@Huginn This communication and transparency is exactly what the community needed right now I think, so thanks a bunch for taking the time to give an in-depth explanation from a dev point of view.
Regarding conversion purchases, I sincerely hope that you guys realize how badly this change affects low spenders. And while I realize that low-spenders aren’t the ones that get the bills paid, I don’t think it’s possible to argue that this change accomplishes anything other than hurting people that don’t buy 5+ conversions per day. Nobody but the top spenders are putting more than that into conversions and it’s ridiculous to suggest that this change was an improvement for low VIP players.
Ok this is a big one and I take issue with what you’re saying here because it reveals that you’re either intentionally misrepresenting our concerns or simply ignorant of what the problem really is (and honestly I’m not sure which option scares me more).
Your carefully chosen verbiage glosses over the real root of the problem and suggests that you think it’s satisfactory for players to unlock the new hero at any point before bounty ends.
I want to make sure I emphasize this: It’s not.
I appreciate that we no longer need to unlock each co-op difficulty and can jump straight into 85+, but this model STILL results in an 8-day unlock time. With your co-op release time, you are intentionally and knowingly putting purchase pressure on players by deliberately making it impossible to have the new hero in time for bounty.
The release model you’ve chosen is that players can, at best, miss out on having the new hero for HALF of bounty.
And that accounts for zero upgrade time.
There is no excuse for this. It is a deliberate way to hurt players that don’t fork over the money for the special offer.
Let’s talk about a compromise, because this model isn’t it. If you guys released the new hero 2 days earlier (the Thursday of non-bounty week), I think that would be a fair middle ground. It gives a great solid advantage to those who pay directly for the new hero. They are able to get familiar with how to use them and they have time to upgrade the hero sufficiently.
This would also mean that grinders are able to barely get the hero in time - assuming they are able to max out at 7.5+ frags/day (realistically limiting it to 85+ high power players and others that pay gold for resets to get extra frags).
However, there is still a clear-cut advantage given to paying players. Those that buy directly are able to upgrade the hero as far as possible (plat5) while grinders can expect to get somewhere in the gold range at best (maybe plat) but with pitiful skill levels in time for bounty.
This pleases everyone.
I don’t care what your MTX analyst team comes up with, a freemium game cannot survive by only catering to the ‘whales’. Keep in mind that whales are only willing to be whales if they have a player base of non-whales that they can gain advantage over.
Please don’t let this game die by pushing away your non-whales.
Thanks for making it this far.
#PlanktonLivesMatter