email to John Smedley

[Eyeklops]

FFS, wall-o-text. That REALLY needs a TLDR on it.

[Graywolves]

The game loses its competitiveness when you give people an advantage for an out-of-game currency.

[Trafalgar]

Oh, he wrote a TL;DR in it. He just put it at the very end of the post, so that you wouldn't realize it was there unless you had already read the entire post (or skimmed it).

[Synapse]

Originally Posted by Eyeklops

FFS, wall-o-text. That REALLY needs a TLDR on it.

there are several in the thread you refused to read before posting. Next time please make a positive contribution to the thread, k?

[Synapse]

Originally Posted by DjEclipse

Your email of self-importance moved me. You are welcome into the Vanu Sovereignty.

No, No he isnt, tyvm.

[WNxThentar]

Originally Posted by super pretendo

Hopefully he responds and expresses interest in seeing the non-basic stuff I am putting together. I really hope they put in varied and nuanced strategic objectives that don't involve just capturing. What about you guys?

You should have proof read that a bit more. You should also listen to why they, and many of us, don't want people to be able to buy power which is why they are going for side grades.

You really under estimate how quickly casual gamers and vets will log off when they get owned over and over by someone that had a lot of disposable income to throw at their character to make them uber. Then you see the number of players drop and for a MMO like PS2 that becomes a killer in itself. Why spend lots of money making yourself uber if people just end up logging off because you basically bought your K/D ratio.

You also assume that "casual gamers" don't care about the meta game it seems and just want stuff to shoot at. I personally don't want to think that I have to sink money into certain items to unlock the full benefit of the game. I don't mind paying money for things that are cosmetic or I could obtain in game anyway and aren't over powering.

From what I've read you want to make this a Us/Them game where power players can buy their power and the causal gamers are there as meat to use as shields or shoot at. I'm glad Smedley and his team have determined that buying power is the wrong thing to do. All you have to do is look at the back lash from players in other games that went down that road.

Honestly it is like listening to Mitt Romney supporters claim that he'll bring the USA out of a recession by further lowering the taxes of the rich, firing more public servants like teachers, firemen and police men when you can see that those policies have failed over the last 20 years in the USA and even overseas like in Ireland that model is clearly a failed economic model.

Just my 2 cents worth.
WNxThentar

[Arovien]

Originally Posted by Synapse

No, No he isnt, tyvm.

Classic!

Is this thread real life?

[Mr DeCastellac]

If I was the president of SOE and opened this email, I would immediately close it and delete it.

[OnexBigxHebrew]

I have a business degree, and I can tell you this - the very first thing we learn in business communication is that you keep things brief and to the point until you're granted an opportunity for presentation.

You called yourself a 'student of business' but I think you're missing some integral business communication skills. Good luck in the future, though, and I'm glad to see someone on here attempting to talk about something interesting besides premature gameplay opinions . You obviously have a lot of passion for this, and that's always a great start!

[The Degenatron]

Originally Posted by Synapse

Sooo, basically you think shooter fans won't pay up the way league of legends fans do, and that instead if you bring in Pay2win everyone will just be happy because casuals don't care about it?

This is actually fantastically wrong. Writing a TL/DR for people.


TL/DR for the lazy people
-----------------------------
There are casual games with little strategy, and complex games with lots of strategy. In the former you have casual players who will buy stuff that has no strategy like camo. In the latter you have people who want more strategy.

Since you should sell to the people who care most about the game, you should sell strategy enhancing benefits that the PS2 core fanbase will care about. This equation I have here prooves that people who don't pay are the ones who won't care about it, and therefore will keep playing even though disadvantaged.

In short, if you want to make money off ps2, you should sell special bombs that do more damage, radar to see your enemies coming, bridges to go where other people cant go, etc.
------------------------------

Personally, I hope smed doesn't even grace you with a "no." It all goes really horribly sideways in the middle where your :equation: tells you that people who care about PS2 will all pay for it. Those are two distinct groups. People who care and people who can pay. In short you're wrong on 3 accounts: 1) people who want strategy dont want to buy an advantage 2) people who can pay and people who care about the game are not equal groups, and 3) casual players won't just ignore pay to win, they will leave instead and 4) you're just wrong why am I even writing this.

I have to say that this an excellent analysis of the "paper".

The only thing that I would add is that Super Pretendo (the author) also makes the staggering assumption that putting bait on a hook deincentives fish from being caught.

Put another way, the game MUST be casual enough to be inviting. "Great! Microsoft Flight is free to play, but you have to read and understand a 400 page flight manual before you can get in the air (you don't, it's just hypothetical), then this will surely bring in MILLIONS of dollars!" Nope. Sorry, a certain level of "casualness" is absolutely required to get the fish to nibble at the hook long enough to catch them.

You might be a business and math major, but maybe you should minor in Psychology.

[Brusi]

Originally Posted by Mr DeCastellac

If I was the president of SOE and opened this email, I would immediately close it and delete it.

I would delete myself!

[OutlawDr]

this is either the worst thread ever made (in the history of time) or the best troll thread ever made in the last day or so

[WNxThentar]

Originally Posted by Vanath

Why share this with us? I might understand sharing the reply but why tell us you sent him an e-mail?

For the same reason the first 2 people to talk in the Q&A portion of the lecture I went to last night didn't actually have a Question for the Lecturer to Answer but wanted 5+ minutes of time to convince the everyone the Lecturer is wrong. They are full of themselves and can't understand why people don't want to listen to them more then the experts. :P

[The Degenatron]

Originally Posted by DjEclipse

Lets never forget this letter and the impact it had on the game.

DJ, I'm really starting to look forward to your posts. I get a chuckle every time.

[Trolltaxi]

Could someone pls sum up in 3 sentences?