Store & Crowns: Please read about important upcoming changes!

As someone who doesn't play much for the obvious reasons in my signature, I have 7 accounts and I signed them up for the $9 support program:
1. To support the game but also
2. To qualify for the telethon rewards.
I haven't sold any telethon items in all this time, doesn't mean I won't at some point, just never considered it as a means to line my pockets from it. But it might not be a bad idea either. But I have sold the COTO,s from it, come to think about it, that negates my first statement.

 

I'm just offering feedback for the good of the game.

I'd still like to see a $12/mo rewards program that gives the same thing the $9 version does, but makes Private mode work like it used to. Otherwise, I'm not going to buy more crowns anyway. No need for them when playing offline.

 

I think part of the point above about micro transactions above is that people might be less likely to spend $10 at a time to be able to make those small in game purchases. It takes more thinking to make that one $10 purchase than a bunch of $1/$2/$3 purchases. Making people think more before buying, well, I guess we will see how it goes.

But then that every other month purchaser won't get rewards one of the two months. Not sure that is going to motivate purchases. Why would someone be happy that they will now be forced to spend almost twice as much to get rewards? I guess I am just having trouble understanding why Port is risking the small purchaser market over transaction fees. They shouldn't really be doing anything to push purchases and customers away like this might do.

And I cringe.

 

But... there won't BE any $1/$2/$3 purchases. The only thing on the Add-On Store next release will be Crown bundles and the Rewards pledge. Everything else will be gone, moved into the in-game Crown Shop. So the choice will be $9 Rewards package or $10 Crown package.

 

i think they are risking the loss of those small purchases because the fees are so painful. even if they lose 1/4 of the small transactions, they're still ahead.

i guess i just don't understand all this fuss over $5 and rewards. if someone is unable or unwilling to tack on an addition $4 per month, they probably shouldn't be spending any money on games. the bulk of the rewards each month are available in game for gold minutes after the are given to us.

besides, who's to say the $5 per month to get the rewards will remain the threshold anyway?

 

It's sort of like Patreon. I may be tipping an individual $2 a month, but I may also be doing that for a dozen others... it adds up. Of course, Patreon has the benefit of doing a one-a-month bill, instead of $1/$2 at a time. My point being, there's those of us who sprinkle our money all over the place, because we'd rather support more people than fewer. So now there's more lists where Portalarium has been scratched off.

 

That would be per-account. I know several players who have 3-8 accounts, and were buying a $5 each month on each. They could certainly go on the rewards program, but thats $12-32 more per month than before. It adds up quick.

Not much choice there. You can't spend $5 anymore, so it will pretty much go to "any purchase" because the only purchases are the $9 rewards program or one of the crown packages. (Except perhaps for the Stretch Goal and Make-A-Difference items, but I'm not even sure how those are going to work out yet.)

 

I've done that before - when I wanted to buy stuff from different sections of the web store - I didn't see an obvious way to add anything to a shopping cart or anything.

 

This thread has inspired me to start next release my $9 monthly subscription on my account to support the game further

 

well, for the very short time it will matter: you go through the tabs clicking the number box next to the item name and then hit the buy item selection button at the bottom of the page, rather than the buy button in the individual items' pop-ups

 

i wish i found out earlier

 

By that logic, lets keep the $1 per crown price, and move all subscription based to $15 and you get 20 coto. and the pots etc and title. and then coto can be $1 forever = 100 coto

That will fix the loss in transaction fees etc from the smaller purchase, Problem Solved!

 

Well, from time to time I spent the 5+tax+x amount of Dollars on up to 8 accounts.
This will definitively no longer happen with the price hike.

*Salute*
Olahorand
The Rebel Duke

 

Greetings all…great comments all around… Two thoughts…

First if you take out the smaller transactions you lose out on many of those dollars. Some players especially the kids are a huge part of the game community. They don’t normally have money to spend on games…they do have time…give them two ways to participate, they can grind gold in game to buy crowns…They can use those crowns in game to access the monthly awards… Simple...easy and everyone can participate when they see something they want…

Second…the game needs more content and a lot of TLC going forward. If more effort is placed into the game and less time is spent crafting new give away items I see that as a good thing also!! Maybe drop the weekly live streams, or perhaps change the format to all QA… Keep the release live stream as it is…going over all changes and such…and give out some special awards…Etc…More progress and less pomp and circumstance…

 

You're not sure how that logic works? Buying crowns now has NOTHING to do with playing the game? Before this upcoming change I'd have agreed with you, but after this change not so much.


To claim Port is losing money to transaction fees isn't accurate. It's the cost of doing business. Port is paying for a service. Expenses and Losses are TOTALLY different in business and I’m not sure why we would try to pretend here that they aren’t. I’m confused why small transactions would need to “go away” when an entire app industry built by two of the biggest companies in the world are based exactly on that and they thrive, and new companies create new apps to sell for these small transactions EVERY SINGLE DAY many of which also include internal microtransactions as well!


Now if the bulk of your transactions are $5 or less as you've said, and you kill off the option to spend $5 or less; I'm not sure how anyone can expect it to end well. Most of us here pointing these things out aren't here to make your day harder or grief you on vacation for trying to make changes; we are here to give you feedback on said changes so the game doesn't falter and or have money issues. It's a business in the end and businesses can have money problems that's not some sort of crazy conspiracy concept. Quite the opposite actually!


Pats on the back from fans who tell you what you want to hear and don't get business concepts 101 don't help in situations like this, real critical feedback from caring players does. I like to think I’m a critical thinking caring player who wants to see the game succeed. It's sad and unfortunate that people like myself who care about the game and are concerned about ideas we think aren't the best for it are portrayed as loud and angry voices or are caricatured with ridiculous quotes about conspiracies that are then liked when they should just be deleted. Our opinions are being shrugged off as a joke and then to add insult to injury we are told that if we actually “CARE” about the game we should just look at it like we are just helping Port a little more instead of getting hit over the head a lot more so Port can save on business “EXPENSES” which here are being calling actual business “LOSSES” which is just factually dishonest.


Why would we spend our time coming here or even typing up our thoughts if we didn't care? Care to answer that one? That would be crazy. I don't want to see the game fail I want it to succeed BUT I think the no $5 option is a bad idea. I don't particularly like any of these changes. I'm not a fan of the in-game store, I’d prefer the web store stay around but I get why it is being done. I don't like having to deal in crowns, I never liked them, I never will, but I’d buy them to support the game even though I don't really want to; mainly because I’ll soon have no choice. For the record I’ve NEVER bought crowns and I’ve been here since almost the very beginning but bought plenty of items from the store for a variety of prices. But top that all off with also forcing a minimum amount of a purchase that’s double or more than the previous minimum and making it so that the "best deal" requires a subscription and the items gained from said subscription "crowns" are essentially going to be required to support the game going forward the mandatory subscription aspect comes into full painful view.


It basically is mandatory for any "REAL" serious player at this point, if it wasn't it wouldn't be getting pushed / push back this hard. I was worried when the subscription thing was introduced awhile back that it would eventually lead to real players basically having to do it. I wasn't sure how it was going to happen, and I was hoping it wouldn't, but I saw the writing on the wall. I told myself that I wouldn't sign up for a subscription for this game since it was portrayed initially at least that you'd never have to which to me was a great selling point. I was fine with it being an option, but it wasn't an option I was interested in. I liked supporting Port in a different manner which often resulted in Port getting more than the new minimum $9 but not always. Maybe technically it still isn't required. But if I’m at a point where I’m considering signing up for a subscription, one I never wanted then it's now past a tipping point in terms of requirement. Once this goes into effect the reality for REAL players is it will soon be mandatory, unless you're cool with not supporting the game any longer. See it's not really about the $5 or gifts or whatever when you get to this level of understanding it's about having to buy crowns to support the game and the minimum way to support the game just went up basically doubling and lets just be real that's 100% non-debatable.


In summary. Crown purchases will soon be REQUIRED to support the game going forward. Best deal on crowns is now a SUBSCRIPTION. People almost always will choose the BEST DEAL. Suddenly after this change if you EVER want to support the game / Port again going forward you either get a subscription or pay more but get less. This is what I think we are trying to convey. It's not that tough to understand. I'm not being snide, sarcastic, or mean spirited in saying this. Just trying to convey an honest opinion that maybe you guys on the other side of the equation aren't seeing somehow, even though a bunch of us are. We are concerned about this and just want you to understand where we are coming from before the game goes down a path that maybe isn’t in its best interests’ long term even if right now some of you guys think it is. If you really think people like us who’ve put in likely thousands of dollars each are stressing the $5, you’re missing the entire point and to the game’s ultimate detriment. Hopefully this helps with your understanding of "how that logic works".

 

Nicely Done.

 

(redacted)

 

Portalarium is trying to target new audience that is enthusiastic about a ingame cash/crown shop? Good luck with that.
Imho it's way more promising to reach new audience with long awaited quality ingame content like mounts.