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Momma_Sophie wrote: »

Manhiem wrote: »

[everything else]

So, why? Why is it all wrong? Rather, in what case do you think turning this into an argument of morality will win over the developers who may or may not share your sense of morals? This is an issue of business, friend. I'd suggest sticking to that angle, if you want changes to happen. For you to convince Nexon to make such changes, you'll have to actually argue why they should be changed, from the angle of what would interest all possible parties that would be involved; not just what dictate changes that would benefit you at someone else's loss and this goes for both the whales and the free-to-play players.

OK, lets talk business.

1. There are public protests and open complaints at Nexon Kr, part of the reason for this protest includes: KR reneging on their promise to disclose reforge rates. The reforge system is riddled with a history of bugs and frustration, for example, when guns were released you could get dual roll of dual gun max damage. This was patched by nexon which caused people to get upset because they had spent large amounts of money under the pretense that they could still get dual rolls, and nexon had to actually unfix the bug. It is very likely the new director intends to revamp the reforge system. The current reforge system is poorly designed, convoluted and arcane, that's bad for business (and also illegal in KR in my opinion, not a laywer)

2. Pay to win model has been steadily losing favor because of the obvious dissatisfaction of f2p people.F2P keeps games alive, because they are the backbone of the economy, much like how the poor are the backbone of society. The time gap between being a new player and reaching endgame is extremely wide, this causes new players to quit before they even reach end game, which late game crafting materials are scarce and expensive. The current player population is more or less being held together only because of the existence of "cousins", because this allows people to actually obtain crafting materials in a (barely) reasonable amount of time. If F2P players leave, regular spenders and whales will eventually leave because the game will feel dead. That is bad for business.

3. F2P obtainable reforges is not bad for business, it is actually good. Why? This lets player experience the system before spending money, it will speed up their precious conversion rate. (Also see: Aside) When people know what their getting into, they are more quickly able to make a decision to buy the next time around, thats why food businesses offer occasional promotional events where they let you get a free sample of their new product. If they like it, you get a new customer, this costs you some money but in general if your product is genuinely good you should make a profit. At the current state, I think reforges are a horrible product, and they would probably not gain many more customers, this is why reforges should be changed. In fact Dungeon guide is an example of promotioning reforges, as players can actually obtain reforges for free, except the stock and usage is very limited and it is explicited stated on the item that the effectiveness of the reforges are actually worse than NX reforges. If a new player didn't read the fine print, they would probably think that all reforges are bad, and arn't worth their money. This is an example of a bad way to implement free reforges, and is actually bad for business. If executed poorly, like how they have done it so far, f2p reforges are bad for business, but if implemented well they could definitely increase conversion rate. There is a business saying after all: "You have to spend money to make money".

Conclusion: This isnt an essay I am not here to convince you. People don't change their minds anyways. Does this horrible conclusion make all the effort you spent reading this, and I spent writing this fruitless? Yes, absolutely.

Aside. F2P does not mean hand out, players still have to work towards getting reforges. The problem lies in the fact that reforges can only bought from auction house at the prices that other players set, rampant inflation and supply and demand constantly changes. Reforges are basically required in the late game. The price of reforges needs to be more stable and newer f2p players need access to them if people want new f2p players to join and stick around longer. In the current times, we have actually seen Nexon NA handing out more reforges to players, which is clearly exactly what you don't want, but nexon is aware (whether or not it is a conscious awareness is up for debate) that players need access to reforges.
Hot take: The current f2p people who keep playing are fools and degenerates, anyone who knew better has already jamp ship or avoided the game entirely. This game is alive, sure but its literally on the ICU, the only reason its still alive is because of these textbook insane f2p player who still haven't quit.

TL;DR: This post was is a waste of time to read. F2P reforges are good in my opinion, but it's not like reaching across the aisle/trying to convince others is possible, esp on the internet.

CMKyrios wrote: »

Hey guys. So I don't think cancelling it an option. But, I'm down to collect your thoughts on the event. Overall reception seems fairly negative, and lukewarm at best. Am I understanding the following correctly:

- Items are obtained too quickly. Solution: Decrease the rate, impose a re-queue cooldown maybe?

- Alt abuse. Solution: Item bound to character?
- Lag-inducing players. Solution: Unsure what's plausible from a development perspective here. One idea of splitting players into the channels seemed decent.

I know that some of you may be thinking: "Just do better events next time!" but we'd still like conducive feedback on how this type of event could be improved. I like some of the things y'all wrote in here.

The event's core design is incredibly flawed. There are solutions, but they have trade-offs that may sound off putting

- Items are obtained too quickly. Solution: Decrease the rate, impose a re-queue cooldown maybe?

Decreasing the rate, or imposing a cool down will only make it more frustrating for players. Instead of spending 5~30 minutes in line trying to win the item, they could spend 1+ hours in line. Waiting 5~30 minutes in anticipation and not getting a chance because the item was already obtained is frustrating. Having 600 people waiting 1h+ per item would dramatically increase player frustration as they're standing in line for even longer and still not getting anything.
Trivia:

- Alt abuse. Solution: Item bound to character?

If the item can still be trade-unlocked, this would not fix the issue.
If the item cannot be trade unlocked, this could solve the problem of alts, but would make the divine weapons less desirable by anyone who knows the consequences.
Currently, divine weapon enchants (e.g. Solitude) are Exclusive Enchant Scrolls (untradable) that can only be used on one specific divine weapon. The drop rates for these enchants are also extremely low. In practice, most players who have divine weapons expect that they will need to do one or more, enchanting services to get their weapons enchanted.
For Kyrios (who may not be as familiar with the game): There are some alternatives to the exclusive enchants, Meteoroid and 67th Floor, but good luck finding a 67th floor (limited quantity) or multiple Meteoroid enchants (practically gacha only).

As for what can be done in the future: Beats me. Your stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Raffle/sweepstakes events will always bring animosity as long as alts can participate.

Enforcing any minimum requirement, e.g. total level requirement, story requirement, etc could also block real players from participating, so that won't work. Plus people with motivation are going to meet the requirement on their alts.

Enforcing a no-alt (not the same as the no multi-clienting policy) would not be ideal. As this would have a negative impact to the game as well. As people will lose the ability to progress faster bringing alt characters, and the market will lose a lot of crafting material. The current state of end game at the moment basically requires alts in order to get anything done in a reasonable amount of time. It also wouldn't be very practical for various reasons.

Additionally, with the drop rate of certain event items, and the infrequency/exclusivity of such events. Alts are very common in any event with rare/exclusive items, where a single account will probably never get the item, since reward boxes are usually given out in limited amounts (impossible to grind for boxes). (I don't think as many players complain when having more alts brings cheaper exclusive event items, since more of those items are available)