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Ridiculous Restriction on 7-day Buddy Invites


Leontoeides

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Remove the restriction on inviting people to the 7-day buddy trial for people who are still using their 30-day 'free' time.

 

You have my $60 for the game. You have my credit card details on file. Why do I not get to invite people as friends during the first 30 days of my game experience?

 

What's more likely? That I will invite friends when I am level 50? Or when I am still somewhat new to the game myself?

 

It has been suggested that this restriction was implemented in order to thwart those people who sell credits. If that's the case, then there are surely better ways of going about that. You can make it so mailboxes and GTN are unavailable to those on trial accounts. You can disallow in-person trades. That would effectively remove the trial toons from the economy.

 

I am doing you guys a favor by actively recruiting potential paying customers from my base of friends. And instead of finding the process friendly and inviting, I find it incredibly short-sighted. This is NOT the best way to implement this.

 

I have a friend who downloaded the entire client, and now can't play a trial account because I am unable to invite him for 4 more days (30 minus 26 days played). How reasonable is that? It's completely unreasonable.

 

It seems that Bioware has made the 'Perfect the enemy of the Good' here with this ridiculous policy.

Edited by Leontoeides
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If you look at the screenshot I provided: http://prntscr.com/7wr0l

 

You will see that the exact error message is:

 

"Thanks for your interest in the Friends Trial, but you are not able to invite a friend until you are a subscriber."

 

Yet, below that, it says that I have a subscription that is "currently active".

 

If you'd just add "for at least 30 days" to the end of that error message, it would prevent substantial confusion.

 

And if you'd just get rid of the entire restriction, it'd be even better. Trial accounts shouldn't be allowed to send out trial invitations, of course. But treating people like second-class customers for the first 30 days is a bit off-putting. And that's exactly what's being done here.

 

If the problem is with people selling credits, have your programmer team make it so that trial accounts cannot use mailboxes or GTN, and cannot open trade windows with other players.

 

People have a legitimate need to see how this resource-hungry game impacts their system before buying it. And current players would presumably want to level-up with their friends that they invite. Your system, as it is now, makes that impossible unless the inviting party re-rolls a new toon.

 

I submitted a post to the Suggestion box area, regarding this ridiculous policy. Hopefully someone will recognize how wrong-headed this current implementation is.

 

I have a friend who is legitimately interested in playing this game. He spent 6 hours or more downloading the client, and now finds that he cannot get an invite from me for 4 more days. That doesn't leave him with a very FAVORABLE OPINION of your system. And it makes me, as someone who HAS bought the game, think that your company isn't thinking things through from the perspective of both the players and the potential players. If there is a problem with people selling credits, then deal with that as I suggested. Don't gimp the invite-a-friend process as a way to deal with that -- you're just leaving people with bad impressions.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=397008&page=2

 

 

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Edited by Leontoeides
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Look at it this way, you yourself are in your trial period. Yes, you have paid your $60 for the game itself. You have not however, paid your monthly fee yet. You have licensed the game with your initial purchase, you have not yet paid for the space you are taking up on the servers on which you play.

 

Allowing you to invite friends could potentially end up costing them money. What happens if you decide not to go through with your first month? You had a free month on the servers and your friend(s) had a free seven days. In terms of monetary value, that is a potential loss of $25.50 USD. ($15 for your 30 days and $10.50 for the potentially three friends you invited times seven days times $.50 a day.)

 

While $25.50 may not seem like a lot, it is nearly a 50% loss on the money you initially spent on the game. In business math, that is an unacceptable percentage of loss.

 

While you bring up some seemingly suitable alternatives, one of your arguments doesn't hold any water. I have had my account since 12/20/11, I was already 50 with my main character and well on my way with two others when I sent a friend invite. It is very likely someone who has reached level 50 will send invites. In fact, having worked for another Online Gaming company myself I can tell you this, it is the people with max level characters that are far more likely to send a friend invite that will be taken seriously than one who has not reached that point in the game. I am more apt to listen to the opinion of someone who has played a game all the way through as opposed to someone who has only just begun playing.

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While $25.50 may not seem like a lot, it is nearly a 50% loss on the money you initially spent on the game. In business math, that is an unacceptable percentage of loss.

 

While you bring up some seemingly suitable alternatives, one of your arguments doesn't hold any water.

 

In business math, you are looking at a near 0% opportunity cost here. The servers are already in place. The game is already developed. The only REAL cost here is the cost of the 6-hour+ download in terms of bandwidth (which Bioware already incurred for my friend, as I stated). Bandwidth costs pennies per gigabyte -- trust me, I know the industry. That very small cost is quite acceptable as a form of advertisement for the game -- a way to get people hooked into playing. Someone may well feel attached to that level 15 toon at the end of that week trial -- enough to actually buy the game, where they otherwise might not have.

 

The entire point of advertising is to get customers to try your product ONCE. After that, the product has to stand on its own. Bioware should be making it as easy as possible for us to bring friends into the game. It costs them far less to do that than it does to put banner ads up across the internet. And they should cherish the opportunity to put the game before as many potential customers AS POSSIBLE.

 

While you might not care that your friend(s) is/are n00bs, your friend might care that s/he is so far behind you in gameplay that s/he might not care to 'catch up' to you. The argument does hold water. It simply may not pertain to you. You may be just as enthused about the game today as you were when you first started playing it. Perhaps you are MORE enthused? But I suggest that people are generally more enthused about the game the first few days of playing it -- and enthused players are still probably more likely to invite other players than people for whom the game is 'old hat'.

 

The restriction makes no sense. You're simply trying to add lipstick to a pig.

Edited by Leontoeides
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I'm well aware that bandwidth costs money, I'm also aware that there is a constant download/upload UDP connection between client and server while you are logged into the game, hence the monthly fee. (Along with server maintenance and Tech Support)

 

I'm not arguing the validity of your whole point. I'm playing Devil's Advocate and giving you the point of view that was given to me during my time in the industry, working in the billing side of the industry.

 

The daily breakdown of the monthly fee plays a BIG role in many of the decisions. The cost effectiveness of any "freebie" is weighed against the $.50 per day of the monthly fee. The question "How much money have we received from THIS player" is always asked when deciding for what an individual player is eligible.

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The whole idea that the people who made this game waste their time and money on you if you don't play after the first month is ludicrous. I haven't run a game store in a few years, but I know buying games wholesale in the past, the store only made $2-5 or so per game. In this case, EA or Bioware is making what, $45 off of me buying this game? Yes, there is another $15 for next month, and next month, ect... However, they made $45 off of me.

 

To say that they lost money on me playing for a month is ridiculous.

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The whole idea that the people who made this game waste their time and money on you if you don't play after the first month is ludicrous. I haven't run a game store in a few years, but I know buying games wholesale in the past, the store only made $2-5 or so per game. In this case, EA or Bioware is making what, $45 off of me buying this game? Yes, there is another $15 for next month, and next month, ect... However, they made $45 off of me.

 

To say that they lost money on me playing for a month is ridiculous.

 

The game starts out in the red. Initial sales fill in that hole a ways while residual sales continue to fill it in. So your "$45" as you put it is only going towards paying back the money spent developing the game.

 

There are continuing costs for an MMO, New Content Development, Payroll, Server Maintenance, ISP Costs, Tech Support. If all you did was purchase the game and play your free 30 Days, you cut that $45 to $30. You are operating under the assumption that your initial purchase of the game is already profit. This is month 5 we are working towards now, I wouldn't be surprised if Bioware is only just now back in the black with regards to SWTOR.

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The game starts out in the red. Initial sales fill in that hole a ways while residual sales continue to fill it in. So your "$45" as you put it is only going towards paying back the money spent developing the game.

 

There are continuing costs for an MMO, New Content Development, Payroll, Server Maintenance, ISP Costs, Tech Support. If all you did was purchase the game and play your free 30 Days, you cut that $45 to $30. You are operating under the assumption that your initial purchase of the game is already profit. This is month 5 we are working towards now, I wouldn't be surprised if Bioware is only just now back in the black with regards to SWTOR.

 

They claim they have sold over 1.2 million copies, right? Let's assume the game costs $50 world wide. 1.2 million times 50 = 6 billion. OK, ok, that seems too much for only 5 months. So lets assume they only get 50% of that. 3 billion. WHOA. This game cost what, 300 million to develop?

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They claim they have sold over 1.2 million copies, right? Let's assume the game costs $50 world wide. 1.2 million times 50 = 6 billion. OK, ok, that seems too much for only 5 months. So lets assume they only get 50% of that. 3 billion. WHOA. This game cost what, 300 million to develop?

 

Your math is way off. Try 60 Million.

 

EDIT: Although, let me give you a little help. The game is $60 for regular, $150 for Collectors. Not to mention the Digital Deluxe Edition. Even if we stick with $60 times 1.2 million, we end up with $72 million.

Edited by Lewisgil
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Your math is way off. Try 60 Million.

 

EDIT: Although, let me give you a little help. The game is $60 for regular, $150 for Collectors. Not to mention the Digital Deluxe Edition. Even if we stick with $60 times 1.2 million, we end up with $72 million.

 

You make my point for me. If it cost $200 mil to develop, and they only brought in $72 million, then they need very much to get subscribers. And our recruiting friends for them certainly helps them achieve that. Other games reward us for bringing in our friends. Bioware, instead, makes the process less than inviting and frustrating.

 

Again -- there is absolutely no legitimate reason to implement this restriction. None. There is no additional cost for them, beyond a few pennies for the additional bandwidth. Compare that with the very good chance that my friend will actually purchase the game, and pay monthly subscriptions, and what's that leave you? It leaves you with the very obvious fact that this policy is stupidly wrong-headed.

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As I said before, I don't disagree with you. I'm just passing along the reasoning that was given to me while working in the industry. Not saying that Bioware uses the same exact reasoning, but those are some of the factors that were used in every single decision made as far as how to handle "freebies" and benefits for players. "How much revenue have we actually gotten from them versus how much of our service they have already gotten from us."

 

If the value of Revenue X is > the value of Player Benefit Y then you will see the benefit given to the player. If X < Y then chances are not.

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