Is Chapter 4 "make it or break it" for you?
- Thread starter rootsrat
- Start date
Reading through this thread I am wondering what many of the respondants see as FDev's motivation to persuade ex-players to return.
FDev want the game to be liked, that's a given. It's David Braben's baby after all, and a happy player recommends the game to others.
But from a purely business perspective the ideal customer buys the product, plays a little while, buys some skins & then eventually stops playing with no ill will.
The player that continues may buy more skins, but also has some overhead on the servers.
The player that doesn't play doesn't buy skins, there is no cost to FDev unless that individual influences many potential customers to not buy the game.
The player that continues to play, doesn't buy skins & isn't recommending the game to their friends is the least profitable customer.
Why would FDev particularly want ex-customers to return? They want new customers. Ex-players are only as useful as the number of new accounts their influence can potentially create, and the number of skins they might buy.
Now if there's some new premium addon that becomes available, existing customers become a potential revenue earner again, but until then, what motivation does FDev have to persuade you to return to play again?
FDev want the game to be liked, that's a given. It's David Braben's baby after all, and a happy player recommends the game to others.
But from a purely business perspective the ideal customer buys the product, plays a little while, buys some skins & then eventually stops playing with no ill will.
The player that continues may buy more skins, but also has some overhead on the servers.
The player that doesn't play doesn't buy skins, there is no cost to FDev unless that individual influences many potential customers to not buy the game.
The player that continues to play, doesn't buy skins & isn't recommending the game to their friends is the least profitable customer.
Why would FDev particularly want ex-customers to return? They want new customers. Ex-players are only as useful as the number of new accounts their influence can potentially create, and the number of skins they might buy.
Now if there's some new premium addon that becomes available, existing customers become a potential revenue earner again, but until then, what motivation does FDev have to persuade you to return to play again?
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i WAS RIGHT, IT'S ABOUT EARNING THE ALMIIGHTY MONEY, CUSTOMER LOYALTY MATTERS NOT, JUST THE MONEY.
And yet FDev is willing to wildly compromise balance, or leave poor game design elements in the game, in order to appease / not anger existing customers. If FDev was primarily focused on getting new players and not too worried about retaining old ones, grandfathering would never have been a thing, and they wouldn't be so terrified of addressing the issues with shields head-on. I agree a focus on new players makes the most sense financially, but that doesn't seem to be congruent with FDev's decisions.
I agree. So why do you think they would want existing customers to return?
I'm not laying a trap or anything, I'd like to know what people think.
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I've seen that comment many times in various places. I tend to refer to Q4 update as "make it or break it" as well, when it comes to my involvement in Elite.
There sure is a lot of hope and expectations for Chapter 4 in the large part of the community, judging by the comments all over the internet, be it these forums, other forums, various Discord severs nad social media platforms...
So just wondering how many people feel similar. Is Chapter 4 going to be "make it or break it" for you?
:EDIT:
Some additional clarification
Expect more of the same.
Yes, though as none of the advertised updates look substantial.
For me, my renewed interest hangs on any un vocalised content they have hinted at.
If I had to guess (/ hope), it's driven by a genuine desire to make a good game that their fans enjoy. Pride in their work, etc. That, and understanding that while constantly milling through new customers is technically the most profitable tactic for a pay-to-own game, it's also a good way to end up with a bad reputation and thus struggle to convince new folks to buy your game.
Mechwarrior Online came about as close as one can to outright saying, "Truck you, old customers (who funded the game)- We're not making this game for you anymore, and we don't care what you think", and it was quite the PR nightmare for them for a good while.
Makes sense, fits the facts we do know (building the company's reputation for quality products etc). Clearly making a profit is an important factor, but having happy customers is important too.
This year was break for me. Once it was pretty clear we were getting copy paste reused content I was done.
Unless rave review's appear my half engineered Challenger will remain parked.
In this day and age of technology it's almost heart breaking to see this opportunity go to waste on FDevs end..
Unless rave review's appear my half engineered Challenger will remain parked.
In this day and age of technology it's almost heart breaking to see this opportunity go to waste on FDevs end..
ive said it before... 2019 is my break year. what happens with q4 2018 is part of the cycle but depending on what kind of TLC and content expansion ED gets in 2019 will be the decider.
if the game continues to plod along i think my interest will finally fade.
if the game continues to plod along i think my interest will finally fade.
Why would FDev particularly want ex-customers to return? Because if they enjoy the game again there's a good chance that they will bring other ex-CMDRs back, buy cosmetics, and buy previous & future expansions. Even now I doubt half of the overall game ownership has bought Horizons; we know as of 31st Dec 2017 that 3.25m franchise copies (i.e. basegame and/or Horizons) had been sold.
Only FDev will know the sell-in £rate to total CMDRs ratio (1:2? 1:5? 1:10?). I personally have spent ~£60 on cosmetics, almost all during discount sales. A common business motto is "80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers, so increase the number of those 20%".
If FDev can attract just 20% of ex-CMDRs to reinstall and play again, through gameplay additions and improvements that they'd like, then the number of regularly active CMDRs would probably double at least - from the hundreds of thousands already reportedly active according to FDev. That's a huge pool into which to promote cosmetics offers and expansion sales to.
Meanwhile, I do agree that new game sales are very important too. New players are vital for a game's health, and periodically lead to sales-milestones that are great for marketing (e.g. "Elite Dangerous has sold 4m franchise copies").
More players playing, whether veteran, new, or returning, drive social marketing too, be it on forums/Reddit, creating content for Twitch/Youtube, chatting in Discords/Teamspeaks, or sharing on social media.
Another reason to keep existing players happy is that very few new players will go out and tell everyone to try this new awesome game, but almost every unhappy player will tell everyone they know, and everyone else on Facebook, Steam, Twitter, forums, and every other way they can to avoid the game at all costs, that it seems fine at first, but then they nerf everything, bug everything, break everything, and are in no hurry to fix any of it, and with each update, no matter what the update is, the good stuff is far outnumbered by more nerfs, bugs, and breaks.
If it's just more multi-pew or Samarco-type grind then that will be the end for me, although the paid DLC (if it even exists) may pull me back; but that will have to be something fairly spectacular.
I haven't played now for six months, it's so boring and I don't miss the game...which really disappoints me.
With different design decisions, it could have been so good - but FD don't care about ED anymore. They've got their roller-coasters and dinosaurs to play with now. As long as new players (suckers maybe?) keep paying, at least the servers will probably remain turned on.
I haven't played now for six months, it's so boring and I don't miss the game...which really disappoints me.
With different design decisions, it could have been so good - but FD don't care about ED anymore. They've got their roller-coasters and dinosaurs to play with now. As long as new players (suckers maybe?) keep paying, at least the servers will probably remain turned on.
So it's more about the money & less about happy customers? Good enough is good enough seems to be what you are saying, would that be a fair assessment?
If it interests you I had spent around £170 on skins before I stopped buying them as a passive protest. I've since spent £25 on cosmetics as a thank you to FDev for their approach to the 5-for-1 engineering cheat, and I recently bought a £4 coat, pants & boots set for my cmdr because I was starting to think it looked like I was sitting in my underwear.
Over the past couple of years I could have spent considerably more. I have continued to play though, as I mentioned earlier in the thread I have no significant issues with the game itself, only a few suggestions on how to make it 'even better'.
You seem to be suggesting FDev are on a hiding to nothing. I can certainly see an argument that the ongoing buffs & nerfs are compromises that fall between two stools, where sticking to (or potentially even having) an internal vision of how the game should be would at least be on one of the stools. This would create more of a Marmite game (love it or hate it) with fewer (but more loyal) customers.
As with many others, my fiirst experiences with VR was via smart phone placed into a headset.
I found an awesome zombie shooter, it had awesome graphics and took place in a subway station.
You get to a certain point though and the game goes black and you get an end of demo message.
You can purchase the full version for $2.99 and they will email you the unlock code.
Loving the demo I bought it.
Never received an email, never got it unlocked, never got an email in response from them.
The company is Fibrium out of Russia.
I then (Stupid for not reading reviews earlier) read the reviews and a few reviews were "I love this demo, but do not want to purchase the full game."
But mostly, "I loved it so much I bought the full version but never received the unlock code, and they do not respond to repeated emails."
ETC...
All their apps reviews follow suit.
They might fool new players for a while, but eventually folks will get the word and steer clear of them.
And the very same can happen to ED if enough reviews are negative along with negative forum posts, etc...
The deal with Fibrium made me start reviewing everything.
I will not buy hardly anything, even from a store without reading or watching several reviews first.
I found an awesome zombie shooter, it had awesome graphics and took place in a subway station.
You get to a certain point though and the game goes black and you get an end of demo message.
You can purchase the full version for $2.99 and they will email you the unlock code.
Loving the demo I bought it.
Never received an email, never got it unlocked, never got an email in response from them.
The company is Fibrium out of Russia.
I then (Stupid for not reading reviews earlier) read the reviews and a few reviews were "I love this demo, but do not want to purchase the full game."
But mostly, "I loved it so much I bought the full version but never received the unlock code, and they do not respond to repeated emails."
ETC...
All their apps reviews follow suit.
They might fool new players for a while, but eventually folks will get the word and steer clear of them.
And the very same can happen to ED if enough reviews are negative along with negative forum posts, etc...
The deal with Fibrium made me start reviewing everything.
I will not buy hardly anything, even from a store without reading or watching several reviews first.
They do not tell you that the game play constantly changes.
I discovered early on that I loved hauling passengers, I was not making much but I loved it.
Then an online friend told I could log out and back in until my ship was full and I'd make a lot more.
So I did that for 2-3 months as a career before I ever found the Steam forums, I was happy as I could be just running passengers.
I had tried many other things on my own and hated those things.
Then on the Steam forums I saw posts mentioning nerfs, cheesing, etc...
I had no idea what in the heck they were talking about.
Then II saw a post saying that Smeaton was nerfed.
They had completely wiped out the long SC passenger missions that I loved.
So there I was, I was a new player who had tolled around for a month finding nothing fun in ED, then I discovered passenger missions, then I was told about stacking missions, then I made credits and was able to buy better ships.
Now the game sucked for me.
I have forced myself to do other things.
And was a little fired up again, until they nerfed long SC passenger missions again in the last update.
II also remembered I had highly recommended the game in my initial review, I deleted it and wrote it all over.
The game can still be a little fun.
But, once you have experienced a little of everything you have experienced the whole game period. There is nothing else, you repeat the same things over and over again.
At least doing one thing that pays well allows you the excitement of better ships, everything else is repeating all the time for little pay.
Right now I cannot find a single mission of any kind worth taking, the game just sucks.
I still like 57% more to make combat elite, will be triple elite and the only thing that can interest me anymore are new ships, all the rest is wash/rinse/repeat and sucks big time.
No, I won't quit, but I doubt the game will be improved a single bit.
The difference in outcome of short-term pandering versus long-term customer loyalty is quite evident- one path is simply not a sustainable or residual revenue source.
Frontier did not expand their business into several other games because they have the intention of making "risky" decisions. They're in it for the long haul.
Of course, anyone who wishes to go the riskier route is free to try.... www.kickstarter.com and I'm sure there's a few venture capitalists who would be willing to help, with some collateral agreement.
Frontier did not expand their business into several other games because they have the intention of making "risky" decisions. They're in it for the long haul.
Of course, anyone who wishes to go the riskier route is free to try.... www.kickstarter.com and I'm sure there's a few venture capitalists who would be willing to help, with some collateral agreement.