Hello. Remember us?

jamesh

The part about anchoring resource values is particularly relevant. The prices for HP and Iso-8 in the cash store are a likely a lot higher than what the developers value them at, and are mostly there as something to measure the value of other deals or in-game rewards.  When I reach the next SHIELD Rank, the Iso-8 reward I get isn't really worth AU$129.99 (or I guess US$99.99): that's just the value they'd like me to place on it.

A more accurate way to value those resources would be to take the amount of money spent on HP or Iso-8 and divide it by the total amount of that resource distributed in the game by any means (progression, placement, SHIELD rank, cash purchases, etc).  For Iso-8 in particular, I suspect the vast majority distributed in game doesn't come from purchases, so the cash store prices shouldn't be used as a benchmark for valuing other cash offers.

DAZ0273

jp1 said:

Client may be a strong word, however I disagree that it is debatable whether or not I am a customer. They certainly have no problem taking my money.

I am of the opinion that common courtesy would at least entitle paying customers to a response. No matter the semantics.

If you like a better comparison, I am a consumer for Netflix. If I contact them through an official channel with an inquiry, I’m likely to get a response. This is just part of running a business. Of course they can’t pacify everyone, but the dismissive attitude of ignoring the people, at least in part responsible for your paycheck, quite frankly is ridiculous.

Edit: In regards to your other point. One of the most humbling and valuable lessons I’ve ever learned professionally was to ask someone who was passing on our services what I could have done differently to earn or retain their business. There is always something to learn. Despite the occasional urge to say “Sorry to see you go, take care.” Again though, I guess things are different wherever you go.

I'm afraid the Netflix comparison doesn't really apply either. In that relationship you are paying for a service which Netflix are obliged to provide through your subscription. I guess the nearest thing with MPQ would be VIP. However your only rights of communication would be with customer services if for some reason those goods weren't delivered on one of the days specified in the "contract".

Otherwise though you are simply purchasing digital goods as one off transactions. In that case as long as you have been supplied those goods as expected, the relationship ends there. It is of course to the benefit of any company to try and retain good relations with a customer base but it is a one sided relationship and if your expectations are that you should be kept updated with plans the company has for it's free to play games then I suspect the relationship you desire is really more like being a shareholder of the company where you have an expectation of both regular communication and being able to hold it to account. Sadly MPQ could disappear tomorrow and apart from refunds for any unfulfilled VIP we as players might not even get a "goodbye,".

That is sadly the reality of this.

HoundofShadow

I think the devs has made it pretty clear in public how they are approaching news announcement or feature annoucements. They also stated the reasons why they are not doing certain things and why they chose to do certain things a certain way.

Obviously, it's not something that many want to hear. That's why they chose to ignore what the devs have said and continue to push towards what they want to hear or continue to force an answer out of them. 

The fact that the devs can pre-empt how the community reacts show that they know what you want. What they said about changes are pretty true. Many in here react like the house is on fire when they spot any deviation from the norm and then the next thing you know, they expect the devs to answer the queries about the change.

However, it doesn't mean that the players should not be following up with the devs or should not be questioning about the game. If they are not answering your questions, just take it that it's not the right time to answer your questions or there's nothing concrete at the moment or they can't reveal anything yet. Then follow up again one or two months later.

A: “When” questions are super tough question to answer because they’re often out of our hands. We have first parties that need to approve our game, we have external events that pop up, and many other things that will constantly force us to shift priorities around. We love being able to directly answer questions, but “When” is a hard thing to stick a pin on, and we hate to disappoint.

While we usually say little about future plans*:

(Sniped irrelevant details)

*: Reasons for this: software development, creative work, and entertaining people are all messy and unpredictable, and when you cross the three together in a live game, making very many promises can lock you into disaster. And we know most of you are happiest with more detail and dislike when something you're expecting changes, so we typically talk about new things when we're certain of the details. Because of the nature of game development, that's usually when the feature's about to come out.

jp1

DAZ0273 said:

jp1 said:

Client may be a strong word, however I disagree that it is debatable whether or not I am a customer. They certainly have no problem taking my money.

I am of the opinion that common courtesy would at least entitle paying customers to a response. No matter the semantics.

If you like a better comparison, I am a consumer for Netflix. If I contact them through an official channel with an inquiry, I’m likely to get a response. This is just part of running a business. Of course they can’t pacify everyone, but the dismissive attitude of ignoring the people, at least in part responsible for your paycheck, quite frankly is ridiculous.

Edit: In regards to your other point. One of the most humbling and valuable lessons I’ve ever learned professionally was to ask someone who was passing on our services what I could have done differently to earn or retain their business. There is always something to learn. Despite the occasional urge to say “Sorry to see you go, take care.” Again though, I guess things are different wherever you go.

I'm afraid the Netflix comparison doesn't really apply either. In that relationship you are paying for a service which Netflix are obliged to provide through your subscription. I guess the nearest thing with MPQ would be VIP. However your only rights of communication would be with customer services if for some reason those goods weren't delivered on one of the days specified in the "contract".

Otherwise though you are simply purchasing digital goods as one off transactions. In that case as long as you have been supplied those goods as expected, the relationship ends there. It is of course to the benefit of any company to try and retain good relations with a customer base but it is a one sided relationship and if your expectations are that you should be kept updated with plans the company has for it's free to play games then I suspect the relationship you desire is really more like being a shareholder of the company where you have an expectation of both regular communication and being able to hold it to account. Sadly MPQ could disappear tomorrow and apart from refunds for any unfulfilled VIP we as players might not even get a "goodbye,".

That is sadly the reality of this.

Okay, if not Netflix...Walmart or Amazon.

Same thing. I disagree that Netflix has any more imperative to communicate with me as well. I am a drop in their bucket, and businesses could care less about what is right or fair, they care about your money and how to extract it.

Since I would normally spend much more money at MPQ than I would at Netflix, logic would dictate that they have more reason to grace me with a response. 

People seem to to think the question at hand here is getting the answers “we want”. I’m no child, I realize the answer may often be “I can’t really offer a detailed response to that”. My issue is that when the answer is nothing, it almost comes off as disdain. 

There are always going to be things where communication is limited for good cause. However, that doesn’t mean communication shouldn’t exist. 

Anyway, this doesn’t seem like a point we can all agree on...call it a differing opinion. I simply believe that just because something is a certain way, doesn’t mean it has to (or should) be that way. Ignoring your most devoted customers who actively engage with you is poor business practice besides just being straight up rude.

bluewolf

jamesh said:

The part about anchoring resource values is particularly relevant. The prices for HP and Iso-8 in the cash store are a likely a lot higher than what the developers value them at, and are mostly there as something to measure the value of other deals or in-game rewards.  When I reach the next SHIELD Rank, the Iso-8 reward I get isn't really worth AU$129.99 (or I guess US$99.99): that's just the value they'd like me to place on it.

A more accurate way to value those resources would be to take the amount of money spent on HP or Iso-8 and divide it by the total amount of that resource distributed in the game by any means (progression, placement, SHIELD rank, cash purchases, etc).  For Iso-8 in particular, I suspect the vast majority distributed in game doesn't come from purchases, so the cash store prices shouldn't be used as a benchmark for valuing other cash offers.

Even the devs admit that iso-8 is a very rare purchase.  Saved covers effectively eliminated the pressure to spend on iso-8 other than, perhaps, someone who really thinks they need to use a character NOW.

But yes, anchoring is absolutely a thing.  The devs aren't as devious as the video describes (where you see an offer that seems ridiculous up front, then another better offer later that suddenly looks cheap), but by setting the prices via the store and not really changing them EVER, they create that "anchor" so that when a sale comes along, you feel that spending the same amount of money for more resources is a deal.  

Note that the game economy requires finding a sweet spot where you see deals occasionally, but if they start offering them too often, then you will never buy resources at the normal prices because you would be more likely to just wait for the next sale.  Maybe that's why we haven't seen any real bundle "deals" in terms of resources in a while (except maybe the top end $74.99 costume bundles).  Also note that the best bundles (in terms of value) that exist in game are all the ones that new people see as they rise in the ranks (SCL bundles)....which act as that gateway to spending that the devs absolutely need to transition a FTP player to a spender.

DAZ0273

jp1 said:

DAZ0273 said:

jp1 said:

Client may be a strong word, however I disagree that it is debatable whether or not I am a customer. They certainly have no problem taking my money.

I am of the opinion that common courtesy would at least entitle paying customers to a response. No matter the semantics.

If you like a better comparison, I am a consumer for Netflix. If I contact them through an official channel with an inquiry, I’m likely to get a response. This is just part of running a business. Of course they can’t pacify everyone, but the dismissive attitude of ignoring the people, at least in part responsible for your paycheck, quite frankly is ridiculous.

Edit: In regards to your other point. One of the most humbling and valuable lessons I’ve ever learned professionally was to ask someone who was passing on our services what I could have done differently to earn or retain their business. There is always something to learn. Despite the occasional urge to say “Sorry to see you go, take care.” Again though, I guess things are different wherever you go.

I'm afraid the Netflix comparison doesn't really apply either. In that relationship you are paying for a service which Netflix are obliged to provide through your subscription. I guess the nearest thing with MPQ would be VIP. However your only rights of communication would be with customer services if for some reason those goods weren't delivered on one of the days specified in the "contract".

Otherwise though you are simply purchasing digital goods as one off transactions. In that case as long as you have been supplied those goods as expected, the relationship ends there. It is of course to the benefit of any company to try and retain good relations with a customer base but it is a one sided relationship and if your expectations are that you should be kept updated with plans the company has for it's free to play games then I suspect the relationship you desire is really more like being a shareholder of the company where you have an expectation of both regular communication and being able to hold it to account. Sadly MPQ could disappear tomorrow and apart from refunds for any unfulfilled VIP we as players might not even get a "goodbye,".

That is sadly the reality of this.

Okay, if not Netflix...Walmart or Amazon.

Same thing. I disagree that Netflix has any more imperative to communicate with me as well. I am a drop in their bucket, and businesses could care less about what is right or fair, they care about your money and how to extract it.

Since I would normally spend much more money at MPQ than I would at Netflix, logic would dictate that they have more reason to grace me with a response. 

People seem to to think the question at hand here is getting the answers “we want”. I’m no child, I realize the answer may often be “I can’t really offer a detailed response to that”. My issue is that when the answer is nothing, it almost comes off as disdain. 

There are always going to be things where communication is limited for good cause. However, that doesn’t mean communication shouldn’t exist. 

Anyway, this doesn’t seem like a point we can all agree on...call it a differing opinion. I simply believe that just because something is a certain way, doesn’t mean it has to (or should) be that way. Ignoring your most devoted customers who actively engage with you is poor business practice besides just being straight up rude.

I wasn't really trying to argue that you don't deserve communication, apologies if it came off that way. What you feel you deserve though can be a wide chasm from how Companies feel they should deal with you.

jp1

No worries. I’m not heated at all, and no need to apologize. I certainly didn’t mean to make it feel as though we were in an argument. I’m always open to debate.

No kidding on your other point, it becomes more and more clear with each passing day how they feel we deserve to be treated. 

I will say this. Up until this point I have not received a warning for anything posted in this thread, so they haven’t become tyrannical yet.

Dragon_Nexus

bluewolf said:

I do think MPQ is pretty gentle in using these techniques; if it wasn't, I'd have walked away long ago. 

See, I've thought that for a while but...now I'm not so sure.

Maybe we just assume they're gentle because it's not in-your-face blinking lights and sirens and "BUY NOW BUY NOW!" demand marketing, but something more subtle and sinister.

FOMO is a major part of free to play games, or just loot box mechanics in general. The feeling that you're going to be missing out on something you want, or something important or something others will have that you don't, making your experience incomplete.

It's all very subtle stuff to manipulate you without (and this is the important part) realising that you're being manipulated.