You can’t go anywhere in the MMO metaverse these days without someone making you a very very special offer.
I first noticed this when Anarchy Online special offer banners began to flash at me. Anarchy was three years old yesterday and in celebration want you, yes you, to join them for a measly 9.99 (pick your currency) and free game time till September.
Dark Age of Camelot has gone even further. They have a special offer URL: Come back to Camelot - though their offer is restricted to wayward souls that lost their DaoC way and possibly started to flirt with other, maybe younger, maybe better looking MMOs. The offer is really only for 14 days free, but there is a prize draw where you can win the real Excalibur. OK, not really, the prize is actuallly a NVidia GeForce. Buy hey how many FPS can you get out of an old sword anyway.
Even the new kids are getting in on the act. The rather squidgy and organic looking Ryzome is offering earlier early birds (those that pre-order over the web) an Armlet of Atys. Dark Space is offering a specially reduced first two months and old timer EverQuest has a new Platinum bundle. Lastly ATITD have the second telling coming out soon and just want you back.
This is all very well but I want something for sticking around. I want loyalty a bonus!
If I’ve had an account for a year I want 10% off the monthly fee, two years I want 15% - at least.
Price-cutting: sure sign of either weakening demand, over-supply, or both. Personally I don't think demand is weakening, we've just got a glut of fairly similar worlds.
Another possible response is product differentiation. This market is making innovation a requirement for survival.
Posted by: Edward Castronova | Jul 28, 2004 at 10:25
It's just another evil business operation. You've been playing for a year? Then you're likely to stay on for some more time - theres no need to cut special offers to you. But they want more money! So, those entering the games are given the special offers, and those loyal to the game are left in the dirt.
Posted by: alsotop | Jul 28, 2004 at 12:53
How's that Sprint ad with the kindergardeners go again: "She get this, because she's new".
Posted by: Young Freud | Jul 28, 2004 at 13:02
I'd absolutely love to see the price cutting in return for 1 yr, 2yrs, etc. UO ran its veterans reward stuff a while back, which caused some interesting things on the UO eBay market. That drew a lot of players back to either re-activate their accounts, or re-acquire their accounts through other means. Some of those items were going for several hundred dollars on eBay. I know quite a few vets who re-activated an account, got their reward(s), sold the rewards on eBay, then quit again.
Posted by: Bart Pursel | Jul 28, 2004 at 13:27
From the point of view of a professional marketer this kind of thing drives me nuts. Much the same way a quack must make a legitimate doctor crazy.
Why does it drive me nuts?
There is very clear evidence that the people who play these games (myself included) value their subscription dollars low and content high. As an example people regularly pay many times their subscription cost for items (content) on auction sites. Conversly 2 weeks of free play in DAOC is worth about $7 which is not considered a lot of money by most people.
On the other hand the game developers value dollars high (they are in business to make money and they have bills to pay) and content (relatively) low. All the content in the world has no value to a game company that cannot sell it.
So what do they do? they make an offer that minimizes the value to all parties. "Hey customer we will give you an amount of money so small that you won't care about it if you come back to the game. "
At least UO did the smart thing and even the people who got the reward and then quit made the company some money.
Posted by: Tom Hunter | Jul 28, 2004 at 14:16
I should explain this a bit better:
So what do they do? they make an offer that minimizes the value to all parties. "Hey customer we will give you an amount of money so small that you won't care about it if you come back to the game. "
The game company is offering people time in the game for less money. But people don't value the time as much as they value access to content and access to content is not the same thing as time in the game. They are often related, but certainly not the same.
A better offer would look like this: "Hey Mr. customer we will give you a new magic wand (which is designed in a way that players value it highly) in exchange for your coming back to our game (which will still cost you $12.99 a month). "
This offer provides greater value for both parties. The player gets more content and the game company gets more income. Sure its more difficult to do this than to just lower the price but its also better for everyone.
Posted by: Tom Hunter | Jul 28, 2004 at 15:38
It's funny how acquisition deals are viewed as "evil business operations" but it's all good if you're an old timer getting a deal. lol. Come on folks, Ted's right. The market is competitive and the only ones who will make it are those who can...well...compete. Free trials followed by some kind of special sign-up offer makes sense for acquisition promotions. Get the n00bs in any way you can and shoot for a decent conversion rate.
But I do agree there should be more of a focus on retention before players leave and you have to beg them to come back. Tom, I like your suggestion of structuring a retention promotion with a virtual doo-dad rather than a reduced sub rate. A win-win situation for all involved as long as it's something that holds enough value for longtime members. That's the trick though...figuring out what would that be for each community and how it might change over time.
On one hand it seems like a move of desperation to spend time going after customers already lost. But then again, the conversion rate may actually be higher for this type of promotion since the group targeted has already proven to have interest in the product.
Posted by: Betsy Book | Jul 28, 2004 at 19:36
Betsy>
But then again, the conversion rate may actually be higher for this type of promotion since the group targeted has already proven to have interest in the product.
As well as former customers will likely have developed characters that can be resurrected from the database (easier for them to return - vs. start from scratch elsewhere).
Posted by: Nathan Combs | Jul 28, 2004 at 19:47
I agree completely with Tom :)
The DAoC incentive didn't even make me look twice. Sorry, already spent 8 months in your world, did what I wanted to do, and left. Come back for two weeks? Not even worth the time to re-load the client program, sorry.
But, had they said "We see from your account that you're a minstrel. Come back and play our game, and we'll give you a flute (or AA skill) that permanently charms creatures. This is normally only available for XXXXX diamonds / etc ... "
That might have worked.
Reminds me of the only time I've ever fallen down in a supermarket. There was some water on the floor, and I was in my cowboy boots. You know what sound a 250# man makes when he falls flat on his back on tile? WHOOOOMP! I had folks run from all four corners of the store. All I wanted to do was to brush myself off, finish shopping and go home to the jacuzzi. They hovered around me until I made them all go away, including the manager. On the way out (the part of the story that relates to these articles), the checker said that because I had helped them out by finding that nasty puddle of water, she WAS GOING TO GIVE ME A COUPON FOR $1 OFF MY GROCERIES.
Up to this point, I was both glad that I hadn't hurt anything, and angry at those folks that would have taken advantage of the situation to try to make a couple million dollars in court. However, after she uttered those words, with that paltry sum, I was pissed as Hell at the store. It was condescending. It's amazing how knowing someone else's valuation of your time can affect your outlook :)
D
Posted by: Doccus | Jul 28, 2004 at 20:49
Tom,
"This offer provides greater value for both parties. The player gets more content and the game company gets more income. Sure its more difficult to do this than to just lower the price but its also better for everyone."
I have to agree. Lowering fees or providing "free play time" is not as appealing as in-game doo-dads. The promotions that sprung up after Earth and Beyond's announcement were probably (don't know) successful only due to the little competition in the Space-Faring game category. But it is hard to see players choosing one game over another based on a difference of a few bucks a month or one offering 15 more days of free play. Offering in-game rewards is a lot more compelling. UO's Veteran Reward system is excellent for retention, it does need a bit of updating though.
Still. How do you run a promotion to acquire *new* players or bring them *back* so that all of them get some digital doo-dads without making the doo-dads themselves so common they're as uninteresting as a rock? If there was only a way to get information on how much of a reward each player merits *individually*. Hmmm... What a concept!
Posted by: Andres Ferraro | Jul 28, 2004 at 21:04
Andres> Still. How do you run a promotion to acquire *new* players or bring them *back* so that all of them get some digital doo-dads without making the doo-dads themselves so common they're as uninteresting as a rock? If there was only a way to get information on how much of a reward each player merits *individually*. Hmmm... What a concept!
Random doo-dad generator. People, myself, included love hitting the random doo-dad generator like a Vegas slot machine!
I remember reloading and refighting key bosses in Diablo to see what random shinny I'll get.
Here's how it works:
1. Log on
2. Create a character
3. Roll for a random dod-dads, re-role as desired
4. Store in a database the dod-dads people pass on and the one they kept (it's kinda like Amazon's Gold Box)
Frank
Posted by: magicback | Jul 29, 2004 at 05:53
The standard rule in marketing is that it is a lot cheaper to keep a customer than get a new one (6:1 is the oft quote cost ratio), but it’s amazing how much that is ignored. Though in the UK there is currently a back lash over this.
Banks in particular have been offering new customer deals and there have been threats to take these to the financial services authorities on the basis that the deals should be available to existing customers. There has been a recent TV ad, for a telo I think, that explicitly says that the company is rewarding existing customer and not offering a deal for n00bs.
There is also a general back lash against so called ‘loyalty cards’, which are often seen as simply a way of extracting data out of individuals.
But let’s step back and look at the big picture here:
An MMO is a service. Not all services are alike. Emergency plumbing services one tends to want for a short period only – a quick relationship is a good one in this case. Retail banking is at the other end of the spectrum, for many people the ideal relationship is with a single back that gives them good service for many years. Medial services kind of sit in the middle as one generally wants each single instance to be short, but the probability of requiring treatment means that pro-active care and insurance plans are a good idea.
So what is the ideal MMO customer relationship?
Bartle (from here on in I am interpreting Richard's ideas from a marketing perspective) sees MMOs as a catalyst for individuals to pursue a personal hero’s journey. A relevant point here is that this journey has a destination – it ends.
So the ideal relationship for a ‘player’ is to stop playing at some point (this does not necessarily mean that they stop subscribing as they may use the environment for other purposes e.g. chat, but these are different from the narrative / journey arc that they experience).
So maybe MMOs should offer loyalty bonus’s both to retain players and to encourage them to keep going to the end of their personal journey – thought this assumes that the game provides an end.
The current way of doing things that many MMOs pursue e.g. concentrating trying to get people in the front door and turning the game into a never ending story that has no emotional closure seems to be the worst of both worlds.
Posted by: ren | Jul 29, 2004 at 06:49
ren: The current way of doing things that many MMOs pursue e.g. concentrating trying to get people in the front door and turning the game into a never ending story that has no emotional closure seems to be the worst of both worlds.
Unfortunatly I think I have to agree with that one... I kind of liked how Asheron's Call had that cataclysmic event some time back, but there's no other MMO that I know of that's done the same. Which is a pity since I find playing reactive worlds much better.
While illegal, I took a quick look through those 'free" servers offered from UO, and the depth of their storylines (including world ending ones that brought closures to storylines players took part in) astounded me. Perhaps those marketeer's can learn something there...
Posted by: Kheldar Blackmane | Jul 29, 2004 at 08:14
"If there was only a way to get information on how much of a reward each player merits *individually*. Hmmm... What a concept!" Andres
The economics of a game and the content interact. If you can get the price and value right you can find a way to provide individual rewards.
When you offer people free play your not increasing the amount of money available for people to develop content. In fact your decreasing revenues which means less money for development. Less money for content means people get bored quicker and leave.
Conversly if you can get players to pay a lot you can develop highly customized content. You could make an offer to returning players that looks like this:
Come back for a month and we will give you a wand of usefullness (all wands are the same, build one sell many.)
Pay a one time fee of $50 and subscribe for 3 months and we will let you customize your staff of usefulness (requires additional investment by the game company to build a customization tool but investment is returned through the additional fee)
The third option is only practical if you can make money at it that is the connection between pricing and value. Of course there are design issues and customer support issues but its the job of management to think these things through. As a former boss said to me "of course its difficult, that is why we call it work". The fact that it can be done in ways that lose money or aelinates customers does not change the fact that it can be done in ways that makes money and makes customers happy.
Posted by: Tom Hunter | Jul 29, 2004 at 09:30
Tom,
For boxed games selling is "box=object=value". In online games there is always the issue of selling the value of the service (why am I spending $10 a month?) and any upfront fees create a barrier to entry, hence it is a smart idea to offer initial free play - However I completely agree with you, what is the value of *more* free play to a potential player? And how does free play allow me to deliver customized content?
"Conversly if you can get players to pay a lot you can develop highly customized content."
This reminds me of the Everquest "Legends" service.
Posted by: Andres Ferraro | Jul 29, 2004 at 10:28
Andres > If there was only a way to get information on how much of a reward each player merits *individually*. Hmmm... What a concept!
Getting information seems the easy bit. Thing is, what do you thing equates to merit?
What is it to be a ‘good’ or ‘valuable’ player?
Posted by: ren | Jul 29, 2004 at 11:57
All of the above + anything else you can use to personalize the experience + the one Tom aluded to: Subscription level.
Posted by: Andres Ferraro | Jul 29, 2004 at 12:44
ren>So maybe MMOs should offer loyalty bonus’s both to retain players and to encourage them to keep going to the end of their personal journey – thought this assumes that the game provides an end.
Hey, that fits quite well into the hero's journey model: it's a tangible reward (boon) for atonement. In other words, you know you've "won" because look, your subscription has been reduced in recognition of your achievement.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | Jul 29, 2004 at 13:43
Alienware is actually advertising inside Rubi-Ka itself in case anyone wanted to know (on the rotating ad boards usually reserved for various AO in game themes like pet monsters and such).
Posted by: Lee Delarm | Jul 30, 2004 at 08:30
Greetings:
Ask and you shall receive.
Picked this link up over on Quarter to Three. It's not a doo-dad, but it's not a reduced price incentive either...
http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12464
Eyejinx.
Posted by: Eyejinx | Jul 30, 2004 at 14:47
How timely, Eyejinx! An allowance of currency *and* a new experience level - that's way more than a doo-dad. Makes me wonder are they giving away the farm here? Based on the responses some of the players seem to think this deal still privileges new players over older players. DAOC players, let us know how this works out.
Posted by: Betsy Book | Jul 31, 2004 at 10:47
> Tom: A better offer would look like this: "Hey Mr. customer we will give you a new magic wand (which is designed in a way that players value it highly) in exchange for your coming back to our game (which will still cost you $12.99 a month). "
Somebody from SOE heard you. :)
Posted by: Tobold | Aug 02, 2004 at 05:36
(Sorry for posting this in 2 parts, made an HTML error which ate the second half)
The EQ2 Starter Kit is what Tom was asking for: As reward for signing up early, you get in-game items. Makes the players happy and cost SOE nothing to produce.
Posted by: Tobold | Aug 02, 2004 at 05:44
I don't think demand itself is soft. I think there is little or no growth in demand. We could be approaching some consolidation of OW's.
The game worlds are all similar because they reflect what a large percentage of the overall OLG crowd wants and is willing to pay for.
JHL
Posted by: Jeff Lotton | Aug 02, 2004 at 15:24
How could I forget: As part of Jump to Light Speed (the space expansion thang) SWG is giving away SoroSuub Personal Luxury Yacht 3000 to all players with who have subscribed for at least 6 consecutive months.
Posted by: ren | Aug 04, 2004 at 11:51