The holiday event is just junk

[Dursland]

For me, the biggest problem isn't the cost of the event pass being in real money. The problem is that it is a free (with diamonds) feature that was turned into a paid one, without adding any special value to it, in fact making it cost a greater amount than it used to (~2.5x the monetary cost of the diamonds needed for the previous 1200 price). If I'm paying 2.5x as much, then I want at least some kind of value. For example, there could be store bundles of something like:
$10 Event Pass
$15 Event Pass + 200 Stars
$25 Event Pass + 800 Stars
etc.

Also, it could have been added value to Forge Plus to include the event pass with it. Once again, adding value, not taking it away.

They already give you 7,500 castle points for purchasing the event pass.

 

[Xenosaur]

@Emberguard
In the absolute strictest interpretation allowed - they are right - you do NOT have to BUY ANYTHING, ever. Sure, it will be 2045 before you can leave the Iron Age (just kidding), because money lubricates the game.

However, now even game diamonds you earn or diamonds you buy won't help. There is a new thing you can't do - ever - is get into the PREMIUM TRACK for ANYTHING BUT CASH. The jury is still out if, or how long, that continues. Right now, CASH only unlocks the Premium event track.

Verisimilitude aside, I guess you kiss off being able to do that, too so as to keep the fact - FREE to PLAY, alive.

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

(1) It’s a tactic for converting potential customers into paying customers, and if done well can result in those customers being far more generous with their wallets (2) the game would be meaningless to pay to play if the free to play get isolated and leave.

While I can’t blame Inno for wanting to turn a profit, the game is advertised as free to play. So the paying customers will have a certain set of expectations stemming from that. It’s in Inno‘s interest to keep the free to play players happy, even if that seems counterintuitive

Yes. Business models have long recognized the power of converting such clientele. Take a restaurant that provides a lunch buffet for a discounted price when no such buffet existed before, either reduced price or not. The methodology is that the customers who receive the discount at lunch will now enjoy the offerings provided to also come in for dinner or the weekends when the prices are higher.

I could go into detail as to how such business models were applied to the computer software industry but those far more well-versed than me have already written on this issue and I won't rehash their fine words.

The one thing that seems to have gone haring off into the distance is this: for-profit comapanies are going to look at the bottom line. Period. They have no obligation to the non-paying customer. None. They might or might not be able to please the high-paying customer but history has already told them that those customers will be more than happy to move their business elsewhere if something newer, shinier, and more interesting in some way comes along, even if it means going to a different provider. The customers they are targeting are those who already spend a little and they will now focus on keeping their interest in their product by finding ways to get them to spend a bit more. They're not trying to convert those who spend nothing and they aren't even trying to alter those who spend a lot, they need only focus on those who've already exihibited a willingness to spend 'some' to just to spend a little more. Companies like Inno are in this for the long run. They are not going to waste their efforts trying to appease or appeal to the top percent of buyers and definitely not the ones who pay nothing at all. They will focus all of their attention on the greater number of clients who spend something without any prompting from them.

So, why the free play option? Easy. That's how they attract the potential customers who will spend a little. That's all they needed was to get their attention. Once they've gotten it they need only provide a service/product/etc. that will induce them to spend a 'little more.' They simply put up a banner outside of their restaurant advertising "Lunch Buffet." Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

 

[Angry.Blanket]

For me, the biggest problem isn't the cost of the event pass being in real money. The problem is that it is a free (with diamonds) feature that was turned into a paid one, without adding any special value to it, in fact making it cost a greater amount than it used to (~2.5x the monetary cost of the diamonds needed for the previous 1200 price). If I'm paying 2.5x as much, then I want at least some kind of value. For example, there could be store bundles of something like:
$10 Event Pass
$15 Event Pass + 200 Stars
$25 Event Pass + 800 Stars
etc.

Also, it could have been added value to Forge Plus to include the event pass with it. Once again, adding value, not taking it away.

I thought 15.00 was a pretty good deal for a complete event building

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

I thought 15.00 was a pretty good deal for a complete event building

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that the $15 doesn't guarantee you the event building just the Winter Prizes. If you don't earn stars, you don't earn the prize track. That's no different than the regular track's progress in the matter of stars, just that you get a second set of prizes. I do like @UBERhelp1 's suggestion of tiered passes that afford the buyer graduated option but none of the existing plans guarantee you the building as far as I can tell.

 

[UBERhelp1]

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that the $15 doesn't guarantee you the event building just the Winter Prizes. If you don't earn stars, you don't earn the prize track. That's no different than the regular track's progress in the matter of stars, just that you get a second set of prizes. I do like @UBERhelp1 's suggestion of tiered passes that afford the buyer graduated option but none of the existing plans guarantee you the building as far as I can tell.

The event pass doesn't help at all for your first event building. It only becomes useful for your second, third, etc. And that's only for the winter. (spoilers) the Forge Bowl event pass won't even give upgrades for the main event building at all.

 

[Dursland]

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that the $15 doesn't guarantee you the event building just the Winter Prizes. If you don't earn stars, you don't earn the prize track. That's no different than the regular track's progress in the matter of stars, just that you get a second set of prizes. I do like @UBERhelp1 's suggestion of tiered passes that afford the buyer graduated option but none of the existing plans guarantee you the building as far as I can tell.

Yeah it doesn't guarantee you the building because the extra selection kits don't even come into play until AFTER you've obtained enough upgrades for a full building.

Yep UBER said it as I was posting.

Edit: So the forge bowl event pass is crappy? Good, saves my money lol.

 

[Angry.Blanket]

My bad I thought you could use diamonds to get the first buildings.

 

[Xenosaur]

My bad I thought you could use diamonds to get the first buildings.

All the US $15 cash does is OPEN THE LOCK on the TOP track. That's it. The cash does NOT buy any track progress. It's only the key to unlock use of (benefit from) that track.

Diamonds AND doing the event WILL THEN let you get stuff on 2 tracks if you open it.

1 track (bottom track only...) if you don't.

TO @UBERhelp1 and @Dursland mutual points - from 0 to 440 on the top track (Premium track), even when opened, there are NO upgrade or selection kits, but LOTS of fragments to help you get your 1st NG.

AT and after marker 440, both tracks give you kits. So diamonds are essential to push into 2, 3, or more event buildings.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Yes. Business models have long recognized the power of converting such clientele. Take a restaurant that provides a lunch buffet for a discounted price when no such buffet existed before, either reduced price or not. The methodology is that the customers who receive the discount at lunch will now enjoy the offerings provided to also come in for dinner or the weekends when the prices are higher.

Yes, the lunch buffet is what's called a "loss leader". Taking a loss (or minimal profit) on something to entice people to try your other products. I've mentioned this before.

So, why the free play option? Easy. That's how they attract the potential customers who will spend a little. That's all they needed was to get their attention. Once they've gotten it they need only provide a service/product/etc. that will induce them to spend a 'little more.' They simply put up a banner outside of their restaurant advertising "Lunch Buffet." Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Except that's not what Inno has done here. They've taken a "lunch buffet" that was basically free to many players and put a price on it. This is not a "lunch buffet" that didn't exist before. Using your example, Inno has taken that discounted "lunch buffet" and marked it up to full price, no coupons allowed. That is not remotely "enticing" anyone to spend more money, quite the opposite. The only reason it might seem to work in this case is that the main building is levels above what they normally offer and some players will spend the money to get multiples. In order for it to work long-term they would have to keep offering better and better buildings each and every event. Power creep is bad enough now, imagine what that will do to game balance.

My bad I thought you could use diamonds to get the first buildings.

You can, just not with the Event Pass. You can buy extra Stars with Diamonds and get it through the presents/matches. And/or buy enough Master Key fragments to open the entire calendar get those extra kits.

 

[Angry.Blanket]

So basically the free to play folks can use their diamond farms to get as many buildings as they want on the bottom track.
The paying players have to buy diamonds with cash for the bottom track and pay 15.00 cash for the top track,
And the free to play folks are upset ?

 

[UBERhelp1]

So basically the free to play folks can use their diamond farms to get as many buildings as they want on the bottom track.
The paying players have to buy diamonds with cash for the bottom track and pay 15.00 cash for the top track,
And the free to play folks are upset ?

No. Because the event pass used to be purchasable with diamonds, and then that ability was removed and the equivalent price was more than doubled to $15 cash, without adding more value.

Before, if you saved up diamonds, you could purchase the event pass for free. Now, you can't. The devs removed an option for free to play players.

It would be like if you were able to walk into a store and used to be able to shop the entire selection, but then randomly the store decided you had to pay $200 to get the ability to purchase half of the items.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

So basically the free to play folks can use their diamond farms to get as many buildings as they want on the bottom track.

Apparently you have an unrealistic picture of how many Diamonds a farm actually produces. Nowhere near enough to "get as many buildings as they want."

 

[Angry.Blanket]

No. Because the event pass used to be purchasable with diamonds, and then that ability was removed and the equivalent price was more than doubled to $15 cash, without adding more value.

Before, if you saved up diamonds, you could purchase the event pass for free. Now, you can't. The devs removed an option for free to play players.

It would be like if you were able to walk into a store and used to be able to shop the entire selection, but then randomly the store decided you had to pay $200 to get the ability to purchase half of the items.

Before you could use your diamond farm to get it free, Its more like the store used to give everything away for free and then decided to charge money.

 

[Xenosaur]

So basically the free to play folks can use their diamond farms to get as many buildings as they want on the bottom track.
The paying players have to buy diamonds with cash for the bottom track and pay 15.00 cash for the top track,
And the free to play folks are upset ?

the mechanics you speak to are basically correct.

I'll add a bit more depth..

So basically the free to play Folks ANY PLAYER can use their any/all of their game earned diamonds (from ALL game sources: farms, GE, GbG, incidents, etc.) - or even purchased diamonds farms to get as many buildings as they want choose to afford on the bottom track.

The players who don't have any or enough game earned diamonds from any sources for the quantity of event buildings they want, might have to become paying players using cash have to buy diamonds with cash for the bottom track ONLY and may ALSO choose to pay an ADDITIONAL one-time for the event on each world they play it, DIRECT CASH CHARGE OF 15.00 cash to unlock for the top track, so they could benefit from additional value offered by that.,

And the free to play folks are upset ?

Answer: I don't know. Someone's always going to be upset about something, justified or not.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

And the free to play folks are upset ?

Answer: I don't know. Someone's always going to be upset about something, justified or not.

Until this event I was a F2P player. It's not about the money because the amounts in question are generally miniscule. I like F2P because it has an element of challenge that is removed when spending real money. I'll continue to be F2P going forward until the Devs come up with another building that is too good to pass up. Anyway, I'm not upset about spending fifteen bucks.

 

[Graviton]

Still getting one grand prize building with no money nor diamonds spent. Still have to pay to get more than one. From where I sit, nothing has really changed.

 

[Xenosaur]

Still getting one grand prize building with no money nor diamonds spent. Still have to pay to get more than one. From where I sit, nothing has really changed.

Bingo! Cut through all the verbal gyrations, misdirection, obfuscations and machinations, this is the sockdologer. Nothing has really changed.

1 for free.
For diamonds, get more.
For diamonds and $15.00 unlock fee - get more accelerated, faster and more efficiently.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Still getting one grand prize building with no money nor diamonds spent. Still have to pay to get more than one. From where I sit, nothing has really changed.

If players could only get Diamonds by buying them, you would be right. I have Diamond farms. In the past I could get the bonus reward line without spending a dime. Now I have to spend $15. You don't think that's a change?!? Especially for us retired folks who don't always have extra cash laying around.

Bingo! Through all the verbal gyrations, misdirection, obfuscations and machinations, this is the sockdologer. Nothing has really changed.

Use all the obscure words you want, you're still wrong. See my above comment.

 

[Angry.Blanket]

Apparently you have an unrealistic picture of how many Diamonds a farm actually produces. Nowhere near enough to "get as many buildings as they want."

We have players with 27 Space age Diamond farms with over 300 wishing wells per farm. at least one city maxed out with Eagle mountains and Sentinel outposts.