"Ace97302;235511" wrote:
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.
Yeah, that's one insight into their racket. The entire game is set up much like a casino...and the house is in total control of the odds...which make it even worse than Vegas. There is so much commercial and capital grabbing philosophy stuffed into this game. Just the entire reward based game play keeps people hooked and gets them to reach into their pockets. Then they use your ego and need to win, to get in your pocket, but worst of all, they use your love of Star Wars to bait you in to begin with.
I think General Ackbar said it best. It's a TRAP!
