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I just lost 200 dollars trying to get the timeship, I'm not mad, but I have a suggestion.
rothnang
Member Posts: 18 Arc User
So, I just opened Delta packs worth about 200 bucks and didn't get the timeship, which was the only reason I bought them. At this point I feel foolish for gambling my money away. I'm not mad about the promotion, I knew what I was buying, and I knew there was a risk I wouldn't get it. (This is one of my all time favourite ships in StarTrek, and it's a science ship, which is my favourite ship type in STO, so I couldn't resist) The thing is, my misfortune with this ship has gotten me vow to myself that I will never again spend a single dollar on an item that isn't a sure thing. If I had gotten my Annorax, who knows, I might have dropped another 200 bucks the next time I see something like this. So, yes, you have made a pretty solid profit off me with this promo, but you could be making more in the future if I didn't feel like an idiot for gambling with my money.
So here is my suggestion: You guys can make more money in the long term and have a greater degree of customer satisfaction by changing the way these promos work. How about every time you open one of these packs and don't get the thing you want you earn claim tickets instead that can be redeemed for the special item once you get enough of them. So, let's say there is a 1% chance to get the ship, but every time you don't get one you instead get 1 ticket. 100 tickets can be redeemed for the ship. (That's an extremely simplified example, every pack could contain something like 1-100 tickets as well and it takes 5000 to buy the ship if a higher degree of randomness is desired) Once a player receives the ship (If they got it by chance) the system could delete all the tickets they have, or they could retain the tickets to entice them to keep buying for a second ship. (The latter option would increase the total number of ships in the game a bit)
If I was sitting at, let's say, 78 tickets after spending 200 bucks, guess what, you just earned another 100 bucks and retained a customer who's willing to spend big rather than turning someone away from ever buying promo packs again. Instead of relying on gambler's folly to kick in and make the player keep spending because they feel like they have to to justify their initial investment, you introduce a second, predictable way to to get what they want without actually reducing the number of packs being sold from a statistical standpoint.
It's more fair to the customers, and it's going to make you guys more money. You can tune the ticket reward in such a way that pretty much the exact same number of promo packs get sold per ship earned, but more people are going to buy them because it won't be so random, and people are going to buy more of them because nobody is going to say "Ok, I cut my losses and wash my hands of this", instead they are going to see "87 tickets, just 13 more packs and my bad luck won't matter".
I really hope this will be taken up, because I think everyone can win here. There is no reason for people like me to walk away heartbroken after not getting something they really wanted, and there is more money to be made in giving people something that gives them the confidence to keep buying instead of cutting their losses or avoiding random rewards all together.
So here is my suggestion: You guys can make more money in the long term and have a greater degree of customer satisfaction by changing the way these promos work. How about every time you open one of these packs and don't get the thing you want you earn claim tickets instead that can be redeemed for the special item once you get enough of them. So, let's say there is a 1% chance to get the ship, but every time you don't get one you instead get 1 ticket. 100 tickets can be redeemed for the ship. (That's an extremely simplified example, every pack could contain something like 1-100 tickets as well and it takes 5000 to buy the ship if a higher degree of randomness is desired) Once a player receives the ship (If they got it by chance) the system could delete all the tickets they have, or they could retain the tickets to entice them to keep buying for a second ship. (The latter option would increase the total number of ships in the game a bit)
If I was sitting at, let's say, 78 tickets after spending 200 bucks, guess what, you just earned another 100 bucks and retained a customer who's willing to spend big rather than turning someone away from ever buying promo packs again. Instead of relying on gambler's folly to kick in and make the player keep spending because they feel like they have to to justify their initial investment, you introduce a second, predictable way to to get what they want without actually reducing the number of packs being sold from a statistical standpoint.
It's more fair to the customers, and it's going to make you guys more money. You can tune the ticket reward in such a way that pretty much the exact same number of promo packs get sold per ship earned, but more people are going to buy them because it won't be so random, and people are going to buy more of them because nobody is going to say "Ok, I cut my losses and wash my hands of this", instead they are going to see "87 tickets, just 13 more packs and my bad luck won't matter".
I really hope this will be taken up, because I think everyone can win here. There is no reason for people like me to walk away heartbroken after not getting something they really wanted, and there is more money to be made in giving people something that gives them the confidence to keep buying instead of cutting their losses or avoiding random rewards all together.
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Comments
It's perfectly possible for everyone to win here, both Cryptic and the users.
So that's another way in which Cryptic is losing money by selling these items the way they currently are. If it's actually cheaper and more reliable to go with illegal gold sellers to get your promo ships than it is to go through Cryptic I don't doubt for one second that a bunch of people do it that way.
Ironic, because I'm the kind of person that has no problems paying for the production of a game to play it and even a yearly fee if the game is maintained and new items are added - but that's with the expectation that I can acquire everything that is created without restriction.
$200 for a 1% chance at a collection of 1's and 0's that's existence is dependent on a company's remote server to use and enjoy? And you didn't even get it? You just got conned.
I didn't get conned, I knew exactly what I was buying and the risk I was taking. I got extremely disappointed and a bit annoyed with a business model that could actually be more successful if it treated the buyers better.