Feedback: Beginner Offers

[BB_Sarrunah]

Dear Settlers,

Please feel free to leave your feedback about the Beginner Offers in this thread.

Happy Settling,

BB_Sarrunah

[Aurboth]

The Beginner Offers are not a great way to introduce or encourage new players to spend gems, or even stay in the game. The prices for these packages are significantly out of line with the value of gems.

The easiest way to see this is to compare the value of gems with what other things can be purchased and converted to the same resources. A deed for a noble residence costs 95 gems. Using Ares prices at the time I did the calculations, this gives a price of 2.6k to 3k in gold coins. The ratio of tools, stone, and pinewood planks from the current trade offers now posted are approximately 10:1, 33:1, and 67:1 respectively. Using an even split for all three items in the applicable package, about 830 coins of each resource, this will give about 8.6k tools, 28k stone, and 58k pinewood planks. As the package contains 100, 200, and 200 units of the same, this is a difference of about 2 orders of magnitude, and you still have gems left over after purchasing one noble. The other packages of resources appear to be as bad.

The exotic basket may be reasonable, compared to the cost of other items in the gem market. The Flying Red Settler costs 199 gems, or 4 times the cost of the exotic basket, and only provides twice the duration. However, the relevant question can only be answered by BB's marketing department: How many people are actually buying the Flying Red Settler buff using gems? If very few people are buying it, then it is likely overvalued to begin with.

Sadly, the pricing for the resource packages is also consistent with the resource packages also sold. 100 tools are being sold for 55 gems, 100 stone for 75 gems, and 100 pinewood planks for 65 gems. This would give a package value of 335 gems; so the 165 gems is a bit more than 50% off. However, the prices of the standard resource packages are not well thought of, for the same reason that the value of the gems is significantly greater than the value of the resources. Again, the question is if any of these resource packages are ever sold.

[SweaterPuppies]

Can we have the option to sell the same packages of resources to new players too? I will sell them for 1 gem each.

[MM3Lee]

If a new player goes into global-1 and asks for those resources at 10x the amounts, people will give them away for 1 fish. This "special" is out of touch with a game that is designed around cooperation rather than PvP.

[tomsb1176]

"...at great discount". -> must be a translation error

[CoffeeCat]

If a new player goes into global-1 and asks for those resources at 10x the amounts, people will give them away for 1 fish. This "special" is out of touch with a game that is designed around cooperation rather than PvP.

+1

[Perwyn]

Very overpriced. And what MM3Lee said.

[MechSimple]

Personally, I feel embarrassed to play a game that makes a "deal" to newbies with such unrealistic returns.

Are you that far out of touch with how the game is functioning? Have you completely stopped trying?

It makes me sad.

EDIT: If I wasn't clear... I think the returns should be increased x100 AT LEAST.

[Qiana]

I am not going to sugarcoat my opinion. It is appalling that you feel it necessary to gouge & dupe new players that would not know any better into buying these few resources for gems when any guild would provide them for free. We are all trying to encourage new players to play and stick with this game. You turn players off when you do these unfair sales. If this was in Trade, we would state this is a scam. So disappointing and so not in the spirit of your game. I understand you need to make money but targeting inexperienced players is just heartbreaking.

Maybe you should consider offering up Frozen Manors for 300 gems each? That would be a huge money maker for you and all of the players with deep pockets would hand over their hard earned cash

[Raubhautz]

If a new player goes into global-1 and asks for those resources at 10x the amounts, people will give them away for 1 fish. This "special" is out of touch with a game that is designed around cooperation rather than PvP.

+1 Exactly. These resources are frequently issued to newer players at nearly no cost at all. Just need to ask.


Some discounts on, say Noble Residences or Geologists/Savage Scouts would probably provide much more valuable boosts to lower level players.