Another Missed "Flash" Sale Huh?

badeedoda · February 2018

Not sure what the logic is regarding the so called "Flash" sales in STO. I play on the Xbox version, and twice now in the past several weeks, I have come home from work, to find out that I've missed the big "Flash" sale. Apparently someone in their infinite wisdom, has decided to start and end these "Flash" sales, when most of the adult population is at work. Who does that?, and even more importantly, why? If the purpose is to generate revenue, would it not make more sense to do it when those with the revenue are available?

Even more strange is the fact that the messages announcing the "Flash" sale (that we missed) remains up (at least on XB1) for weeks, to remind you that you missed the sale. Uhhh????

Here's a thought. Have the "Flash" sales pop up on a phone app. This way, everyone can have a chance to join in, if they want.

postagepaid · February 2018

Becoming a bit of a routine but I try to make sure and comment on the flash sales post in the GNN section that 24 hour sale would make way more sense for a globally played game.

Other than that I'm also doing a personal boycott which will have no real effect on cryptics income stream but more people make their voice heard and they might see sense and make it actually work.

Also the announcements go live bang on when the sale does because they're scared of saying it's coming then having to face a backlash should it be delayed or cancelled, such is the way of the internet pitchforkers.

bossheisenberg · February 2018

I understand your pain. I made it home with 20 minutes to spare, barely managed to get the respec token I was after. I know Cryptic is based on the west coast of the US, so I'm sure that has a lot to do with how they roll these out.

protoneous · February 2018

These sales really should be 12 hours vs 8.

where2r1 · February 2018

Senior Citizen Discounts. For us old foggies who are retired and home all day, dang nab it.

I would tell you all to get off of my lawn..if I had a lawn.
You may run all over my front yard, you Whippersnappers. I grow cactus.

warpangel · February 2018

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

I didnt even realize it was a flash sale. Unless you constantly check the forums you are never going to know about it. And as others said, most people will consume every single hour of the day at work and other things. Be lucky if you come to realize there is a flash sale.

Getting people to constantly check the game just in case is the point.

tigeraries · February 2018

Missed it as well... but will wait for next time. these flash sales just train you not to buy during regular sales.

orangenee · February 2018

I only catch them when I don't want anything.

lordbeefy7 · February 2018

> @orangenee#2931 said:
> I only catch them when I don't want anything.

Lol...so true!

flash525 · February 2018

I was on sale? What?!

terminatrixxx · February 2018

I saw it but couldn't buy anything because of the cool-down period from the xbox store lol

darkmatter909 · February 2018

I got on later than normal after work, saw the sale ad and thought damn I’m sure I missed it. Signed on my main, it hadn’t ended, got some bank slots; run down to the select ship vender to check my ship slots and dry dock. Sale ends while I’m checking, should have seen that coming lol. At least I got some bank slots.
But i agree fully in the sale time on all platforms should be increased for us working class heros.

orangenee · February 2018

colonelmarik wrote: »

I've never heard of this. This is the first time I'm hearing that "flash sales" even exist.
What great marketing.

Yeah, usually it's an announcement on reddit saying there's a flash sale. Then blink and you miss it on the launcher and then that's it.

Now I don't know about anybody else but I'm usually playing the game not drooling over the zen store, so if you miss the tiny announcements......

Flash is being used a little too literally, especially seeing as there's DIFFERENT TIMEZONES in the world. America first is a fine philosophy if you're a President, but not necessarily for maximising profits.

duncanidaho11 · February 2018

orangenee#2931 wrote: »

Flash is being used a little too literally, especially seeing as there's DIFFERENT TIMEZONES in the world. America first is a fine philosophy if you're a President, but not necessarily for maximising profits.

Assuming of course that flash sales aren't occurring as pure supplements to other sales and activities, and are the sole focus of PWE's marketing (such that if missed there's a significant impact.)

Keep in mind that regardless of what timezone you're in, job and family commitments can shift your availability out of any ideal period (even by a factor of days.) People will miss out regardless. But then again, this is a flash sale. By definition it's something that comes or goes...in a flash.

(Seriously folks? This is quickly entering "why we can't have nice things" territory.)

pottsey5g · February 2018

warpangel wrote: »

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

I didnt even realize it was a flash sale. Unless you constantly check the forums you are never going to know about it. And as others said, most people will consume every single hour of the day at work and other things. Be lucky if you come to realize there is a flash sale.

Getting people to constantly check the game just in case is the point.

For a lot of players its not achieved getting us to constantly check on the game, its made a bunch of us give up and go spend our money on other games. For me I woke up and by the time I read the news after breakfast its to late and I missed it again. Realistically I am not going wake up every few hours every night to check there is a flash sale.

I did have a list of items I was waiting to buy but I am going to vote with my wallet and spend the money on other games.

mustrumridcully0 · February 2018

flash525 wrote: »

I was on sale? What?!

Flash's sense of humor is clearly is worth it even at full price

orangenee · February 2018

Actually stop doing them altogether if staggering on account of TIMEZONES is not feasible, or you know, just extending by a few hours.

Granted the customer base is always going to be fuming about something but that's because we got a charming but horribly flawed Star Trek product to play with little alternative.

I'm in the position where I don't really have to do that much work (compared to most) so I can get these most of the time but not all.

tigeraries · February 2018

orangenee#2931 wrote: »

colonelmarik wrote: »

I've never heard of this. This is the first time I'm hearing that "flash sales" even exist.
What great marketing.

Yeah, usually it's an announcement on reddit saying there's a flash sale. Then blink and you miss it on the launcher and then that's it.

Now I don't know about anybody else but I'm usually playing the game not drooling over the zen store, so if you miss the tiny announcements......

Flash is being used a little too literally, especially seeing as there's DIFFERENT TIMEZONES in the world. America first is a fine philosophy if you're a President, but not necessarily for maximising profits.

how is it America first? the sale time is during our work hours. these sales are for the EU/UK since it covers their peak gaming hours.

salazarraze · February 2018

Flash sales can be great. I was lucky enough to be off work the last time PC had one. I've missed others but it's no big deal since another one will come around later.

hamtidamti · February 2018

> @tigeraries said
>
> how is it America first? the sale time is during our work hours. these sales are for the EU/UK since it covers their peak gaming hours.

Ooohhh, don't let him hear it's Europe first at Cryptic. He will build a firewall and make PWE pay for it...

I didn't miss the sale, but realized that I had already maxed out my bank slots... pity. I guess my neglected AOY toon is ready for a second career in storage business

dracounguis · February 2018

Cryptic does sales when THEY are at work; so someone is there to turn it on and off. They don't give a flip about your work schedule.

thunderfoot · February 2018

Never really understood the mentality behind this marketing device. But surely it cannot be ALL bad, can it? Besides, I've other things about this game and Cryptic to get upset over which are waaay more pressing than whether or not I miss a sale which offers something I either already have or don't want.

The neat thing about sales is there will always be another one in the immediate future.

warpangel · February 2018

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

warpangel wrote: »

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

I didnt even realize it was a flash sale. Unless you constantly check the forums you are never going to know about it. And as others said, most people will consume every single hour of the day at work and other things. Be lucky if you come to realize there is a flash sale.

Getting people to constantly check the game just in case is the point.

And the other point is, you should not be checking it all the time. You should not need to. If cryptic is forcing players to stay in front of the screen 24/7 only to notice things like this.. well, thats a terrible terrible approach. And you should not agree with it.

A nice solution could be for example, to post something a couple of days before the flash sale, saying something like "flash sale coming... " or whatever lol. I mean.. something.

You not liking their marketing strategy is not their problem. It is meant to encourage players to pay close attention to game communications to catch the sales. And I do agree with it.

pottsey5g · February 2018

warpangel wrote: »

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

warpangel wrote: »

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

I didnt even realize it was a flash sale. Unless you constantly check the forums you are never going to know about it. And as others said, most people will consume every single hour of the day at work and other things. Be lucky if you come to realize there is a flash sale.

Getting people to constantly check the game just in case is the point.

And the other point is, you should not be checking it all the time. You should not need to. If cryptic is forcing players to stay in front of the screen 24/7 only to notice things like this.. well, thats a terrible terrible approach. And you should not agree with it.

A nice solution could be for example, to post something a couple of days before the flash sale, saying something like "flash sale coming... " or whatever lol. I mean.. something.

You not liking their marketing strategy is not their problem. It is meant to encourage players to pay close attention to game communications to catch the sales. And I do agree with it.

It very much is there problem as it has caused players who where going to spend money on the game to get frustrated and spend the money on other games instead. If the marketing strategy was meant to make players pay closer attention to the game then its a very badly implanted marketing strategy.

baddmoonrizin · February 2018

The general idea behind a flash sale is to get the people "already in the store" to impulse buy. It's not trying to get the guy at work or the guy asleep or the guy out of town. The target is the guy right there at that time. The limited time offer is the impetus to "buy now" and it works. If you missed it because you weren't online at the time, you weren't the intended target. That's just how this kind of marketing works in general.

badeedoda · February 2018

I'm guessing that you've never owned a business?

Getting players to pay attention to the game......Good!!

Getting money from players willing to spend..........Better!!

warpangel wrote: »

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

warpangel wrote: »

ethereal#4956 wrote: »

I didnt even realize it was a flash sale. Unless you constantly check the forums you are never going to know about it. And as others said, most people will consume every single hour of the day at work and other things. Be lucky if you come to realize there is a flash sale.

Getting people to constantly check the game just in case is the point.

And the other point is, you should not be checking it all the time. You should not need to. If cryptic is forcing players to stay in front of the screen 24/7 only to notice things like this.. well, thats a terrible terrible approach. And you should not agree with it.

A nice solution could be for example, to post something a couple of days before the flash sale, saying something like "flash sale coming... " or whatever lol. I mean.. something.

You not liking their marketing strategy is not their problem. It is meant to encourage players to pay close attention to game communications to catch the sales. And I do agree with it.

pottsey5g · February 2018

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

The general idea behind a flash sale is to get the people "already in the store" to impulse buy. It's not trying to get the guy at work or the guy asleep or the guy out of town. The target is the guy right there at that time. The limited time offer is the impetus to "buy now" and it works. If you missed it because you weren't online at the time, you weren't the intended target. That's just how this kind of marketing works in general.

You seemed to have missed what we are complaining about and the way its been handled here is doing as much harm as good. What you said works when all your customers are in the same time zone but not in a muti time zone setting.

When you have customers in multiple time zones and you keep putting all the flash sales on while one group is asleep or unable to access the offers, all you are doing is frustrating those customers who never get to access the flash sale. Frustrated customer like me then go take our money elsewhere.

Its bad marketing as a small change of changing the flash sale times or making them a few hours longer would not only keep both groups of customer happy but cause all groups to spend more money.

Flash sales are good. Limiting flash sales to a limited portion of you customer base is bad marketing. Doing this over and over again so one group of customers spends money elsewhere is extremely bad marketing.

bergins · February 2018

So, people who are asleep miss Flash Sales, people at work miss Flash Sales, but what about people who are actually In Game while a Flash Sale happens? Already past the launcher, not likely to check the news on a game they are actually playing, they have no idea. How players are notified of these sales, or really any time sensitive news, is an opportunity for improvement on Cryptic's part.

Of course, Cryptic still makes me mad when they run a non-Thursday Maintenance and announce it less than 24 hours ahead of time and call it Scheduled Maintenance. If it can't wait until Thursday and it isn't something like a well publicized Tuesday Release, just call it what it is: Emergency Maintenance. If any other business out there tried to call a last minute outage of service part of their regular schedule, customers would be outraged.

Not the same issue, but both are communication issues that might have the same solution.

Another Missed "Flash" Sale Huh?

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