ANNOUNCEMENT: Tournament Adjustments To Be Made 5/18

[AdequateRandomGaming]

With the disastrous launch and some of its issues still lingering about, the Screeching Weasel album title "How to make enemies and irritate people" comes to mind given this ill-timed announcement.

[Mikecouil]

Originally Posted by zevus

back when I was in college .. picked up that wonderful game, Everquest.

Was the first person to sell *anything* from that game on eBay (probably still in some usenet groups, some thread about 1000 platinum/ebay/tunare).

but, yeah, think 10% is pretty high, honestly.

for my EQ sales, a single person spent nearly $100k, a handful at ~$10k, another handful @ ~$5k, dozens @ ~$1k, and hundreds upon hundreds at the $50-$100'ish level.

was more like 1% paid 90%

I have a sinking suspicion that Zynga and other freemium developers don't want to acknowledge that whales make up such a large portion of revenue. And since I'm relying on my faulty old memory I could absolutely be off in the number.

When I was college AGE (didn't actually go until much later) I was first selling WOW beta accounts on ebay, then got banned after my 4th cease and desist. I then used glider to sell accounts on forums for the next couple years until the foreignese boxing farms squeezed me out. Good times and great memories

[professor ape]

The South Park episode titled “Freemium Isn’t Free” is fantastic.

[<Pion>]

Originally Posted by zevus

for my EQ sales, a single person spent nearly $100k, a handful at ~$10k, another handful @ ~$5k, dozens @ ~$1k, and hundreds upon hundreds at the $50-$100'ish level.

Star Trek Fleet Command has at least one player that spent $300K and climbing, and he is by far not the one that spent the most. Just the only one that posted what was spent. Makes me wonder which games have the biggest spenders.

[daves]

Originally Posted by professor ape

I guess that they should get GO out there so that they can get mobile users playing. Us PC dinosaurs are just a drop in the bucket of potential customers.

The way OOTP23 has been buggy, I am nervous about OOTPGO23.

But I am looking for to OOTPGO23. Allowing me to easily enter tournments and check on team.

[TwanLX2000]

Originally Posted by neugey

This. If I remember correctly, they doubled the pack output of these late in late summer/fall to stimulate the market activity and economy ... so I could see the point of starting out with the rewards smaller again for a more gradual approach in the early months, and then upping them later in the year when point-sales are going on and we've already had multiple Perfect League seasons.

You guys aren't wrong that they doubled the packs in '22 from where they started at launch, but it wasn't in late summer/fall -- it was within the first month or two. I remember specifically, because it was before the launch of GO, and I had just signed up for a tournament that I ended up winning when they doubled the pack winnings within an hour after. I could probably find the exact date on the '22 boards because I made a sarcastic comment about my lack of luck.

That said, if they had started the year with a lower number, people wouldn't be responding like this, because they've started lower most years. To attempt to retract the number of packs received because everyone is choosing to play quick tournaments early (and ignoring the larger, less-card-restrictive tournaments that they're struggling to fill) only angers those F2P that spent their entire early bankrolls on constructing teams for this purpose. Had we known it was five packs initially, and determined that there was a better use of our resources, we could make that choice. But since there's such a rush to get ahead of the inflation early in the game, it would be deflating to spend what we did have on tournament teams only to have the rug pulled out from us a few weeks later.

[TwanLX2000]

Originally Posted by TwanLX2000

You guys aren't wrong that they doubled the packs in '22 from where they started at launch, but it wasn't in late summer/fall -- it was within the first month or two. I remember specifically, because it was before the launch of GO, and I had just signed up for a tournament that I ended up winning when they doubled the pack winnings within an hour after. I could probably find the exact date on the '22 boards because I made a sarcastic comment about my lack of luck.

I just looked: it was April 13th that they jumped to 10 packs for '22... sooner than the game was even available this year.

[Mikecouil]

Originally Posted by <Pion>

Star Trek Fleet Command has at least one player that spent $300K and climbing, and he is by far not the one that spent the most. Just the only one that posted what was spent. Makes me wonder which games have the biggest spenders.

Far be it for me to judge a guy who chooses to spend that kind of cheddar on a game. if you have the disposable income, I'd rather it be spent on a small software development company that employs a group of people than taking a trip to a certain island aboard a certain plane.

I'm just not going to feed into it personally.

[Mikecouil]

Originally Posted by TwanLX2000

You guys aren't wrong that they doubled the packs in '22 from where they started at launch, but it wasn't in late summer/fall -- it was within the first month or two. I remember specifically, because it was before the launch of GO, and I had just signed up for a tournament that I ended up winning when they doubled the pack winnings within an hour after. I could probably find the exact date on the '22 boards because I made a sarcastic comment about my lack of luck.

That said, if they had started the year with a lower number, people wouldn't be responding like this, because they've started lower most years. To attempt to retract the number of packs received because everyone is choosing to play quick tournaments early (and ignoring the larger, less-card-restrictive tournaments that they're struggling to fill) only angers those F2P that spent their entire early bankrolls on constructing teams for this purpose. Had we known it was five packs initially, and determined that there was a better use of our resources, we could make that choice. But since there's such a rush to get ahead of the inflation early in the game, it would be deflating to spend what we did have on tournament teams only to have the rug pulled out from us a few weeks later.

So in essence it was "Oh crap we forgot to roll the temporary stimulus payments back" and then decided to do it a month after the flawless launch? That makes it all even funnier and more ridiculous.

[HRBaker]

A lot happened this year, and a lot of it went wrong. It doesn't surprise me they literally "forgot" to roll back the initial rewards and are now trying to figure out how to do that.

On the other hand, pulling the rewards back at this stage, with all that has happened is likely going to hurt more than help.

I also can't help but notice PT 22 had(has) 50,000 plus teams while PT23 is struggling to reach 10,000. Assuming most players join the first few months of the season, PT 23 is running behind schedule. It's not unfair to accept that it has been primarily because of the rough start. If I am right on that, it seems it would be a very bad choice at this point to further P-off the user base who might just choose to wait till next year.

That said, I feel for the OOTP team because I don't think most of this is their fault. I think Com2Us is likely adding pressures that the original team simply never had to deal with before, and is struggling to perform at expectations.

I hope this all works out. It pains me to see the forums die off in traffic too. Normally, at this point in release, traffic is crazy - this year it's almost dead. I'm going to hold out hope, and play the classic game more than I did last year.

Good luck guys.

[TwanLX2000]

Originally Posted by Mikecouil

So in essence it was "Oh crap we forgot to roll the temporary stimulus payments back" and then decided to do it a month after the flawless launch? That makes it all even funnier and more ridiculous.

That's absolutely what this looks like.

[Will_L]

Looks like I'll be quick selling off all but the lowest that aren't locked cards for PT and setting both my teams to AI control and only playing the base game from now on. Didn't even get to finish off all the team 20 missions LOL
More time for other games :-) Yay!

[Mikecouil]

Originally Posted by HRBaker

A lot happened this year, and a lot of it went wrong. It doesn't surprise me they literally "forgot" to roll back the initial rewards and are now trying to figure out how to do that.

On the other hand, pulling the rewards back at this stage, with all that has happened is likely going to hurt more than help.

I also can't help but notice PT 22 had(has) 50,000 plus teams while PT23 is struggling to reach 10,000. Assuming most players join the first few months of the season, PT 23 is running behind schedule. It's not unfair to accept that it has been primarily because of the rough start. If I am right on that, it seems it would be a very bad choice at this point to further P-off the user base who might just choose to wait till next year.

That said, I feel for the OOTP team because I don't think most of this is their fault. I think Com2Us is likely adding pressures that the original team simply never had to deal with before, and is struggling to perform at expectations.

I hope this all works out. It pains me to see the forums die off in traffic too. Normally, at this point in release, traffic is crazy - this year it's almost dead. I'm going to hold out hope, and play the classic game more than I did last year.

Good luck guys.

It sucks that this is the very first time a small, successful company gets sold to a bigger company who changes the culture to fit the larger companies rather than what made the smaller successful company so....successful and we have no case studies. I'm sure this will be the one that bucks the trend though. I'm going to go ahead and start holding my breath now.

[Dxgarnett]

Originally Posted by HRBaker

A lot happened this year, and a lot of it went wrong. It doesn't surprise me they literally "forgot" to roll back the initial rewards and are now trying to figure out how to do that.

On the other hand, pulling the rewards back at this stage, with all that has happened is likely going to hurt more than help.

I also can't help but notice PT 22 had(has) 50,000 plus teams while PT23 is struggling to reach 10,000. Assuming most players join the first few months of the season, PT 23 is running behind schedule. It's not unfair to accept that it has been primarily because of the rough start. If I am right on that, it seems it would be a very bad choice at this point to further P-off the user base who might just choose to wait till next year.

That said, I feel for the OOTP team because I don't think most of this is their fault. I think Com2Us is likely adding pressures that the original team simply never had to deal with before, and is struggling to perform at expectations.

I hope this all works out. It pains me to see the forums die off in traffic too. Normally, at this point in release, traffic is crazy - this year it's almost dead. I'm going to hold out hope, and play the classic game more than I did last year.

Good luck guys.

The main reason for the lower number of teams is because alt teams didn’t carry over like they did in previous years. Everyone was only able to register 3 teams this year with their license, whereas last year, you could register as many as you used in the previous year.

[HRBaker]

Originally Posted by Dxgarnett

The main reason for the lower number of teams is because alt teams didn’t carry over like they did in previous years. Everyone was only able to register 3 teams this year with their license, whereas last year, you could register as many as you used in the previous year.

Maybe, but that still doesn't explain the difference between 50 and 6. I think a lot of people are sitting back to see what happens.

[Will_L]

Originally Posted by Dxgarnett

The main reason for the lower number of teams is because alt teams didn’t carry over like they did in previous years. Everyone was only able to register 3 teams this year with their license, whereas last year, you could register as many as you used in the previous year.

We've only ever been able to register 3 teams per license.
Last year I had three and could not make more, in PT21 I had six on two licenses, in 20 & 19 I had three teams.

[BridgeGoth]

The difference between 50 and 6 as well as the apparent lack of money being spent on the game, is just the result of the many glaring mistakes the team has made.

Let's face it, pretty much everything from the start has been screwed up.

When the game is already a month late, completely broken when released, and a almost a month later still has key features missing, aside from the diehards, who else is really sticking around at this point?

I'm fearing that PT23 is a lost cause now. I can only hope that they all can learn from the mistakes that were made this time and get 24 right from the beginning.

Some of the errors I can understand, others are just unbelievable.

Not having the game ready on time is horrible when you consider how small a window you have to be relevant. I do think most can live with taking extra time to get things right, however when you're late and the product is a mess on release, you lose people's confidence.

Server issues I can understand up to a point, but this was especially bad. I have no idea who is at fault, but the dev team still have the bear the brunt of the fallout.

Not having GO available at or near release, especially knowing the mobile market would be growing significantly is inexcusable. Even if it was PT only, GO just simply has to be there in today's environment.

Also, repeatedly doing things to annoy and aggravate your customers after already making numerous mistakes is also inexcusable.
Where are Twitch drops? We've been promised them for weeks and all they seem to do is blame Twitch and/or say they are "working on it". Sorry, that doesn't cut it, You knew exactly when the game was going to be released and this should have been taken care of. This reeks of disorganization and/or incompetence.

While 22 wasn't perfect, it's particularly concerning when many features that 22 had just simply didn't arrive in 23 or were just broken. This gives the user base a feeling that 23 was a major step back.

I suspect for a lot the tournament decision, even retracted, was the icing on the cake. With the entire game so far being a mess and really nothing has gone right, who in their right mind would think it's a good idea to make decisions which would negatively impact your customers, especially you're barely hanging on to the ones you still have!
The player base needed some signs from OOTP that they know what they are doing and that things are eventually going to get fixed/better, and unfortunately they have shown very little evidence of this, and unfortunately the number of people playing is a reflection of the way this entire process has played out.


Do note: I am not trying to trash the team, I am simply pointing out the reason for the crash in people playing the game, as well as why I doubt it's salvageable at this point. There were other smaller things I didn't list that probably contributed, I tried to stick to the big stuff, but as you can see, it isn't just one thing that drove people away, and there is certainly enough blame to spread around for why this season just isn't working out.

[Camelsback]

oops

[Camelsback]

Great way to build on the goodwill and customer satisfaction from the ugly launch. Now that it is working, it gets broken . On purpose.

So much for us F2Ps. Used to be a yearly buy for me. Used to be.

[Dxgarnett]

Originally Posted by Will_L

We've only ever been able to register 3 teams per license.
Last year I had three and could not make more, in PT21 I had six on two licenses, in 20 & 19 I had three teams.

Yes, you could register 3 per license, but all of your previous teams carried over.

For example, if you had 3 teams in 19, when you bought 20, you could sign up 3 new teams PLUS log in to your previous teams for a total of 6 teams. In 21, you could sign up 3 new teams and your previous teams for a total of 9 teams.

This year you get your 3 teams and that’s it because everyone had to re-register.