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Would it be easy to get D&D fans pay $60-200 again next year to secure game's future?
nighthalas
Member Posts: 55
This feels like a very important question which could determine the future, success, expansion and development of Neverwinter in the long run.
The financial future of the company might be secure for now with all the income from founder's packs and zen sales to all the new players. However, if things start to go downhill from now, would it be easy for the developers to make all the D&D fans to overlook bugs, problems and lack of content and become instantly very excited about the game again and pay a lot of money for some new packs or features in spring or summer 2014 just like they did now in 2013 for founder's packs?
Right now this question is very important for another free-to-play MMO game called Mechwarrior Online. Notice the similarities here. Both Neverwinter and Mechwarrior Online are free-to-play MMO games based on trademarks which have an established die-hard faithful fanbase (Dungeons & Dragons and Battletech).
The company which is developing Mechwarrior Online released founder's packs last summer but the company hasn't released anything truly major during the whole year. By major I mean some features which would cost the company a substantial amount of money and expand or revolutionize the gameplay quite a lot. They have released some new mechs and pay-to-buy items, balanced and re-balanced gameplay, fixed and "unfixed" bugs. A year ago everybody was expecting the game to be much more versatile by now with its gameplay expanded greatly with the promised community warfare features. In reality, the game isn't significantly different than it was last autumn and a few aspects or features might even be worse than they were.
Now this summer they have suddenly put for pre-order packs which will be similar to founder's packs last summer. Judging by forum posts written by people who got founder's packs last year, even those players who stopped playing or given up on the game or who weren't satisfied with the gameplay balance issues and bugs are now instantly hyped again and willing to dish $60 or $80 on the new packs. One big reason for the hype is because it is Battletech and the new packs will contain some mechs which these people love from the beloved franchise. Right now the company is probably pondering how many Battletech fans will get excited and/or overlook slow game development during the whole year and pay $20-80 again to secure the future of the game for the next year.
If this strategy succeeds for Mechwarrior Online and D&D fans are anything like Battletech fans, then Cryptic Studios doesn't really have anything to worry about and they could follow a similar path of development. They could wait for a year, make minor patches and game balancing and bug fixing but nothing really huge, and then in spring or summer 2014 suddenly put for pre-order for a limited amount of time some kind of packs which would be very tempting for D&D fans.
The financial future of the company might be secure for now with all the income from founder's packs and zen sales to all the new players. However, if things start to go downhill from now, would it be easy for the developers to make all the D&D fans to overlook bugs, problems and lack of content and become instantly very excited about the game again and pay a lot of money for some new packs or features in spring or summer 2014 just like they did now in 2013 for founder's packs?
Right now this question is very important for another free-to-play MMO game called Mechwarrior Online. Notice the similarities here. Both Neverwinter and Mechwarrior Online are free-to-play MMO games based on trademarks which have an established die-hard faithful fanbase (Dungeons & Dragons and Battletech).
The company which is developing Mechwarrior Online released founder's packs last summer but the company hasn't released anything truly major during the whole year. By major I mean some features which would cost the company a substantial amount of money and expand or revolutionize the gameplay quite a lot. They have released some new mechs and pay-to-buy items, balanced and re-balanced gameplay, fixed and "unfixed" bugs. A year ago everybody was expecting the game to be much more versatile by now with its gameplay expanded greatly with the promised community warfare features. In reality, the game isn't significantly different than it was last autumn and a few aspects or features might even be worse than they were.
Now this summer they have suddenly put for pre-order packs which will be similar to founder's packs last summer. Judging by forum posts written by people who got founder's packs last year, even those players who stopped playing or given up on the game or who weren't satisfied with the gameplay balance issues and bugs are now instantly hyped again and willing to dish $60 or $80 on the new packs. One big reason for the hype is because it is Battletech and the new packs will contain some mechs which these people love from the beloved franchise. Right now the company is probably pondering how many Battletech fans will get excited and/or overlook slow game development during the whole year and pay $20-80 again to secure the future of the game for the next year.
If this strategy succeeds for Mechwarrior Online and D&D fans are anything like Battletech fans, then Cryptic Studios doesn't really have anything to worry about and they could follow a similar path of development. They could wait for a year, make minor patches and game balancing and bug fixing but nothing really huge, and then in spring or summer 2014 suddenly put for pre-order for a limited amount of time some kind of packs which would be very tempting for D&D fans.
Post edited by nighthalas on
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^^^^^
This +1000.
Occam's Razor makes the cutting clean.
This^ X 100.
I have no trouble opening up my wallet if something interest me, but I won't buy just to spend.
The question is mostly about D&D fans who have bought the Guardian of the North or Hero of the North founder's packs or who have bought zen. It would be more accurate to call them D&D content collectors. Are there enough of them and how easy would it be to get them excited to buy a new pack again next year?
If there is a sufficient number of such players, then it doesn't even matter if 50-90% of players leave the game now or the game doesn't really improve much during the next 5-11 months. The only important thing is to release some new limited packs after 6-12 months to get the D&D content collectors to return to the game once again, buy some new packs, play the game again for a month or two and maybe leave again until next year.
I've done that before.
Its why I have a DCUO lifetime sub despite barely if ever playing it simply because I love comic books.
...cant say that was 200 bucks well spent.
^ not a businessman
You should consider that some MMO companies are mainly interested in drawing in players only for a certain season. They do not necessarily expect the majority of players to linger around for a whole year in the same MMO game. People arrive, spend money, play the game for a certain period of time and then leave to play something else, while developers begin to create a new expansion using the finances raised during the previous season.
Only to find out it has 0 depth, and replayability once you get geared(im using that term lightly as there like 2 sets of gear in this game, pvp gear or t1 to help you farm t2, the end). Acquired all that within two weeks. Another two weeks MAYBE for rank 7s and normal weapon / armor enchants
Well yeah, will never play another game from this company or spend another dollar here.
The money isnt the issue, the ****ty game is. So ill spend my cash else where.
What rabid lunacy is this? What kind of fan likes to punish themselves like that? Given how Cryptic have handled issues so far, no, no I do not think players will be willing to fork over more cash.
Play an exclusive version of the renegade dragon cult kobold and ride a uniquly colored dragon mount..... and get an exclusive captive virgin fashion outfit...(looks exactly like a ripped up version of moonstone regalia) have a pet lizard named sparky... and more...
if they can have enough gamer candy ant toss around the words exclusive and unique enough im sure they can sell more packs...
disclaimer: none of what I said in this post will probably ever happen.
Imagine that an avid D&D fan and collector of D&D stuff buys an exclusive pack, plays through the game with a few characters and leaves. There are always people who play a game like this more like a single player game and they won't care about most of the bugs, exploits and issues with gameplay balance like the people who want to stay and play just one game every week and every month for a very long time. A year passes and he/she notices an update or advertisement on some website or a newsletter in email and returns to discover that there is some new exclusive limited offer pack available and some new fun content or changes in the game. Some will pass but some will return and could be tempted to grab some more exclusive items.
Some people are ready to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get special stuff in MMO games, so this scenario is very possible, especially with a long-running trademark like Dungeons & Dragons. The exclusive items have collector value and this is evident if you take a look at the forum threads here in which people are demanding that the company stops selling founder packs.
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?374531-It-s-time-to-stop-selling-founders-packs
this game doesn't feel like D&D, such a player would be disappointed an likely wouldn't come back... if I thought PvP was fun and there were ranking boards and classes were balanced I'd keep coming back over time to play it but not for the D&D aspect of the game cause it doesn't at all give the D&D type feel
A certain percentage of those players will have been unhappy with their purchases and have left the game behind completely.
Another fraction will have been unhappy with their purchase, but still play the game to some extent. Its unlikely that they will choose to buy in, in that fashion, again.
Another fraction will have been, at least, somewhat satisfied with their purchase, perhaps have even made further purchases of zen, but will consider themselves as having sufficiently supported the game that they don't feel justified in making another large lump sum purchase for a new founder's pack.
Another fraction will have bought the initial founder's pack with the expectation that it would be their sole monetary investment in the game.
Another fraction might be on the fence about their feelings towards the return on their investment, but recognize that MMOs provide one of the better hours of entertainment per dollar value spent ratios in the entertainment industry and so buy another pack when it is released.
And, of course, there are those who will be completely happy with their founder's pack purchase, with the game at present, and with the idea of buying another such pack in a year's time.
Who can say what percentage of the total founder's pack purchaser base each of the above constitutes, but only a portion of those who bought a founder's pack are likely to buy another.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.