noamineo wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2020 at 12:28pm:



Marketing geniuses at SuperSalesmanGroup

Hardcore_Girl wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2020 at 12:53pm:


I would drop a tenner for a box but fifty? Fuck that!

They are like a corner pub, they know they have the regular alchies coming in and keep them afloat. So they can water down the beer and serve drinks in filthy glasses.

Hardcore_Girl wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2020 at 12:53pm:


I'm breaking a lance in favor of SSG here. Daybreak is the publisher for the game so they get to decide how much to sell something for.

I agree that otto boxes are obscenely overpriced but not everything that is wrong with ddo is SSG's fault. Unfortunately it's extremely unlikely for daybreak to "humanize" prices so long as ddo doesn't start costing them money (being a minus instead of a plus in their accounting book).

noamineo wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2020 at 3:14pm:


You're not wrong; and indeed their initial implementation in MotU supports that.

However; the fail comes from the fact that rather than include similar packages with large updates/expansions, they completely dropped the complimentary Otto's and giftable ottos. Those alone would help sell expansions 300% more than their shitty cosmetic bloat that fills inventories anymore.

I'd love to be able to gift my buddy the expansion, get a mild boost out of it, and also get my friend playing. The problem is; unless I've got an ottos or two on hand it's hard for me to try and suggest they play the game. It's hard to get most people to cut their teeth in DDO with a vet player; whether I just TR'd or am on a first lifer with them, I'm ultimately going to be leading things in a way that could turn a first timer off from the game and that's not even mentioning the content draught for F2P.

SSG had they been smart would have retroactively made their summer event the new default. 90% of the older content should have been made FTP, they should have dropped all the expansions up until RL down to 75% off, RL and Sharn at 50% off, and put a new permanent 1 per account sale on otto's boxes pricing them at 100 points. So that everyone in the game could benefit, but particularly new players. That would bring life into this slowly dying game, the kind of life a handful of whales can't do.

They don't have anything interesting to offer anyway.

Edrein wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2020 at 3:27pm:


The Idea: "Get new players into the game! Create a sense of community!"
,
The Reality: "Vet players share between friends, horde them, and figure out how to use multiples. Some of the more industrious players sell them for IRL money." <--reasons SSG will never do what they did with MOTU again.

Now, granted, not everyone was an asshole. I got gifted an otto's rock, which in turn got me excited/hooked enough on the game to buy the expansion myself, and in turn made a huge point of gifting all my rocks(particularly to newbie players).

There were, however, many tales of rocks being sold and several people who figured out "I can use 1 on myself, then TR and keep the rest in my cache". When the original ottos boxes were released, those stones "worked" again and several people got 3-4 free ottos rocks just by being greedy.

I agree that another giveaway would be both a huge seller and breathe new life into the game, but I think SSG is too wrapped up in not letting anyone have something "for free" that someone else feels they had to "work at". I recall even the original event had some hardcore detractors just over people using them as intended("its no fair! that guy got to go straight to 16 and I had to work at it wah wah wah")


Edrein wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2020 at 3:27pm:


Actually you can do that now: when you buy the expansion you get a code that has to be redeemed in-game. So you can easily buy and gift the code. All your other comments are valid, though.

Edrein wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2020 at 3:27pm:


They fixed the F2p content drought if you redeemed the code at the right time, dunno why that didn't become permanant, but then i don't know why SSG does half the stupid shit they do.

One of the things EverQuest does, for example: the most expensive version of the latest xpac includes all the previous xpacs in addition to the "level to within 5 levels of the current cap and have some free endgameish gear" item. These are specifically targeted at new players, not vets, in order to gain and keep new players. Hell EQ even has a "friends and family pack full of extra goodies to help get friends and family into the game.

This is, btw, the best proof available that Daybreak has no say in DDO's marketing/store descions.

EQ2 is also published by Daybreak and has this way better model.

noamineo wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2020 at 6:17pm:


Hold up there hoss. Don't give Daybroke any credit for homework they copied.

That entire system was in place by SOE long before Daybroke bought Sony out. And Daybroke has already gone broke on several of Sony's titles; they axed Everquest Next, turned Planetside into a literal meme, and killed H1Z1 after they finished milking its BR mode just like Fortnite.

Daybroke has no actual business sense either. It's probably why they helped SSG get started and agreed to be their publisher.

On topic though; most MMOs have a similar system of making older expansion content being rolled up into the next expansion. WoW does it, ESO does it, etc. The rockstars are the only folks that haven't noticed; probably because they genuinely don't play other MMOs and instead play in house games where they can use their company coupons to not pay for things.

I just hope they put Feywild in the store and on sale on Friday... I have a hoard of TP ( on both VIP accounts and I need to spend them a bit... even if I bought Feywild for one.  )

noamineo wrote on Nov 24^th, 2020 at 11:22am:


4 months is not 9 months to a year.

SirValentine wrote on Nov 25^th, 2020 at 7:55am:

Quote:

Im going to buy a lot of those wish for memories things. Because fuck elves that's why.