New User monetization concerns

[Adoteriel]

​​Hello! I just downloaded this today and have been playing. So far the actual gameplay is pretty fun but I have some pretty big concerns before I can really sink my teeth into it. Overall in terms of actually playing the game and the graphics and all that it is very fun! So far I have loved the scenarios I've managed to complete. There were a few bugs here and there, but what is my beloved Obsidian without a few bugs ^^;

 

However all that said I have some reservations about the future of this game given your monetization strategies, and as such I am a little reluctant to put a lot of time and certainly money into it.

 

1. Gold: Purchasing gold doesn't make any sense to me. It is trying to do funky math to try and force me to spend on what you guys think I should spend it on. For example, if I buy 20,000 gold, I only have one good option, which is to purchase fifty treasure chests. If I don't want to do that for any reason, like if I want to buy the ten chest bundle for 4500 and have some gold left over for other things, I am now left with 15,500 gold, which is a strange and inconvenient amount. If I look at the characters panel for example, and I buy Seoni, now I have 13,000 gold. Now I go and buy Burnt Offerings ... what to do with my remaining 12,250 gold? I can't buy treasures in any sensible increments now because spending 4,500 for 10 chest seems bafflingly poor value compared to buying 50 chests for 20,000. The entire thing is just inconvenient for anybody who wishes for flexibility in utilizing gold.

 

2. Daily Gold: This was VERY confusing. The description reads: "Collect 200 gold once per day by returning to the store and clicking the 'Pick Up daily Gold' button when it's lit up." However, no such button appears; instead I have the option to buy 200 gold for $1.99. The description makes it seem like I can get free gold once per day. It is misleading. Maybe the button is just broken? If it really is $1.99 for 200 gold, then that is clearly horrible value. I can't even buy a single chest with that, and if 4,000 gold is $4.99 ... I think you see how the math breaks.

 

3. Characters: Why is the character add-on deck so cheap?! It has 4 premium heroes which is already a 8,000 value and then it adds on considerable value on top of it? You are leaving a lot of money on the table! Why would ANYONE buy any of those single heroes when this bundle exists? This devalues any single hero purchase considerably, and it also makes purchasing the non-premium heroes MUCH less desirable.

 

4. The Rise of the Runelords Bundle: This is the most baffling. The entire bundle, which includes ALL adventure packs, ALL heroes, and a number of other additions is only $25? I love you guys! All this completely free content! But what I hate is the prospect of becoming so poor that you cannot continue updating what I imagine is an expensive game because of this huge loss of value. Look at comparable games in this space, like Hearthstone and Magic: the Gathering; their costs are considerably more expensive and people continually buy them because even there it has great value.

 

Here are some suggestions I have, and granted I am just the average Joe but I love card games, both physical and digital:

 

1. Don't let us buy gold at all. Keep the in-game gold that you earn and supplement it by allowing us to purchase chests, heroes, etc., directly. This is much more convenient for the user and allows you to balance your monetization strategy much more efficiently. Look to other games in this space, for whom this strategy works consistently well. There is no real value added by your strategy and it isn't too late to scrap it

 

2. Don't shoot yourself in the foot by allowing people to buy Rise of the Runelords for only $25. That is a shocking amount of content, even by your own math ($20 gets you 20,000 gold which is only 5 out of the 6 adventures, none of the extra heroes and no chests for extra cards).

 

3. If all else fails, put out the next campaigns quickly so that I can play them all for $25 before you change your mind

 

Thanks for the great game and all your hard work so far!!! Yay Pathfinder!!

 

 

[PRuano]

Ill just respond to the second sugestion:

 

You are only looking at the situation from a f2p perspective, the $25 for the whole bundle (minus treasure cards and dice) is for ppl like myself who prefer the premium format of paying a fixed sum for a game/app.

 

Im sure happy that Obsidian added that choice, and sure hope they dont remove it.

[Ethics Gradient]

Daily gold has been confusing new users since day one.  200 gold per daily check-in, for the next 30 days.  That's 6000 gold disbursed in tiny chunks over the course of a month.  Feels like a good deal, but 200 gold is also pretty easy to come by casually.

 

Regarding monetization, I think the biggest mistake is letting absolutely everything be purchased via gold.  AD1 and AD2, sure, maybe you can get it with gold.  All the other adventure decks should have a cash price tag.  I hate arguing against free, but there has to be some sort of compromise between $0 and $25.  Arguing that $0 is the right course of action because you worked hard to grind out that gold (at zero revenue) will harm future development more than it helps.  Paying $3 or so per AD won't break anyone's budget.

 

Otherwise, I think the problem is that we're so used to the scammy tactics of app developers (i.e. game currency vs. "premium" game currency, ads, forcing the user to log into Facebook or something, artificial ceilings that are nearly impossible to proceed through F2P), it's nearly disorienting when developer goes with "pay us $25 or not, it really won't matter in the end."

 

Hopefully they know what they're doing.  I'd like to see RoTR to finish on a high note.

[wakasm]

There are a ton of things wrong with the system on a lot of levels.  

 

However, I think the only way to really not have them losing money to just have more gold sinks and content faster, and we don't see that happening.   The real enemy is not the pricing, but the fact that there isn't enough choice forced on F2P players to spend some money and the extremely long amounts of time between content to spend gold on.  

 

Also, there also is no real value for purchasing with cash either other than saving some time.  If a new character class was released tomorrow, and locked in as cash only for 90 days or something... at least that would be some value.  

 

They would have been better off keeping this pay only, and adding F2P later when they actually a full game on their hands and a years worth of content in testing already. 

Edited September 9, 2016 by wakasm

[xxgrendelxx]

Maybe.  On the other hand I am primarily a F2P player, but I have chosen to give a little cash.  After unlocking all of the adventure packs and pretty much all of the characters by grinding, I bought a month of daily gold to drop on chest and then another 10K that I dropped on chests after the dice were added and another class.  The point being that if I'd had to invest up front I would have just clicked away... "looks fun but w/e."  After a couple weeks of dabbling I love the game and felt more than willing to contribute.  Matter of perspective I guess.