Bytro Labs GmbH, hear me out. Here's a suggestion to make more money AND improve popularity

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    • Bytro Labs GmbH, hear me out. Here's a suggestion to make more money AND improve popularity

      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

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Feric Jagger: Remove part of the proposal which is a non-starter ().

    • Hey, nice job on this suggestion. However, I would like to issue 2 problems:

      1. Spending 60,000 gold on a game can be earned, but what I'm saying is many people who can afford 60,000 are people who spends money (good thing for Bytro). However, this would discourage people who don't buy gold to enter because ya know, don't wanna waste a game on goldspenders. It could be improved by two identical games released at an identical time, like 100p, one is gold one non gold (strictly non gold, not even spending in-game). Non gold one you risk having many dropouts, gold one you risk being destroyed by goldspenders. Your own choice. this could drive people who want to spend gold to the gold one, and because many others are doing the same thing, they will buy more gold, their opponents will buy more gold, and so on. It grows at an exponential rate so Bytro can have more money in its pocket. For the ones who don't like to see goldspenders, this would be a relief because all goldspenders are now in the game with gold allowed.

      2. This one's much more simple. BYTRO DOES NOT LIKE GOLD CAPS. Period.
      "As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable." Albert Einstein

      "Giving up is not an option in war, for it proves one's incapability and incompetence as a leader." - Me (Little Racoon)
    • OK, right, and yeah I can see how Bytro wouldn't want gold limits. That's sensible.

      OK, then, forget the in-game gold-spending limit I suggested. I struck it out. My suggestion still addresses the dropout problem (in my mind, that's a much bigger problem than gold spenders; about half of games have so many dropouts the game becomes pretty much a waste, while I've only played one game where gold spending ruined the game) and still increases Bytro profit.

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      WHOA, ADDITIONAL SUGGESTION --MINIMUM GOLD SPENDING LIMIT

      Ohh, I bet Bytro will like this.

      Let's say, you spend 60,000 to get in the game and don't get it back, but you do get to spend it in that game for stuff -- that is, you can buy units or whatever with the 60,000, but any you don't use is lost when that game ends. So the fun of spending gold, but a level playing field, and a much lower dropout rate.

      Yes, I get that few will pay 60,000 to join a game, but if you also also get to spend it... in addition to the low dropout rate (maybe a bit higher than the ante-but-recover, but still -- not many are going to spend 60,000 and drop out)... might be attractive. And throw in a month of High Command, maybe, if you join the game. And heck, make the prize be 100,000 gold (why not? Bytro's pulled in six million gold just for the entry price -- that'll attract people).

      I'd probably do it, altho not often (I'm poor).

      Worth a try maybe, Bytro?

      And that'd be two thousand dollars minimum profit -- for one game. Ears perking up yet, Bytro? :) (In addition to any in-game gold use.) And you've got a very low dropout rate (maybe a bit higher than the ante-but-recover, but still -- no many are going to spend 60,000 and drop out) which == happy customers.

      Now, you've addressed the big problem, dropout rate. As to in game gold spending... as I say, that's less of a problem in my experience, and anyway, if you're paying $20 to play, are you really going to spend another $20 for gold, Mr Rockefeller? And even if you did, that'd be another 60,000 and that's not close to a game breaker, at all. If the person's not skilled, I can beat that without a hardly noticing, if I can cobble together a decent alliance. Just makes it more of a challenge, more of a level field, my skill against his wallet.

      Sure if a person spends 250,000 gold or whatever that's different, but then Bytro is making at least $2060 for the one game, and getting another person introduced to High Command, which for some people is crack. :D More than $2060 cos other people are spending also.

      Do Bytro people read this forum??

      - F Jagger
    • I think you need to read my first point. I think I have made the second point stand out too much.
      "As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable." Albert Einstein

      "Giving up is not an option in war, for it proves one's incapability and incompetence as a leader." - Me (Little Racoon)