Well played, NCSoft. Well played!
By
Archiviste,
Posted on: 2011-11-30 04:54 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Job done! 
Thelonious Monk
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Yep, Working As Intended |
Originally Posted by cohRock
Could NCSoft be making as much money from the free accounts as the do the pre-existing subscriptions?
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Keep NCSoft from shutting down City of Heroes : http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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I would think that would depend more on the person's spending discipline rather than the account type. |
Originally Posted by cohRock
Could NCSoft be making as much money from the free accounts as the do the pre-existing subscriptions?
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If a subscriber only spend $15/mo on their sub and only use their free points to spend on the store...as long as they only need $5 worth of points then NCSoft would make just as much money from them as a premium player who only pays $15/mo on points.
Difference would be is that on a monthly basis, the premium would accumulate $15 worth of points per month while a vip only banks $5.
If a vip needs say $15 worth of points for that month and only have $5, then NCSoft would make more money from the vip since they effectively would spend $25 for that month while a premium only paid $15.
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That assumes the only things a premium would spend their points on are those not covered by a VIP subscription.|
Originally Posted by Pebblebrook
Difference would be is that on a monthly basis, the premium would accumulate $15 worth of points per month while a vip only banks $5.
If a vip needs say $15 worth of points for that month and only have $5, then NCSoft would make more money from the vip since they effectively would spend $25 for that month while a premium only paid $15. |
A VIP account unlocks a whole ton of crap premiums don't get, even when the premiums buy their way up the Rewards ladder. $15/mo for VIP + 400 points is a better deal than $15 for points alone.
De minimis non curat Lex Luthor.
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Well the question i quoted was not about the value of content acquired but rather which account type would NCSoft get more money from and that's dependent on the person not the account.|
Originally Posted by Bosstone
A VIP account unlocks a whole ton of crap premiums don't get, even when the premiums buy their way up the Rewards ladder. $15/mo for VIP + 400 points is a better deal than $15 for points alone.
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Your question as to who gets more value for that $15 per month spent is quite different and would depend on how much value you put on the perks and the vip exclusives.
But if you want to discuss that we could.
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Fixed that for you. |
Originally Posted by cohRock
At the end of the subscription period, I intend to convert this account to Premium Status, assuming I don't suffer another spending frenzy like I did over the past few days.
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Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
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You're right, I missed the point. In that case I think you're correct, but it's not really an amazing insight. If your CoH budget is $15 or more, you're most likely going to be a VIP because it's more value for the money. So yeah, Paragon's more likely going to get more money out of a VIP account than a premium account. There could be some people who have reasons to stay premium despite spending $20+ on the game each month, but I think it's fair to consider them outliers.|
Originally Posted by Pebblebrook
Well the question was not about the value of content acquired but rather which account type would NCSoft get more money from and that's dependent on the person not the account.
Your question as to who gets more value for that $15 per month spent is quite different and would depend on how much value you put on the perks and the vip exclusives. But if you want to discuss that we could. |
Now as an aggregate, whether VIP accounts or premium accounts make more money for Paragon is yet another question. If the average amount per month a premium spends is $7.50 and the average a VIP spends is $17.50, but there's three times as many premium accounts as VIPs, they'll make far more money off the premiums than VIPs as a whole.
De minimis non curat Lex Luthor.
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That assumes that you know enough about the differences to be aware of the value you're getting. |
Originally Posted by Bosstone
If your CoH budget is $15 or more, you're most likely going to be a VIP because it's more value for the money.
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Most brand new free players don't have that understanding. There are probably quite a few people who have spent more than $15 a month on the game for things a VIP would have gotten for free, like powersets and unlocking ATs.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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Could be, but given that Paragon sells the VIP status pretty hard, it seems unlikely a new player would remain ignorant about it for long. This is all pretty much speculation about data we don't have access to, though.
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
That assumes that you know enough about the differences to be aware of the value you're getting.
Most brand new free players don't have that understanding. There are probably quite a few people who have spent more than $15 a month on the game for things a VIP would have gotten for free, like powersets and unlocking ATs. |
De minimis non curat Lex Luthor.
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Heh true that is an ideal possibility when integrating F2P...volume. I think i saw somewhere that only a very small percentage of F2P crowd actually spends money so to get that small percentage to translate to a large enough number of paying players, will require a whole lot more F2P accounts...probably in the hundreds of thousands or a million or two.|
Originally Posted by Bosstone
Now as an aggregate, whether VIP accounts or premium accounts make more money for Paragon is yet another question. If the average amount per month a premium spends is $7.50 and the average a VIP spends is $17.50, but there's three times as many premium accounts as VIPs, they'll make far more money off the premiums than VIPs as a whole.
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Not sure if Freedom got that many. I usually saw concurrent users pre-freedom to be around 5000 unhidden players. On freedom headstart it was around 6000 and when it was opened for F2P, it was over 8000. It's getting less now with the rush over and/or the holidays, but i would be expecting a lot more than that from F2P crowd.
* Caveat: /search is an inaccurate tool and concurrency doesn't directly translate to account numbers.
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Maybe I'm misreading what you are writing, but I'm reading this as "at the end of the '6+1 month subscription special' on your newly created free account, you are then going to convert it to a Premium account." I want to ask to ensure I understand, but I thought the moment you dropped 400PP into a free account it automatically becomes premium, and it never goes back. Is that correct?
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Originally Posted by cohRock
At the end of the subscription period, I intend to convert this account to Premium Status, and keeping my original account VIP. Before doing so, I'll likely spend another $20 for five character slots.
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Main Character: Ice/Storm/Ice Controller (Justice, 1340 badges)
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Convert to Premium = let the VIP subscription lapse.
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Originally Posted by flipside
Maybe I'm misreading what you are writing, but I'm reading this as "at the end of the '6+1 month subscription special' on your newly created free account, you are then going to convert it to a Premium account." I want to ask to ensure I understand, but I thought the moment you dropped 400PP into a free account it automatically becomes premium, and it never goes back. Is that correct?
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De minimis non curat Lex Luthor.
Nooooo you fool..your not meant to keep track on what you spend..if you do the world will end
It would go in swings.
A friend of mine stopped paying for subscription a while ago. She brought every costume pack and goodie while subscribed. So when it was free, she was doing pretty good for her non fee - lots of extras, could use the market. Nearly all her builds where generic IOs so she purchased the 30 day lis. So now she is partly subscribing - paying NC something every month. I expect more than a few preems like that. She also buys every costume pack still - so is giving a lot more $$ to NC that before p2p.
On the other hand, I have a few freinds with two accounts. They let one drop to preem instead of subbing for both accounts and dont buy anything for it - so are giving NC $15 less a month.
I don't suffer from altitis, I enjoy every minute of it.
Thank you Devs & Community people for a great game.
So sad to be ending ):
I started a free account on Saturday. I also bought the 99-cent VIP upgrade.
--> 99 cents, Saturday
On Sunday I spent $5 for 400 points to get the Martial Arts Booster (mainly for Ninja Run).
--> $5.99, Sunday
On Monday I spent $15 for 1320 points to get the Jump Pack, Mystic Fortune, Secondary Mutation, and Pocket D VIP pass.
--> $20.99, Monday
On Tuesday I spent $77 for the 6+1 month subscription special.
--> free account = $97
Well played, NCSoft. Well played!
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At the end of the subscription period, I intend to convert this account to Premium Status, and keeping my original account VIP. Before doing so, I'll likely spend another $20 for five character slots.
Could NCSoft be making as much money from the free accounts as the do the pre-existing subscriptions?
-- Rich
* Thresholds CoH: What to do When
* My Comics Collection