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Launch Promotion: Full Add On Store for rest of April

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by DarkStarr, Apr 12, 2018.

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  1. DarkStarr

    DarkStarr Executive Producer SOTA Developer

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    In February we announced that we would be reducing the amount of items we displayed in the Add On Store.

    "Store Reduction: We successfully moved many of the items on the website onto in-game crown vendors in Release 49 and by Release 51 all of them will be there (with the exception of Bundles). With that change we feel that having all of the store items visible on the website at all times is an inaccurate representation of what the game offers players and incorrectly infers that everything must be purchased to play. In fact, there are far more in-game items to be looted and crafted than there are to be purchased. For example, there are nearly twice as many decorations in-game than the store offers. So we are going to reduce the store to show much fewer items at any given time, except during postmortems or weekend flash sales."
    We have gotten a lot of feedback from our existing customers about this change. Based on that feedback we already changed this so that the bundles change visibility based on spending and we have considered adding that function to the Add On items as well.

    While we still see some value in this change for the first impression of a new user we also want to continue to provide purchase options. We also have not seen much change in perception of what can be purchased versus obtained in game with the reduced store despite the massive reduction.

    So to gather more data and to promote launch we are going to open up the store back to its original full state for the rest of April!
     
    Last edited: Apr 12, 2018
  2. Lazarus Long

    Lazarus Long Avatar

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    WOOT!!! Spend Those Store Credits!
     
  3. Brewton

    Brewton Avatar

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    Ummmm April is almost half over. Perhaps it should be from today until May 12th? To help some of us on a fixed budget get full advantage of a full month.
    Thanks again!!!
     
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  4. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    @DarkStarr

    I have a feeling that you've seen the recent thread regarding the removal of almost all the items from the store, where the majority of participants see the change as doing more harm than good - while understanding the reasoning behind the change.
    I think that everyone here understands Portalarium's need for a revenue source in order to keep the lights on - so that SotA can blossom and continue into the future.
    However, I (and others) believe that removing the ability to see all of those wonderful items in one place - easily - has (and will continue to have) a negative effect on that revenue stream.

    Having thought about it in terms of the desire to not have SotA seen as PTP, might the following suggestion be seen as a worthy compromise:

    Leave the store as it was, but instead of making a $ purchase directly - simply show the item and state that it is available in-game at the COTA merchants.

    That way you can still list the items all in one place for easy shopping, while not having direct $ tied to them, but rather as in-game purchases .

    Since they are all shown during telethons as purchasable directly anyway, at least this compromise would have them shown as in-game purchases at all other times.

    Please consider...... :)
     
  5. Womby

    Womby Avatar

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    @DarkStarr

    It seems counterproductive to put obstacles in the way of people who want to spend money. With that in mind, I'd like to make the following suggestions:

    1. If you don't want to sell something in the add-on store, leave the listing in place so people can still window shop, remove the purchase button and add a note that says "Available in game."
    2. If an item is available in game, add a note telling the customer where they can find it. Don't make them search for it.
     
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  6. Bushmaster

    Bushmaster Avatar

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    This is what I was just thinking too.
     
  7. liz_the_wiz

    liz_the_wiz Avatar

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  8. Andrew Silverston

    Andrew Silverston Avatar

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    Always two sides of the coin - on one side, players who shout THIS IS P2W, on the other NOT ENOUGH CASH ITEMS. I like your proposal. It takes a good care of both sides of the coin, but needs to be clearly stated with BIG font, that this is not P2W store or cash store, but the items available in game for COTOS.
     
  9. Stryker Sparhawk

    Stryker Sparhawk Avatar

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    Here are my couple of thoughts:

    Consider an open store for anyone who has spent over a certain cash value (considered a repeat customer) who wants to opt in to see the full store when logged into the website.

    Consider an opt in flag to anyone with a valid game account and just wants to see the full store at all times.
     
  10. liz_the_wiz

    liz_the_wiz Avatar

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    it would be P2W if these items were artifact types, but next to everything is purely visual.
     
  11. Mishikal

    Mishikal Avatar

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    @DarkStarr One thing missing from the in-game COTO vendors is the ability to buy various "packs" of items, such as the packs of bushes, trees, tapestries, etc, at a discount vs buying them individually. Will this functionality be added to the in-game COTO vendors?
     
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  12. Winfield

    Winfield Legend of the Hearth

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    Here's my personal use-case on trying to buy something when the store was "offline" -- it did not go very well for me:
    • I wanted to buy something before the last R52 Livestream having to do with Vikings. I really didn't know what, but I was trying to quickly get some home deco.
    • The items in the Add-on store were not shown. I did not know where in game to find the items I wanted (yet). In fact, I did not even know all the Viking deco items at a glance to see if I was really interested.
    • I asked around to friends, they gave me some ideas that add-on store items were now on different vendors. Oh my!
    • I found a SotA web site main article (or some article; I don't have the link anymore) describing where the Merchants are in game. I created a spreadsheet to have a ready reference where these merchants are: e.g., "Harvest Harvest, Inside the Bank, North of the central Town Crier, and SW of Torden Bridge. Aldoric Sells all the Viking homes and all the Add-On Store items that appear in the Viking Bundles (except Bundle exclusives like the Viking Chests and the pets)."
    • Through my analysis I found the Viking Crown Merchant in Harvest.
    • My personal spreadsheet would become my guide ...
    • But by this time, I was so worn out figuring things out, I did not go to Harvest to buy anything.
    • I waited for the Livestream ... and fortunately was around at home that day to make my purchases.
    I personally like the Add-on store - if not to buy, then at least to browse in-game content.

    In my opinion, items in the Add-on store are mostly visually ornate versions of things in game, or for lazy people like me who don't craft enough.

    Also, adding an indication on items in the Add-on Store of WHERE to buy each item in game with COTOs (what merchant/where) AND providing a hint on how to craft the lesser item (e.g., SotAWiki) would be a real boost!

    Thanks for listening.
     
  13. Lazarus Long

    Lazarus Long Avatar

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    +1 What He Said!
     
  14. Cirsee

    Cirsee Avatar

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    I have never heard a complaint that you had a cash shop, but that the prices on the cash shop were too high. I would also agree with Winfield in that you need to have something added that shows where these vendors in-game are located. You might even go as far as to showcase crafted items in a concise forum post; perhaps a contest to showcase all the deco items and plan a tour party. I also spent considerable time trying to find vendors for recipes of a deco nature. Without in-game chat asking other players that aren't your friends is difficult.
     
  15. liz_the_wiz

    liz_the_wiz Avatar

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    Ive had people tell me the housing is way too expensive.. but the general fluff.. no no ones ever said to me thats too much
     
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  16. Jack SinAssist

    Jack SinAssist Avatar

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    when are introductory/sales prices going to expire? :p
     
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  17. Sway

    Sway Avatar

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  18. Galadriel O'Sullivan

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  19. Resolute

    Resolute Avatar

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    I feel that Port fails to truly understand that it's audience is international and what that means.

    The removal of items from the add-on store was yet another example of this. You have players around the globe in all time zone to the point that at any given time some of those players are going to be on different days, have vastly different schedules, sleep, work, etc.

    The advantage of the add-on store was that it helped mitigate some of these problems because it is far easier to log into a website and buy things during events/live streams etc. than it is to log into a game. Especially when the window is relatively small (Anything less than 24 hours is small).

    I suggest leaving the store up and converting all prices to COTA's and having the ability to 'deposit/withdraw' COTA's into banks as a currency as well as a physical item.

    That is you pickup a COTA, you take it to the bank, and you can decide to either deposit it into your bank inventory OR you can deposit it to the banks 'trust account'. Trust Account COTA's can be deposited/withdrawn at any bank, anywhere and can also be used for addon store purchases. This lets COTA's be used as a currency AS WELL as be used as a physical item in game for vendor purchases and/or decoration.

    It also solves your problem of licensed regions because each company can sell COTA's through their websites at whatever rate they desire.
     
  20. Elwyn

    Elwyn Avatar

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    Those are the older crown merchants. Aren't they putting everything on the new ones now? I think I even read that they are going to deprecate the regional crown merchants in favor of the pair near the public vendor in the big cities (Owl's Head, Ardoris, Central Brittany, Aerie, maybe one or two more places).

    Oh, hey, look, I'm in CB right now. Yep, just type "vik" into the filter and the equipment one has patterns, clothing, and an ornate sword, and the other one has houses and walls... and no other deco items. But checking the store, I see that there apparently aren't any other "viking" deco items. (However, I did notice that Round Elven Greenhouse may be missing from the in-game merchants.)

    International is one of the reasons they are trying to deprecate the store, because the tax laws worldwide are such a mess to keep up with for paying with real money, which is why Black Sun and Travian are handling half of the world. And are you trying to say that the in-game vendors are somehow not available 7/24?
     
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