Discussion: Introducing Tweet Code Thursdays!
By
Absolut_,
Posted on: 2012-07-11 13:32 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
Suggestions for both sides:
Fellow code-hunters: stick a post-it note halfway down the previous image - right underneath a code. When hitting refresh, it helps you focus on the next code laying at about the same spot. I'm a slow typer and have poor vision. I was able to read the code to myself aloud and slowly type in one letter/number at a time. Code obtained in one of the first batches.
NCsoft: Use the Paragon in-game Store for a day. Keep shooting us fun and informative facts about NCsoft. Encourage us to retweet what interests us and sign up friends through the week. No need to pm us codes and no need to have us scramble in minutes to get a first code code - enough combined retweets and/or new followers by Thursday and you'll list the code's item (ex: dot aura) free on the Market for a 24 hour period.
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National Book Month is in October. National Novel Writing Month is November. Slice_O_Pie is mm mmm gewd all year...
Sorry, I give up. No reason to keep twitter anymore. The re-tweeting way was better. This way the codes are just getting scooped up and hoarded... prob see them on ebay soon. Booo !
**Damien**
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss.
"Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. "
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wont see them on ebay, as they have to be used immediately (within seconds) and cant be transferred. |
Originally Posted by damienray
Sorry, I give up. No reason to keep twitter anymore. The re-tweeting way was better. This way the codes are just getting scooped up and hoarded... prob see them on ebay soon. Booo !
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But I agree, not even going to bother, and I think Ill unfollow them, not worth the time or the frustration
The re-tweet method may have been a pain for paragon employees but it gave people a fighting chance to get a code. If you invest the time to keep an eye on the feed (also a pain for your customers), you deserve that chance.
If you are going back to single use codes I will show my displeasure in the best way I can see,... unfollow. I encourage others who feel the same to do the same.
btw Zwill, if your choice is between doing nothing or something, sometimes that something is not the wisest choice.
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Still does zero to address the concerns for players. The codes are gone within seconds. It literally is not worth my time to look at Twitter and try to load any site to enter the code, much less the game to actually access my master account to put the code in. The community team is aware that some players do not have website access to their master accounts.|
Originally Posted by Hit Streak
Hey everyone, we've obviously learned a lot from just one day of this program. We're making a few more tweaks to it to accommodate those of you who aren't available during our normal business hours and also so we can live within Twitter's limitations.
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Originally Posted by Hit Streak
Starting at 10AM PDT, we'll post an image of 15 codes for an in-game item (redeem it at www.plaync.com).
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Originally Posted by Hit Streak
This will go on until 10PM PDT. For those of you counting at home, that's 12 hours of codes, 30 codes an hour for a total of 360 codes. This is more codes than we were able to distribute last week due to Twitter's direct message limit of 250/day.
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Originally Posted by Hit Streak
Yes, there will be some trial and error involved, but with this number of codes going out, hopefully we'll get everyone involved.
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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
What I'm finding interesting/mildly disturbing is that for me, at least, this is having the exact opposite effect of what I suspect is intended.
Pulling me out of the game, off the forums, into other social media outlets where I may or may not already have a presence, encouraging me to either link my activities on those outlets to something I tend to keep to myself (I teach, I don't like my students knowing what video games I play in my spare time...) or create dummy-accounts just to get loot...
All of that makes me feel less connected to this game's community. Not more. And so I'm not participating in it.
If Marketing wants raw numbers of people showing up as being linked to CoX in social media, that's nice. It's not a metric of the game's actual community, though, which is awesome and helpful and way more prone to cooperation than competition, and it really doesn't seem to be doing that community any favors with non-game PvP-style activities for in-game rewards.
My postings to this forum are not to be used as data in any research study without my express written consent.
Since you are numbers guys, let me give you some numbers...
Last week at the beginning of your promo where you had to re-tweet you had 5495 followers
at the beginning of this code grab you had 6092 (gain 597)
as of right now you have 6103... net gain of 11...
I stopped playing another game a couple years ago cause they started constantly releasing character items that would go rare and never be available again. COH needs to not follow this example. Tier 9 is fine, costume sets in packs are fine, but these promotional aura and costume pieces are not.
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Problem with this is you fail to realize that this is much bigger than forums, much like ALOT of us Hate twitter and don't want to follow it for our own reasons a lot of in-game customers feel the same way about the forums, even though they follow the in game conversations or "word of mouth" about said promotions. So it's NOT a small fraction of the community that would be effected, it's the whole community in agreement with that alleged "small fraction."|
Originally Posted by Pauper
That's overreaction -- even if everyone on the forums decided to quit, that would be a small percentage of the overall subscriber base, most of which probably wouldn't notice or even care.
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| The point is that a Twitter promotion doesn't really serve the community team's purpose if all it does is get people who are already following on the forums or on Facebook to go to Twitter. Zwillinger made that specific point very early in this thread when asked why they're even doing this promotion -- only small portions of your fanbase frequent any particular place in online space, so your goal is to be in as many of those spaces as possible so that you can find people you're not already communicating with. |
I think Jill would be pretty pissed too. Only in this example, at least Jill still gets the same thing as the new customers she only had to "pay" more for it...
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Which is why pretty much every big MMO has permanently exclusive items. Because they hate their customers. Look, I understand that you and others posting in this thread don't care for permanent exclusives. Given the tone used by those who don't care for permanent exclusives, though, I have to wonder if the bigger jerks are the people who want exclusive content, or the people who don't want anybody to have it. |
EDIT: So where is the VIP exclusive there you ask? We got it free and long before it hit the market. Which is exactly how this type of promotion should be treated.
Finally got one loll
Rage = over
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When I go to that website, I'm immediately redirected to http://us.ncsoft.com/en/ which has City of Heroes prominently featured.
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
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Hell, I closed twitter so I can't even see it anymore. The frustration over this was just making me unhappy.
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I left at the beginning of the LAST code tweet-a-thon. I'm not rejoining for this one.
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Originally Posted by nytflyr
Since you are numbers guys, let me give you some numbers...
Last week at the beginning of your promo where you had to re-tweet you had 5495 followers at the beginning of this code grab you had 6092 (gain 597) as of right now you have 6103... net gain of 11... |
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No, I don't care a whit about your point that other MMOs do this. The MMOs that do this have a lot more customer turnover but are either big enough to survive the people leaving or are so new that the MMO can expect people to still see the shiny. City of Heroes doesn't have either. They can't afford to lose customers over these promotions.|
Originally Posted by Pauper
You are ignoring my point.
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Originally Posted by Pauper
Exclusive content is a thing in MMOs. The big fantasy MMO gives out companion pets and other items to fans who go to their big convention. The big space MMO made by the company that originally made City of Heroes gave out an exclusive playable race to people who signed up for lifetime subscriptions. It's hard to find a large-market (or wanna-be large market) MMO that doesn't provide exclusive content.
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The 2nd example also re-released their lifetime deal for their superhero MMO.
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Originally Posted by Pauper
That's overreaction -- even if everyone on the forums decided to quit, that would be a small percentage of the overall subscriber base, most of which probably wouldn't notice or even care.
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Originally Posted by Pauper
The point is that a Twitter promotion doesn't really serve the community team's purpose if all it does is get people who are already following on the forums or on Facebook to go to Twitter. Zwillinger made that specific point very early in this thread when asked why they're even doing this promotion -- only small portions of your fanbase frequent any particular place in online space, so your goal is to be in as many of those spaces as possible so that you can find people you're not already communicating with.
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Originally Posted by Pauper
Which is why pretty much every big MMO has permanently exclusive items. Because they hate their customers.
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Originally Posted by Pauper
Look, I understand that you and others posting in this thread don't care for permanent exclusives. Given the tone used by those who don't care for permanent exclusives, though, I have to wonder if the bigger jerks are the people who want exclusive content, or the people who don't want anybody to have it.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
It is *not* a wise investment of my teams time to spend an entire day on another project and cause other aspects of the Community to suffer as a result. At the same time, when faced with the option of do something or do nothing, I choose to do something. I respect those of you who disagree and choose not to participate. Please know that your concerns have been heard. This is simply the best possible option that we have currently available.
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I hope you got the concern over -permanently exclusive- items. If you said that "oh, we're giving this cool aura for free during the summer, but come winter everyone will be able to buy it on the Paragon Market." You wouldn't have had this reaction. I'm sure you know this, but you have to convince whatever hair-brained person that insists that permanently exclusive items are a "good thing" that they are wrong.
And the "best option" isn't what you are doing. The "best option" is being upfront that these giveaways are exclusive for a limited time and afterward will be widely available. I get that you can't promise that, but you need to get the person that IS responsible to commit to that.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
On a similar note, Hit Streak and I have invested a rather large amount of time in this conversation. While I appreciate everyone's concern, this is one of those decisions that I have to make that won't make everyone happy. I apologize if you're one of those people. For now, this is how we're going to operate Tweet Code Thursday, until we have a better solution.
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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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Yes, I am correct. I am both happy and unhappy to see that I am... |
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
Yes, you're absolutely correct. It's less time spent for us.
Last week we had to invest two people for an entire day and a second person for another entire day to sending out codes via PM, and even then we ran into technical/API limitations. It is *not* a wise investment of my teams time to spend an entire day on another project and cause other aspects of the Community to suffer as a result. At the same time, when faced with the option of do something or do nothing, I choose to do something. I respect those of you who disagree and choose not to participate. Please know that your concerns have been heard. This is simply the best possible option that we have currently available. On a similar note, Hit Streak and I have invested a rather large amount of time in this conversation. While I appreciate everyone's concern, this is one of those decisions that I have to make that won't make everyone happy. I apologize if you're one of those people. For now, this is how we're going to operate Tweet Code Thursday, until we have a better solution. |
When you say things like "its not a WISE investment of my teams time"... I'm confused by this because isn't it WISE to keep your clientele base happy? Isn't spending time on your clientele actually a wise thing?... I'm not in business or have a masters for that matter but I would think keeping your paying customers happy is a wise thing to do. Yes there could be a better way to do so.
In fact I would like to offer a suggestion to Tweet Code Thursdays... perhaps it would be best to press the pause button on it until you can come up with a much better solution that will make those on twitter and your team much happier and not so salty or spicy. That would make much more sense and it would show your clientele that hmmm you do care and therefore will put TCT on hold for the moment.
What you guys are doing is great but you should remember that YOU (not you specifically just in general Paragon Studios Team) chose to give out free stuff, which is great cause who doesn't love free stuff? But its the manner in which you chose to go about doing so. Yes your new way of distributing the codes is a bust... "Epic Fail" in my opinion but whats done is done.
Yomokatsu Shinsengumi Yonbantai Kumichou
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This -- a thousand times this. Do it right or not at all. Frankly, this is making you guys look incompetent.
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Originally Posted by OmegaS
btw Zwill, if your choice is between doing nothing or something, sometimes that something is not the wisest choice.
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"Can play" is not a binary. It's a float.
There are some pretty low values of "can play" out there.
--Fulmens
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off
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URL Meta redirects are a security concern. I've specifically blocked all meta redirects that I can.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
When I go to that website, I'm immediately redirected to http://us.ncsoft.com/en/ which has City of Heroes prominently featured.
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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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Not a direct reply to YOU per say, but more in your general direction (especially since I pretty much agree with you here).|
Originally Posted by De_monique
Yes, I am correct. I am both happy and unhappy to see that I am...
When you say things like "its not a WISE investment of my teams time"... I'm confused by this because isn't it WISE to keep your clientele base happy? Isn't spending time on your clientele actually a wise thing?... I'm not in business or have a masters for that matter but I would think keeping your paying customers happy is a wise thing to do. Yes there could be a better way to do so. In fact I would like to offer a suggestion to Tweet Code Thursdays... perhaps it would be best to press the pause button on it until you can come up with a much better solution that will make those on twitter and your team much happier and not so salty or spicy. That would make much more sense and it would show your clientele that hmmm you do care and therefore will put TCT on hold for the moment. What you guys are doing is great but you should remember that YOU (not you specifically just in general Paragon Studios Team) chose to give out free stuff, which is great cause who doesn't love free stuff? But its the manner in which you chose to go about doing so. Yes your new way of distributing the codes is a bust... "Epic Fail" in my opinion but whats done is done. |
Whe they gave away the first costume codes online, they listed them in text. People copy/pasted them and pretty much before the bits were dry they were gone. Then they posted them as an image. Same thing. Then they got the bright idea of puttign them in screenshots fromt he game (I heard that was to confuse bots).
It slowed people down SLIGHTLY. However, instead of the codes vanishign instantly, now they vanished withing five to ten seconds. So they started postign them in screenshots upside down and backwards and all sorts of strange ways. Again, it slowed peole down, instead of 5 to 10 seconds the codes vanished in 10 to 15 seconds.
The real downside was, people didn't read what code it was. They woudl just grab a code and type it in. Ig they already had the item, the code applied and was gone "robbing" someone of it. If it was a US account and an EU code, it applied and did nothing robbign someone of it. I know a few people in game who were laughing because they snagged codes for stuff they already had.
In time it became "easy," if you were vigilant to get a code because most people simply stopped caring. They got so frustrated and angry they quit trying and just didn't care any more.
All of this has happened before and it will all happen again. It's a stupid way to give away codes, but they'll follow the same course with it, people iwll get just as peeved about it and the community team will not solve it just like they didn't solve it before.
The only innovation this time is that the mose reasonably equitable way of doing it (retweet and get one) was killed off with a shockingly honest admission that it took too much of their time so they came up with one that wastes the players' time instead.
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Uh ... do you not see the contradiction in your own statement here? I don't use Twitter. I don't really much LIKE Twitter. I pay a monthly fee for this game still, and I shouldn't have to USE Twitter to get anything. Promotions that utilize social media and are exclusive to such are rather unfair to your loyal customers who don't use said social media. By exclusively offering promotions via avenues that everyone does not use, you are, indeed, "playing favorites". At least be honest about it.|
Originally Posted by Hit Streak
We're focused on giving away these codes on Twiter right now. This isn't to say that Zwillinger or myself won't be caught on a random server from time to time broadcasting codes, but we won't be announcing it if/when we do.
We create promotions like this in order to get old/new/current City of Heroes players to join us on these sites as an extension of our community. We will continue to support our other outlets (FB, G+ and our forums) with content/updates and will do our best to make sure that no matter what method you use, you have the most up to date information possible. If we've failed you in this regard, we certainly apologize, but it's not intentional (we don't play favorites). Thanks for the feedback. |
Storm
Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm ...
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Yes and thats what I meant in my initial post that Zwill was responding to.
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Originally Posted by Redbone
Not a direct reply to YOU per say, but more in your general direction (especially since I pretty much agree with you here).
Whe they gave away the first costume codes online, they listed them in text. People copy/pasted them and pretty much before the bits were dry they were gone. Then they posted them as an image. Same thing. Then they got the bright idea of puttign them in screenshots fromt he game (I heard that was to confuse bots). It slowed people down SLIGHTLY. However, instead of the codes vanishign instantly, now they vanished withing five to ten seconds. So they started postign them in screenshots upside down and backwards and all sorts of strange ways. Again, it slowed peole down, instead of 5 to 10 seconds the codes vanished in 10 to 15 seconds. The real downside was, people didn't read what code it was. They woudl just grab a code and type it in. Ig they already had the item, the code applied and was gone "robbing" someone of it. If it was a US account and an EU code, it applied and did nothing robbign someone of it. I know a few people in game who were laughing because they snagged codes for stuff they already had. In time it became "easy," if you were vigilant to get a code because most people simply stopped caring. They got so frustrated and angry they quit trying and just didn't care any more. All of this has happened before and it will all happen again. It's a stupid way to give away codes, but they'll follow the same course with it, people iwll get just as peeved about it and the community team will not solve it just like they didn't solve it before. The only innovation this time is that the mose reasonably equitable way of doing it (retweet and get one) was killed off with a shockingly honest admission that it took too much of their time so they came up with one that wastes the players' time instead. |
Yomokatsu Shinsengumi Yonbantai Kumichou
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/signed.|
Originally Posted by PerfectStorm
Uh ... do you not see the contradiction in your own statement here? I don't use Twitter. I don't really much LIKE Twitter. I pay a monthly fee for this game still, and I shouldn't have to USE Twitter to get anything. Promotions that utilize social media and are exclusive to such are rather unfair to your loyal customers who don't use said social media. By exclusively offering promotions via avenues that everyone does not use, you are, indeed, "playing favorites". At least be honest about it.
Storm |
To add to that the order of their priority listed Twitter, FB G+ and THEN our forums... If anything the forums should have been the first thing you should have started with promoting your/our own base before migrating somewhere else. Our community exists on many planes/domains such as what Hit Streak named but if you want game stuff it should be done with the things that come with the game like our own forum... And made available to all even if to be exclusive for x months or w/e.
What everyone here needs to understand is that we are not the community being marketed to in this case.
(Though we are, quite possibly, the community being "managed.")
My characters at Virtueverse
Faces of the City
So let me get this straight. If I want this code I have to:
a. sign up for twitter
b. take off of work
c. refresh twitter every 5 seconds
d. pray that I'm lucky enough to get the code after completing A through C
Man, what a fun sounding promo!
They should change the name to "Torture Code Thursdays". Next weeks theme is pull your own teeth for free stuff!
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part a. is incorrect, you just have to bookmark the page. when they had you retweet last week you had to sign up.
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Originally Posted by SmegHead
So let me get this straight. If I want this code I have to:
a. sign up for twitter b. take off of work c. refresh twitter every 5 seconds d. pray that I'm lucky enough to get the code after completing A through C Man, what a fun sounding promo! They should change the name to "Torture Code Thursdays". Next weeks theme is pull your own teeth for free stuff! |