A simple question? Maybe
OOO can't really ask you this question directly... So I'm going to.
What in this game makes you want to spend money and do you feel like you are getting your money's worth?
A simple question? Maybe
OOO can't really ask you this question directly... So I'm going to.
What in this game makes you want to spend money and do you feel like you are getting your money's worth?
First, the feeling and/or promise that things are coming to the game in the future, and that it hasn't gone dark/will get unplugged. The derpy glimpse some of us got of the Imposto room entrance in the arcade has filled me with hope. Dev posts tend to do that too. But we've seen few of those, and the few we saw were horribly delayed and nitpicked by the community. So I guess if I were a dev or general staff I'd want to avoid that. But still.
Second: items I'm personally interested in, IF the source has good odds. For example, the current promo...Cozy Prize Box. I would have spent a lot more if those slippers had better odds. A lot more. I'd have gone after them all. But as it stands? No way. I'm 100% certain others feel the same, because we've talked ;P. OOO, you'll probably make more money in general if you don't cater to those willing to gamble (or addicted to it :P). Then again, I can't say for sure if the spending from the 1% would be significantly more than the rest, crappy odds or not. What's fine...I guess... is if you do a few things. 1) put every item in the box on the FAH, just one of each not a stack or anything, for Very Long, when the promotion starts. This lets ppl preview and allows editors to get pictures AND creates a crown sink. 2) Make the content available later too (I fully support Cyber Monday etc. but would MUCH rather the items be on FAH for cr, not Depot for energy) Too much stuff is only transiently available, and this is so disheartening to new players. What makes us special is how we combine what we desire, not whether or not we have what we desire. I feel like OOO wants us all to have a unique experience and identity in the game, and that's fine, but this is a painful way to do it. These two things - knowing what something looks like on me right away, and knowing I can save up for it later and not rely on random people randomly selling it tomorrow - make me put more cash into the game. An overworld preview would be even better. But this is getting too much into suggestions.
Third (what makes me NOT spend money): for me, the item has to be an aesthetic for me to pay actual money. While this is indeed silly and a waste to many, my stance is thus: if we start paying for equipment, such as the Overcharged Mixmaster, we'll see a lot more stuff behind a paywall AND an RNG wall. Which is so much worse. Just unspeakably worse. If they have to keep the game funded with promotions, for the love of Vog slippers, keep it with just aesthetics like it is now.
EDIT: fourth: Ah yes, energy+box bundles. That was always nice, because I knew the spent money was at least an investment if the RNG lords decided to frown upon the box opening. I remember not buying nearly as much when the energy was taken out of the promo picture. It was also a lot better for the economy to have more E floating around. We have two double whammies right now: the loss of the energy+box packets, and with E sinks for rarities/rare items in Depot sales, the game suffers a lot regarding new player progression, which is not good at all. Game definitely needs more viable crown sinks than Punch/AH fee sinks. I could go off on a tangent but, a simple fix would be for Forge Knight and/or Bosco to sell crystals and orbs, respectively. It would make sense and be a very nice cr sink...which people, such as my noob self, would have spent real money to get energy to convert into CR to get, thus everyone wins. Okay, let's get a handle on that tangent, Nova...
Any signs that OOO is actually improving SK and isn't just wringing cash out of its rotting carcass?
i used to buy prize boxes when they come as bundle with the energy, in case i get something pretty lame i would be able to buy something i would like with the energy, now if i get something shitty from the box im stuck with it because in AH probably would have 10 or more of such item and would be so devaluated that its better just gift it away because hardly they would see later since AH will still flooeded with them.
At this point however im not buying anything, i liked how FLash Sales work though, "hey you want this? well pay a bit more but its yours" i rather prefeer to buy more energy and pay the price that OOO set to the item, rather to buy around $ 200 USD In boxes only to get a miserable recolor of a bolted vee.
or even DLC, as soon that the item i want dont involve luck and pay 100 boxes just to get 1% chance to get it.
I too miss buying the energy bundles. Getting the extra boxes was my justification for putting money in, since I'm usually not interested in buying the boxes by themselves anyways.
I liked the boxes back when they were bundled with energy as well. Ever since the bundle was discontinued I have not purchased a box. Cosmetics are nice and all, but I'd much rather work for getting crowns and paying then from the AH if possible than throwing money at the game to get energy and convert it for cosmetics. Of all the payable content in the game, I feel like I get the most out of the Operation Crimson Hammer DLC. It's $5.95 USD so it's only a little more than just a promotional box, and the best part about it is you at least get a level you can play with your friends, and reasonable equipment when you have finished the mission. The War Hammer still remains to be one of my favorite swords (below DVS), and I use the Perfect Seerus Mask constantly whenever I'm in a T3 elemental area and/or I'm using guns.
On the subject of that. I wouldn't mind having another expansion mission or two with unique equipment attached to them. It would at the very least give me an additional reason to actually do the mission, and if they change it so all equipment from expansions must be acquired in a similar fashion as the Perfect Seerus Mask, I'd be fine with that too. I'm okay with unique weapons being introduced via DLC, at least I am guaranteed to obtain them at some point, rather than having to amass millions upon millions of crowns, fight the market, and get a weapon from a box promo, or just outright throwing money at OOO and getting (very) lucky with said promos (I'm looking at you Mixmaster).
Well I'm going to throw the opposite side of the coin a few people are saying real quick, but go at reasons and stuff afterwards.
Lotta you are saying you liked buying boxes when bundled with energy. While I'm not against that method, standalone boxes has created a much better market for the items that come out. I remember the original gourmet promo and battle chef costumes selling for 300k crowns each. Now-a-days, items out of prize boxes are selling for around 80k after a few days - even new models. This allows the more common costumes to be sold to a much wider market, and allow much more customization. Because of this, I really like standalone boxes. I never purchased into box/energy promos for the energy, I did it for the box contents, thus giving me more than double the items for the same amount of money is great.
On the flip side, however, the same reason standalone boxes are good is killing the energy market. There's massive crown inflation, meaning we have too many crowns and too little energy. Now this wouldn't be a problem if we didn't have new players coming in every day starting with nothing, but whether people like to believe it or not we do, and they aren't too appreciative of the same things veterans would be loving.
But what would get me paying more money into the game? Well I already buy into promos I feel are unique or are a step in the right direction, or just in general are to my liking, so more of those. Cozy, slumber, ruby... All those boxes were steps in the right direction. Granted ruby was the start of 12 months of promos, but it's alright to fill in the gaps with filler promos. However putting out promos with less in their box (ie, spiralhorns, solstice) and making those energy bundles would be another way to get more money into the game. Less items in the box means you're not fishing for that one item and getting disappointed, energy is being pumped into the market, meanwhile standalone boxes still exist with the good that comes with them too.
But what else would I pay for? For one, a way to bypass the forge one way or another. A monthly forge pass would work wonders, and on top of that, you could give away shorter versions for free in energy bundles, prize boxes, and giveaways! I would also pay for new DLC missions, especially with earnable gear.
Genuinely interesting costumes/accessories/reskins at a reliable rate. Stuff like the gemstones I find just plain boring. The only thing I'd want out of those boxes are the specifically jewel based accessories, which are too rare for my tastes. I love the equinox stuff, but I'm never going to buy it because the chance of getting it is abyssal.
On the other hand, Sealed Pauldrons? I'll buy that. The Guardian armor sets? Gimme. 60% chance of a UV ticket? Go jump off a cliff.