Originally posted by Dharkmage:
You realise that one answer to the problem as presented is to actually raise the price of a normal pro booster to 35 ounces?
Be careful what you ask for. Yes they are expensive in comparison to other offers (depending on how relevant you think other offers are). So what if they aren’t popular? It just makes the normal pro booster look like a great deal :p
(edited to try to say the same thing less abrasively then I had before)
No I don’t see that as an answer to the problem. In any business whether online or in a store there are key times and reasons to “set a price.”
When you first open your business no matter what it is that price point is what your customers will initially expect of you. There are instances where prices of items go up sure and though technically the store always has the right to set their own price everyone will cry foul over it. News outlets, customers, and competitors will demonize a company that raises their prices usually within an hour or two of “discovering so” Or they will just raise their own but 5 cents less then the competiton did. That is one instance.
The others are your competitors your competitors directly influence your pricing. PERIOD. Look at what Amazon has done to the retail industry? I have worked for multiple retail companies, and the number one question of the day no matter where I am is “Do you guys match Amazon?” The only customer who doesn’t ask this is the one who already did 50 times before, and either got a yes or no response and now come to expect that. The best part was when a company I used to work for used to and then it was announced we wouldn’t anymore. You know what happened we lost 30% of our business overnight.
When I wrote this thread I was in a rush so I didn’t really go through to much elaboration on the specifics except for the numbers themselves, so I probably came off like a spoiled child that was never the intention. The intention was always a forewarning that this kind of practice never ends up well for a company. Do they have the right to do so? Absolutely? Should they? It depends on the situation.
Now if we look at Berserk the Cataclysm in regards to this situation then no it is not waranted in any way.
There was an update announcement something like a few months ago saying prices of ounces had been lowered to give a better value. I don’t know what it said specifically but it was something to that effect. Guess when I started spending money in the game? After that announcement.
I have never been the market for the individual professional boosters. I play too many of these types of games when I told myself I wouldn’t. I don’t spend that much but I play enough of them and spend that little amount in them that it adds up over time. I am not a whale and I have nothing against those that are it is their money they earned it they can do what they want with it. If I had that kind of money I probably wouldn’t spend the extent that they do but again to each their own.
My message was more one of disappointment if you think I was a raving lunatic going how dare they blah blah blah I can understand completely how you would get that impression. Was I upset sure. Honestly though it barely affects me. I knew it would be something people who spend money in the game would want a say in, and I knew even with my limited skills in the Math department that it was quite literally going against EVERY price model the game had come to be known for. When they created the game they set the price. If they were the apple of CCG games sure they could afford to make such a risky move. They aren’t. I don’t see this to cause offense to Bytex in crew just to give you some raw stats.
There are probably a good 30 or so other companies with similar games doing the same kind of thing no here just with the ccg department alone. Some thrive some have fizzled and died some are static. Speaking as bluntly as possible. You do not yet have the amount of players or the credibility to warrant such an insane price increase. If you wanted to set this type of price you should done so long ago. Now it is too late. You already set your price point. That is what your customers expect of you now. Should a premium pack be more expensive then the standard? Absolutely it should, but it should follow a specific pricing model. Not only are customers not as stupid as companies think they tend to be….hmm well maybe some are I guess. Your audience here though? We aren’t those type of customers. We are the type of customers that look at the price on google before we walk in to Best Buy.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that most of your customers here play the other games as well they might not anymore because they felt like that company screwed them over or they might play all of them…..I play like 5-7 different ones right now. I would say 10% of the amount I spend I spend on this game. Guess what type of situations cause people to stop playing a game? This one here. The pricing barely effects me but it affects your players that spend more then me. It is not a smart business decision the message was meant as a word of caution as well as a “shame on you you know better.”
Now this next bit might come off as offensive but it is only my opinion. There isn’t enough in this game to warrant the prices you are suddenly expecting. Again as stated before if you had those kind of prices from the beginning no one would know or care they either would or wouldn’t spend money. When you raise prices that much though that is when the customer feels cheated. This game has a really cool original concept. Unfortuantely said concept also means I have no say over when I play what card the only strategy is in how you build your deck and what’s in it. Their is no form of live player vs player. You have no features in this game that warrant this sudden price increase, and because of the way the game is designed you would have to drastically change the game in order to make said features even remotely possible.
The sole reason I have spent any money on this game so far as because of the affordable pricing compared to the competitors. It is not better then the competitor games not by a longshot I can’t do near enough for it to be so. It is better then a lot of them though. You have a good thing going here, and there are plenty here who disagree with me on whether it is or isn’t better I am sure. When you hike the price this much though you slap all your loyal customers in the face customers far more loyal then myself customers that make or break this type of games success. It just isn’t in any regard a smart business move. Feel free to raise and enrage all your prices years from now when the game is more established out of beta and has the amount of players of something like say Clash or Tyrant does. Not saying those games are better or worse just saying they have a much larger database of players, and quite a bit more to do. You need to create value before you raise prices like that. Business 101.
Furthermore I personally think 20 ounces is too cheap. As stated above it is premium currency. It should be treated as such but there is no way for you to justify a 300% increase in the price of a specialized pack based off element. I am willing to hear it though if you want to give your community a reason. You are by no means obligated to but it couldn’t hurt your cause.
