What PW needs to work on
Crixxix - Raging Tide
Posts: 848 Arc User
Okay, as many of us realize, this game (And it's parent company) have many flaws. I have previously made a post about what the company needs to do, but I will be adding that here as well, along with updates to that. This is going to be a big thread, so I will be dividing it into sections.
All usage of "PWE" refers to the company, although I can only speak for this game. All usage of "PWI" can generally be interchanged with "PWCN" as well, unless speaking about the few things that are only available to our version (Example: Packs, although I do not discuss those here).
4. Make the GMs appear in-game and interact with the players once in a while. Maybe once a week, or even once a month, so that they can host an event. I won't tell you what kind of event they should hold, as they are GMs, and can create countless possibilities on their own. If they don't have an imagination, they shouldn't be a GM. I can say, however, that creating this kind of contact with your player base would do wonders for the community. I think the biggest aspect of being a company that PWE (I can only speak for PWI though), is that they fail to create a presence, especially in-game. The Quality Corner is a good step, buy there needs to be an in-game presence as well, other than to occasionally pop on to handle an issue, then log off again immediately.
5. Start listening to the customer base more. Happy customers are paying customers, and even keeping the people who don't pay happy effects the players who do put money into the game. If people who don't pay are unhappy, then they may be less active, hence, they grind or quest less. Hell, they may not even log for every NW. This means that they have less money, and can't afford a cash shopper's good that they bought from you. This means they sell slower, which leads to them buying less often. I think PWI needs to realize that everything in the game which relates to them making money is a cycle, a very delicate system that we call an economy. If one small thing throws off one part of that system, the whole economy becomes imbalanced. So therefore, by making the non-paying customers happy, your making money through them, even though they never paid a dime. That being said, listening to your customers can also give you inspiration for future content, and will save you a lot of effort.
6. If you can't afford to pay employees, then look to your player base. We are, and always will be your biggest supporters. A lot of us are willing to volunteer, with or without any form of compensation. You already use volunteers to moderate forums, and I feel that they do a damn good job. Of course, the volunteers need to be able to perform in a professional manner, but I think there are many people here who already do that. If the position of forum mod is good enough for a volunteer, why not other things? I don't think people should be treated any differently than a paid employee if volunteers are ever used, either. I think they should be able to act in the same capacity as a regular employee if hired for a volunteer position. Face it, you PWI staff people can't live without us, our destinies are tied. b:laugh
These ideas pertain the in-game issues, and focus on things other than bugs/glitches. We have the Quality Corner for that, and every game will always have some odd ways of functioning, outside of what's intended.
All usage of "PWE" refers to the company, although I can only speak for this game. All usage of "PWI" can generally be interchanged with "PWCN" as well, unless speaking about the few things that are only available to our version (Example: Packs, although I do not discuss those here).
Improvements As A Company
Okay, so this section is about the company in itself, and are not necessarily in-game suggestions. Some ideas may be able to be applied to in-game aspects, while others may not. Some ideas may even overlap between other sections, but I will post them in both sections if applicable.
1. Start an advertising campaign of some sort. The player base is starting to dwindle, and as such, your losing money to keep the game moving forward. If you can draw in new players, you'll have more opportunities to make more money. Of course, getting new players is only half the battle, keeping them is more difficult, at this point. I'll get to strategies to keep them later on.
2. Be honest with the players. This is starting to improve, thanks to certain PWI staff here on forums, but this was an issue in the past. Also, if your having problems, let us know! Just because things are kept all "hush hush" doesn't mean your being honest. It's called "lying by omission". A lot of us would be more than willing, and understanding, to the fact that you have run into issues, and may even give valuable insight into how to fix them. Again, this has been improving, and the Quality Corner is a wonderful step into keeping an open and honest relationship between Company and Customer.
3. Don't look to make a massive amount of money in the short term. Look at the insane price of r9. It costs over $1500 for the gear itself, not to mention recasting, refines, and JoSD/Vit Stones. Over pricing will only make you lose money in the long term. We want the game to last, slashing the prices a bit would help ensure the survival of the game.
4. Make the GMs appear in-game and interact with the players once in a while. Maybe once a week, or even once a month, so that they can host an event. I won't tell you what kind of event they should hold, as they are GMs, and can create countless possibilities on their own. If they don't have an imagination, they shouldn't be a GM. I can say, however, that creating this kind of contact with your player base would do wonders for the community. I think the biggest aspect of being a company that PWE (I can only speak for PWI though), is that they fail to create a presence, especially in-game. The Quality Corner is a good step, buy there needs to be an in-game presence as well, other than to occasionally pop on to handle an issue, then log off again immediately.
5. Start listening to the customer base more. Happy customers are paying customers, and even keeping the people who don't pay happy effects the players who do put money into the game. If people who don't pay are unhappy, then they may be less active, hence, they grind or quest less. Hell, they may not even log for every NW. This means that they have less money, and can't afford a cash shopper's good that they bought from you. This means they sell slower, which leads to them buying less often. I think PWI needs to realize that everything in the game which relates to them making money is a cycle, a very delicate system that we call an economy. If one small thing throws off one part of that system, the whole economy becomes imbalanced. So therefore, by making the non-paying customers happy, your making money through them, even though they never paid a dime. That being said, listening to your customers can also give you inspiration for future content, and will save you a lot of effort.
6. If you can't afford to pay employees, then look to your player base. We are, and always will be your biggest supporters. A lot of us are willing to volunteer, with or without any form of compensation. You already use volunteers to moderate forums, and I feel that they do a damn good job. Of course, the volunteers need to be able to perform in a professional manner, but I think there are many people here who already do that. If the position of forum mod is good enough for a volunteer, why not other things? I don't think people should be treated any differently than a paid employee if volunteers are ever used, either. I think they should be able to act in the same capacity as a regular employee if hired for a volunteer position. Face it, you PWI staff people can't live without us, our destinies are tied. b:laugh
Improvements In-Game
These ideas pertain the in-game issues, and focus on things other than bugs/glitches. We have the Quality Corner for that, and every game will always have some odd ways of functioning, outside of what's intended.
1. On the contrary to what my section description just said, keep up the good work on tackling bugs/glitches. Nothing more needs to be said, just figured I'd throw that in anyway.
2. Find ways to keep new players. A larger player base should be your number one priority. A larger player base means more money from the new players, as many will want to catch up to those of us who have been around for awhile. It also means economies that thrive. That means that current cash shoppers get more sales, which means that they re-up on their stores faster. Granted, some cash shoppers may not need to spend any more money on the game. I know a lot of people that would still put money into the game anyway though. The faster that people need to restock, the more money they are spending on the game. For this to happen, though, we need a larger economy. Introducing more content in the form of quests, main map expansion, and events are just a few of many possibilities of what could help keep new players. How about a LARGE quest chain that rewards you simply for exploring the map? No need to talk to NPC's, simply for wandering around and sight-seeing? Or what about a system that rewards squads that run instances with a same level range, or another system that rewards people for being on the map, instead of FC or instances non-stop? It looks really good to new players when they see people on the open map, running around and exploring.
4. Find a use for the removed FB-119 and Black Sand Palace instances. Cromagnon Village is normally dead, and kind of makes that part of the map generally useless. Maybe adding some kind of new story line that revolves around that area would be helpful, perhaps something like Morai. Maybe not a new map, but some kind of instance that has quests leading up to the instance. I feel that some of the quests don't link together in any way, and were just lazily designed for the sake of throwing them in. I'm not sure about other people, but to me it just gives the NPC's a kind of misplaced feeling. In a perfect world, shouldn't everyone kind of be connected, and have a sense of "belonging" to the main quest chains? FB-119 instances would also be a great place to add some kind of dramatic content. A story of the ultimate war between good and evil, perhaps able to be done by people that are 105? It would kind of make it FB-105, which would also encourage people to actually reach the level cap. I know of a lot of people who hit 101, and just stop caring about levels. The only main advantage is an extra 20 stat points, which isn't all that ground breaking.
5. Fix/Revamp Nirvana, or remove it from the game altogether. There's no need for needless instances, and while yes, people can still do Nirvana, how many people here still run it? Perhaps changing the rewards would suffice, but also not in the way that TT changed with Fairy Boxes. Let us farm something useful, something that we can't farm yet. Say for instance, Mysterious Chips. It would be great to be able to farm chips directly, and this would be an interesting choice to change the reward to, as chips can't be traded, so this could help prevent abuse of the instance. Maybe making the chips a quest based reward would also be appropriate, as an added layer of protection against botters. I wouldn't say it should be limited either, such as saying that this instance can only be run "X" amount of times per day. To me, that defeats the purpose. Of course, there are other great options available for possible other than chips, I only used this as an example, as they can't be traded.
6. Map expansion would be awesome. I think a couple of areas that would be cool to expand on area the area to the west of Thousand Streams, or to the east, in The Endless Sea. To the south, I always liked Loch Nocturne, and wouldn't mind seeing an area further south that looked like Loch Nocturne. If we look to the north, there could easily be an area that has a constant blizzard, and if introduced with an expansion with a quest chain revolving around the area, the expansion could be called "Blizzard of the North", or something like that.
7. I think it would be nice to introduce a way to reward faction members for being active and loyal to the faction that their in. This would encourage people to stay active, and stay in their factions, thus discouraging "faction hoppers". I know that faction bases have a few tidbits to help with this, but it would be nice to see more on this.
8. Create a system which allows faction officers to TW on other toons. I fully understand the reasoning behind this rule, I do however feel that there needs to be something to give them support here. I'm not one of the QQer's who is complaining because it hinders me, as I've always been content to sit on my main and only TW with him. I do, however, see the flip side of the coin, and feel that something needs to give here.
Improvements For The Website
These things aren't majorly important, but do kind of reflect badly on PW. Enough said, so let's hop right into it. b:chuckle
1. Remove the link and support for CORE Connect. It's been announced that it's been discontinued, but the link is still accessible, and is kind of pointless, as PWI has decided to use ARC instead.
2. Fix the Achievement system, and add some new rewards. I know that this system has been broken for some time, but if we are making the transition to ARC, why not revamp the system and get it working again?
3. Kind of the same as above, but I feel that the DQ rewards page could use some revamping as well. Some of the rewards there are kind of outdated. Perhaps adding a different fashion set for Male/Female (also giving the full set, hairstyle as well), different all-class pets, and maybe add a flyer and ADD a new mount. I love some of the stuff there, such as Random Pigments, Demon/Sage cards, and the Makeover Scrolls. I just feel that it needs some updating.
4. Fix the Ranking System. I have heard that changing the language fixes this, but even if this is true, fix the English page please.
That's all that I have for now. I hope to have more people add their input, and I will continue to update the list as necessary. If someone adds any other suggestions below, I will add it under the appropriate section. Please, no trolling, intelligent answers only. That being said, I don't care if you've played 1 day or since initial launch, I encourage everyone to provide their input.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by Crixxix - Raging Tide on
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Comments
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Crixxix - Raging Tide wrote: »5. Fix/Revamp Nirvana, or remove it from the game altogether. There's no need for needless instances, and while yes, people can still do Nirvana, how many people here still run it? Perhaps changing the rewards would suffice, but also not in the way that TT changed with Fairy Boxes. Let us farm something useful, something that we can't farm yet. Say for instance, Mysterious Chips. It would be great to be able to farm chips directly, and this would be an interesting choice to change the reward to, as chips can't be traded, so this could help prevent abuse of the instance. Maybe making the chips a quest based reward would also be appropriate, as an added layer of protection against botters. I wouldn't say it should be limited either, such as saying that this instance can only be run "X" amount of times per day. To me, that defeats the purpose. Of course, there are other great options available for possible other than chips, I only used this as an example, as they can't be traded.
Agreed with every bit of it.
I just wanted to add a suggestion perhaps instead of chips, (that arguably no one except those after r9 would want to bother going to get.) perhaps make is so each boss has a 'vile' version so we have another instance to farm badges. They could also make it so we have a bh boss to do in there. (which is already something that was being discussed a little while back in general discussion.) As it is lunar, (i realize it has 3? different paths but still...) and warsong can be rather monotonous farming for badges, it would be nice to have more varieties for more badges.Ah, Mistakes are so easily made. ~ laura resnick
What kind of message are you sending when you insult my intelligence? ~ Me ~ 5/29/2015 (Yes it is possible someone said this before just no idea who/where.)0 -
what a nice collors b:flower
tldr though, espescially because nothing is going to change anyway so it doesnt help much discussing it b:surrender0 -
I actually think that we could get somewhere, if we get enough support, including support from PWI Staff. Once we get that, I think we can start getting somewhere. Never give up, never lose hope. b:victory[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0
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I think PWE is focusing some of their games not in PWI for such a long time. They need a brand manager in each game to focus on.
R9 price is very expensive. I know a lot of players cannot afford to buy stuffs in gold. So PWE make it affordable to others so you can draw more players. I have invited my friend to play PWI, the first thing he ask me was "is that a much paying game?" i said yes specially when you reach the end game level. Then he don't want to play PWI because of that high expense in the game.
Maybe PWE can advertise in cheap way like printing Posters and distribute it in all Internet Shops as much as possible. They can use social networks platform like Facebook, twitter and others. They need to integrate Facebook API in the suggestion and forums section in the PWI website. They need to put the like button and comment or share API of facebook in each thread and comment in PWI site. This way can propagate PWI inside facebook networks of friends. FB is a great tool to make PWI visible in the feeds of freinds.
Make a question and answer game in the PWI site with and great reward that you can give so that a lot of players with participate to answer. But you must require the user to share the question and answer in their facebook feed. This can also draw attention of both players and friends of players.
Just a thought. b:pleased0 -
Great ideas! I too had a friend of mine quit shortly after joining, due to the amount that r9 cost. She definitely wouldn't mind putting some money into the game, but that was waaay too much for her to spend.
I think if PWI made posters, they should sell them in Walmart. Who doesn't go to Walmart these days? Also Facebook is only one means to advertise, and they already use Facebook, albeit in a very generic manner. Their Facebook page, along with v4liance's Facebook page are nice, but I don't feel as though they use the full potential of Facebook. It can indeed be an amazing tool, but right now they use it like a caveman learning to use fire.
I think that if they release more YouTube vids, like the Genesis trailer, which in my opinion was beautifully done, would be awesome too. I wasn't a fan of the Sirens of War trailer, it was alright, but not nearly as good as the one for Genesis.
As I said, bringing in new players is only half of the battle. If you have a crazy good advertising campaign, and your losing players due to things such as high end game gear price, then your wasting your time and ours. I would sell the full set for $500, which is being very reasonable for r9, and I bet a lot of people would buy it. I can almost guarantee that those same people are going to cash shop for summerwind tokens, vit stones/JoSD, along with D-Orbs for their shiny new armor set.
It's win-win for everyone involved: The Customer and PWE.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
Yeah $500 is fair enough for R9! a lot of players are craving for R9 but only in their dreams lol! Lowering the R9 price could encourage players to have more alts with full R9 each.
PWE should put their price in a lowest amount that even a student player can afford to buy stuff in real cash if they want it. b:pleased0 -
For sure! Compared to the current r9 price, you could gear 3 toons with r9 for the same price, almost 4! I think it would definitely increase their r9 mat sales, even without an actual sale on those items. Take the current r9 price (figuring $1500), divide it by 65%, and you have $525, which is very reasonable.
You would be appealing to a much wider range of customers, including broke ***** such as myself. b:laugh[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
well, ive been a farmer ever since PWI came out. I joined on patch 32 and only quit once (personal issues) but came back after 6 months cause i missed the friends i made. I haven't spent anything on the game i FARMED ALL MY R9 AND I 3RD CAST IT and currently farming for +10 orbs to refine my armour. I have went with the flow ever since the beggining... farmed my but off on mijis (1 hour exp scrolls), farmed my but off for DG items to sell, farmed HH to sell mats and craft my armour, sold 3* gear (only i know how paifull it was to farm the damn glaze needed >.<), started BHs, started frost for alts (since i already hit 100 till then LOL), solo farmed HH on veno (that took ages), started NV farming, then caster NW farming, and so on with other thing i probably forget i did. Where i am going with this is that, atm, cube seems to bring in money, but aparantly not for much longer.. Tokens to make doalls are 20k each(14 tokens to make 5 doalls) * 42 doalls needed per run * 4 characters per day add up + the 2m i need to start doing cube means i invest alot of money and should get atleast half in return, but since cog prices starting to drop from 3m to 2.5m and currently at 2.2m-2m each, theres a matter of time only till it starts being unprofitable... HH mats dont sell that good (got AH spammed with all kinds of mats and i aint overpricing them), frost bigrooms solos or spots dont sell anymore (2 ppl in wc selling frost for over 1 hour- no buyer), NV died long time ago and NW killed the rap/canny prices, BHs will seem the only option but gl getting some cash when all it feels like u get is chips... Fashion takes ages to sell (trust me im trying that too atm...), NV3RD cast gear wont be worth the trouble anymore since service already selling for 500k/badge sometimes even 250k/badge... They REALLY need to do something else to the game because economy for non paying ppl (which are way more then the actual paying ones) will go to hell literaly and will force old players and the kids mostly cause those are the ones playing more to just quit the game since there will be close to no income... I will really hate to quit the game but i see no other choice unless PWI does something about this (which i doubt will happen anytime soon).0
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good post. doubt this will get the attention it deserves.the loser fail nab cleric from dreamweaver who quit pwi, but still wanders the forums.0
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Crixxix - Raging Tide wrote: »I actually think that we could get somewhere, if we get enough support, including support from PWI Staff. Once we get that, I think we can start getting somewhere. Never give up, never lose hope. b:victory
I agree with this i mean like we got ini edits hopefully we get this too[SIGPIC]https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/502x102q90/690/fierybladesigna.png[/SIGPIC]
Sig made by me f:sneakyf:despise
I don't have a bad attitude, I just have a personality you don't like0 -
Well, I can't get this done by myself. Anyone wanna help me? Maybe form a small "development team"? I suppose that we wouldn't be able to program the needed changes for PWI, but we could come up with some very detailed plans for them. Maybe if the plans were laid out for the real dev team, they'd be more inclined to actually fix something.
What any cause needs is a "core" group of people that are committed to the idea. Once a group commits to an idea, it's natural for other people to follow.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
Some nice ideas indeed."How do you turn this on?"0
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put a little coin in our mailbox for referrals and you will get a bigger playerbase0
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Crixxix - Raging Tide wrote: »3. Don't look to make a massive amount of money in the short term. Look at the insane price of r9. It costs over $1500 for the gear itself, not to mention recasting, refines, and JoSD/Vit Stones. Over pricing will only make you lose money in the long term. We want the game to last, slashing the prices a bit would help ensure the survival of the game.
oh look, another "herp derp if you lower the price you'll get more sales and that is definetely gonna be better" aphorismyou only purge once #yopo0 -
I agree with the op, espcially with this:
Crixxix - Raging Tide wrote: »1. Start an advertising campaign of some sort. The player base is starting to dwindle, and as such, your losing money to keep the game moving forward. If you can draw in new players, you'll have more opportunities to make more money. Of course, getting new players is only half the battle, keeping them is more difficult, at this point. I'll get to strategies to keep them later on.
I'm sure, I would had never come to this game if I hadn't seen an ad in gamespot about this game. I don't think they do any advertising for this game anymore and there is no reason for it. This game is as good as all the new ones PWE has launched.0 -
Awesome post my friend. Would be nice for a gm to comment to at least say will take into consideration. But very nice post and nonetheless f:sneaky0
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PotatoHeadQR - Dreamweaver wrote: »oh look, another "herp derp if you lower the price you'll get more sales and that is definetely gonna be better" aphorism
Look man, it's not about evening the power between CS'ers and non-CS'ers. It's not about me getting r9 (Yeah, it would be easier, (but I already started working on my r9 at the current price).
It's about the game not being as popular as it once was, and not having the player base it used to. At this point, making $500 off of a full set of r9 is reasonable, as it would let more players buy it, therefore increasing sales. With this money, they could turn around and start an advertising campaign, or maybe use that money to encourage someone to write a new game engine, so that things aren't broken all the time.
Maybe they could just have like a one week sale to commemorate special events (Like the launch of new content updates), that would let you buy the full set for $500.
The point is, PWI needs to find ways to fix the game now, or there won't be a game. Hell, what does that have to say for PWE if their flagship game fails? The entire company will likely die, as their investors will probably pull out. b:surrender[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
Crixxix - Raging Tide wrote: »Look man, it's not about evening the power between CS'ers and non-CS'ers. It's not about me getting r9 (Yeah, it would be easier, (but I already started working on my r9 at the current price).
It's about the game not being as popular as it once was, and not having the player base it used to. At this point, making $500 off of a full set of r9 is reasonable, as it would let more players buy it, therefore increasing sales. With this money, they could turn around and start an advertising campaign, or maybe use that money to encourage someone to write a new game engine, so that things aren't broken all the time.
Maybe they could just have like a one week sale to commemorate special events (Like the launch of new content updates), that would let you buy the full set for $500.
The point is, PWI needs to find ways to fix the game now, or there won't be a game. Hell, what does that have to say for PWE if their flagship game fails? The entire company will likely die, as their investors will probably pull out. b:surrender
Ugh I was really looking forward to getting all of my MoGs today only to find that the sale is over. So glad I looked at the cash shop before charging zen. Even if they don't lower the cost of rank now, a one week sale is nothing. If the sale at least lasted 2 weeks, it would have corresponded with a lot of peoples payday.
The best sales never happen on my pay week. b:cry
Well at least I don't have to wait until next payday to preorder the PS4. Makes me feel a little better... >.>0 -
LOL yeah, I feel that some sales aren't long enough. b:surrender[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0
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PWI sales people don't know how to capture cash from players. They should fall the week sales on payday. A lot of people miss it.b:shutup0
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Agreed. The sad part is, a chimpanzee could figure out how to run sales more efficiently. PWI definitely needs to work on new sale schedules. I never even thought about it, but it's true. They should move their weekly updates to Friday nights, same time as they currently do them now. This way, sales end on Payday.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0
![https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/502x102q90/690/fierybladesigna.png[/SIGPIC]](https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/502x102q90/690/fierybladesigna.png[/SIGPIC]){kind=link}
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