Pebblebrook

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eiko-chan View Post
    With multiple currencies, I have to do specific things to get specific stuff.
    I believe that's what the devs want more than stifling the shard hoarders...compel people to specifically do the trials and not just one trial...both of them. If there's a more reasonable alternative, many would not want to suffer through the growing pains of the new trials.

    And that will reduce/deplete the player pool for them, especially once the new shiny wears off and/or the early adopters move on to the next.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eva Destruction View Post
    I know it's not trivial to some people, but to me it's like complaining about a hangnail when you have a broken leg.
    One person's hangnail is another person's broken leg. That's part of the problem with the RNG.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eva Destruction View Post
    I feel the need to mention this every time someone complains about the inf costs of conversion, because unless you don't sell anything ever (and maybe even then) it's pretty much impossible not to earn the needed inf in the process of acquiring the needed shards.
    That doesn't really make the inf cost trivial, at least to me. It just means the shard requirements (mostly due to low drop rate) are unduly enormous in comparison.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dispari View Post
    It's a marketing ploy obviously -- they wanted to increase revenue during those months, likely to fuel the completion of i20 and maybe some other stuff.
    I'm of the opinion that vet rewards have always been a marketing ploy, not just recently.

    Before VR, there was no consequence to paying for a month when a new issue interests you, quit when bored then resub when the next issue that's of interest to you comes along. So that's lost revenue for NCSoft between resubs.

    When VR was new i've seen people mention they would've quit when they burn out but instead they just stop logging in but still pay money for the rewards. When the rewards became increasingly trivial with each iteration, not sure how it sustains that incentive so the vanguard pack is probably to sweeten the deal.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by EvilGeko View Post
    Many have found that not to be true. Beyond a certain point (basic comfortable standard of living), having more money can be a curse for a lot of people.
    That's why i qualified it as "if you have no money." But don't want this to derail the thread more than it already did.
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by MrNotorion View Post
    "After a time you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true." - Spock

    I would think it would depend on what that thing is. If you have no money...having it is more pleasing than wanting.

    In games, to me, it's not necessarily about the journey or the destination. It's what is fun. If the journey is fun, that's good...if the destination is also fun, that's even better. If the round trip from journey to destination to another journey is good, that's the best.

    The goal of an entertainment service is to be entertaining to as many different types of preferences as possible and is fine to focus on segments at a time so long as the focus don't take too long or the rest becomes stale.
  7. Pebblebrook

    6 hours downtime

    Click the time link on the announcement and it takes you to a webpage that lists other cities. Pick your city from there.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Venture View Post
    I'd have to say teaming is one of the least interesting aspects of the game.
    I don't know...the OP's article is from 2004 at CoH's launch and back then at least for me, i didn't mind the PUGs.

    Although that article is a bit confusing since the /search feature wasn't implemented till much later than a month after launch but the reviewer mentioned using it. But memory of those times is hazy. *shrug*
  9. Pebblebrook

    Future of CoX..

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by je_saist View Post
    Now, if Infogrames comes forward and shows the subscriber levels and financial information, and shows that the Free-to-play model did make Cryptic Profitable... then a discussion about using Champions Online as model for any other game can begin.
    CO went F2P near the start of their 4Q period so will have to wait till they post their full year report after it closes at the end of march.

    You can find the reports here if you're interested.

    EDIT:
    The full sentence about the 1,000 percent also mentions concurrent user and unique logins which in a free-to-play game would not be surprising to ramp up on launch so not sure exactly what comprises that 1,000 percent number.

    So good idea to wait till the actual revenue numbers are published.




    Original link
    Quote:
    Free for All, which launched on January 25, 2011, has drawn hundreds of thousands of new and returning players to the virtual world, increasing Champions Online's online concurrent user, unique login and revenue totals by over 1,000 percent.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Forbin_Project View Post
    Looks like someone completely forgot about the Cyber Monday Sale on November 29th 2010.
    I didn't forget, i have CoX related promos listed along with the numbers so i can use to correlate with the sales. If you want, for 4Q 2010 you can also add the reactivation promo in 10/7/10, the origins pack on 11/1/10, the 6mo/12mo subscription promo on 11/29/10 to 12/13/10, issue 19 in case anyone resubbed for that, the LTX CoX poster for $15 each on 12/7/10 along with that cyber monday sale with the 50% off on many select booster packs.

    But subscription revenue has always been what consistently comprises the majority of the sales figure with occassional spikes from box releases and some promos. And depending on what promos are there, it might show up on the sales figure (assuming subs don't fluctuate enough to offset it)

    Also, you might want to check that article again...they've updated it to note that the numbers are from 2Q 2009. At that time, CoX sales is about $5,179,637 which makes more sense for 125k subscribers.

    Oh, just to have consistent info, that 2Q 2009 sales will also have the AE box 4/8/09, magic booster 4/17/09 and issue 14 4/8/09 and issue 15 6/29/09.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect View Post
    A large number of players pay their subscriptions 6 month or a year at a time. Those dollar figures would have been on the books 6 months to a year ago.
    I used to think that till someone posted a correction. Will have to look for that link, i'll edit it in when i do.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Forbin_Project View Post
    So yes there were a significant number of free months being used during the 4th quarter of 2010.
    So for that quarter a significant number of people have paid maybe $50 for a serial code and 2 months sub instead of $45 for 3 month sub? Kind of?
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade View Post
    where are those numbers from?
    NCSoft Earnings reports

    Average exchange rates. There are others but that's what i used.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Forbin_Project View Post
    Since a quarter is only 3 months long and a player can get up to 7 months subscription free it's more than possible for players to not pay any subscription fee at all for over two full quarters.
    Since those codes are one-time use per account, that seems unlikely for a significant number of existing subscribers to use them in succession over the last several quarters.


    CoX sales last 15 months in USD

    Dec-2009 3,351,182
    Mar-2010 2,913,135
    Jun-2010 2,989,656
    Sep-2010 4,808,316 (GR sales spike)
    Dec-2010 2,853,598
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ironblade View Post
    Interestingly, for a lot of us who have been following subscriber numbers for a long time, going back to when NCSoft published numbers - that 125,000 number seems surprisingly high. If it really is that high (I'm skeptical), this is extremely good news.
    Probably should be skeptical. I would think if there were 125k subs that would show up (very roughly) as 125,000 x $10/mo (min) or $15/mo (max) x 3 months and end up somwhere between $3.75mil and $5.63mil quarterly sales. Or average $4.69mil.

    CoX sales in 4Q 2010 was about $2.85 mil USD
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dispari View Post
    You're free to not enjoy that new content, but to also have the expectation that you still deserve all the rewards of the incarnate system without actually participating in the majority of it?
    That might be a more prevalent viewpoint if *all* incarnate boosts/abilities/powers are only usable in incarnate specific content/zone. But being able to use those rewards outside of the environment you receive them tends to have these debates. The thing with PVE usable rewards requiring to enter into PVP mode showed precedence.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha View Post
    ...Going on this conversion rate, if I 'bought' a Notice of the Well, my influence would actually go down. So...I work towards becoming a more powerful being and yet, magically, my influence over the world around me actually lessens?
    Heh, that can make one funny cut-scene.

    Well: Ah, young one...i see you have amassed great influence over the world. You are thus worthy of my power.

    You: Thank you i wil...

    Well: Hmm, seems you have lost all your influence over the world. I'd like that power back now...

    You:



    Some reason i'm giddy this morning...hmm, what's in my coffee?
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by TonyV View Post
    The problem is that if the developers simply open all of the content up with a trivial amount of time or effort spent on it, the game gets really boring, really fast.
    True, but i don't think it's the presence of a timesink that's at issue rather the magnitude of it.

    [ Until Arcana comes back with a better number, i'm going to use the 400 hours for a very rare as a basis for this post. ]

    400 hours is not trivial. One of my 50s has 130ish hours on it so let's say getting a very rare is considered "completing" that incarnate level, that would mean completing 1 incarnate level is on par with leveling 3 characters from 1 to 50 in succession.

    So if that 400 hour number holds true and the rest of the incarnate levels have the same requirements, that means to "complete" all 10 incarnate levels would be equal to making 30 level 50s and 4 billion inf (400mil per very rare x 10 levels) *from the OP.

    Even if the actual number turns out to be half that (200 hours), that's still means 10 incarnate levels equates to getting 10 alts to 50.

    If the gap between payouts is too long, that's also bad for the game, or at least for that part of the game. I mean the devs put in the XP smoothing curve because some levels "acted like brick walls" according to Positron in that interview. And i didn't have much of a problem with the XP level progression back then (or i was distracted by other things...not sure)



    [Snippet from your link]
    Quote:
    No game should ever have a timesink for timesink’s sake. A good timesink has you interacting with the game on some level, earning some level of enjoyment or moving the story along. It might be “realistic”, but keep in mind that you are trying to entertain people here and useless timesinks tend to do the opposite of entertain.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU View Post
    It's certainly true that the more mobs you fight at once, the faster you can collect shards. Thus, +0/x8 is better than +4/x1.
    That's likely, but since this thread is mostly about the reasonable requirements of the conversion method versus through TFs/trials, i'd like to see an Arcana estimation on the time:shard with something other than activity comparable to a full TF capable team which is what x8 represents...(in terms of shard drops, not the end of TF reward).

    So it would be nice to see an Arcana estimation on that to get some perspective.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    My blaster solos at 0x2. I'm trying to get the stats for her earning and kill rates, but that's a bit trickier because she teams more than she solos (lately) so I don't have a lot of whole herostats files with pure solo stats.
    It doesn't even have to be a blaster if you prefer scrappers. I'm mostly curious if there's any time:shard differences between x8 (which is essentially equivalent to a TF capable team short of the componet end reward) and those that play on a theoretical "average intended use" meaning someone with average builds playing average difficulty with whatever radio/tip/contact mission they come across. Of course assuming farmers/min maxers aren't the majority of the current playerbase.

    And yes with accumulated incarnate boosts, it will get better. But seeing a baseline helps and we can always just take that baseline and assume we can shave off time because of increased capabilities.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    Not all players can run x8, or even x4, but Leandro's estimate is actually not a high-end estimate. Its actually probably a very moderate one for someone that solos below x4.
    If you're not already, can you also run tests with x1 and x4 at least for time:shard comparisons. Not really sure how many people/small teams can handle x8 but before the enhanced difficulty settings, solo meant x1.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Toony View Post
    400 hours should be more close to 51-60 (the rest of the incarnate stuff) total.
    That's part of the subject not touched on much here. If that 400 hours holds true, that's just for the alpha slot. What happens when the other 9 incarnate levels are released? Does it take 400 hours for each of them or do they take progressively more shards the higher you go?

    Do we even know how the other levels are unlocked? Such as do we need a very rare in the previous level to qualify unlocking the next level or is it like a buffet, just pick what you want and unlock it via another ramiel arc.

    If it requires the previous level slotted with at least a rare and they all have at least the same amount of shard requirements, getting all 10 incarnate levels would definitely take years using the conversion method (i didn't say solo method since there's nothing stopping a team farming the ITF to use the conversion...with currently known info anyway). I really hope that's not the case.
  23. Pebblebrook

    2010 4Q earnings

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by End Sinister View Post
    ...I'm only saying there's not much life in this game because there isn't. If the figures drop over the course of this year like they have in 2009 to 2010, there will no longer be a City Of Heroes...
    The biggest hurdle is the initial development cost, if a game doesn't look like it'll be able to pay off that debt that's when they decide whether they cut their losses or not. CoX i'm sure has long paid off that debt, so the real question is whether the cost of maintaining the game which includes further content development is still less than what it earns.

    NCSoft doesn't itemize their cost by game so we don't know the profitability point of CoX to determine how much more it can drop before it goes into the red. But maintenance cost can be controlled by cutting resources, reducing content development etc. So unless revenue shoots back up, it can still linger on by having less and less.

    Then again, they might be able to pull off an EVE-like turnaround during that time. That game is 1 year older than CoX i think, so that scenario has precedent though not sure how probable it applies in this game.
  24. Pebblebrook

    2010 4Q earnings

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by LISAR View Post
    If anyone has a good site for this stuff (I failed at google on this one) I will overlay a second data line for estimated USD.
    If you mean a site for the exchange rates, not sure which is the best. But i used this one. There are others like this one but didn't really use it.
  25. Pebblebrook

    2010 4Q earnings

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Plasma View Post
    ...People on longer subscriptions would have renewed a month later, meaning Q304 effectively "borrowed" some subscription revenue from later quarters; that effective will technically last for the entire next year; someone who was annual and set to renew in March won't renew until April, for example...
    I'm not confident that people with long-term sub plans comprise a majority of sales. They had a 6mo/12mo promo in november. If the bulk of the subscribers took that offer i would think it would've shown a more noticeable uptick between 2Q and 4Q.

    Code:
    YoY
            2009    2010
    1Q    6,837   3,348
    2Q    6,673   3,491
    3Q    5,471   5,709
    4Q    3,928   3,239
    
                                                           
    2009 1 USD = won  USD                            
    1Q    1415.61656    4,829,698                      
    2Q    1288.31418    5,179,637                      
    3Q    1243.32370    4,400,302                      
    4Q    1172.12370    3,351,182                      
                                                           
    2010                                                   
    1Q    1149.27733    2,913,135                      
    2Q    1167.69275    2,989,656                      
    3Q    1187.31793    4,808,316                      
    4Q    1135.05837    2,853,598                      
                                                           
    * Exchange rates are average ask price for the quarter.