What were the devs thinking with these discounted slots and transfers ??
By
Airhammer,
Posted on: 2011-05-08 10:03 in Player Questions
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Forbin, I'm hardly someone who ignores the forums. I read them several times a day and I generally check out the digest daily. Still, I missed any comment about discounted transfers myself. I saw something about character slots but nothing beyond that.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
They are aware that the forums and the main website exist when they create their accounts and choose not to use them. Same goes for choosing not to set up email, twitter, or facebook accounts.
(And Ironblade can attest that I have agreed with him that their email system sucks for the players that do choose to use it.  )Not using them is a personal choice and the result is that they are willfully ignorant of current events affecting the game. So when they miss out they have no one to blame but themsleves. Being responsible for your own choices is a wonderful thing, but if it makes you feel better to paint me as the bad guy for telling it like it is, be my guest. It won't stop me from enjoying the game and taking advantage of any ongoing and future sales and events. |
I think I'm better informed about the game than the average player and this was something I didn't know about. Doesn't that seem to indicate that it should be publicized better?
Facebook and Twitter aren't part of the official game or game notifications. As such I wouldn't consider a post there by the rednames an official notification... maybe I'm old but while I've heard of them I've never even gone to either site much less gotten an account and looked for others there.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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That's great, but answer this one honestly.|
Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
I don't know if anyone still uses the old launcher (if you even can anymore) but soon as the NCSoft launcher goes, the Anniversary Sale is right there in the Latest News section...since April 27th.
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Your method - put in a news section on the launcher. How many subscribers even pay attention to that, much less click on it regularly.
My method - put it on the motd pop-up so that everyone who logs in sees a 50% off sale on character slots (have it pop up the one time).
Which method results in more sales?
I'd think we'd have a lot of problems with subscribers being bitten by snakes hiding in plain sight.
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So, if you see something that says "Anniversary Sale," you wouldn't be interested enough to click it? The news is displayed by default.| Your method - put in a news section on the launcher. How many subscribers even pay attention to that, much less click on it regularly. |
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| My method - put it on the motd pop-up so that everyone who logs in sees a 50% off sale on character slots (have it pop up the one time). |
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That's NOT who you're supposed to blame? Blast, I've been doing it wrong the whole time!|
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
...this would be like blaming the janitor for your eggs being undercooked.
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Next thing I know, you'll be saying I shouldn't be blaming the cook for the dirty toilet!
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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People will find a way to ignore ANYthing, no matter how obvious you make it. Still, making a good-faith effort to notify folks is just good CYA. How much effort is necessary to qualify? YMMV.
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Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
...and I'm more than willing to bet people will just close it w/out reading
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Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
Forbin, I'm hardly someone who ignores the forums. I read them several times a day and I generally check out the digest daily. Still, I missed any comment about discounted transfers myself. I saw something about character slots but nothing beyond that.
I think I'm better informed about the game than the average player and this was something I didn't know about. Doesn't that seem to indicate that it should be publicized better? Facebook and Twitter aren't part of the official game or game notifications. As such I wouldn't consider a post there by the rednames an official notification... maybe I'm old but while I've heard of them I've never even gone to either site much less gotten an account and looked for others there. |
Thank you.. I am on the forums quite a bit.. and i still missed it.. now granted I was a little busy but still I log onto the forums almost every day and I still didnt see it..
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
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Eh. It's not so much "ignore" as just "become blind to." It's a question of just how noticable and different it is in the first place. |
Originally Posted by Bloodspeaker
People will find a way to ignore ANYthing, no matter how obvious you make it. Still, making a good-faith effort to notify folks is just good CYA. How much effort is necessary to qualify? YMMV.
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For instance... the house I grew up in was nice, but it was under the approach path for Mitchell Field, Milwaukee. International airport. And pretty much a direct line between it and Chicago. You'd probably think it'd be a real pain to try to, oh, sleep... but after not that long, it was just "Something." Very rarely did I even pay attention to an aircraft going overhead (and that would be because it sounded odd - and an airshow was coming. Got to see some nice aircraft fly over.)
The launcher's the same thing. There's not a *lot* of room there. Now, sure, saying "Anniversary sale" is nice, but as I look at it right now, it's a line of text off to the side - as opposed to the "Seven years of super!" or "Buy the animal pack!" And it's piled with other mentions of gamestop and whatnot. It's not particularly attention grabbing.
It *should,* ideally, be in the rotation with the animal pack and the WTF announcement. At least the change in image might catch your eye and get you to notice it. But instead it's in a generally easy to "blank out" section of rather dull text.
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Don't give me that BS. "Lazy slob" is a euphemism and you damn well know it. I don't post lies so don't slander me!
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Ironblade I stand by what I said that willful ignorance is no excuse and in my opinion lazy in the other thread but please don't post lies. I never said anything derogatory about their personal hygene. You are a better person than that.
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Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
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And I'll say again, this is wrong. The company tried to communicate something and FAILED. Their marketing department wasn't trying hard enough and/or doing it right. Blame the players all you like, call them all the names you like - the company still failed.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Not using them is a personal choice and the result is that they are willfully ignorant of current events affecting the game. So when they miss out they have no one to blame but themsleves.
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Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
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The info was out there, in the same place the info is always put. It was in half a dozen places, and pretty easy to find out about.|
Originally Posted by Ironblade
And I'll say again, this is wrong. The company tried to communicate something and FAILED. Their marketing department wasn't trying hard enough and/or doing it right. Blame the players all you like, call them all the names you like - the company still failed.
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Someone failed, but it wasn't Paragon Studios. Or did you expect them to call every single person up personally to make absolutely sure every single last person knew about the sale?
The info was made available.. however the way in which is was made available and how it was implemented is definitely something that needs to be considered in the future. I have now talked to several people in game who had no idea whatsoever this had transpired. Paragon Studios simply needed to do a better job and they did not in this case IMO...
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
I ran into someone in game the other day that didn't know you had to have Going Rogue to switch sides. The "I talked to people that didn't know about it" argument isn't going to slide. There is nothing under the sun that Paragon Studios could possibly do to not only make every single person in the game know about the announcement, but also remember it for more than 12 seconds.
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Hey, I'm supposed to be the argumentative, grumpy one. Stop cutting in on my act. :P
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Originally Posted by Ironblade
Don't give me that BS. "Lazy slob" is a euphemism and you damn well know it. I don't post lies so don't slander me!
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I made several points..
A) The announcement could have been made better. They could have let people know way ahead of time. Like they do with toms of other stuff.. you know.. like Going Rogue.. or the SPorts Pack.. or the Animal Pack or numerous other things they have handled WAY better in letting the populace KNOW it was coming..
B) The timing was off.. To give the discounted character slots apart from the discounted server transfers was just not good planning
C) The timing was too short. They should have given people again.. enough time to find out about it.. as well as give people enough time to figure out what they wanted to do..
All I am saying is that this was poorly handled IMO. I hope they do a better job next time.
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
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Then don't slander me by saying I used the term slob when I didn't.
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Originally Posted by Ironblade
Don't give me that BS. "Lazy slob" is a euphemism and you damn well know it. I don't post lies so don't slander me!
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Well... Depending on if the cook in question handled the food improperly or, say, slipped laxatives into your meal... Although that would be more of a symptom of what you should be blaming the cook for. |
Originally Posted by Bloodspeaker
That's NOT who you're supposed to blame? Blast, I've been doing it wrong the whole time!
Next thing I know, you'll be saying I shouldn't be blaming the cook for the dirty toilet! |
"My inner mind has become a reality-cracking overgod. He torments me! Help!"
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Originally Posted by Tricia
Or did you expect them to call every single person up personally to make absolutely sure every single last person knew about the sale?
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*Police Whistle*
Grammar Police! Too many Persons in this sentence!
"Comics, you're not a Mastermind...you're an Overlord!"
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Hey! I thought you said that I was better at that position than you are. Who is cutting into who's act? |
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Hey, I'm supposed to be the argumentative, grumpy one. Stop cutting in on my act. :P
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Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters
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Granted, but since that space is always where they post news items of that type, the folks who don't give it at least a cursory glance every time they log in really DON'T have anyone to blame but themselves. If it was there, they were notified. The size of the text is really irrelevant, since anyone with a modicum of experience with the new launcher should know where to look.|
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Eh. It's not so much "ignore" as just "become blind to." It's a question of just how noticable and different it is in the first place.
For instance... the house I grew up in was nice, but it was under the approach path for Mitchell Field, Milwaukee. International airport. And pretty much a direct line between it and Chicago. You'd probably think it'd be a real pain to try to, oh, sleep... but after not that long, it was just "Something." Very rarely did I even pay attention to an aircraft going overhead (and that would be because it sounded odd - and an airshow was coming. Got to see some nice aircraft fly over.) The launcher's the same thing. There's not a *lot* of room there. Now, sure, saying "Anniversary sale" is nice, but as I look at it right now, it's a line of text off to the side - as opposed to the "Seven years of super!" or "Buy the animal pack!" And it's piled with other mentions of gamestop and whatnot. It's not particularly attention grabbing. It *should,* ideally, be in the rotation with the animal pack and the WTF announcement. At least the change in image might catch your eye and get you to notice it. But instead it's in a generally easy to "blank out" section of rather dull text. |
The problem is (IMO) that most people are too "flash" oriented, these days. If something doesn't jump out, grab them by the nostrils and bite their eyelids, they don't see it. But that is a trait that can be unlearned.
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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So, by that logic, it's the fault of Pepsi, Honda, McDonald's, and just about every other company out there that I don't see their ads, even though it's MY choice to not watch TV, and therefore never see those ads?|
Originally Posted by Ironblade
And I'll say again, this is wrong. The company tried to communicate something and FAILED. Their marketing department wasn't trying hard enough and/or doing it right. Blame the players all you like, call them all the names you like - the company still failed.
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The company's marketing department's job is to get advertisements out to people. It is NOT their job to stuff those ads down people's throats. If people want to avoid those ads, it's their right. If people choose to avoid those ads, it's silly for them to pop up later and claim that the company didn't do a good enough job advertising.
@Roderick
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Originally Posted by Roderick
So, by that logic, it's the fault of Pepsi, Honda, McDonald's, and just about every other company out there that I don't see their ads, even though it's MY choice to not watch TV, and therefore never see those ads?
The company's marketing department's job is to get advertisements out to people. It is NOT their job to stuff those ads down people's throats. If people want to avoid those ads, it's their right. If people choose to avoid those ads, it's silly for them to pop up later and claim that the company didn't do a good enough job advertising. |
The ad on the launcher is pretty mediocre in terms of getting it's message across. It doesn't have a splash image and lacks any details on what they're actually selling in the 3 or 4 sentences they have available.
To be honest it looks like a copy-and-paste job without considering the limited visible text available in the launcher headlines and allowing for it.
So the one point where they could legimately advertise their sale in an expected place without it being stuffed down peoples throats it's done pretty badly.
People just dont seem to get it.. This announcement was handled poorly.. I can name a lot of announcements from Paragon Studious that were handled much better than this one. You can blame the person who logs in all you want.. however when the announcement itself is poorly handled then the company shares some of that blame..
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
Considering that quite a few players have complained that they have had limited access, if any access at all to the forums, or even the html news feed on the launcher for the last month putting the blame on the players for not knowing is ignorant.
Glad its posted on facebook, or I can read some twits, however, I have no interest in signing up for either. I have no interest in reading: @positron PAX east hotel room, 3 am. Taking huge dump. All that **** is brown to me. Roflcopter!
Am I expected to sign up for third party sites to get news from ncsoft? That makes sense.
Please understand, I am not butthurt that I didnt transfer any toons during the very short window, as that means I have a few extra bucks in my wallet. Its the games profit loss, not mine. Just try to understand, not everyone was lucky enough to learn from the forums or the launcher no matter how many times they hit refresh.
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Of course, many people with a modicum of experience with the new launcher (*SPIT*) set it to exit immediately on game launch and thus never see the updates (unlike with the ol' cohupdater).|
Originally Posted by Bloodspeaker
Granted, but since that space is always where they post news items of that type, the folks who don't give it at least a cursory glance every time they log in really DON'T have anyone to blame but themselves. If it was there, they were notified. The size of the text is really irrelevant, since anyone with a modicum of experience with the new launcher should know where to look.
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What they really need to do is use those info terminals scattered all around Paragon City (and add some for Praetoria and the Rogue Isles, of course) for news updates and have them flash obviously for a player 'til they read the latest update.
but Forbin, responsibility is too hard!
If your goal is to make money, tell your subscribers the easiest way possible. In game.
Don't make them work for it.