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ArcheAge: UPDATE on Return to ArcheAge Gift Packs Spur Kerfuffle
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
UPDATE from the ArcheAge Forums:
All,
I’d like to be transparent about what’s happening with our recent win-back program to encourage returning players and what we’re doing for our active ArcheAge community.
It’s our job to continually evaluate what we can do to stimulate the health of ArcheAge. Part of this process is to bring new folks into the game and also find ways to re-engage players who contributed to the game in the past and may be interested in playing again. We’ve seen success with folks coming back to the game with the release of Secrets of Ayanad and wanted to reinforce this trend.
One piece of this plan was to issue a targeted, limited time giveaway to encourage inactive players to try the game again. I’m sure you’ve seen other companies do this before as it’s a common strategy. You may have received a similar email in the past offering game time, items and even things like level advancement to bring you back into the fold.
More people playing ArcheAge is a benefit to everyone and from what we’ve seen most people are accepting of win-back promotions. The important part is to make sure the giveaway is compelling enough to give recipients a reason to come back without it being perceived as too generous to the point that it offends existing, active players.
Plain and simple, we missed the mark and overestimated. Instead of moving through the right approval paths the folks involved in this promotion drew assumptions about what would and wouldn’t be acceptable to include. Some of our reasoning for including items like the dolphin or glider skins are that they’re largely cosmetic with limited actual game functionality. The bottom line is we ran forward at full speed with the best intentions and the packages were just plain too generous. We’ve corrected this process internally and have measures in place now to identify and review appropriate rewards.
We need to ensure our existing loyal patrons and players never feel slighted when we implement programs like this. It’s important for us to treat our community fairly and to do this we are designing a giveaway for all active ArcheAge players. We will have more details tomorrow after internal discussions occur around development of the program.
-Khro
Trion is under fire from some quarters of the ArcheAge community for gift packages sent out to former players in an effort to get them back into the game. The "Return to ArcheAge" gifts included several RNG boxes, potions and Library access scrolls. However, several random boxes also included the $100 "Secrets Pack" and the Cynafin Dolphin which gave its name to the kerfuffle now known as "Dolphingate".
According to MMORPG.com's Lostrisintef in this forum thread, several players went into the game's main chat to complain about the extravagant gift package where even more of the $100 packs were given out. According to reports, the random awarding packs in ArcheAge's game chat has stopped but players are upset at the seemingly ham fisted handling of the Secrets Pack / Cyanid Dolphin mount give away.
You can read the full thread on the ArcheAge forum and head to the MMORPG.com thread listed above to participate in the conversation.
Image source: MMOMounts.com
Comments
I only played AA for about 15mins, wasnt the game for me. It certainly has kept me entertained for significantly longer though.
/popcorn
Played-Everything
Playing-LoL
I guess that breaks things into two camps then.
Those people who aren't aware of or aren't fully considering the implications of this status tier system and are mad that these players get super awesome expensive (in terms of statistical averages to get it from the RNG box in the first place) swag for free just because they weren't loyal to the game for all this time.
And those people who ARE aware of (or become aware of) and maybe fully considering the implications of this status tier system. Question being whether or not they'll be mad at it, but speaking as a whale myself for most games, I certainly would. It basically reeks of Trion screaming "COME BACK WHALE SO WE CAN MILK YOU MORE! Here's some free stuff! And for you, TiamatRoar Whale, no free stuff for you. Keep giving us more money!"
And that would annoy me quite a lot. I can't speak for the others though.
And of course for the nonwhales aware of status tiers, it's basically saying "Look at all the cool stuff this whale gets for free that you don't."
EDIT: Okay, I just read the thread and it appears I'm pretty much spot on. Heck, there's even a few whales in that thread that appear to share the opinion I would have had if I were an archeage whale.
These players that complained must all be new to Archeage.
I'm sure none of the "vets" would even raise an eyebrow, they are all immune to these shenanigans by now...
Judging by the thread, most vets were under the delusion that they were special because they were loyal to the game. This latest shenanigan seems to have opened up their eyes that they aren't. By Trion's trying to encourage players to come back with such a generous free gift that they themselves would have had to pay so much money for, the implication is the only thing special to Trion is not the money they were paid so far by the loyal vets, but the money they can get in the future.
To a person who felt that Trion cared about them because they cared about Archeage for so long and were "loyal", that can be a pretty nasty eye-opener.
(of course, in actuality, lots of businesses don't give a care about semantic nonsense like who was loyal and who wasn't, and are more interested in future cash flows rather than sunk costs and revenues under the bridge. But it's usually not a good idea for them to let their consumers know that)
Yeah I agree its not hard to see how that works. But dang I spen over that but I sill play...lol m aybe I sould have taken a break to have gotten one:P
Yeah I don't see Hartsman popping in with another AMA anytime soon lol
Pretty pointless "come back" packages IMO. If they really want people to come back...
http://www.greycouncil.org/
this is believable but untrue. it is simply not how it went down. the gift dispensation was utterly random and then a few people were thrown some biscuits because they complained to the right dev during live chat.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
I pray Trion doesn't cave to these self entitled children with no sense of self control. Their arguments have no basis in reality and by condoning this behavior will make things far, far worse in the future. Logic is completely lost on them!
Btw - The dolphin sucks! Your view distance is further than the radar and the ship will be on top of you before it shows and you can swim faster with fins than it can. So all this fuss is about a silly cosmetic item. Btw the dolphin =/= sub.
I would be there in a split second.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
Trion, ArcheAge, Controversy, Upset Players ?
I'm shocked.
Shocked!
Going through the forums more, it does seem that which returning player got what was random, not based on status tiers. I can't say for sure, though.
It's gonna (rightfully, IMHO) piss people off either way, though, even if for slightly different reasons for those aware of the difference.
It figures...Trion is so inept at running the game now that I firmly believe that bots now control the gaming decisions. It just doesn't get any better than watching the shitshow...
As a patron, I seem to recall getting a ton of gifts which those that quit didn't... Divine Gifts! I know it has been a long two weeks since these were given but did you all stop long enough to think of the value of the total of the divine gift event far, far exceeds what was given in the gift pack?!
No surprise though from a playerbase of self entitled children. Selective memory goes hand in hand with the me, me, me generation.
SORRY TRION CAVED!
This is not true, there are games that open a P2P on side there free to play server there just ghost towns.
Just how it is P2P is not good model if your trying to deal with the big dogs in the market, end up same as wildstar people will not touch it when it's a good game, but they complain about everything.
All die, so die well.