What is this instant upgrade

It's something rubbish like £16 to get a character from level 1 to 43 and give it gear 6. :| They're going to make loads of money with that. :D JK.

This is the kind Of "rubbish" that makes me really happy to play black desert, whicy has a much better payment model

Its a ploy to make new players think they are getting a quick start so they spend $ before they realise how bad a deal it is

"El_Duderino;235256" wrote:

"Abyss;235210" wrote:
Its a ploy to make new players think they are getting a quick start so they spend $ before they realise how bad a deal it is

I am very sad that this is true. Nobody else would buy this stuff. The "one time only" is very mean to play on as well.

Yup yet here we are haha

"murton09;235359" wrote:
No one ever taught these ignorant greedy ..... that volume at lower prices is better than isolating big spenders and relying on their purchases.

If everything had an easy price point they'd have millions of players dropping a few bucks here and a few bucks there which equals millions but they'd rather 5k ppl drop a few thousand while the rest of the base finds other things to do I guess

TCG's right, they really should just sell "card" packs that could include all sorts of crap including characters for about $3 and I think they would make a fortune

Anyone who is confounded by the freemium marketplace should read the marketing info from SWRVE that is linked in the NextWeb article:

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/03/23/free-to-play-games-are-not-the-way-forward-for-mobile-gaming/

SWRVE lists EA as one of their client companies, so these results likely include stats from EA games and players.

It seems obvious that freemium game developers are pushed, advised, cajoled, whatever by statistics like these to get more money from the middle to top end than the bottom of paying players.

According to SWRVE, in Feb 2016, 40% of sales came from purchases between $0-5, but that represents just 16% of income. Their results peg just 0.19% of players with creating the majority of IAP income for games.

It is unfortunate that freemium developers seem to just follow the marketing to create more IAP between $6-20 in an effort to push that segments income. Wondered why that crystal sub pack and instant upgrade are priced as they were? Here are statistics which indicate the marketing logic behind the apparent madness.

The problem is that this is the only route freemium developers are taking, instead of a broader attempt with more low cost packages, they take the advice that you should offer less for more to get repeat purchases.

It's been working in the freemium market, but even SWRVE posits a current small downswing in income might just be players getting smarter about the IAP's being offered.

So there's a chance the marketing advice will change, and the targeting of IAP as a result, but there's no indication that this game is going to buck the trend.

TL;DR - IAP's might change eventually in the industry, but we going to have to demand it through all feedback channels available - even those that seem unheard like forum comments.

I used to constantly wonder why the pricing was so extreme, and assumed the developer would do better with lower marginal costs and dramatically higher volume. But now I see why they price things the way they do.

I suspect the theory behind their pricing model is something like this: get people to spend big early and force them to keep spending to avoid wasting their big investment. That's why the introductory character packs are priced like they are. Everyone who buys a bunch is forced to become a whale to justify the $250 they dropped.

That's also why the arena payouts are skewed so heavily in favor of the top few spots. If they had a more gradual curve, whales could spend $200-500 and then rest on their lead for a while in the top 5% or whatever. Instead, they have to be in the top 3 or so to really justify their investment. And that typically requires continued investment in teh game.

The Chromium packs also appear to be designed to force people to keep spending to justify their investment. You get a handful of shards for a bunch of players, the best of which are often difficult to farm. So what do you do? Stop spending and waste $20 or drop another $100 in the hope that you'll complete those characters? So you drop $100 more only to realize you need to keep spending because you now have 10 shards for 30 different characters and only a few completed characters. Then you get a month in to the game and realize you need to star all of your favorite characters up. Are some of them chromium only? Well now you need to spend major money to get the shards you need.

If the payment system were built around a lot of small payments, nobody would feel the need to continue spending to avoid wasting the capital they sunk up front.

I think the reason freemium games price things this way is that these games aren't going to hook you with content -- even with the Star Wars license. They hook you by getting you to sink a ton of money and time in to them so that you continue playing, not because the game is the best use of your time (there will always be new, more exciting games), but because you don't want to waste all of your sunk costs.

That sunk cost fallacy probably does apply at the top end of spenders, but the statistics reveal that to be less than 1% of players.

Why such universal dismissal of the instant upgrade? Because the majority of the rest of paying players aren't hooked by the same fallacy I assume.

And that SHOULD be marketing advice too, but it comes from players not marketers with statistics and so carries less weight.

Statistics might reveal we are all liars and don't spend more on better and lower cost IAP. And so wringing the dry stone and perpetuating the sunk cost fallacy win the day.

"Djdalane;235519" wrote:
The last post here is the most accurate description of the game I have read. Google "sunk cost fallacy" to put it in perspective and hopefully it will make you feel a little better if you spent more than you wish you had.

Kinda like Vegas. However, I would spend more if I got free beers while i played lol

"Sonofnoob;235207" wrote:
This is the kind Of "rubbish" that makes me really happy to play black desert, whicy has a much better payment model

Yeah...are there any starwars toons in Black Desert...No? Then who cares?