed to reach for your credit card. This seems like a great deal for you, but what on earth does it bring in for D3/Demi?

It is the long game for d3.  They can continue to release new content to tempt players with supports and costumes, and cosmetics but by having an in game resource used to purchase them people will be willing to spend on said resource.  There will always be players who build up resources to take advantage of something like this but a lot of players barley keep up with roster slots.  The 4* player who is just starting to build up an HP supply need something to spend on.  If something like supports was puchaseable by HP and went live for PVP players would be willing to spend to get the support they want to help in PVP.  If supports were blue to be purchased for PVE players would spend their HP and possibly spend $$ to get more HP to keep up with supports.  It might help me as and end game player because I have built up such a massive supply, but the question is with all the resources I have accumulated without spending a bunch of money why should I spend on a resource in the game I don’t need more of?

HoundofShadow

Your suggestions will break the game.

I think the devs had already hired third parties with track records to help them monetize the game. So, let the experts do their jobs.

jamesh

It is worth remembering that the accountants likely value HP at far less than it is sold for in the in-game store.  To get the real value, you need to consider the total amount of HP acquired by the player base over a given period of time (through direct purchases, event rewards, champion rewards, SHIELD Resupply, intercepts, etc), and divide it by the total amount of money spent purchasing HP.

If they used this exchange rate to assign HP prices to the direct purchase bundles, they might end up being a bit more expensive than you'd first think: particularly if you were already willing to spend dollars on them.

mpqavsmpqavs

I am anew player.but read a lot about mpq from various sources.
The only boring thing in mpq is the repeatitive clearing of pve nodes.
So devs why dont you introduce clear tickets. I have seen those clear tickets in other games.these tickets can be used to clear each node x times.or can use clear tickets only x times a whole pve event.
These tickets can be purchased using money or in game resources.also can be given as reward for both pve and pvp.
I think everybody will love the idea of this clear tickets.i think this can incrase their revenues.

Kishida

wymtime said:

It is the long game for d3.  They can continue to release new content to tempt players with supports and costumes, and cosmetics but by having an in game resource used to purchase them people will be willing to spend on said resource.  There will always be players who build up resources to take advantage of something like this but a lot of players barley keep up with roster slots.  The 4* player who is just starting to build up an HP supply need something to spend on.  If something like supports was puchaseable by HP and went live for PVP players would be willing to spend to get the support they want to help in PVP.  If supports were blue to be purchased for PVE players would spend their HP and possibly spend $$ to get more HP to keep up with supports.  It might help me as and end game player because I have built up such a massive supply, but the question is with all the resources I have accumulated without spending a bunch of money why should I spend on a resource in the game I don’t need more of?

I'd like to see them open up availability of supports, so I'm on your side here, but I don't see any good reason for D3 to make HP the main currency. H4H bundles seem about as close as they are willing to go, and I think it's worked out well enough for both sides. As a currency, its value diminishes at a certain point, and I don't think they care. If they can get players to open their wallets until they've rostered ~175 characters, there doesn't seem to be much reason to get them to do anything else with that HP. By that point, if players become HP positive and continue spending, it's likely in buy clubs to obtain CP. (Some very astute poster here once broke down how smart and insidious it is to make CP a bonus currency, thereby incentivizing buy clubs and also eliminating credit card chargebacks.)

If anything, you posted something earlier that proves the effectiveness of D3's business model:

wymtime said:

I am currently sitting on 34k HP 4MM iso so I don’t see a reason to spend money on the game right now.  Vaults and packs have terrible odds.  For me if I am going to spend money on a game I want it to be for a resource I can use.  It’s supply and demand I have too much supply but nothing in demand to use it on.

You've pretty much said that you're willing to give them money for a resource that you can use. They know that you're willing to spend, so instead of giving you uses for something you've already bought, they're more likely to find new ways to make you give them more money. As much as there are changes that I'd like to see, when it comes to financial decisions, I have to trust their metrics.

crackninja

mpqavsmpqavs said:

I am anew player.but read a lot about mpq from various sources.
The only boring thing in mpq is the repeatitive clearing of pve nodes.
So devs why dont you introduce clear tickets. I have seen those clear tickets in other games.these tickets can be used to clear each node x times.or can use clear tickets only x times a whole pve event.
These tickets can be purchased using money or in game resources.also can be given as reward for both pve and pvp.
I think everybody will love the idea of this clear tickets.i think this can incrase their revenues.

People would like this if rewards were progression only, but not so much with the current placement system.  Maybe if using the ticket yielded 1/4 the normal points or maybe even no points at all, to where you would only do it if you were farming node rewards.

bbigler

You can already purchase everything with Hero Points. Vaults contain support tokens, which can be bought out with HP. The powerman costume was in a vault. HFH is bought with HP. Token packs are bought with HP. Since vaults can contain anything, anything can be bought with HP. You may not like the deal, but it's there. 

I just bought a 40 pack(which is rare), and the champ rewards gave me tokens, iso, hp and cp. Whales don't just spend their HP on roster slots and shields.

Ed_Dragonrider

Sometimes I don't get what these people are thinking. I see a lot of willingness to spend from the players, but the way they roll out things/ make bundles available/ etc are sometimes so ill-thought through or there are loads of missed opportunities, I genuinely think they are missing out on a lot of money. I've worked most of my life in retail, and some things are just painful to watch, like that link-buy bundle sale some months ago, it will forever baffle and frustrate me, it was stupid, they missed so much from me alone, let alone everyone else....
Anyway!

Here is what i would do for long term revenue: Capitalise on supports (that's why they made them, right?) with RISO.

1. Put RISO packs into the Resource store, along with Logan's loonies and Mother Lode etc, they should have a line of RISO bundles for purchase.

2. Make the first 20 (30?) slots for supports free, but after that further ones can be purchased for RISO. (There is 44 supports all told, i doubt anyone has all of them yet. If you already have more supports than the 20 or 30, good for you, if not, sorry, get used to it. Having 20 (or 30) supports should be enough to start any new player off, without disadvantages. New players having supports from the get-go is what you want, as "growing up" using them, will make sure, it is something they always look for to use, and will probably buy.) 

3. Open supports stores for RISO. Even if its a hefty amount. Just like with Legendaries, we can have a Classic and a Latest (the Super Secret Store of Invisibility), that will need to rotate stuff in and out regularly.

This way RISO can be spent on 3 things, levelling up supports, support roster slots, and pulling new ones from stores. Since RISO can be earned in-game, the flexibility is there, you can choose which one to prioritise. If you want a lot of all three at once, you can pay $£€.
This will definitely happen if/when supports go into pvp. People will chase them, to give them that bit of extra edge.

4. Start churning out supports of all kinds. First I would do wide affiliations: team cap, team IM, x-men, etc... then down to individual characters, and even team synergies, team affiliations.

It will become a game of strategy of its own, to find the best combination of supports equipped to the best combination of characters. That will make players want them more...

5. The occasional tempting bundle deal, that offers ISO, RISO and general support tokens or a specific support at a specific lvl. 

Obviously this all needs fine tuning for specific values, but you get the idea...

For quick one-time intake, like for black friday (cyber monday?) or other 'we need money quickly' situations, do the bundle sale, but without the link-buy restriction. Instead use multibuy offers like in retail. Offer to everyone, not just previous buyers. Use common sense....

Thats all for now i think...

Ed