Potato Famine 2.0

[Magnar21]

You ever tried running a business of you own? With not enough resources?

 

I just used example, not facts, and you jumped to a conclusion that i said that 10 % of the people will buy plat. You my friend do not know how business is run, and that "money is a god" is the teachings of every businessman. No matter what people try to think, everyone is working for money.

 

DE made this game to make money, not for our satisfaction. It is simple as that.

You are right, to a point. DE is here to make money. After all, they want to make a living too. But the key thing to remember is that they are providing a service, one that I don't have to pay for. Some might say, "well, don't play then". But that isn't a solution. The solution is a psychological one: no human wants to be forced. Since DE is providing a service called Warframe, their goal is to convince me to buy virtual goods in their game.

If you have read my posts in this thread (ill assume you have), then you know that I am a true F2Per. I haven't spent money, and, until I get out of college at least, I never will. Why should DE cater to the whims and desires of someone like me? The short answer, is I just might make them money yet. It is not in their best interest to make me, as a customer, happy; even if I never purchase a cent from them, I might tell someone about their game, particularly if I start webcasting like I hope to.

Another reason to make players in general happy, is they won't stay if they are forced to play. Go watch a few Extra Credits videos on monotization in video games, they make the same point; if you make customers feel like they are forced to buy an item for end game content (potatoes and 100+ defense waves), then they will leave and go somewhere else. By settling for less, you make more. Simple concept.

In Firefall (a truly free to play mmo I mentioned earlier), one of the items for sale is a cosmetic helmet. (It is important to note that they only sell convenience items and cosmetics.) What makes this item unique however, is that it costs 20 usd to purchase, yet is one of their better selling items. Their cash shop guys concluded that people like to customize, to make their character unique. How much more founder's packs would DE have sold, if it came with a code allowing you to pick an alternate skin for a warframe of your choice? (Assuming that this doesn't already exist, I'm not a founder).

Ehh, I'm done with my rant, trying to post on my phone between evening college classes. I'll post more later.

[Anorax_Xarona]

You are right, to a point. DE is here to make money. After all, they want to make a living too. But the key thing to remember is that they are providing a service, one that I don't have to pay for. Some might say, "well, don't play then". But that isn't a solution. The solution is a psychological one: no human wants to be forced. Since DE is providing a service called Warframe, their goal is to convince me to buy virtual goods in their game.

If you have read my posts in this thread (ill assume you have), then you know that I am a true F2Per. I haven't spent money, and, until I get out of college at least, I never will. Why should DE cater to the whims and desires of someone like me? The short answer, is I just might make them money yet. It is not in their best interest to make me, as a customer, happy; even if I never purchase a cent from them, I might tell someone about their game, particularly if I start webcasting like I hope to.

Another reason to make players in general happy, is they won't stay if they are forced to play. Go watch a few Extra Credits videos on monotization in video games, they make the same point; if you make customers feel like they are forced to buy an item for end game content (potatoes and 100+ defense waves), then they will leave and go somewhere else. By settling for less, you make more. Simple concept.

In Firefall (a truly free to play mmo I mentioned earlier), one of the items for sale is a cosmetic helmet. (It is important to note that they only sell convenience items and cosmetics.) What makes this item unique however, is that it costs 20 usd to purchase, yet is one of their better selling items. Their cash shop guys concluded that people like to customize, to make their character unique. How much more founder's packs would DE have sold, if it came with a code allowing you to pick an alternate skin for a warframe of your choice? (Assuming that this doesn't already exist, I'm not a founder).

Ehh, I'm done with my rant, trying to post on my phone between evening college classes. I'll post more later.

 

I agree with this.  

Purely cosmetic items should really be the only thing behind a pay wall, and even then, the helmets are in alerts, and hell even a weekend scarf event was mentioned.

Not everyone who plays this game can afford anything in it.  I've been trying to find a job for six months now and nowhere will hire me because I don't have work experience because I can't find a dang job.  I've done a little work here and there for friends and family and made a bit of money, some of which I used to buy plat a couple times and the basic founder's package, because I see this game having a lot of potential.  I like this game enough to try and support it when I can.

Does my total of like $50 in four months really make a difference in the scope of things?  Probably not, most of it likely went into the team that rendered Nova's butt.

 

But for those that really like the game, like me, and a TON of others, otherwise you buttsnarfs wouldn't be here on the forums, we play the game because it's enjoyable (when RNG doesn't hate us and spawncamp us with 5 heavy gunners -.-"), and some of us will buy platinum to get things we may not even need in the game but want, and in some cases things we do need, like reactors and potatoes.  (oh, the potatoes...)

I've gotten a few of my friends playing this game sporadically, but most are too busy to put any real time into it, or their computers don't play well with how shiny the game is.

 

And for the guy that says they're only in this game to make money, yes, they do make money, but it's not something that's given them tunnel vision in support.  I've put in two support tickets, both of which were solved within a day, even the one that I put in on a weekend.  They have the livestreams to discuss what they're doing with the game, and how they're trying to make it better, so we as a community, rather than rage at how apparently terrible a job we think they're doing, might actually talk about things rather than post walls of text saying how we hate this, or this sucks and shouldn't exist and the people that made it should throw themselves off cliffs, and childish crap that sounds arrogant and self-entitled.

If you think the game sucks, maybe you should explain what you think sucks and why, rather than just cry about it.

 

End of constructive rant.  Mostly because I lost my train of thought after cookies.

[Mastikator2]

I agree with the OP - 5:00 am is really ridiculous. I missed it because like most normal people I am asleep at that time. Just because there is an option to buy doesn't mean that's the only way - the free ones cannot be replaced with one you purchased, it will always be one you could have gotten extra no matter how many you buy. I thought there was a longer window for potatoes, but apparently that has been cut back. Very disappointed.

It's always 5 in the morning somewhere dude. You can't have an alert that doesn't start in the morning for someone.

[Hypevosa]

See, the issue I have is there are only 22 reactors needed so far to never need another, and that number isn't going to increase terribly fast.  Catalysts I see needing to be around more often for weapons, but the reactors are fine with a semi-low rate of introduction.

[fatpig84]

I agree with the OP - 5:00 am is really ridiculous. I missed it because like most normal people I am asleep at that time. Just because there is an option to buy doesn't mean that's the only way - the free ones cannot be replaced with one you purchased, it will always be one you could have gotten extra no matter how many you buy. I thought there was a longer window for potatoes, but apparently that has been cut back. Very disappointed.

 

For the people on the other side of the globe like Australia, that is a god send. 

Many of them have a hard time getting Vauban parts too.

 

I only got lucky because I play like 2am to 3am in the morning and got my Vauban.

[Magnar21]

It's always 5 in the morning somewhere dude. You can't have an alert that doesn't start in the morning for someone.

All the more reason to have alerts more accessible to more people. Maybe have it so that instead of the potato alerts behaving *exactly* like the normal alerts, they open a 24hr special *solo* mission, in which the difficulty is based on your mastery/warframe/weapon ranks? That could add variety and skill, rather than hoping the RNG gods smile on me, and spawn it when I'm available and ready to play.

 

See, the issue I have is there are only 22 reactors needed so far to never need another, and that number isn't going to increase terribly fast.  Catalysts I see needing to be around more often for weapons, but the reactors are fine with a semi-low rate of introduction.

Perhaps a variant to my suggestion to Mastikator2: have it spawn just as often as it does currently, but still rare. And players will still buy more than 22 reactors, since some people buy multiple weapons/frames so they don't have to re-forma for different scenarios. And how many people have played long enough to get 22 reactors from alerts/login rewards?

 

Edit: What happens when the next warframe is released? And the next? As long as DE releases more content, or has different content types requiring different polarities, people will continue to purchase potatoes, formas, and slots (although slot sales might be reduced after they add in the referral system), and those who were unable or unwilling to purchase beforehand won't change their mind either.

 

TL:DR

Players will keep paying for potatoes if more content/warframes are added, provided that they were willing and/or able to purchase in the first place. Adding more/longer alerts that yield potatoes will not change that, if history is any indicator.

Edited September 20, 2013 by Magnar21

[HexCaliber]

Why should they last 24 h? Just for some people to have convenience?

 

Primary tactics of DE are those of selling potatoes and forma, not giving them for free. I am not taking their side, but if you are free2play or dont want to buy potatoes then you should depend on pure luck ( will of RNG gods). If you cannot wait, invest some money in plat and buy that stuff that you need/want.

I have spent over $400 now and I say there are not enough alerts, for either forma or catalyst, forma are rarer than ducks teeth right now. Feel free to tell me I should spend more on this game, I will happily show you where you can put that sort of ridiculous comment.

 

Are you completely oblivious to the overriding consensus that there is too much grind right now? There has to be a balance, and right now that balance is off; as long as DE keep churning out content players who are willing to spend money will always find something to spend it on. However, due to the new mission scaling, potatoes and forma are essential kit now,  if they are too difficult to acquire folks will become bored and leave; then the game devolves into pay to win as DE chase revenue to stay afloat.

Edited September 20, 2013 by HexCaliber

[Xenrax]

I have spent over $400 now and I say there are not enough alerts, for either forma or catalyst, forma are rarer than ducks teeth right now. Feel free to tell me I should spend more on this game, I will happily show you where you can put that sort of ridiculous comment.

 

Are you completely oblivious to the overriding consensus that there is too much grind right now? There has to be a balance, and right now that balance is off; as long as DE keep churning out content players who are willing to spend money will always find something to spend it on. However, due to the new mission scaling, potatoes and forma are essential kit now,  if they are too difficult to acquire folks will become bored and leave; then the game devolves into pay to win as DE chase revenue to stay afloat.

 

Quoted for absolute WIN :)

[Mainabi]

im master, I had thousands of platinum, and now i dont have plat for catalysts Q.Q catalyst alerts pls! but reactor alerts are super fine, I've got 3-4 completed reactors piled up mainly thanks to alerts, but catalyst, well I don't havd enough
.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Seira-EGT-