The intent of this thread is to come up with ideas for monthly promotions which will encourage spending by a broader portion of the playerbase, instead of being limited towards targeting the same select few. Ideas for promotions would ideally have little Administrative overhead, would be things that you could see yourself spending on (as well as others), and should be somewhat varied.
My ideas for monthly promotions at this point include:
1) Auctions!
2) Credit sales are always good.
3) Artifact packages.
4)
Do you remember that one time that all artifacts were on sale for 30%
off? That was amazing. I would love to have one of those again.
5)
Release some auction-only / retired items via the website for payment
(not really "packages" but direct purchases of things you cannot get
other ways). Some things to include would be a Torus (on the high end),
dingbat dolls (on the low end), the illusion wand, censers... this
would probably go over pretty well!
6) A month to 'take it easy'
would also be good on the playerbase every now and then, we can't be
buying all the time! Some more of the 21-day challenges would be
lovely.
7) Lesson sales.
8) Presents (people love their presents),.
9)
Something like the above suggestion, allowing people to buy the base
package and then choose to gamble how often / far to upgrade it.
10) A month related to coins and the Wheel.
11) The return of the artifact bandits!
Take
that and now, you're reduced administrative load tremendously. You can add in the occasional month of "whatevers" (a curio thing / other collectible) if you
like, and then start the cycle over. Change the order around as
desired to keep things fresh. Add some things to the rotation as you
have ideas of a new promotion that we will just love.
I personally feel like this sort of thing would be better on the whole than the cycle of collectibles, and these are all things that can be tweaked a bit and adjusted as desired to encourage player investment. You will also have reduced the feeling of "throwing collectibles at people month after month in the hopes that they will keep throwing their money your way"... a feeling which, at least to some of us, is a very real concern because we have done so.
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Comments
Take some of that righteous anger/indignation/outrage and make the guy who hands down the decisions sweat a little. I'm sure E could use the break.
Also June (or was it July?) 2012 where we had the stacking xp buff which reset after a few days then went around again. I think that was part of the reason I got Demigod. 200% xp boost every 5 or so days? Nom
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
I think lotteries are great. A really wonderful opportunity for EVERYONE to have a chance at something shiny. Drives down credit prices. I think even a tiered lottery, one for lessons/credits/whatever and one for gold,one for bashing mobs might even be a great idea.
The monthly promotion could be bonus tickets for gold/credits or a bonus in ticket frequency for bashing mobs. The more you buy, the more your bonus.
On the flip side, I think auctions are awful. They really just encourage the credit wealthy to hoard piles of credits to spend on unique arties. It's strictly for the already wealthy, typically artied to the teeth players to become more so. It's disguised as beneficial because it purges the market of excess credits, but it's a lie. These credits aren't from the market. Even orgs pitch in to help their members buy certain items. It's just blegh.
Step 1: Enable doll trading.
Step 2: Sell doll bags on the website. Bags containing 1/5/10/20/50 (slight discount on larger sacks) dolls, current and retired.
Step 3: Cackle as people go nuts finding the doll(s) they really want. And the other people who buy sacks to trade in dolls for dingbats for :insert reason here:
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
Hasn't seemed to have any impact so far. Hence direct email. I can't be the only person that's read consumerist stories about how someone gets email addresses of mucky mucks and complains to them about the issue they tried to resolve through normal channels. Granted, it's kind of the nuclear option, but how long have people been nattering on the forums about this issue and others like it?
People who are addicted, will ultimately spend money on credits, shiny promo or not. People who have been spending month after month to get the latest limited edition collectible, will eventually stop spending. Limited edition things are awful. Why does IRE want their players to feel guilted into spending to get the latest buff that will be impossible to get in a month? Why not have promos that remind people they love the game, which ultimately results in people wanting to invest to get ahead and support their favourite game. This blatantly desperate attitude of BUY MORE CREDITS is, I think, very distasteful. It makes me less inclined to spend. A game that advertises as free forever should be waving shiny perks, not game breaking must haves that make the player base disgruntled.
My favourite promotions:
- 30% off ALL artifacts. It was amazing. I had to literally stop myself from spending more than I could afford because it was such an incredible deal, and I could GET WHAT I WANTED. If that promo came around again, I would definitely buy credits, no questions asked.
- 1 lesson every 10 minutes logged in, 10 a day. Why? Because you log in for 100 minutes to get your lessons and end up finding yourself logged in for 5 hours.
- artifact bandits. Try before you buy is awesome. I actually bought several artifacts I wouldn't have otherwise because I discovered I found them really useful after a bandit dropped them.
- artifact packages. I don't think there's been many of these where I haven't bought something, though I would ask for new packages to be added or new combinations (does any guardian really need to expand their enemy list???) because most people who have been around for a while now will have the basic packages or part thereof.
- Any of the log in 21 days in the month to get a shiny little trinket was awesome. Giving tree! Who didn't love free comms and then a bubblix?
tl;dr Give people more reason to play and they will invest. Buying limited edition items (that have been argued a lot are game breaking) is not the way to encourage people to spend in the long term. Long term interest = more money constantly trickling in over the long term. And like Xenthos said, give people a month off to maybe save up? I doubt there are many people at all that can afford to buy big every month. How about some more love for your loyal customers who already spend $25 a month to support the game, but are still expected to keep spending on top of that? Happy customers will be happy spenders, and will likely be more inclined to splurge a bit more to support a game they love.
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