I’ll start with my assumptions.
1. In order for a game of this type to be successful, it must motivate people to both play and pay.
2. The play portion must drive the pay portion. In other words, there must be a game people enjoy playing before they are willing to pay for it.
You play SK because you enjoy it, obviously. But what motivates you to continue to play it after you’ve “beaten” everything? And what motivates you to pay real world cash.
What motivates players to play?
1. It’s a fun game, and it stays fun for quite awhile.
Briefly, a game is “fun” if it has visual appeal in characters and backgrounds, a good choice of weapons, good balance in weapons and level of difficult； nice music helps.
2. There are in-game rewards for playing.
SK provides a good variety in the form of crowns, minerals, heat, tokens, and supplies.
Prestige points and ranks and achievement awards are also good motivators to play, but they are limited.
Events such as the recent Black Kat one can motivate play, but only for a short time.
What motivates players to pay?
1. A desire to advance more quickly.
2. Accessories and prize box promotions.
3. A desire to voluntarily give some money to the game that is providing you with hundreds of hours of free entertainment.
What do you think SK should do to motivate more playing?
1. In order to motivate long-term open-ended play, events like Black Kat or Tortodrones would have no termination. They would just be a part of the game. And there would be more of them, such as something for Deconstruction levels, Wolvers’ Dens, etc.
2. Ongoing rewards for prestige points.
3. Public recognition of players achievements, not so much like a Leaderboard, but more like community-wide Hub announcements or in the forums.
4. More new playable content in the form of bosses, new levels, new missions, etc.
5. The social aspect of the game is a big draw for coming in-game, but not necessarily for playing. Somehow tie guilds into more play-based activities.
What do you think SK should do to motivate more paying?
1. Operation Crimson Hammer was probably the best example. It was new playable content and it rewarded you with useable gear and it could only be gotten with real world cash.
2. Make the odds of getting good stuff from prize boxes better.
I have sworn to never pay anything for any game that isn't a one off purchase (as in, once I pay 60~100 bucks, everything that this game has to offer is mine and don't give me that DLC bs unless they are free), so right from the get go, spiral knights isn't getting a dollar out of me.
Changes that I would like to see:
-Make grinding rewarding not punishing
One of the things that killed SK for me is the radiants, they are now the most expensive commodity around and it pains me to see that I got less rads than other people in my party. Maybe OOO can bring back the shared loot system and then turn them off if the player is down, if you don't revive, then other people will take the loot without you, this should give players a good incentive to play careful and have SoLs at all time.
-Give players a reason to grind
Grinding without progression or purpose are the most painful kind of grind, and OOO should provide that reason for the players, new weapons, sure, but they all need orbs which requires grinding to get, new costumes? That is still more money. Giving heat more usage will be a good place to start, nothing pisses off a grinder like me more than finding a whole treasure vault of heat and have nothing to heat them with. Some heat canisters are greatly appreciated, OOO.
-Give players more control over their own progress
There are many places in SK where the players are at the mercy of RNGesus, which is not fun for anyone. UV would be a good palce to start, maybe change it from a crown sink to a system similar to Diablo III's gem slot system where a knight can craft or buy gems with the UVs they want, this will increase the grinding time on UVs in exchange giving players the control they need.
-Open ended, or is it?
Maybe giving SK a real ending is better off than just an open one, maybe after you defeated what is inside the core, you get a credit of the developers and start something like a New Game + (NG+), Maybe in NG +, you start from scratch again but the enemies gets slightly harder and your knight is slightly weaker. And you get your old stuff back once you reach the rank required for that weapon, hence giving the game some replayablility, it is not a well thought out idea but it is there...