Check out all of the details of this month's Patch Notes, featuring the 16th Anniversary and VIP Renewal Update! https://mabinogi.nexon.net/news/90098/16th-anniversary-and-vip-renewal-patch-notes-march-14th
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VIP/Premium Update

Comments

  • NegumikoNegumiko
    Mabinogi Rep: 9,775
    Posts: 1,309
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    Crims wrote: »
    @Katherz hey um, how much are they going to charge for the updated services? :(

    I have a bad feeling about all this...

    it would be a pretty dumb move to increase the price. this is supposed to be a very overdue update so players will want to buy Premium/VIP again, not a nexon excuse to bleed more money out their players. raising the price would mostly defeat the purpose of updating Premium/VIP in the first place. buying the 90 day VIP packages was cheapest way to go since it came down to around $12.50 a month. adding 120 day (4 months) or 180 day (6 months) packages that save long term Premium/VIP players a little NX would be a good idea. if they increase the price it will only create the exact same problem before the update, features that are not worth such a high price and hardly any players buying it which will cause them to lose money and that means more gacha.
  • CrimsọnCrimsọn
    Mabinogi Rep: 65,165
    Posts: 9,158
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    edited October 19, 2019
    Negumiko wrote: »
    Crims wrote: »
    @Katherz hey um, how much are they going to charge for the updated services? :(

    I have a bad feeling about all this...

    it would be a pretty dumb move to increase the price. this is supposed to be a very overdue update so players will want to buy Premium/VIP again, not a nexon excuse to bleed more money out their players. raising the price would mostly defeat the purpose of updating Premium/VIP in the first place. buying the 90 day VIP packages was cheapest way to go since it came down to around $12.50 a month. adding 120 day (4 months) or 180 day (6 months) packages that save long term Premium/VIP players a little NX would be a good idea. if they increase the price it will only create the exact same problem before the update, features that are not worth such a high price and hardly any players buying it which will cause them to lose money and that means more gacha.

    Well that does sound logical. I hope they are the same prices as before, otherwise there is going to be another fallout. The whole point was to give us more for what we are paying. I just am kinda worried you know? It's not the first time Nexon released something to us with a higher price tag than other regions. Now we have that tax stuff which doesn't improve things...
    Sherri
  • Darkpixie99Darkpixie99
    Mabinogi Rep: 8,660
    Posts: 1,704
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    Crims wrote: »
    @Katherz hey um, how much are they going to charge for the updated services? :(

    I have a bad feeling about all this...

    It's a rework with rather minor adjustments, so one would presume the same prior price.
    (If they added in my suggestion of making all Premium/Beauty Coupon options in the Dressing Room 100% free for VIPs, then that would increase the price.)
  • HabimaruHabimaru
    Mabinogi Rep: 3,630
    Posts: 761
    Member
    Three of the top things businesses need to maintain consistently in order to be/remain financially viable :

     Continuous Advertising : Do understand that there is always a «default attrition-rate» with any particular activities community; yes, younger generations getting into the on-line gaming market may indeed have most of their attention on the «newest» titles getting released, but, unless those other game-titles truly provide something absolutely amazing, they, too, will also deal with an even greater attrition-rate, and not just because of competing game-titles. How-ever, unless they have actually heard about your title/company/business, your chances of getting them as customers remains essentially null... seriously, ask around, how many of your local neighbours are going to know what you are referring to when you say that you play a game called Mabinogi ? Isn't «never heard of it» the typical default-response ?

     Retention-Rate : Ever get those reminder-notices that you haven't logged into some account for some time...? Yes, they already have something like this in place in order to encourage «Returned» Milletians, and it doesn't even cost anything to send, considering that electronic-communications aren't going to eat up 23 cents per mail-postage which could really add up in costs when mailing out to over 100000 people. Every business needs a good data-base, and, follow-up, especially for those who have invested into or bought from the company before. Believe you me, say that you have a list of doctors as customers who've purchased from you in the past, all you really need to do is offer them a «promotion» and «package» it like it is special/exclusive for doctors only, and I guarantee you that mailing out to 100000 doctors will net you additional sales from at least a good percentage of them (I'm just going to be «conservative» here and say that only 37 out of 100K prior-customer-doctors decides to buy whatever you're offering, and if it happens to be high-ticket [like some of the Gacha-splurgers], you're talking what is essentially pure profit due to there being zero cost to send out a personalized e-mail message through a $var_first_name personalized e-mail message system, perhaps other than the time taken/invested to write up the «special promotion for returning players» message, provided that it's done responsibly so as to not be deemed as a spam-message).

    I tell you, I do have several accounts, some of which have indeed gone inactive for a long time, but how often have they heard from Nexon...? Perhaps like once after like six months and then NO further communication ? I think they need to do more «follow-up» with like maybe around seven more «we invite you to become active again» messages over the span of a year in order to increase their customer retention-rate. Even one of the local business-owners whom I had been helping with his business, despite having lots and Lots and LOTS of customers accumulated over the span of 20 years, somehow he did not even keep a database of customers (but many of them do keep in contact with him). I mean, the guy respects me and all, and he trusts my knowledge (and was especially impressed from that one time I ended up getting his phone ringing off-the-hook to the point where he was able to sell & deliver his product [puppies] to multiple customers in both Canada & the United States & ended up having to go on a trip for a couple of weeks in order to be able to complete all of the deliveries), but I am truly astounded and amazed (and sometimes quite baffled) that so many business-owners and even «professionals» in their field do not operate their craft at the most optimum levels (this includes doctors and lawyers whom I have dealt with personally; it's quite «telling» to me when I somehow seem to have more knowledge about their industry than they do, despite them having been in their industry for 10 or even 20 years, as has been proven by my own more-effective methods). I could probably make a pretty damn good living just going about negotiating with every business-owner who has been around for a least a while & evaluating their business-operations then come up with a plan/strategy to increase/improve their sales/revenues in exchange for even a modest 15% commission-fee for the extra sales/revenues I might generate for them (but a lot of times a lot of people want me to keep working for them but I have my own time-sensitive «work» that I need to keep
    a fair amount of my own free time for).

     Trust/Reputation : One's Word in business is absolutely Golden. I cannot tell you how many times I have to «drop» people out of my social-circle for their terrible habits, such as not keeping appointments, inability to follow-through with past projects that had already been started before trying to start yet another new project even though the old/original one had not yet even taken a single step forward, and anything that even remotely resembles politician-like behaviour. Always better to «under-promise» and over-deliver than to over-promise but under-deliver. Customers want to be satisfied with how they spend their $$$, and of course, this is probably different with «gaming» versions, but, believe it or not, the «car-engines» that are sold at different prices-ranges are really just the exact same engine, the only «difference» being in its packaging as to provide the perceived value. A company can indeed charge higher/premium prices, especially for the «Joneses» (rich people) portion of their customer-base, provided that the «packaging» is such that that it is seen/viewed/perceived as being more «prestigious» and therefore worth spending the $$$. I believe that this can be accomplished with digital-gaming companies in the form of cosmetics or even additional «functions» included with said cosmetics (we already know that certain aspects of every on-line game are P2W but said functions could just be more for «fun» or «convenience» purposes so as to not seem to be just another P2W scheme). Perhaps VIP could have such a version where, whilst said version of VIP is active, the player could activate «Flame-Mode» where there body is surrounded by flames, and every attack has a chance to cause burning to the target, just as an example (or Ice-Mode, Zap-Mode, Element-Mode, Poison-Mode, etc., with the surrounding animation being similar to that of when a DBZ/Bleach character powers up or something similar).

    Also, with the right knowledge, any business can thrive, even in a seemingly failing economy. Perhaps I am/was just «fortunate» to have had/gained/learned and had access to so much «insider» knowledge when it comes to business/entrepreneurship. Wealth does not «magically disappear» unless literally destroyed (such as in a fire, hurricane, avalanche, earth-quake, etc).Wealth is only «transferred» or recognized once people come out of their slumber. A «house» that cost 40K$ back in the mid 1900s and is considered to be «worth» 3Mil$ today, despite not having any modifications/reconstructions, has not changed its «intrinsic» value as it is still the same in material-structure now as it was back then, but I seem to be digressing; anyway, the tried and true business-principles will always remain staple, even if the methods to accomplish it may come in different forms/versions as the technologies in society develop. It's a lot easier today than way back when as is evidenced by the seemingly endless new amounts of «billionaires» who keep on popping up into the world to the point where they're even becoming something like a dime-a-dozen...
    Negumiko wrote: »
    Crims wrote: »
    @Katherz hey um, how much are they going to charge for the updated services? :(

    I have a bad feeling about all this...

    it would be a pretty dumb move to increase the price. this is supposed to be a very overdue update so players will want to buy Premium/VIP again, not a nexon excuse to bleed more money out their players. raising the price would mostly defeat the purpose of updating Premium/VIP in the first place. buying the 90 day VIP packages was cheapest way to go since it came down to around $12.50 a month. adding 120 day (4 months) or 180 day (6 months) packages that save long term Premium/VIP players a little NX would be a good idea. if they increase the price it will only create the exact same problem before the update, features that are not worth such a high price and hardly any players buying it which will cause them to lose money and that means more gacha.

    CrimsọnWolfsingerLiberate
  • NegumikoNegumiko
    Mabinogi Rep: 9,775
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    also just noticed that the normal merchant license in Belvast will only let players make up to 10 mil gold now instead of 20 mil. I assumed Belvast would remain the only with a 20 mil merchant license for free players. this is probably not a very big problem since we have the auction house now but thought it was worth mentioning since some players may overlook this during the free week of VIP. if anyone prefers using a personal shop and wants to make over 10 mil you will need to buy VIP starting on October 24th.
    Darkpixie99Wolfsinger
  • Darkpixie99Darkpixie99
    Mabinogi Rep: 8,660
    Posts: 1,704
    Member
    Negumiko wrote: »
    also just noticed that the normal merchant license in Belvast will only let players make up to 10 mil gold now instead of 20 mil. I assumed Belvast would remain the only with a 20 mil merchant license for free players. this is probably not a very big problem since we have the auction house now but thought it was worth mentioning since some players may overlook this during the free week of VIP. if anyone prefers using a personal shop and wants to make over 10 mil you will need to buy VIP starting on October 24th.

    Must be a preventative measure against bots who have been setting up shop there.
    Crimsọn
  • Darkpixie99Darkpixie99
    Mabinogi Rep: 8,660
    Posts: 1,704
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    Habimaru wrote: »

    I don't know what you're getting at, but after 10+ years of Mabinogi in KR and NA, Nexon is 100% still viable as a business.
  • HabimaruHabimaru
    Mabinogi Rep: 3,630
    Posts: 761
    Member
    I suppose I am referring more specifically to Mabinogi (at least on the English-language-speaking divisions). I already know that Nexon allocates its resources more towards its other titles because they're obviously more «profitable» than Mabinogi. Maple-Story especially. Just about everyone who's part of the gaming world has heard of Maple-Story. Mabi...?

    «Never heard of it» is always what I hear from people. Even if the «big boss» isn't interested in it, he could still «delegate» this task to someone who is, similarly to an experience that an enthusiastic entrepreneur-partner had with a bigger company. His idea was essentially to translate & sell their publications to the French, even though the main boss wasn't interested in the market, due to «bigger fish» that he could fry, and the French weren't exactly a very responsive market-share; anyway, he got the approval, had their publications translated, targeted the right audience, and resulted in a much better «conversion-rate» than what they traditionally got even with the English-speaking market-share.

    Profits are still profits, even if it may seem to the big boss to be ignoring dollars to chase after dimes, but that's what «delegation» is for. Surely they have at least someone who would be enthusiastic about promoting and re-growing the Mabinogi active-population ? (Considering how much it's dwindled... evidenced by the fact that there are no longer any days where every channel has the «Busy» status)
    Habimaru wrote: »

    I don't know what you're getting at, but after 10+ years of Mabinogi in KR and NA, Nexon is 100% still viable as a business.
  • SherriSherri
    Mabinogi Rep: 18,615
    Posts: 2,817
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    All these walls of text.. I just want a price ' _ '
    CrimsọnRadiant Dawn
  • CrimsọnCrimsọn
    Mabinogi Rep: 65,165
    Posts: 9,158
    Member
    edited October 20, 2019
    Sherri wrote: »
    All these walls of text.. I just want a price ' _ '

    The price was never revealed anywhere, meaning they know it's going to piss us off so they won't reveal it until the trial is over. Sigh...

    Don't worry, you won't get a tirade from me. I'm done. I'm just going to play this game until it's official.
    Sherri
  • WolfsingerWolfsinger
    Mabinogi Rep: 5,875
    Posts: 1,372
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    Negumiko wrote: »
    also just noticed that the normal merchant license in Belvast will only let players make up to 10 mil gold now instead of 20 mil. I assumed Belvast would remain the only with a 20 mil merchant license for free players. this is probably not a very big problem since we have the auction house now but thought it was worth mentioning since some players may overlook this during the free week of VIP. if anyone prefers using a personal shop and wants to make over 10 mil you will need to buy VIP starting on October 24th.

    I just noticed that and it honestly irks me, but....what can you do. I can't afford to spend money on this game right now so I'll just have to get used to my new limitations T.T
  • orcabluewaorcabluewa
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,330
    Posts: 105
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    Sooooo you can't have a shop if you have no VIP service? I haven't had it in 2 years and I could open a shop. I see people with shops up.. What is going on? If VIP Premium can't be bought ho can they have shops??
  • IonIon
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,365
    Posts: 63
    Member
    orcabluewa wrote: »
    Sooooo you can't have a shop if you have no VIP service? I haven't had it in 2 years and I could open a shop. I see people with shops up.. What is going on? If VIP Premium can't be bought ho can they have shops??

    No one said a shop couldn't be opened. They said the gold limit for a non-VIP shop has been lowered in Belvast.

    Also, lots of people already have VIP. The new VIP system is working, it's just not purchasable right now. So even if there were shop limitations, there would be people able to set them up because they purchased in advance.
  • PlatinaKokiPlatinaKoki
    Mabinogi Rep: 7,760
    Posts: 950
    Member
    orcabluewa wrote: »
    Sooooo you can't have a shop if you have no VIP service? I haven't had it in 2 years and I could open a shop. I see people with shops up.. What is going on? If VIP Premium can't be bought ho can they have shops??

    The ability to open a shop comes with Inventory Plus.

    Since Inventory Plus has been free for a few years now, as a permanent change, anyone can open a shop.
  • KatherzKatherz
    Mabinogi Rep: 21,640
    Posts: 1,593
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    The price of VIP and Premium will not change once it is available for purchase. I hope this eases some of your concerns :)
    SherriCrimsọnKensamaofmariEbrithil
  • SherriSherri
    Mabinogi Rep: 18,615
    Posts: 2,817
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    Katherz wrote: »
    The price of VIP and Premium will not change once it is available for purchase. I hope this eases some of your concerns :)

    Ahh thank you very much for the reply! :D
  • CrimsọnCrimsọn
    Mabinogi Rep: 65,165
    Posts: 9,158
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    edited October 25, 2019
    Katherz wrote: »
    The price of VIP and Premium will not change once it is available for purchase. I hope this eases some of your concerns :)

    giphy.gif

    Now all we have to do is wait for it to become available.

    You REALLY should consider extending the vip trial. The service interruption is causing problems with guilds.
    SherriDarkpixie99
  • SherriSherri
    Mabinogi Rep: 18,615
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    Crims wrote: »
    Katherz wrote: »
    The price of VIP and Premium will not change once it is available for purchase. I hope this eases some of your concerns :)

    giphy.gif

    Now all we have to do is wait for it to become available.

    You REALLY should consider extending the vip trial. The service interruption is causing problems with guilds.

    I've also just noticed that spirit weapons can no longer eat any items/gems stored in the VIP inventory once it expires, so I'm gonna have to take them out one by one.
    Except I can't because my inventory is completely full so they're gonna be stuck there for who knows how long. :(
  • KensamaofmariKensamaofmari
    Mabinogi Rep: 34,745
    Posts: 7,909
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    Sherri wrote: »
    Crims wrote: »
    Katherz wrote: »
    The price of VIP and Premium will not change once it is available for purchase. I hope this eases some of your concerns :)

    giphy.gif

    Now all we have to do is wait for it to become available.

    You REALLY should consider extending the vip trial. The service interruption is causing problems with guilds.

    I've also just noticed that spirit weapons can no longer eat any items/gems stored in the VIP inventory once it expires, so I'm gonna have to take them out one by one.
    Except I can't because my inventory is completely full so they're gonna be stuck there for who knows how long. :(

    Forever.
    Sherri
  • CrimsọnCrimsọn
    Mabinogi Rep: 65,165
    Posts: 9,158
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    edited October 26, 2019
    Oh hell I don't even want to touch my VIP inventory. It's also why I haven't done any raids or dungeons and stuff since thursday. Please fix this fast Nexon, we have less than a week of double the rate drops and I can't afford the repairs. :(