The Referral Program Misuse - Discussion

[Agent_of_Change]

Bleh this isn't a good idea.

What if we (friends) are already in a clan ourselves ?

 

 

As the founder of a multi-game group, having brought in my entire gaming group between my self and two other members since about update 7... The answer is we wait. 

 

I have exclusives new players will never get, and people who do have friends to refer are going to get mods that i will eventually get.

 

At the end of the day I'm not really missing out it's just gonna be a while until i get what they get, it's not a big deal.

[Hania]

Feedback on the Referral system:

General: Good, this game needs a system to attract new players and generate revenue for the game. We want people to come, play and introduce new players to the game so that the developers get support for their hard work. This will encourage them to support the project more as it will continue to have growth potential and hopefully they will do just that.

Exclusive mods/equipment on the referral system: I think adding rare and elusive mods to the referral system is a good way to encourage people to attract friends to the game. I think these mods/equipment should be "early access" to people who refer enough friends and be frequently updated as new mods/equipment are created and released by the developers. These items should eventually find their way into the regular drop table and market place for all players.

Warframe and Weapon Slots: An excellent reward incentive, but this highlights a growing problem within the game. Warframe and Weapon Slots are currently probably one of the highest in demand purchases in Warframe. There is no way for players to obtain these outside of spending platinum or participation in the referral system. I strongly advocate for a free alternative method of attaining these highly desirable purchases without diminishing the value received by current or future paying customers.

Misuse and abuse: Players gaming the system for personal gain should face consequences. I advocate for banning of alternate accounts and warnings being issued for main accounts (with eventual bans from continued abuse) when evidence arises that an individual has attempted to subvert system to garner rewards illegitimately. I say this because I strongly believe that people gaming the system for personal rewards are doing so at the expense the future development of community based rewards systems. If the publisher (DE themselves in this case) sees that rampant abuse of the referral system has cut their profits without attracting enough new potential spenders to their game they are less likely to introduce new rewards and incentives in the future for all players. I support a fair and balanced application of administrative powers to ensure that the referral system is used fairly to achieve the rewards offered knowing that those who legitimately worked towards gaining their rewards also enriched us all by contributing towards the long term health of this game by increasing the size of the community. I would not therefore support the opposite; players who subvert the system for personal gain without contributing to the community and potentially harming other players by dissuading the publisher to introduce other incentive and reward programs in the future.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Hania

[shr0ud]

it's not even worth the trouble to make alternate accounts for those rewards.

 

To be honest, a lot of things about this game are not worth the trouble. Not anymore.

[NeoDarkSider]

Very Disappointed with DE. I started playing this game in April and I convinced 6 close friends to play this game. 5 out of the 6 bought the Hunter's founders pack. That is an extra $250 worth of referral revenue I helped DE obtained.

 

The 6th player (Free player) stopped playing after about 100 hours due to DE's poor continued decisions.

The 5th player (Hunter Founder) stopped playing after about 20 hours due to DE's poor decisions. 

The 4th player (Hunter Founder) stopped playing after 15 hours due to DE's poor decisions.

The 3rd player (Hunter Founder) over 150 hours logged, plays very little now due to work.

The 2nd player (Hunter Founder) over 300 hours logged, still plays buts less due to school and other free to player shooter games like planetside2.

The 1st player (Hunter Founder) over 700 hours logged, still plays often.

 

Myself (Hunter Founder) over 800 hours still hopes (maybe in vain) DE will fix and correct the many mistakes and bad decisions they made in the past and present.

Edited September 26, 2013 by NeoDarkSider

[NDroid]

While I personally don't mind the existence of a referral program- it's not a bad way to get more people into the game, the rewards should never be exclusive gameplay affecting items. So giving out slots, potatoes, badges or skins (although I'm sure skins exclusive to the referral program will also upset some of the playerbase) would be a good reward, having a unique mod as a reward will just upset the existing veteran players.

 

A referral program should incentivize players to get more people to try the game but it shouldn't punish them if they're unable to do so.

[AlexanderEZ]

I'm about as aggressive as a cotton ball :)

 

I'm just trying to gather constructive feedback!

 

Cotton balls if swallowed can be quite harmful O_O.

[theGreatZamboni]

I'm about as aggressive as a cotton ball :)

 

I'm just trying to gather constructive feedback!

 

You replied in a condescending manner to Ced, after he gave fair criticism with regards to the Djinn. Had someone replied to you in that fashion, you surely would have banned them.

Edited September 26, 2013 by theGreatZamboni

[CaveCricket48]

I'd love to invite all my friends into Warframe to help grow the playerbase. Except that I already did that before the event. Like everyone else did.

 

Friends don't grow on trees, DE.

[SlothOfDoom]

I don't really use these forums because it is hard to have a civil conversation here, but I feel like I should weigh in on this one.

 

As a "veteran" player I feel that locking exclusive content behind a referral system is, frankly, insulting.  As others have mentioned, those of us that have been playing the game for a long time have most likely already "referred" all of our gamer pals by this point.

 

This game may have been built by the tireless hands of DE, but it was built on a foundation of dedicated players.  A program like this is a step towards ostracizing those players in order to cater to new ones.   I believe we will see enough of that when the PS4 launches, so we really don't need to see it now.

 

Overall, a referral system is a good idea.  Rewards for a referral system are a good idea too.  The issue I (and so many others) have is that the rewards are exclusive for no good reason.   There are lots of other rewards that would make sense and not exclude anyone.  Rare mod packs, Existing alternate helms, rare resources.   Or hey, I know, how about some unique weapon skins?  You remember skins, right?

[TintedLenz]

I personally think one of the inherent problems with the Referral system is the fact they introduced it right after the debacle of U10. Does DE honestly expect me to recommend this game to other people after that?

Edited September 26, 2013 by TintedLenz

[KnightmareZX]

I would not recommend this game to anyone. I am here because I am emotionally invested in it, because I want it to succeed. But I will not trick people into playing such a mess of a game. This program shows how ignorant the people at DE are. I could go on and on. But the disrespect put on display from member of DE's team through their actions and inaction, makes me sick. You have a professional from your team behaving in a condescending and childish fashion continuously to members of this community, prominent members. You have no respect for us. You have no integrity. We have been trying to reach you, but you have made us your enemy. We are trying to help you and you treat us like S#&$. If you continue to act is such a fashion your game will die. This is getting out of hand. Seriously, there is no harm in admitting you are wrong. In fact is shows strength of character. This entire referral system is just lame. No one is going to trick people into playing your shoddy game. They are going to exploit it. Creating a new account being a bannable offense is just ridicules. Referral programs work for good games, established games. Not unfinished and shoddy games. "Hey person I care about, come suffer with me!".

 

 

You replied in a condescending manner to Ced, after he gave fair criticism with regards to the Djinn.

 

^this is all true, and reflective of a subset of veteran players who have poured their time, energy, and (sometimes)incomes in order to support DE's venture. unfortunately, we the community do not get much acknowledgement or voice in DE's decisions. i agree with Zamboni in general, albeit with less harsh words. this referral system, along with other certain events in recent days, leads me to believe this is simply continuation and silent affirmation of what Ced mentioned in his resignation letter. I wish to remind you all that this does not exactly reflect well upon the internal engines of DE, nor does it bode well for the future of Warframe. The ball is in your court, DE. While I trust that the situation will be fixed shortly, I am more hesitant to believe/hope that our feedback, criticisms, etc., will be heard, especially with the unprofessional decision flop for Kinderghast that is disorganized, discouraging, and disappointing. Good day.

Edited September 26, 2013 by KnightmareZX

[mblmg]

Hey, stop screwing veteran players and all will be fine!

Don't put exclusive items behind a referral wall please!

[Kaian-a-coel]

I'm kind of upset because these rewards are completely unobtainable for me. I was the last of my friends' group to get into warframe, basically being referred before the referral system. So I kind of have NOBODY to refer...

 

This. Is. Not. Fine.

 

Slots I can look past, I'm a founder now and I can buy them, no problem. Exclusive mods? What were you thinking DE?

Put platinum, potatoes, forma, rare but otherwise available mods... but not something exclusive!

 

On the topic of exclusives: I find vandal/founder exclusives fine, because they are a slightly upgraded version of available weapons/warframe.

Primed chamber/Charged chamber is... Well I feel kind of ambiguous about it.

 

Everything else, including dojo statues, is rage-inducing.

[Kerrus]

Also on the subject of prime frames, all they have, really, is an extra polarity slot. It's trivial to level a frame to max and stick a forma in it to duplicate that functionality.

It's not trivial to refer fifty 'new' people after you've already referred everyone you know on the planet

[Cinderain]

we don't need another Braton Vandal incident either.

 

I don't even see how this is an appropriate example to this situation. The Braton Vandal was a reward for beta and server stress testing. Exclusive beta rewards is something that every game in this market has. You don't get a beta reward if you weren't in the beta, simple as that.

 

Referral programs are an entirely different kind of cookie.

Edited September 26, 2013 by FatalX7

[AngelGuardcc]

Are you telling me they are planning on banning all players who used alt accounts to get those unique or hard to get mods ?

 

 

 

 

 

This is really bad.....because i know some players....GRAND MASTERS of this game who did it to get all those things in the system (All for that Firestorm mod)

 

 

so they will be banned for doing it?

 

 

 

 

so they will ban FOUNDERs who gave the money they had to DE because they love the game 

 

 

 

I dont think thats a good idea.......worse if its a perma ban.....i would understand if they get banned for some days but perma would be bad....really bad

 

 

 

 

And they DID this before even reading the Forums , so they didnt know about the warning DE Megan posted

[Scandroid]

paying money doesnt make you inmune to a ban they exploited the feature they deserve a ban they knew what they were doing

[AlchemistMute]

So what if they gave their support? They basically cheated the system, and shouldn't deserve any better for that.

[ValiantCorvus]

Illegal exploitation is still against the rules regardless of how much money you dump into the game.

 

That's like saying it's okay for me to go murder someone down the road because I donated to local law enforcement.  No, that doesn't make any sense at all.

[KvotheTheArcane1]

They should be banned imo exploitation is exploitation, but DE should also make the mods available (as a very rare drop, but then again, I believe all mods should be obtainable).

Edited September 26, 2013 by KvotheTheArcane1

[Cinderain]

So what if they gave their support? They basically cheated the system, and shouldn't deserve any better for that.

 

Don't make a system that people want to cheat.

 

They should be banned imo exploitation is exploitation

 

Slide and zoren spamming are also exploitations of the physics.

Edited September 26, 2013 by FatalX7

[Katakuna]

Yeah yeah, being immune to bans isn't one of the founder perks, but this whole referral system smells rotten.  Bet'cha less people would exploit it if a unique mod wasn't locked behind it.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Katakuna

[Mak_Gohae]

Don't make a system that people want to cheat.

 

 

 

That is literally impossible to do.

[Namacyst]

It's "Refer a friend" not "Refer yourself". They deserve and will get a lifetime Ban. Master or Grand Master does not matter, they are not special in any way.

[AlchemistMute]

Don't make a system that people want to cheat.

I agree with you, but the issue is that these people who payed money knew they were cheating, and will be banned for doing so. They were the ones who did it.