INTRODUCTION
First of all, I recognize that any suggestion for anything has to devolve ultimately to a net financial gain for Bytro Labs GmbH. This is how business works, and fine. (Doesn't have to be an immediate gain, improving mechanics for greater popularity down the road is valid).
This suggestion improves the game experience AND is an immediate net financial gain for Bytro Labs GmbH. It's slightly involved, so hear me out/
Two big problems with the game's popularity are 1) too many people dropping out, and 2) people spending too much gold and overwhelming the other players (granted, this obviously this latter is good for Bytro Labs GmbH tho, at least in the short term).
Here's my suggestion to address these problems AND make more money for the company at the same time.
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MAKE SOME GAMES WITH A VERY HIGH ANTE (WHICH IS RECOVERABLE)
1) Have some games where A LOT of gold is required up front to play... let's say 60,000 gold which is twenty dollars worth.
2) But the player gets most of this back (say 55,000 or whatever) if they do not withdraw prematurely. Withdrawing prematurely would mean become inactive before you are completely destroyed, or before your are down to X provinces, or X units, or before X days have passed, or something like that. ("Withdrawing" could be defined as "being inactive for X days (not necessarily consecutively)", maybe).
So, the player risks 20 dollars but gets almost all of it back IF he sticks it out. I'm a player who sticks it out to victory of the bitter end, so I wouldn't at all mind doing this. A game full of people who don't mind doing this would have a MUCH lower dropout rate. So this'd be popular you think.
So the financials... lets say it's a 100 person map, 100 x 20 dollars is $2,000 dollars up front for Bytro Labs GmbH. Let's say there's a 10% dropout rate, that is $200 Bytro Labs GmbH keeps, plus for the ninety who don't drop out Bytro Labs GmbH keeps $2, that $180. (Bytro Labs GmbH keeps $2 per player for profit, and that's fine.)
Now note that the $20 (well, $18 actually) is not paid back in cash. Just gold is returned to the players. The cash money paid to Bytro Labs GmbH for the gold stays with Bytro Labs GmbH forever. (Granted, returning gold to players will depress gold sales down the line, tho. But probably not on a 1/1 basis, and anyway any financial person will tell you it's better to have $2000 now than $2000 four months from now.)
10% dropout rate? Count me in -- count a lot of people in. And $2,180 profit per (100 player) game for Bytro Labs GmbH. So win-win.
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GAMING THIS SYSTEM
Now, I'm going to grant that there are probably ways to game this system. For instance, you could avoid forfeiting your ante if you just log on every other day for 30 seconds, and don't do anything useful. And there are probably several other ways as well. We'd have to think of these and address them.
Maybe some of these can be fixed in some way, but some probably can't. But don't worry about it too much. Let it go. Perfect is the enemy of good enough. For instance, not a lot of players are going to bother to log onto a game every day for maybe weeks and do nothing. Some will. The experience and the profit will still exceed a typical game. Still win-win.
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(Forget this part, withdrawn)
LIMITING IN-GAME GOLD EXPENDITURE
So now to address another thing that impacts the game's popularity: a player spends a ton of gold to sweep the board, especially if it's a poor player. People don't like this, don't feel much like playing anymore
Well, but look. Bytro Labs GmbH is making $2,180 per game. They could limit the gold that any player can play and still come out ahead. Let players spend let's say 10,000 or 15,000 gold or whatever, as a game limit. So again, win-win -- profit plus popularity.
What say you, Bytro Labs GmbH? What say you, fellow gamers?
-- Feric Jagger
First of all, I recognize that any suggestion for anything has to devolve ultimately to a net financial gain for Bytro Labs GmbH. This is how business works, and fine. (Doesn't have to be an immediate gain, improving mechanics for greater popularity down the road is valid).
This suggestion improves the game experience AND is an immediate net financial gain for Bytro Labs GmbH. It's slightly involved, so hear me out/
Two big problems with the game's popularity are 1) too many people dropping out, and 2) people spending too much gold and overwhelming the other players (granted, this obviously this latter is good for Bytro Labs GmbH tho, at least in the short term).
Here's my suggestion to address these problems AND make more money for the company at the same time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAKE SOME GAMES WITH A VERY HIGH ANTE (WHICH IS RECOVERABLE)
1) Have some games where A LOT of gold is required up front to play... let's say 60,000 gold which is twenty dollars worth.
2) But the player gets most of this back (say 55,000 or whatever) if they do not withdraw prematurely. Withdrawing prematurely would mean become inactive before you are completely destroyed, or before your are down to X provinces, or X units, or before X days have passed, or something like that. ("Withdrawing" could be defined as "being inactive for X days (not necessarily consecutively)", maybe).
So, the player risks 20 dollars but gets almost all of it back IF he sticks it out. I'm a player who sticks it out to victory of the bitter end, so I wouldn't at all mind doing this. A game full of people who don't mind doing this would have a MUCH lower dropout rate. So this'd be popular you think.
So the financials... lets say it's a 100 person map, 100 x 20 dollars is $2,000 dollars up front for Bytro Labs GmbH. Let's say there's a 10% dropout rate, that is $200 Bytro Labs GmbH keeps, plus for the ninety who don't drop out Bytro Labs GmbH keeps $2, that $180. (Bytro Labs GmbH keeps $2 per player for profit, and that's fine.)
Now note that the $20 (well, $18 actually) is not paid back in cash. Just gold is returned to the players. The cash money paid to Bytro Labs GmbH for the gold stays with Bytro Labs GmbH forever. (Granted, returning gold to players will depress gold sales down the line, tho. But probably not on a 1/1 basis, and anyway any financial person will tell you it's better to have $2000 now than $2000 four months from now.)
10% dropout rate? Count me in -- count a lot of people in. And $2,180 profit per (100 player) game for Bytro Labs GmbH. So win-win.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GAMING THIS SYSTEM
Now, I'm going to grant that there are probably ways to game this system. For instance, you could avoid forfeiting your ante if you just log on every other day for 30 seconds, and don't do anything useful. And there are probably several other ways as well. We'd have to think of these and address them.
Maybe some of these can be fixed in some way, but some probably can't. But don't worry about it too much. Let it go. Perfect is the enemy of good enough. For instance, not a lot of players are going to bother to log onto a game every day for maybe weeks and do nothing. Some will. The experience and the profit will still exceed a typical game. Still win-win.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Forget this part, withdrawn)
What say you, Bytro Labs GmbH? What say you, fellow gamers?
-- Feric Jagger
The post was edited 1 time, last by Feric Jagger: Remove part of the proposal which is a non-starter ().