Welp.... I skipped over almost all of this, because All I saw was raaagggeeee!
My opinion on this:
Players that do devote their time and resources should indeed be recognized. But that is the general job of your fellows.
The Developers also need recognition for all the hard work they've done. They not only came up with the ideas, but actually made them a Reality. Thats big.
Sure, there are many ways of showing your thanks to OOO, and the most obvious one it giving them money. As a bonus to that, you also get some nice things in the game they made.
Not everyone can do that, I am unable to obtain money right now, for fear of starving, so I do my best in other ways. For one, I play the game to its fullest, and try to supply Crowns to the people who keep buying CE from the Devs. As another, I try to aid the development of Newbs and the like, by teaching them about the game, and about playing it.
And one of the most important thing I try to do, is looking out for the game's future. No, I'm not a dev, But I do love this game, and I work my butt off trying to promote values and suggestions that I feel will help the game Progress. Its already VERY nice with playstyle, and ease of use for f2p, which keeps a solid base.
I sincerely Love this game, and Wan't to move it forward, that said, the developers are people too, and with out them you wouldn't really have a game to complain about, would you? X3
The reward for devoting the time to playing the game is the time you've played the game. Good job. You took the time out of your day to play this, purely because you wanted to play this. Now you get to have played it at all!
The reward for paying money to buy something, be it CE or packs or what-have-you, is the specific product you have decided to buy. There should not be an extra reward unless stated. If you ask for one, and everyone else asks for one, and they ACTUALLY MAKE ANOTHER GOODIE TO PUT INTO A PURCHASE, it will not be given out to anyone who bought it beforehand. Think of TF2 going free. It lowered the cost of a premium account from $25 to at most $1, but nobody got their $24 back, only a hat.
If you decided to backdoor all the market shenanigans and donate directly to OOO or Sega, good for you! You've just donated to a company. It was a donation. Donations are those things that happen when someone gives someone else something for free. You're not going to be publicly thanked for that unless a) you were an immensely special case of donation ($1000 in one go or somin') or b) they went out of their way to do so automatically, which they have no obligation to do and would not be a worse company/group/whatever for not doing so. Complaining about such is just complaining, and you're not in the right here.
/Clap
Calamityjane, it's this simple.
Would appreciation be nice?
Yes.
Should you expect it?
No.
Actually, there is something to show recognition, its called Purple Spiral. I know only one person who has it.
Thx for posting that quote you found on the 'net, I found it summed up a lot of things nicely. I'm curious where the quote came from though? Was the guy running his own fan Website on SK or something? Anyhow he obviously knew his stuff as he pointed out a lot of the deeper issues surrounding SK, and it's well thought out and written.
Unfortunately I think it has taken it's toll, I think a lot of the critics (like the person you quoted) who see or bring up good points probably have given up and left by now. With people like that giving up/leaving the community, it changes it the community to those who do stay.....whether that is good or bad, that's subject to opinion. However the consequences of such is not opinion, good or bad consequences....only those staying will see which it'll be.
I personally think I'm going to spend less time on the forums being concerned with SK's future. Thinking about it, it just wasn't worth my time and effort....let the game go where ever it goes. The realization I made was after I read a thread on here where people were listing their ages....it had slipped me how young some of the community may be. I have no issues with people's ages, I see people as individuals....everybody's different, but I think it sometimes brings unreasonable conviction and ideology that is hard to work past, that usually people grow out of....sometimes not. Also it maybe a lack of experience or repeated experiences to certain situations which may make it harder for one to get the point across to the other person.
Anyhow, why am I droning on with this last part? Well, judging from your posts it seems that like me you cared too much....so I'm just saying maybe it's just not worth it.
@Tsu
No sig?
@Blitzwingoo
http://spiral.onyxbits.de/node/353
@Thread in general
Adding onto what Cytrixx and Dancinjen have been talking about, consider customer loyalty programs. I can think of two reasons they exist:
I've yet to play a game that gives me the same experience that Spiral Knights does, so I'll consider reason 1 to be irrelevant in the case of Spiral Knights. Discuss it if you feel it is relevant.
Reason 2 seems to be the main concern here: OOO should give its clients some extra benefits so they will continue to put their trust/money into OOO.
Regarding this reason, I see things the same way Cytrixx et al. do: the game itself is the customer loyalty program. How so? How is the product itself considered to be "some extra benefits"? Updates and promotions. People who remain loyal to Spiral Knights get the benefit of a game whose content is constantly under development with its clients' satisfaction and feedback kept in some level of consideration.
Like Dancinjen said, promotions that include new costumes and accessories are in some sense a show of appreciation for loyal players. Even if you're F2P, there's a chance that as a longtime player you've accrued enough in-game currency to purchase said costume/accessory from a P2P player. If you're just starting your Spiral Knights adventure as F2P player, you will not be able to purchase them because you've simply not been around enough to get the funds to do so.
Content updates run in the same vein - some updates cater more towards new players (the latest Rescue Camp update, for example) and others towards endgame players (Shadow Lairs, for example). That's not to say updates aimed at newer players don't do anything for loyal players, however. Missions and a revamped Rescue Camp have provided us with a little bit more of a story than we've had in the past, and have hinted at more story potential in the future.
If that's not enough, OOO has been nice enough to let its players know what's in development on occasion. Most recently, what they've revealed happens to be perfectly in line with what some players have been suggesting. This includes the option to purchase Expansion Missions in-game.
I'll agree that a little more for loyal players would be nice, but we shouldn't take for granted the things that have been given to us already. If you find that the game has not provided the full experience you were expecting to gain from playing it, maybe Spiral Knights isn't quite the game for you. It's good to see that you have enough (for lack of a better word) faith to ask that improvements be made, but it's going to take some time for the developers to act upon that faith. You've made your voice heard, and maybe with a bit more of that faith you'll eventually see some results.
Something happened recently... And It scarred me quite bad. I've been to apathetic to grab my Sig again...
Sometimes, Life is hard.
Thx for the link....so it was the guy who made SpiralSpy. That's even more distressing for me because here you have a guy who put in so much time and effort into making a program for a game he loved and shared the program to others who loved the game. His contributions added greatly to the fandom, I remember people were using SpiralSpy to make really great fan pictures.....I remember a mini-gun and some matrix-like Callihan bullet-time pics. If I also recall correctly, the SpiralSpy guy tried to make another service to the players called Black Market, where it was a website to hook up customers and suppliers of recipes (this was before the Hall of Heroes). Definitely this guy wanted to contribute and help the community grow, so I think it's a great shame that events lead to his moving on.
Your link did provide a little more info that wasn't quoted here, it appears another factor of him leaving was OOO telling him to take off some maps levels he had on his website showing trigger points of monster spawns. While I think it's fair of OOO to dictate what is ok or not to post here on their forums, I don't think it's fair of them to tell people what they can post on their own websites. It's like a game company telling GameFaq.com to take off walkthroughs and such for their games. It's not an issue of copyright and intellectual property control either, as it's being displayed under fair use. I can understand the SpiralSpy guy's discontent over what happened.
As for the "Customer Loyalty Program" thing....I think things are getting quite mixed up and confused about this topic. I don't quite agree with the original post of this thread of OOO should be recognizing top players. However I think I understand the root cause for what's making the original poster feel the way they did and want the thing they did. At the same time, I don't agree totally with the OOO is recognizing the fans with promotions argument, and think proponents of that may be missing the root cause problem.
I think the root cause of people feeling OOO is not recognizing the fans or appreciating them is from the issues that have been ongoing for some time. The feeling of lack of new content, fans not getting what they want (non-greedy things, things that will make the game better), things that OOO does that isn't viewed very well by the players, etc. The notion of promotions as a way of showing recognition/appreciation to the fans doesn't really hold much weight for me. Promotions is strongly linked to money and sales, the business end of things.....it's very hard to say it's fan service when money and sales are involved.
The example of the unhappy customer complaining to the customer service manager (CSM) I think really parallels the confusion I believe we have here. The CSM thinks the problem in the customer's unhappiness is they want more for their money, so he offers them promotions....or maybe the CSM is just lazy and hopes this will make the problem go away. I think a really smart CSM would try to ascertain what the root problem of the customer's unhappiness is and fix that problem, rather than address the symptoms of the problem. Perhaps the greeter to the store is being a dick to the customers, there's a problem with the cashiers, or no bag boys to help the customers, etc. Giving promotions or even freebies isn't going to address the root problem....the customer may even feel insulted for their true concerns being ignored, being bribed, or the thought it was all about money.
I definitely think OOO isn't doing the greatest in stimulating the fandom, giving it what it needs to grow, or encouraging it as much as they could be right now. Whether knowingly or not, purposely or not....all the things that are turning off the SpiralSpy guy and people like him to the game isn't good for the fandom or the game. My opinion given what I've seen....I think OOO is more concerned with the business ends of things than the fandom.
Anyhow...what am I doing here on the forums. I'll see you all in the game.
Crytixx if you hadn't said that... I would have.
This reminds me why I disliked my last job so bad. People always expecting better treatment because they spend $50 dollars a month in the store. I'm sorry... I didn't realize that having a business that is productive in society needs to show appreciation to DEVOTED customers.
I know what their reply would be from corporate if they e-mailed corporate about not being appreciated enough...
It would go something like this:
Angry Customer;
Dear Store,
I have been a devoted customer for a very long time. I have shopped in your store consistently for a year now and I enjoy your store. I just have one negative thing to say about it... I'm not feeling appreciated enough. I have spent so much in your store, but I've gotten nothing in return for being a faithful customer. I might stop coming to the store if I don't feel some appreciation.
Sincerely,
Angry Customer.
So, now... I imagine the reply to this email would be something like this.
Dear Angry Customer,
We're very sorry you feel unappreciated. Attached to this e-mail is a 30% off any regular priced item to show our appreciation. We thank you for your generous feedback and we are looking into better ways to appreciate you, the customer.
Sincerely,
HR angry customer wrangler.
Is that what you want? A 30% percent coupon off your next purchase? You do know these promotions that they do is done for more than one reason.
I direct you to... the bullet point list of why promotions are good for businesses.
- Promotions provide a discount to customers where they weren't there before. It shows that they do think about the customers and their wants.
- Promotions bring in new and old business.
- Promotions are well... an excuse to promote the business in a positive light.
So, every time you buy CE and get a 15% extra ce in this latest promo, that's for you. The customer. The devoted player.
Every time you get a pair of valkyrie wings in a ce package you bought... that's for you. The customer. The devoted player.
Every time you can get on the test server and test stuff before it's released in the main server... that's for you. The customer. The devoted player.