Discussion: Announcing a New Paragon Market Pilot Program - Freebie Friday!
By
2short2care,
Posted on: 2012-05-09 09:44 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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There are a lot of virtual environments that offer their members regular "treats" - one well known virtual world offers its subscribers a weekly stipend of in world currency plus a free home plus monthly free gifts. They could eat Paragon Studios for breakfast even though their platform is open source and if you had the skills you could compile the code and make your own. They are neither desperate nor getting rid of "clearance" items. They are simply saying "Thanks for being part of what we're trying to do here" and offering those who play a little bonus. |
Originally Posted by MadHobbit
well to me it smacks of desperation, someway they can show their bosses how much activity the market is getting, boosting numbers so to speak. I also think for the most part they will be "clearance" items. Things that are not selling,but they want to spark interest.
or they could be "nudging" us to buy sets, have one of them "free" then we may go buy the rest of the set. Of course Diablo 3 comes out next week and I am sure that had nothing to do with it. what I expect next is COH will have some promocode published in a game mag. that will give some sort of mini-pet.(yes I know about the codes on MMO.com) |
In fact you can easily argue that things are going well for Paragon: Freedom is going so well that they are able to give stuff away for free instead of making every single $ of revenue they can.
This is a very good thing
Thelonious Monk
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Originally Posted by Agent White
Freebie friday is available to everyone, not just VIP players. So, they could cancel their sub and still get the freebie.
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True... but give enough people enough warm fuzzies and they will be less inclined to unsub.
Besides, if they want to long in a fremium to claim their prize they may well decide to unlock that other character they've not played in a while... and suddenly... ;-)
Thelonious Monk
or this could be a marketing ploy so that War Witch or some other Dev can say in a interview, "We also give weekly free items to all players of COH" nice little PR stunt
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He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the 'herd instinct' that Trotter had described.
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Which would be true, and thus completely fine. Giving away stuff for free is GOOD. There is no down side here. |
Originally Posted by MadHobbit
or this could be a marketing ploy so that War Witch or some other Dev can say in a interview, "We also give weekly free items to all players of COH" nice little PR stunt
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Believe me, I'm no fan of Black Pebble whoever is behind him/her/them - the marketing strategy of this game falls way short of the mark far too often but this isn't one of them. In fact it's so good I suspect somebody from outside of marketing suggested it, it's really that good!
Thelonious Monk
Or it could be a pyramid scheme by Dracula and his legions of undead followers.
Good lord.
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mmo.com seems to be an insurance web page. You mean MMORPG.com? |
Originally Posted by MadHobbit
(yes I know about the codes on MMO.com) |
Codes? Spill the beans already.
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not saying it won't be allowed, saying that when you count all the individual items (like every single separate costume piece) available, the odds are good that the random selection will be a relatively low-cost item.
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Originally Posted by Awesome_Clawsome
Can't you get up to 5 more costume slots from the store? If so, why wouldn't one be allowed? You get it free once and never again...would be nice, especially for me since all of my chars are stuck with 5 (or less) atm.
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If the Free Fridays item is a per-character item, like a team inspiration, can I claim it on all of my characters? Or do I have to pick one to collect it with?
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I like fun. I'd like to have more fun and less gimmicks, that's all.
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Originally Posted by Agent White
Why don't you like fun? Like, ever?
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Who's being forced to claim a free item? |
Originally Posted by RemusShepherd
Everyone should be aware by now of how video games try to make you addicted. The 'free friday' promotion would fall under 'Making the players press a lever'.
The time the devs spent creating this slot machine system would have been better spent on game improvements. I prefer games where the players are there because they *want* to play, not because they are *compelled* to. |
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They don't need to do that. It's not like they run out of shelf space - paragon market items|
Originally Posted by MadHobbit
I also think for the most part they will be "clearance" items. Things that are not selling,but they want to spark interest.
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are no more than 1s and 0s. There are as many or as few as they want; a literally bottom-
less stockroom. If something doesn't sell that often, no big deal - they just take notes that
people aren't that interested and move on. If someone occasionally still buys it,
bonus.
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I really think it's more of them coming up with a way to get "hold outs" who never open the store to do so every now and then because eventually they'll go "OOH, I MUST HAVE THAT!" and buy something while they're picking up the free item. And to that effect, I expect them to have a greater than 0% success rate.|
Originally Posted by MadHobbit
well to me it smacks of desperation, someway they can show their bosses how much activity the market is getting, boosting numbers so to speak. I also think for the most part they will be "clearance" items. Things that are not selling,but they want to spark interest.
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If that still sounds like desperation, well, remember that these items have no overhead cost or physical limit... Once an item has been developed and added to the store, that's it, it no longer costs them anything to sell. There's no delivery fee and no sales staff to pay to transition that virtual product into your virtual hands, just a few electrons travelling from your mouse to their server. It's not desperate to give out a free piece of candy that infinitely replicates and costs them literally nothing by the point you actually take it if the only thing they expect in return is that more people will visit the store, is it?
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
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So to review. Within four hours of Paragon Studios announcing they are giving stuff away for free, we have:
1. At least one person claiming giving stuff away is a "cheesy gimmick."
2. An assertion that twenty-four hours is a poor definition of a day.
3. The inevitable reference to addiction and gambling that occurs when the dev team does something related to addiction and gambling, such as displacing air or absorbing gravitons.
4. A red name unable to tell time.
5. At least one accusation of desperation.
6. Some confusion over how many times "once" is.
7. A slap in the face.
8. Some discussion about what specific thing "almost anything" probably actually refers to.
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I think, based on Arcanavilles numbers the other day, that the market is doing quite well.
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Originally Posted by MadHobbit
well to me it smacks of desperation, someway they can show their bosses how much activity the market is getting, boosting numbers so to speak. I also think for the most part they will be "clearance" items.
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Hew in drag baby
I will form a protest against this dastardly plan of giving away free things by purchasing any and every item that they choose to give away.
I'll show them that they cannot trick me with their sly marketing tricks to persuade people to log on and potentially improve business!
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
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7. A slap in the face. ... |
You totally forgot the
face....never forget the !*really hope people's sarcasm meter was running when they read my original post*
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I thought that you were just showing what your face was going to look like after jaw surgery.
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Originally Posted by Energizing_Ion
You totally forgot the
face....never forget the ! |
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I had to check the date . . . not 4-1-12. Gotta be something else.
I don't think everything on Market be up for a free claim, Just Temps stuff, Enhancement booster, Enhancement unslotted, Revival, Restore, Prestige Booster, Xp Booster, Windfalls, and Inspirations.
Pretty Much I don't think they going to give alway anything big like Costumes and Power sets on free Friday.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
So to review. Within four hours of Paragon Studios announcing they are giving stuff away for free, we have:
1. At least one person claiming giving stuff away is a "cheesy gimmick." 2. An assertion that twenty-four hours is a poor definition of a day. 3. The inevitable reference to addiction and gambling that occurs when the dev team does something related to addiction and gambling, such as displacing air or absorbing gravitons. 4. A red name unable to tell time. 5. At least one accusation of desperation. 6. Some confusion over how many times "once" is. 7. A slap in the face. 8. Some discussion about what specific thing "almost anything" probably actually refers to. As Primal Earth makes Praetorian Earth look like a bunch of kindergarten rejects, so does Actual Earth make Primal Earth look like a bunch of senior citizens feeding the pigeons in the park. |
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There's only so much you can do to account for people's stupidity. This is why there are warnings on chainsaws not to grab the blade while it's running, and warnings on curling irons not to use them in your sleep.|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
May I suggest that since you're dealing with a global community, the 24 hour paradigm for a 'day' is insufficient unless you had the capacity to stagger the 24 hour time frame for each time zone.
For example, you realize that starting at Midnight locally for you is problematic since:
However, ending it at 4 PM PT on Friday is not so wise for a program called Freebie Friday for anyone in the world who is not living in London's time zone. People in the rest of the world will get home from work or school on Friday, log into in the game to claim the reward and, WHAAAH whahhhhh, no freebie item. You will then deal with innumerable claims of you going around nazi slapping everyone in the clock face because they missed out on a Freebie Friday even though it is actually Friday for them. Mark my words, ending Freebie Friday before 12 PM on Friday in at least Pacific Time (should actually go to 6 AM Saturday PT for the islanders) will be very complaintful when the time comes and goes. A full 'global day' is 48 hours long. Any offer you do should ideally be that long, or, at least, 36 hours long. |
If you don't live in the one time zone in the world where the beginning and end of this occur on Friday, write yourself a freaking note.
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Originally Posted by Bloodspeaker
*Looks over the responses thus far*
Comment about this being an evil marketing plot (gimmick) - check. Comment about this somehow mysteriously dissing the EU players - check. Okay, we're still missing someone grousing about "play to win" and/or how this will wreck the in-game economy. Do we have any volunteers? |
It's a slap in the face, is what it is.
Edit: Ninja'd by Arcanaville.
Interesting... So I guess its kinda like opening a super pack. With a chance to get something such as; common: like 5 enhancement boosters, uncommon: a costume pieces, rare: a costume set or very rare: a powerset.
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I think it may look like |
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I thought that you were just showing what your face was going to look like after jaw surgery.
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But...you know what...after this slap in the face it will look like
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Good stuff Paragon!