SOE using us as marketing lab rats

[Rolfski]

Deliberately using your customers as marketing lab rats by frequently worsening the daily/bundle/SC deals over the year to see how much more money you can squeeze out of them, is kind of insulting and not a smart thing to do imo. Not to mention the effect of people refusing to spend money any more because they were used to better deals.

If you want to get more money out of your customers, make them more happy and give them more options to spend money (merchandise, weapon cosmetic slots, more PlayerStudio item types, etc.) but don't screw them over.

If a game still in pre-alpha development like Star Citizen already ships shitloads of t-shirts and mouse mats to 99 countries, why oh why does SOE such a poor job of selling their universe?

Edit: The original tweet I used to illustrate my point was confusing and not helping this discussion, so I removed it.

[Neurotoxin]

Business model.

Also, every marketing team is constantly experimenting with their customers. This isn't new or unique.

[MaxDamage]

Yeah, business is business.

[Rolfski]

It's business al right but is it smart business? Imo there are smarter ways to increase revenue and customer loyalty than experimenting with blatant price increases.

[Ghoest9]

this is the dumbest whine ever

[Plaqueis]

this is the dumbest whine ever

Says the guy whining about slugs...

[Blynd]

https://twitter.com/PS2DailyDeals/status/406337494360154112

Deliberately using your customers as marketing lab rats, decreasing their value for money right in front of their faces to see how much more money you can squeeze out of them, is kind of insulting and not a smart thing to do imo.

If you want to get more money out of your customers, make them more happy and give them more options to spend money (merchandise, weapon cosmetic slots, more PlayerStudio item types, etc.) but don't screw them over.

If a game still in pre-alpha development like Star Citizen already ships shitloads of t-shirts and mouse mats to 99 countries, why oh why does SOE such a poor job of selling their universe?

I think someone needs their reading glasses on.

Its a 70%discount they are doing a black Friday sale like many stores are you muppet

[KesTro]

Says the guy whining about slugs...

Haha, he got you there. Weather it's smart business or not there isn't much we can do about it except hold onto our money until a sale worthwhile comes along. This shouldn't be too different from what a lot of us have been doing since last December.

[Ghoest9]

Says the guy whining about slugs...

When you think its uncool to bitch about game balance - that means you have moved on from the game at a meta level and probably will stop playing soon if you havent already.
So long.

[ringring]

Well 70% off sounds better to me than 50% but, if you say it's wrong I'll go along with it. .. . . ... .. ..

[ChipMHazard]

Important to note that the tweet in question was perhaps worded a bit strangely, but it actually mentioned a 70% discount as opposed to the regular 30/50%.
Well, this is how it works. You may find yourself going down in price if you find that not enough are buying what you're trying to sell.
I can certainly see why someone would be miffed about having paid X amount for Y and then seeing Y being sold for less some months down the road.

[Ghoest9]

I can certainly see why someone would be miffed about having paid X amount for Y and then seeing Y being sold for less some months down the road.

Why?
Did paying the early premium not get many months of use you would not have had if you waited?


I get that people feel bad when a sale happens a few days after they buy something.
But the general concept of prices going down over time as demand drops is pretty basic and ubiquitous.

[ChipMHazard]

It is indeed. I can still see why people would be miffed about it when it comes to ingame items, even if I don't feel the same way myself.
There are people who just keep waiting in order to get items on sales, but I would rather purchase what I want when I want/need it than wait for a cheaper price.

[Rolfski]

I think someone needs their reading glasses on.

Its a 70% discount they are doing a black Friday sale like many stores are you muppet
You've actually got a legit point here. Because of that 70% off number, the tweet does a confusing job of explaining my real point: They're deliberately experimenting with prices for the worse. Daily deals have actually become worse deals now (it's not 50% off bet less now) and so have become bundle sales and SC sales over the course of the year.

Giving players increasingly less value to see how far they can go just doesn't seem the smart thing to do. Not only will it for sure piss off quite a few players, there are still so many more other options out there to earn more money from us customers, which SOE so far just fails to execute on.

Edit: It was suggested on reddit that the daily deals tweet is not from SOE but actually from a player so I removed the link from the starter topic to keep the discussion focussed on price increases.

[Snoopy]

this is the dumbest whine ever

I think you hold that title.

[HereticusXZ]

To a degree, yeah, we should be concerned with the prices going up.

We want SOE to make money for a game we enjoy that will inturn be used to better the game, so we cast a dismissive glance to the rise of probing prices...

But at the same time, we don't want to ignore it to much otherwise we end up with a business model that screws us...

It's good to be active about prices.

[typhaon]

You probably speak the loudest by playing the game... and not buying SC.

[Falcon_br]

Today I saw the membership daily deal with 30% off.
For one year it was 50% off.
I am not paying for a 30% discount!
Today some outfit members bought SC.
Some of then asked me, shall we pay a month of membership so we can double the SC we bought with membership discounts?
For the first time I said, don't! It won't pay! 30% off will not give you 1000 sc back unless you got over 4000 sc, what I know you guys didn't!

Like people said:
Triple Sc, double sc, 40% off, 25% extra! I will see a 10% off in sc during Christmas time!

[Vashyo]

I only buy stuff when it's atleast 75% off,

so far the anniversary bundle and 90% of the camoflauge mega-bundle were worth it for me


hell no will I ever pay more than 1$ for one virtual item, especially for a game I barely play as it is.

[AuntLou]

Steps to take when something is too expensive:
1. Don't buy it.

Sorry for the long read.